The second Venezianico Nereide in opal arrives in blue.

The Nereide Opale Blu debuts a dial made of opal cultivated by Kyocera. Its blue color is neither painted nor applied to the surface; it is part of the material itself. The edition will be limited to 600 pieces, priced at 1,350 euros, and will go on sale on August 25.

A sheet 0.4mm thick. That's what Venezianico receives from Kyocera's laboratories in Japan, and that's what its workers have to cut, drill, polish and drill again without breaking it. Lab-grown opal is hard and brittle at once, an awkward combination: it shrugs off scratches but gives way under badly judged pressure.

The brand admits as much on its own spec page, without dressing it up: the material is "extremely fragile" and demands a gradual, tightly controlled process at every stage, including the hand application of the indexes.

That's the starting point for the Nereide Opale Blu, the Venetian brand's second limited edition with an opal dial, introduced on August 17, 2026.

A Colour That Isn't Applied, It's Grown

The first edition, from December 2025, was a rainbow: green, purple, yellow and pink flashes scattered across the dial. This is the opposite, a monochromatic blue that opens into teal, azure and cobalt depending on the angle you catch it from.

The relevant detail isn't aesthetic but industrial. The colour isn't a coating, a plating or a lacquer under the stone: the material is grown blue, which is why the saturation doesn't degrade when the opal is thinned down to the four tenths of a millimetre the dial requires.

Venezianico states that Kyocera's facilities are the only ones in the world producing this material through a proprietary process. That's the brand's claim rather than an independently verified fact, though Kyocera has been making synthetic gems for decades and is no newcomer to the field.

The full composition is worth reading before romanticising it: 80% silica, 20% resin. That makes lab-grown opal a composite, not a stone in the sense the tiger's eye of the Nereide Tigriswas. The resin is what stabilises it and makes it workable in production.

It's also the part nobody publishes ageing data on: how a dial that is one-fifth resin behaves after fifteen years of light and heat is an open question, and it's better to say so than to assume it doesn't exist.

The Watch Around the Dial

Everything else is the familiar Nereide, and that cuts both ways. The case measures 42mm across, 49mm lug-to-lug and 12.5mm thick, in 316L steel, with a screw-down crown, anti-reflective sapphire and 200 metres of water resistance.

The unidirectional bezel carries a tungsten insert, 9 out of 10 on the Mohs scale, effectively unscratchable, in a price bracket where almost nobody offers it.

Inside, it is powered by the Sellita SW200-1, a widely known Swiss automatic movement that is easy to service at a specialized workshop. Venezianico has fitted it with a rhodium-plated, skeletonized rotor featuring radial Côtes de Genève decoration, visible through the sapphire case back. It is a reliable and practical caliber, though it is unlikely to be the sole reason for purchasing this watch.

Things to keep in mind

El Opale Blu también deja algunos puntos discutibles. El primero es el tamaño. Venezianico fabrica versiones de 39 mm del Nereide, pero con esta esfera solo se ofrece en la caja de 42 mm de diámetro y 49 mm de asa a asa. Para muchas muñecas puede resultar grande.

Legibility is another aspect to consider. Although it is presented as a dive watch with 200-meter water resistance, it combines an iridescent dial with polished hands and indices. In direct sunlight, this combination can make reading more difficult compared to a matte, high-contrast dial.

Finally, there is the price. Venezianico explains that production is limited due to the scarcity of the material, yet this edition increases the run from 500 to 600 pieces while simultaneously costing more than the previous one. It is not an outright contradiction, though it is a detail worth noting.

SPEC SHEET — Venezianico Nereide Opale Blu

Case	316L stainless steel, Ø42mm, 49mm lug-to-lug, 12.5mm total thickness
Crystal	Sapphire with anti-reflective coating
Bezel	Unidirectional with polished tungsten insert, 9/10 on the Mohs scale
Dial	Blue lab-grown opal by Kyocera (Japan), 0.4mm sheet, 80% silica and 20% resin; hand-applied indexes
Lume	Swiss-made BGW9 Super-LumiNova
Caliber	Sellita SW200-1 Swiss automatic, skeletonised rhodium-plated rotor with radial côtes de Genève
Water resistance	200m (20 ATM), screw-down crown
Bracelet	Five-link Sansovino with micro-adjustment clasp
Production and price	Limited edition of 600 pieces. €1,350 / $1,550

Latin America and Spain Perspective

The official price is 1,350 euros in the international store and 1,550 dollars in the US store. According to Oracle Time, it will be available starting August 25, 2026.

The price increase compared to the first edition differs between the two markets. In Europe, the price rose by 55 euros—from 1,295 to 1,350 euros, or 4.2%. In the United States, it went up by 155 dollars—from 1,395 to 1,550 dollars, or 11.1%.

The US store includes taxes and duties in the price. Therefore, it is possible that the largest increase in dollars responds to import costs assumed by Venezianico, although this is our interpretation: the brand has not published an explanation in this regard.

Purchases from Latin America are made via the international store and charged in euros. Based on the exchange rate of August 17, 2026—ranging from 19.74 to 19.92 Mexican pesos per euro, depending on the source—the watch costs approximately 26,700 pesos before import taxes.

If a general tariff of around 20% and the 16% VAT are added, the final cost in Mexico could be around 37,000 pesos. This is just an estimate; customs authorities determine the tariff classification, so it is best to consult the carrier before making the purchase.

In Colombia, you would have to add the 19% VAT and the applicable customs duty. In Spain, since the purchase takes place within the European market, the price advertised in euros should not entail that kind of additional surprise.

Venezianico offers free shipping on orders over 230 euros. For destinations outside the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, allow two to five business days for delivery. It also offers a 14-day return policy and a two-year international warranty.

The brand does not have distributors in Mexico, Colombia, or Argentina. However, in Europe, it does have a network of authorized stores that can be viewed on its website.

Kyocera requires months to grow an opal block that would take thousands of years to form in nature. The watch that bears it measures seconds. Perhaps that gap holds part of the reason why we remain drawn to these small mechanical objects.