While it’s been some time since we talked to you about Hager (you can see prior articles here), that doesn’t mean that they’ve shut the lights off. No, rather than going back to another steel sports watch, they’ve instead gone in a dressier (albeit retro) direction with the introduction of the Hager Diplomat.
When you think of Liv Watches, your mind is probably picturing their Rebel lineup (reviewed here), which is certainly an iconic look, and a case shape we’ve come to expect from the brand. For their latest – the Liv P-51 – they’ve gone with a more traditional round case.
Today, we’re going to talk about an older brand that’s new again – Yonger & Bresson. They originally started up back in 1974, but of course it’s newly starting up. What might help you feel a little more comfortable with the brand is that they’re part of the same group that houses another French brand we’re quite familiar with – Yema. So, what is it that you’ll get with the Yonger & Bresson Le Singulier?
While Zodiac may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I’ve become fond of their vaguely retro GMT models and the brightly color models, particularly on their comfortable 5-link bracelets. However, with this latest release, I may have to bump their “Skin” (short for skindiver, one presumes) to the top of my personal list.
On one hand, I tend to rail against watches that do something to make it “seem” more feminine. On the other hand, offering up a pink dial doesn’t really fall under that umbrella, as it’s just another color that many folks have as a favorite. Add in that it’s a watch helping raise funds for breast cancer research, and we’re all on board with the Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon Hope.
While it’s not unusual for a watch brand to release a new tweak to an existing model, it’s less common for them to release that tweak and make it a limited edition. That’s precisely what Sjöö Sandström does with their Annual Edition watch, something that started up back in 2018 (to be precise, the Annual Edition naming started in 2019). While those editions had the major changes in the form of the dial color, the Sjöö Sandström Royal Steel Classic Annual Edition 21 goes mining our childhoods for inspiration.
As we’ve mentioned, it’s hard – especially now – for a watch that hits Kickstarter to stand out. Many are just average, and many more are just plain bad examples kit-bashed, badge-engineered “designs” that were slapped together from a catalog. Then you have something like the Jord Foundry, which really does stand out from the crowd.
EXT. ALIEN CASINO
RICK: Put that away, Morty.
MORTY: But shouldn’t we –
RICK: Absolutely not, Morty. Trust me, they wouldn’t know what to do with your –
(Pulls down sunglasses)
– what is that? A G-SHOCK?
It would seem that this recycled ocean plastic has created quite a boon for creating different things. I mean, there’s a lot of it out in the oceans, so getting it out and reusing it (so we’re not creating even more plastic) sounds like a good thing to us. It’s also allowing brands to expand out into other uses. We’ve of course seen watch brands making use of the material, but now we’ve got an eyeglass company jumping into it, with the Sea2see Seal.
Over the past year or so, we’ve covered a number of Time for Action watches from Triwa, with many of the more recent ones featuring cases made of recycled ocean plastic. Fittingly, for the material, their latest collaboration is the Triwa x Sea Shepherd.
