LAUNCH Les Tugas Serpe — When Watchmaking Meets Straw Marquetry
About a year ago we launched the Les Tugas, the first watch with a high proportion of Portuguese construction. Today we present the Les Tugas - Serpe, a Métiers d’Art version of our watch. The highlight is inevitably the dial, free from the disturbance caused by indices or numerals and developed by the artisan Bernardo D'Orey using a straw marquetry technique called Escamas de Dragão (Dragon Scales).
The dial is made entirely by hand using a technique created by the artisan himself, which he named Escamas de Dragão. The technique is based on straw marquetry, an uncommon craft that is particularly demanding when applied at the scale of a watch dial. Each element is prepared and placed individually, forming a surface made up of small scales that change in appearance according to the way the light falls on them.
Straw has a natural sheen that is very much its own. Depending on the orientation of the fibres, the same colour can appear lighter or deeper. Bernardo D’Orey uses this characteristic as part of the design, building the dial through the position and direction of each piece.
The result is never exactly repeated.
Escamas de Dragão
Bernardo D’Orey developed the Escamas de Dragão technique out of his work with straw marquetry. It was conceived to create a composition with visual relief, without resorting to the thickness of a traditional decoration.
On a watch dial, the work becomes especially delicate. The surface is small, and any variation in the size or positioning of a scale immediately alters the balance of the whole.
The construction is slow and done entirely by hand.
It is also the first application of this technique in watchmaking, appearing in the Portuguese watches Les Tugas Serpe and Bruno Moreira Watches.
A dial chosen by the owner
Les Tugas Serpe Vino | photo: © Bruno Candeias | 2026 
Les Tugas Serpe Vino | photo: © Bruno Candeias | 2026
Les Tugas Serpe Vino and Cinza | photo: © Bruno Candeias | 2026
Each Serpe is made to order. The future owner is welcomed at Bernardo D’Orey’s atelier, where they can learn about the process and choose the colours that will give rise to their dial.
Straw comes in a wide variety of shades, and the chosen combination determines the final character of the piece. From there, Bernardo D’Orey makes the dial individually.
Once the marquetry work is complete, the watch goes on to assembly.
This way of producing means that no two Serpe watches are truly alike. Even when starting from similar colours, the material and the handwork always introduce small differences.
The movement
The Serpe uses a Swiss automatic mechanical movement, the ETA 2824.
The movement is finished in Switzerland by Vitor Calçada, owner of CVdecor, a company specialising in haute horlogerie finishing.
The mainplate receives perlage and the bridges are worked with anglage and a sandblasted finish. The oscillating weight bears an engraving inspired by the Escamas de Dragão pattern, establishing a direct link with the dial.
The transparent caseback allows the movement, and the finishes carried out for this version of the Les Tugas, to be observed.
Bernardo D’Orey
Bernardo D’Orey spent time at Patek Philippe before returning to Lisbon, where he developed his work around straw marquetry.
The technique interests him above all for the optical characteristics of the material itself. Straw reacts to light in a way that is difficult to reproduce with painted or printed surfaces, creating variations in sheen that depend on the orientation of the fibres.
It was the exploration of this behaviour that led to the development of Escamas de Dragão and, later, to its application in watchmaking.
The Serpe
The name Serpe refers to a creature close to what is nowadays known as a dragon (it is written, for example, that Saint George defeated a Serpe), and points directly to the design of the dial and to the succession of scales that covers its surface.
It is an artisanal interpretation of the Les Tugas, created piece by piece and intended for those who wish to take part in defining the aesthetics of their own watch.
The case receives a dial made specifically for that individual watch. On the reverse, the movement likewise receives its own treatment, extending the scale pattern to the oscillating weight.
Each Serpe is made to order.
Each dial is worked by hand.
The finishing of the movement is of the very highest quality.
And none turns out exactly like the one before.
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