Hautlence has done the sort of thing watch brands dream about and normal people side-eye: it has turned Star Trek’s Communicator into a luxury wristwatch. The Retrovision ’64 is a Star Trek watch with a flip-up cover and grille inspired by the TV prop, but underneath the cosplay sits a serious mechanical watch built for collectors who want their horology with a little Federation nostalgia. It costs $165,000.
The gimmick is the point, but Hautlence does not appear to have skimped on the movement. The watch uses an in-house caliber with a linear jumping hour mechanism developed with Geneva watchmaker Agenhor, while a central circular dial shows the minutes. When the minute hand rolls over 60, the hour display snaps to the next number. That kind of mechanical theater is catnip for the luxury crowd, and it helps the watch look more engineered than costume.
Retrovision ’64 movement and case details
There is more going on under the hood than the retro styling suggests. The sapphire crystal center reveals a flying minute tourbillon with a double hairspring, a setup meant to improve precision and stability by countering gravity and balancing the wheel’s motion. Flip the watch over and you get a clear sapphire caseback showing the D50 mechanical movement and its 72-hour power reserve, which means it should keep going through a long weekend without complaint.
The case, crown, and lugs are grade 5 titanium with copper and brown physical vapor deposition coating, a finish that gives it a warm rose-gold tone without actually being rose gold. That is very much in line with the current luxury-watch playbook: borrow the emotional charge of a classic material, then give it a technical wink so collectors feel clever for noticing.
How much the Star Trek watch costs
Here is the part where the sci-fi fantasy meets very terrestrial wealth. Each Retrovision ’64 will cost $165,000, and only three will be made. That puts it squarely in the rarefied segment where design provocation, scarcity, and the promise of mechanical handcraft matter as much as timekeeping.
The timing is interesting, too. Watches that lean into pop culture are no longer a novelty in Swiss horology; they are a strategy for brands trying to stand out in a crowded field where everyone is competing for attention, wrist space, and whatever is left of the collector’s imagination. Hautlence just happens to have chosen one of the most recognizable props in sci-fi history.
Other space watches at Watches and Wonders
If the Retrovision ’64 feels like a collector’s inside joke, it is not the only watch this season trying to make contact with space. IWC showed its Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive, which it says is its first watch designed from the ground up for human spaceflight, while Bremont’s Supernova Chronograph is set to be attached to the chassis of Astrolab’s FLIP rover and land on the moon later this year. So yes, the space-watch genre is having a moment; Hautlence just chose the campiest route and then priced it like a small apartment.
The lingering question is whether there are really three Trekkies with $165,000 and enough wrist real estate for a tiny piece of the Enterprise era. My guess: the answer is yes, and then some brand will point to the sellout as proof that horology has the guts to be fun again.