We are proud to share that A Blog to Watch, one of the most authoritative and widely read platforms in global horology, has featured an in-depth review of the Peacock Divine Craft Hand-Made Micro-Engraved Ultra-Thin Tourbillon Watch.
Founded in 2007 by Ariel Adams, A Blog to Watch began as a passion project driven by a deep love for mechanical timepieces and a fascination with intricate engineering. Over the years, it has grown into the highest-trafficked luxury watch blog worldwide, setting the tone for independent, expert watch journalism. Ariel’s approachable yet technically informed voice has helped broaden appreciation for fine watchmaking, while his work has also appeared in respected publications such as Forbes, Departures, and TechCrunch. Within the industry, his reviews are trusted by collectors, brands, and enthusiasts alike.
In his recent coverage, Ariel offered a detailed hands-on introduction to our tourbillon, discussing its hand-made micro-engraving, ultra-thin architecture, and the philosophy behind Peacock’s pursuit of traditional craftsmanship. Writing from Switzerland, he shared a personal note that resonated deeply with us: he was wearing the Divine Craft Tourbillon during the trip and received enthusiastic feedback from fellow Chinese watch media, who thanked him for supporting Chinese watchmaking.
For Peacock, this recognition represents more than media exposure—it signals a meaningful moment for contemporary Chinese haute horlogerie on the global stage. To see our work acknowledged by one of the most respected voices in the field affirms the dedication of our watchmakers and the cultural craftsmanship embedded in every piece.
You can read the full feature and Ariel’s complete review by clicking the link to the original article.
You can also read the full review here:
Peacock Divine Craft Watch
Review: Introduces A New Thin Tourbillon Movement And HandMade Dial
It has only been a few months since I last reviewed a Peacock wristwatch, but this Chinese tourbillon is very different from the last one I shared with the aBlogtoWatch audience. In general, Peacock wants to promote its prowess as a maker of quality, affordable tourbillon watches. Peacock isn’t trying to be the cheapest tourbillon watch on the market (I recommend you avoid anything like that simply for reliability reasons), but it wants to offer a pragmatic alternative to much more expensive tourbillon watches from Switzerland and Germany. Peacock makes its own movement in-house, and the vast majority of its tourbillons are flying tourbillons. This is a type of tourbillon invented in Glashütte, Germany, featuring an assembly where the top securing bridge over the turning cage has been engineered out. This very new Peacock Divine Craft includes one of these exotic flying tourbillons.
The real news in the Divine Craft watch collection is the novel Peacock movement. The system doesn’t offer more features, but is rather smaller and better performing than before. Peacock’s other tourbillon movements are comparatively wider and thicker, meaning they need to be housed in larger cases. A great example of how much size Peacock is able to save with its new manually-wound tourbillon movement is to compare the Divine Craft to the similar Peacock model that came before it: the Classic-Grandeur Tourbillon. Both of these watches share nearly identical case shapes, but the Peacock Classic-Grandeur Tourbillon is 43mm wide, while the Divine Craft is just 39.5mm wide. Peacock doesn’t immediately share the Classic-Grandeur’s thickness on its website, but it is very apparent that the Divine Craft is much thinner. The case does not require a protruding sapphire crystal like the Classic-Grandeur does, giving the Peacock Divine Craft’s polished and brushed 904L steel case a thickness of only 8.9mm. That is because the in-house-made Peacock caliber PAX9610A itself is only 3.5mm thick.
The PAX9610A isn’t just smaller and more interesting-looking than its predecessors; it also performs better. Gone is the old standard 3Hz operational frequency in favor of a higher beat 4Hz operating frequency (28,800 bph), a feature that will increase timing performance and accuracy. The smaller movement even upgrades the power reserve from 48 to 68 hours, even with the more power-thirsty regulation system. That means that the PAX9610A isn’t just a more petite construction, but a fundamentally more efficient machine. Peacock says that it uses a gyromax-style regulation system, which was an innovation originally developed by Patek Philippe. The movement features the time with central hours and minutes, with the spinning tourbillon cage doubling as the seconds indicator. You can admire the movement through the sapphire crystal caseback on the rear of the Divine Craft’s case.
