A vintage-style gilt dial is easy to imitate with gold-colored printing. Making one the traditional way is considerably more involved. The Paulin Mara Limited Edition for Hodinkee uses that older process to give a modern dive watch a distinctly mid-century character.
The collaboration reworks Paulin’s original Mara rather than simply changing its colors. A brass dial is gold-plated, selectively masked, and then treated in a black galvanic bath; removing the mask reveals genuine gilt lettering beneath the dark surface. Hand-applied, aged-tone Super-LumiNova completes the restrained look. Paulin’s proprietary Wim typeface keeps the dial recognizably its own.
The 316L stainless-steel cushion case remains 39.7 mm across but shrinks from 13.5 to 11.8 mm thick. That reduction comes partly from replacing the standard model’s Swiss La Joux-Perret G101 with a slimmer Miyota 9039 automatic movement.
The new caliber offers a 42-hour power reserve, while water resistance changes from 300 to 100 meters. A double-domed sapphire bezel, screw-down crown, and gray-striped NATO strap preserve the practical skin-diver aesthetic.
Limited to 250 numbered pieces, the Mara collaboration costs $1,000. U.S. preorders are offered through Watches of Switzerland, with deliveries expected to begin in mid-November 2026.
