Malachite Aurora is our 43mm frosted steel watch with a dial cut from genuine malachite. Every dial comes from a different piece of the stone, so the green pattern on yours appears on no other watch. Here is what malachite is, why people have prized it for thousands of years, and what it means on your wrist.
What malachite is, and why no two watch dials match
Malachite is a genuine semi-precious stone, known for its deep green color. A polished piece shows stripes of dark and light green side by side, with a fine dark line where one stripe meets the next.
Those stripes are part of the stone itself. They bend and curve, and their shapes change from one piece of malachite to the next. When a piece is cut flat for a watch dial, the curves sweep from one side of the face to the other, like the northern lights.
No two pieces of malachite have the same stripes in the same shapes, so no two Malachite Aurora watch dials match. Another Malachite Aurora can come in your case color, and its pattern will still be different.
Prized from ancient Egypt to palace rooms
People have prized malachite for thousands of years. It is among the oldest green pigments on record. Ancient Egyptians wore it as eye paint. Renaissance painters used powdered malachite for the greens in their paintings. Kings lined palace rooms with it.
On Malachite Aurora, that same stone is your watch dial.
Why a stone dial is different from a printed one
Most watch dials are metal discs with their color and pattern printed or painted on. Printing is precise, so every dial in a run comes out identical. A stone dial starts as a thin, flat slice of the stone. Its pattern exists in that one slice, and the next slice shows a different one.
Malachite is a soft stone, about 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs hardness scale, where quartz sits at 7. Every Malachite Aurora dial sits under sapphire crystal, which keeps skin, sweat and dust off the stone during normal wear. Baguette-cut crystal hour markers are applied on top of the malachite and catch the light against the green.
What it does on your wrist
People notice the green first. Deep green malachite inside frosted steel makes a strong contrast, and up close the stripes draw a second look. When someone asks what the green is, the answer is genuine malachite. Your dial was cut from its own piece of the stone, so yours is the only one.
The case and bracelet are covered in our frosted finish, thousands of diamond-cut facets that catch the light from every angle. It has been our signature since 2021, and next to the polished stone it gives the green a shimmering frame.
Each of the four case colors changes the look. Silver makes the green look cool and crisp. Gold warms the green up and gives the watch the most presence on the wrist. Rose Gold is softer, and its pink tone sits well next to the green. Black puts the dial in a dark frame, which makes the light green stripes stand out the most.
Malachite Aurora at a glance
- Genuine malachite dial, each cut from a different piece, with applied baguette-cut crystal hour markers
- 43mm stainless steel case and bracelet in our signature frosted finish
- Swiss-made quartz movement
- Sapphire crystal over the dial
- 11mm thick, 48.5mm lug to lug, 20mm bracelet
- 5 ATM water resistance
- Four case colors: Silver, Gold, Rose Gold and Black
More stone dials from Paul Rich
Malachite is the newest of our stone dials, alongside aventurine, lapis lazuli and tiger's eye. Our guide to stone dials shows how the other three compare.
