If you think you have seen the Acionna by Lew & Huey on our pages already, you would be correct. I wrote up the Kickstarter project for the site back when I was still a “friend of the site,” and Patrick had a chance to spend a little time with a prototype. Now that they are in production, the company sent over a pair of watches for a final hands-on review.
Kickstarter has been good for the Padron Watch Company, so they are back for their third (hopefully) successful campaign on the site. The Hennepin watch is a chose-your-own movement project, with options for Swiss quartz, or Chinese, Japanese or Swiss automatic movements in the watch. In 2012, the hand wound Vuelta was launched, followed by the automatic Tessera in 2013. Both these watches far exceeded the funding goal, and with the Hennepin at more that 50% less than a day in, it looks like this will be 3 for 3.
You know you do. The next question is, can you make it in person to an event in Montreal? If you answered yes to both of those, and you can spare $1 CAD, or you can’t do the 1st two and want to get on the mailing list for a new watch, check out Division Furtive’s new kickstarter campaign. Patrick took a look at their last kickstarter project, the Type 40 back in 2012.
OK, maybe not finally, and I am sure that Project O1, a new watch that popped up on Indiegogo, is not the first watch in existence with a clear case (cue the Swatch fans..), but it is still fairly unique. And kind of cool. It takes the concept of skeletonization of an automatic watch to the next level.
Gustafsson & Sjögren, GoS Watches, is a wee boutique brand out of Scandinavia that is manufacturing some really beautiful watches, most of them featuring Damascus Steel. Thought the original method of making this steel has been lost to history, modern metallurgy has created beautiful and intricate blades by forge welding and twisting iron bars of differing composition. GoS has been using this material for their watches for some time, and the results are quite striking. Starting this month, the brand is offering a “gentleman’s folding knife” to complement their watches.
Trintec Industries Inc. lays claim to being the first company to produce modern aviation instrument themed watches, dating back 30 years. Now, I don’t want to wade into debate here, but they make a pretty decent argument. And with that, they also make a pretty cool looking watch. With their current Kickstarter campaign, they are also making two interesting 30th anniversary watches, the altimeter inspired 9060SE and the airspeed indicator inspired 9061SE.
Melbourne Watch Company was kind enough to send over 2 copies of their Finders watch for me to wear for a while, one a black dial on a black strap, and the other a ‘white’ dial on a brown strap. Patrick wrote up the watch when it was still in the project phase on Indiegogo, so now it was my turn to get an impression of the watch. And, to cut to the chase, I liked it.
OK, in the words of Douglas Adams, Don’t Panic. You still have a few days to get the dad(s) in your life a gift, thanks to WWW and fast shipping. But what do you get, and is it going to break the bank? Mmmm, maybe… Here are a few ideas for last minute Father’s Day gifts based on things we have reviewed, or that I own or covet. I will try not to go too deep down my fantasy wish list.
Romaine Jerome is one of those far out there watch brands that somehow keeps creating crazy watches that I like. I can’t pinpoint exactly what I like about them, since some of the designs are pretty silly, but I like them none the less. Just launched is the Steampunk Auto Colours variations, a take on the previous steampunk watch done up in, you guessed it, bright colors.
Touch of Modern, a web site that I like to browse and where we point readers from time to time is running a limited time sale of Swiss dive watches from Squale Watches. The watches range from the basic diver, the Atmos, to a vintage Tiger from the 70s/80s that has been rebuilt housing an ETA 2892 movement, new hands, new gaskets, and a new rubber strap.
