Spinnaker Dumas GMT Inkdial Limited Edition Turns a Ballpoint Sketch Into a Dial

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Most watches get designed, then drawn for the ads. This one went the other way.

Ben Li draws watches for a living. Working as Inkdial, he builds each illustration in ballpoint and marker, line by line, until a movement or a case fills the page.

Price: $495
Where to buy: Spinnaker

Spinnaker handed him its Dumas GMT and kept his hand in the result. Cross-hatching stays. Outlines stay. Even the small wobble in a hand-drawn line stays.

So the dial reads like a sketchbook page under sapphire. You can follow the pen strokes across it.

Look closer and the drawing does real work. Applied indexes sit above the ink. A date window lands at six. An “Ink-made” mark signs the dial like a page.

Two studies carry the edition. Ink Blue pairs a blue dial and blue hands with a silver GMT hand. Ink White goes pale and paper-toned, with silver hands and a gold GMT hand.

Each colorway runs to 450 numbered pieces. That is 900 watches total, and once they sell through, the run ends.

Ink Blue has already sold out in the US store. Ink White was still in stock at $495 when this piece was staged.

A 43mm case in 316L stainless steel holds the shape. Facets cut across the case sides, and the Spinnaker name is engraved into the flank.

Thickness runs 14.9mm, with 48mm from lug to lug. Weight sits at 120 grams on the rubber strap.

A flat sapphire crystal covers the dial. An anti-reflective coating keeps glare down, so the ink lines stay readable in bright light.

Water resistance reaches 30 ATM. A screw-down crown seals the case, and the watch ships with a two-year international warranty.

Inside sits a Japanese TMI NH34 automatic. It runs at 21,600 vibrations per hour on 24 jewels, with a GMT hand, dual time, and a date.

A bidirectional bezel turns around the dial. Its 24-hour scale works with the GMT hand, so a second time zone reads at a glance. Turn the bezel and a third zone follows.

Rubber straps carry the sketch theme onto the wrist. Cross-hatch texture runs across the 22mm strap, echoing the shading in Li’s drawings.

Ink Blue gets a blue rubber strap. Ink White gets a gray one. Both keep the drawn look going past the case.

After dark, the sketch glows. Swiss Super-LumiNova fills the indexes and hands, glowing green and blue once the lights drop.

Flip the watch over and the theme holds. An exhibition back shows the movement, and the rotor carries the words “Paper Casing and Inkdial.”

Six boxes hide a bonus. Six cards, each hand-produced, signed, and numbered by Li, sit sealed at random across the run for Inkdial’s sixth anniversary.

You will not know if yours holds one until you open it. Each box also includes a UV flashlight, though its four LR41 batteries are not included.

Buying rules run tight, as limited runs tend to go. Each customer can buy one piece per variant, with a maximum of two pieces from the collection.

Discount codes do not apply to this watch. Spinnaker lists it at full price only, and orders confirm once payment completes.

Shipping to US addresses is free, with no added fees or taxes. Orders ship within three business days, and returns run 30 days after delivery.

Setting the GMT hand takes a minute, not a manual dive. A fourth hand tracks the second zone on the 24-hour scale, set apart from the main hands.

That layout suits travel. Home time stays on the GMT hand while local time moves with the main hands at each stop.

Li’s background explains why the idea lands. He is a British Chinese artist working from London, drawing watches in ink and marker since 2020.

More than 800 drawings sit in that body of work. A hint of fantasy runs through them, though the mechanical detail stays exact.

Orders opened on November 6 in the US store. Priority buyers who signed up early got a one-hour head start through a special link.

Dumas hardware underneath stays familiar, and that helps. Buyers get a proven GMT diver format, with the art doing the talking on top.

Tradeoff is clarity. A drawn dial will never read as clean as a plain tool-watch dial at arm’s length. That is the point, though it will not suit every wrist.

Price settles the question for most buyers. At $495, you pay for the NH34 GMT hardware and a numbered artist edition in one watch.

Collectors who follow Inkdial should move first. Ink Blue is gone in the US, and Ink White carries the same 450-piece cap.

Travelers who want a GMT that starts conversations get a case too. Just know you are buying the drawing as much as the watch.

Price: $495
Where to buy: Spinnaker

Skip it if you want quiet and plain. Everyone else gets a sketchbook that tells two time zones and survives 30 ATM.

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