Mr Jones Watches Company is a small, self described cult watch brand out of London. They make interesting looking and affordable watches that are definitely outside the norm. Patrick has tended to cover the brand in the past, but I am going to look at the Mr Jones Watches The Green Man, a definite departure from the norm.
Xeric launched it’s third (and fourth) models on Kickstarter, and the design keeps with the company’s shared DNA, but brings the look back to a more traditional round case. The first Xeric used the rotation of the movement in an open window to indicate the hours, with a double sided minute hand for the minutes. The second time out, they kept the hour hand, but evolved the minute hand so that the time was framed inside a circle on one of two half-circle tracks. This time, the hour and minute hand both indicate the time on half circle tracks, and the movement is shown only with the two balance wheels.
I have to admit, I am certainly an appreciator of watches that embody symmetry. While no watch is going to end up being perfectly balanced (often, if north-south is good, east-west will be off, or vice versa), there are more than a handful that do certainly embody this approach to watch design. One of the latest of these that caught my eye is the Mühle-Glashütte Teutonia II Großdatum Chronometer.
When it comes to watches, you suffer no lack of choice when it comes to case shapes. You have your classic styles, your vintage/historic shapes, and then you have a category where a brand comes up with something that is perhaps viewed as taking things in a new direction. Some of these case shapes do not work out well, and others (such as on the Visitor Watch Co Duneshore) are rather stunning. As to where the Dietrich Organic Time falls, hard to say without seeing it in the steel, but I think it’s making a claim to the positive.
We are almost at the two year mark since we first brought you word (and did our first hands-on review) of a watch from G. Gerlach (the Otago). We of course have written about the brand since, but have not had a piece in for review since then. Today we’re back with another model that honors a famous Polish ship, the G. Gerlach Orzel 85A.
Overbuilt dive watches are pretty easy to find, with depth ratings going into the 1,000s of feet territory, well beyond what all but the tinniest percentage of technical divers could ever hope to come close to needing. But watches that get into the 10s of 1,000s, that is getting in the rare air (or deep water to be more apt) of specifications. Two new models of the H2O Kalmar 2 watch do just that, with ratings of 6,000 meters (~20,000 feet) and 8,000 meters (~26,000 feet) respectively.
I am a fan of Touch of Modern, and have bought a number of items for myself and my house through the site, including a watch back before I started wring for WWR. The site, as I have mentioned here previously, is a members only sale site (join here if you are not a member) specializing in modern goods that skew toward a male audience. Sales are limited time, and frequently include watches. Right now, there are several watch deals on Touch of Modern, including Cobra de Calibre, Vintage Rolexes, and watches from Jean Marcel, Ballast, and Alessandro Baldieri.
Lew & Huey have been somewhat of a crowd source darling company, launching their watches to date through campaigns on Kickstarter. Now, with a mature fan base, several models on the market, and good name recognition for a new, independent brand, the Lew & Huey Phantom is going on sale, with pre-orders (opens noon Eastern on 4/20, link is not active until then) direct from Lew & Huey.
Last month was the annual watch show known as Baselworld. In the run up to the show, we had a lot of press releases coming in on things that were to be announced. Then of course as the show got underway, there was another tidal wave of information. This meant that there was a watch I had intended to write about that unfortunately got lost in the shuffle. While Baselworld is now behind us, I think its still worthwhile for us to take a look at the Savoy Epic Vault.
When Swatch debuted the Sistem51 automatic, I was excited about the prospect of a very affordable Swiss made automatic, but I was not all that excited by the design choices. The original four designs definitely showed the Swatch DNA, but they were not designs I would wear, other than as a novelty. With the Swatch Sistem51 update released earlier this year, there are 5 new watches in the family, really expanding the appeal.
