Helgray Watches came out of the gate a few months back with a four watch launch on Kickstarter. All four watches were modern takes on a WWI vintage look, and, to put it mildly, they blew up with $159,000 in pledges against a $12,000 goal. Now they are back on Kickstarter with their second, or is it fifth, watch, the Helgray Silverstone 60’s Racing Chronograph.
Lew & Huey are back at it again, with their sixth watch project launched on kickstarter. This time, the Lew & Huey Legends Racer is a square case design that harkens back to the look of the Tag Heuer Monaco, with a bit of the look of the Tudor Heritage Chrono.
Just about a year ago, we brought you word of a new British brand, W.T. Author, and their inaugural watch, the 1909. At this point, of course, you might think they are overdue to introduce a new model, and that is exactly what they have done. At this time, you can pre-order your own W.T. Author 1914.
Today, we are going to mix things up a little bit for you. Obviously, Kickstarter watches are not anything new. What is new (or at least different, as of late), is that it will not be Matt covering it. As it turns out, Visitor Watch Co. is a short train ride from Chicago, so its owner, Phil Rodenbeck, hopped on over to give me a hands-on look at the debut models in the Calligraph collection: the Visitor Watch Co. Duneshore.
I see a lot of crowd funded projects, and many of them state that the creator couldn’t find the watch they wanted, so they went off and created one. Some times the watch is fairly unique in an aspect or two, but other times I could easily find similar watches with minimal searching. But still, there is a desire to design something and make it your own. Which is what is intriguing about the H2O Watch business model, and the H2O Kalmar 2 which is available for pre-order. There is a full menu of options for the watch that lets you customize it the way you want, and still get a high performing dive watch.
It is no secret that I am a fan of the watches Magrette creates (my first automatic was a Magrette), and I have also been curiously attracted to using bronze as a case material. Magrette did have an earlier bronze piece, and now they are back with another – the Magrette Vantage.
At best, I have a strained relationship with single-hand watches. My own preferences just lead me to want to know the exact time when I look at a watch, and that is something the single-handed variants are not keen on. They prefer you to know the time is a more relaxed method. So why am I telling you about the new MeisterSinger Circularis? Mainly because of the new movement it brings along.
Last year, watch retailer Watchismo decided to get into the watch building business, with a Kickstarter campaign for the Xeric Xeriscope. They had a little bit of success, with pledges totaling over 10x the funding goal of $40,000. Today, they are back with their second watch, the Xeric Xeriscope Squared, a definite close relative to the original watch.
When it comes to brands that call the UK home, Hoptroff is the one pushing the boundaries of what can be done with timepieces. They just recently released their No. 16 Atomic Wristwatch (which you can read about here), and now have another new release that quite literally has its sights set on the stars – the Hoptroff Celestia (aka No. V).
It feels like it has been quite some time since I wrote about a dive watch (Matt has been covering those more as of late), and I know it has been a good long while since we had Prometheus on our pages. We will address both of those lapses with a talk about the Prometheus Piranha.