Peacock will no doubt be using the PAX9610A movement in other watches for a number of years. This is a revolutionary mechanism for the Chinese company, and it explains why the Divine Craft watches are noticeably more expensive than other Peacock watches that feature older-generation mechanical tourbillon movements. One thing I would like to see in future executions of the movement is more color, especially in the tourbillon assembly. In the Divine Craft, all the parts are silver-toned. This removes the ability to admire the separate parts as well as to add a further sense of visual depth. Europeans tourbillons often have blued screws, a similar color balance spring, gold chatons, and larger red synthetic ruby palettes. Outside of a small hint of red from rubies, in the Peacock Divine Craft watch, the PAX9610A movement is a bit too monochromatic for my tastes. With that said, it is cool that the small palette in part of the mechanism is a “micro” diamond (similar to what A. Lange & Sohne does) versus a ruby. The color mixture issue for the Peacock mechanism can be amended in future watches and executions of the movement relatively easily. I will say that the movement decoration is pretty nice, and a real step up.
Unlike the Divine Craft’s focus on artistry and classicism, the Black Hole Event Horizon Central Tourbillon has a more futuristic aesthetic with a youthful appeal and its eye-catching center-mounted tourbillon display. Peacock is aiming for real dynamism with the brand and appears to be determined to appeal to a variety of potential tourbillon lovers, not just people who admire traditional or contemporary design. Since the company focuses so much on movements, and because these tourbillons are pretty interesting, I wonder if the company makes it a habit to offer these movements for sale to third-party companies for use in their own watch models.
To showcase its impressively compact and well-performing PAX9610A manually-wound central tourbillon movement, Peacock wanted to pair it with an artistic dial that is “hand-made micro-engraved” for these limited edition models. The Divine Craft watch family debuts with four dial colors, each with base dials that have been artistically hand-engraved by master craftsman Zhao Yi. The story behind the dial creation process explains how time-consuming it is and how each of the over 1000 radial cuts to the metallic dial is created by hand. Such a process of cutting very even, very consistent lines requires huge expertise and time. After the dials are engraved by hand using special tools, they are coated for protection and to color them. The pictured reference PCG0601.01 Peacock Divine Craft has the light “glacial green dial. The Divine Craft is also available with a darker Obsidian Blue dial, a lighter Skybound blue dial, and a warm Petaline pink dial color.
While I like the Peacock Divine Craft case, movement, and dial, I find legibility to be somewhat compromised by some of the design decisions. The face of the watch lacks nearly any matte or non-reflective surfaces. This distracts the eyes and causes too much obscuring light to be reflected. More so, the hour and minute hands are skeletonized for no better reason than someone thought that might look cool. I actually like the shape of the hands, but I find them hard to spot in all but ideal light conditions. In general, the dial of the Divine Craft could be improved with more contrast between elements, bolder hands, and perhaps a thicker, polished ring frame around the open flying tourbillon window. These are all things that Peacock can and probably will do.
Attached to the 39.5mm wide steel Divine Craft case (water resistant to 50 meters) is a handsome and modern-feeling leather strap with white contrast stitching. The 18mm wide gray color strap mixed with the light green dial in this version of the Peacock Divine Craft has a very cosmopolitan feel to it, in my opinion. The overall composition is a medium-sized watch that is quite thin-feeling, comfortable, and that probably has one of the brand’s best tourbillon movements ever powering it.
More than just the technical improvements to the new movement, the Peacock Divine Craft watch is being promoted for all of its hand-made and hand-crafted elements, ranging from the movement decoration and hands polishing, to the creation of the limited-edition dials. This is the right approach because Peacock is in its strongest marketing stance when trying to assert its value-pricing along with a high level of human craftsmanship. While the Peacock website does not mention the limited edition number of each of these debut Divine Craft watches, the model I reviewed’s case seems to suggest that each of the four versions will be produced as a limited edition of 108 pieces. Price for the reference PCG0601.01 Peacock Divine Craft watch is $4,899 USD. For more information, please visit the Peacock watches website.