As anyone who has read my stuff here, or follows me on Instagram knows, I’m a fan of the lightweight, tough, glowing rings being produced by Rune Refinery (and sister brands Anilo Carbon and CarbonFi). Over the past few years, they’ve been working on turning that expertise into a watch, and now that day has arrived – the Rune Refinery Apollo is now up on Kickstarter.
I had seen some sneak peeks of an earlier model, and the feedback I had given there was that the dial itself needed to have lume on it (and not just the bezel) and apparently I was not the only one with that feedback, as the Rune Refinery Apollo does definitely have luminous paint on the dial and handset. Not only that, the color of that glow is something you get to customize.
The Rune Refinery Apollo is definitely not for those who get stuck in analysis paralysis, because you’ll have the following decisions to make:
- Movement: Miyota Super 2038 quartz or Miyota 9039 automatic
- Dial (glow) color: all Swiss SuperLuminova; cobalt, emerald, and ice
- Cobalt is blue during the day and glows blue
- Emerald is green during the day and glows green
- Ice is white during the day and glows a cool blue/green
- Bezel color options: Cobalt, Emerald, Ice, Lavender, Aqua, and Fire
All told, there are a total of (36) different combinations that could be made. It doesn’t seem like the bezels are user-changeable, but that would be a pretty awesome (and fun) change around to do. Particularly if you had different color rings from them and wanted to get it all matching up.
This is, of course, the first time Rune Refinery is making a watch. They know their carbon fiber and their glow (the bezel looks like one of their rings enlarged and then sliced in half), and that is their strength. For the watch side of things, they’ve partnered up with Mica Move to get that watch design expertise.
This looks like a super-fun watch, and all that glow should just make for a very fun, very unique light show in the dark. It’s sort of like what Schofield did with their luminous chapter ring, except the Rune Refinery Apollo is, you know, affordable. Earlybird pricing starts at just $189 for the quartz model, and $289 for the automatic. The campaign just kicked off (and is just about 100% funded), and closes out on September 2, 2019, with delivery anticipated by the end of 2019. In the meantime, we’ll work to get a loaner in as soon as we can. campaign page or runerefinery.com
Watch Overview
- Brand & Model: Rune Refinery Apollo
- Price: Earlybird pricing starts at $189 for the quartz or $289 for the automatic
- Who we think it might be for: You’re a glow hound
- Would I buy one for myself based on what I’ve seen? This is super tempting – all that glow, makes it seem like a great summertime evening in the outdoors watch
- If I could make one design suggestion, it would be: If you had user-swappable bezels (so the glow could be swapped) that would be trick
- What spoke to me the most about this watch: It’s all about the glow, baby!
Tech Specs from Rune Refinery
- Movement: Miyota 2035 (quartz) or 9039 (automatic)
- Case:
- 43.5mm, stainless steel with carbon fiber bezel
- Lug width: 22mm
- Thickness: 10.9mm without carbon fiber; 11.5mm with carbon fiber
- Bezel: carbon fiber, glowing
- Luminous paint: SuperLuminova
- Strap: Leather
- WR: 5 ATM
