In one of my earlier reviews—specifically the review of the Raketa Baikonur—I mentioned that I bought the watch from Watchbandit.com. Ever since then, I’ve been getting regular updates from them, and every now and then I browse through their selection (by the way, their lineup of brands has grown impressively since then, though Raketa is no longer part of it). Even so, despite coming across quite a few watches that tempted me, browsing was as far as it went.
That is, until their latest email landed in my inbox, proudly announcing that they had added MD Watches Studio to their offerings—more specifically, their Supernatural collection. The collection instantly caught my eye, especially due to the color options for the dials. And when I saw the “Triskel” dial, I didn’t think twice—I had to have it.
Before buying, I knew almost nothing about MD Watches Studio. I first came across the brand and the Supernatural model while browsing the pre-owned section on Seriouswatches.com, but that was with the black “Conan” dial. That combination didn’t do much for me, so I didn’t bother to research the brand or the watch any further. In fact, I only dug deeper into the brand only after I’d already made the purchase. That’s when I visited the MD Watches website and learned about the brand’s Irish roots and how Celtic culture inspired both the dial names and the color choices. The Triskel dial, in particular, reflects this connection most strongly—the base of the dial is inspired by the Celtic triskele symbol. If you’re curious about triskele, you can - for example - read more about it here: https://www.shanore.com/blog/triskele-meaning/
Another thing worth mentioning is the wide range of straps they offer. You can choose from leather or textile straps in various colors that match one of the tones on the dial, plus a mesh bracelet and a stainless steel bracelet with end links. I was torn between the Sky Blue leather strap, the Fabric Celeste Blue strap (both paired beautifully with the blue accents on the dial), and the classic steel bracelet with end links. In the end, I went for the bracelet—mainly because I know a fellow member of a local watch forum who makes custom leather straps in any color and design I want. Getting a leather strap to match the dial would be easy, but buying the bracelet separately later would be more of a hassle. And for the record, the price difference between the bracelet and any of the other strap options is only €20.
Even though I ordered the watch from Watchbandit, it arrived a few days later directly from Cork, Ireland—the home of MD Watches Studio. It came in a neat box, along with a personalized thank-you letter signed by the owner, Mark Iglody. The warranty card was also personalized with my full name, which, while nice, isn’t exactly ideal if you ever decide to sell the watch.
The box itself seems to be designed for watches on straps or mesh bracelets. Fitting the watch with a standard steel bracelet was clearly a challenge. Their solution was to split the bracelet apart by removing a pin. The problem? They forgot to include the connecting pin which was removed. Luckily, the bracelet was long enough that I still had to take out two more links (three in total) to fit my 19 cm wrist. Still, this means that while I have three spare links, I can only actually reattach two of them. And the funny thing is—once I sized the bracelet, I found that I could store the watch in the box without splitting the bracelet at all. As an alternative - the bracelet has a quick-release system, so they could have easily removed it from the watch case for packing. In short, the packaging slightly spoiled the otherwise nice presentation. I’m sure this wouldn’t have been an issue with any of the strap options.
The bracelet itself is nicely made, though I’m surprised it’s unsigned. The lack of a half-link is a bit annoying, especially since the butterfly clasp has no micro-adjustment. On the plus side, the end links fit perfectly into the case.
The dial, in person, is every bit as striking as I’d hoped. I honestly can’t remember the last time one of my watches got so much attention—people actually noticed it and complimented it. To be honest, I hadn’t even planned on writing about this watch at first, but the reactions from friends and family convinced me to put it in front of you today.
A special feature of the dial is that, just above and to the right of it, there’s a small plate engraved with the dial’s name. In my case, it says “triskel.” Other variants include “tonaros” – salmon, “conand” – black, “alaunus” – magenta, “nodens” – green, “ogmios” – kind of blue, “caturix” – grey, “taranis” – orange, and “trinity” – light green.
Unfortunately, the watch does have one major functional flaw—readibility of the time, which, let’s face it, is kind of the main point of a watch. It’s designed as a regulator, running on the Miyota 82S7 automatic movement. The large central minute hand stretches far in both directions, but a bit too far on the “non-reading” side. On top of that, it’s thin—needle-thin. The hour subdial is fairly big, but the hour hand is tiny and too short. Put this all together, and in less-than-ideal lighting (or if you’re like me and need reading glasses these days), it can be tricky to tell the time. To make matters worse, it’s a 24-hour movement, which adds another layer of confusion. I’m also not a fan of the green background on the hour and seconds subdials—on the other dial variants, these subdials are white, which I imagine makes the watch far more readable.
As you can see from the photos, there’s no lume whatsoever.
Size-wise, they went for the “golden middle” with a 40 mm diameter, 46 mm lug-to-lug, thickness 12mm, and a safe 20/18 bracelet setup. On the wrist, the proportions feel very balanced and comfortable.
The Miyota movement really surprised me in a good way. Since it’s from their basic 8X family, I wasn’t expecting great accuracy (in fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve had a similar movement before in a KronSegler Apollo 11). But it’s been running shockingly well—after a full week of wear, it’s only lost 3 seconds!
I forgot to mention that the watch features a double-domed sapphire crystal, with sapphire also used on the caseback and that the crown is signed.
The price is €479 with the bracelet like mine, or €459 for all other strap types. If this is your first purchase from the manufacturer’s website, you can also get a 10% discount on these prices. That’s about what you’d expect, and it’s competitive given the used materials and movement. So, if you’re looking for a watch that stands out a bit from the crowd, I definitely recommend checking out the full Supernatural collection—most of the dials come in very attractive and eye-catching colors.
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