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.
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.
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.
We like to feature Touch of Modern sales here on WWR, for good reasons. They often have interesting timepieces at pretty decent discounts. The site does require you to sign up in order to buy, so if you have not done so already, you can join here. Right now on the site, they are featuring two interesting watch sales, one on a range of divers from Deep Blue, and the other on high end automatics from Azimuth.
Last month, we brought you word of a new addition to the Tissot Visodate line – more precisely, a new bracelet to the lineup. From afar (and the one image that was available), I found myself rather liking the watch. Since then, we were able to spend some time with a sample, so today we are able to bring you a true review of the Tissot Visodate Milanais.
Lately, we have highlighted a number of automotive inspired watches here at WWR. Some have been tied to specific cars, like the Jaguar and Ferrari upcycled chronos from Christopher Ward, while others, like the new watches from REC, are tied to brands. Autodromo, a fairly new brand based in New York, is harkening back to a bygone era of vintage motoring with their watches and accessories. The watch I like the best, the Autodromo Stradale, has the look of a vintage speedometer, complete with the raised chapter ring reminiscent of cars from to 50s through 70s.
I have written about it here before, and I will say again, that I own an Anstead Oceanis. The original Anstead Oceanis, as sold on Kickstarter. It was my first really big (relatively) purchase on that site, my first crowd funded watch, and one of the reasons why I am currently on staff here at WWR; it stirred enough passion in me to offer to write a review, which led to more writing, which led to this gig. Now Tom Anstead, the man behind the watch, has relaunched it in a way, selling the Oceanis direct through his web site. But this version, still under the same name, and still “the first of the naval combat series,” is really an improvement and refinement over the original Oceanis, a watch I still enjoy and wear.
I was introduced to this site based on a watch I purchased through Kickstarter, and started writing reviews on watches on that site, and then branched out a bit, finally becoming official and covering anything watch related then comes my way. But I still have a soft spot for Kickstarter, and consider it part of my beat. When Zelos was designing their first watch, which they were offering on the site, they reached out to us and offered us an early peek at the project page. Frankly, it hit just the right number of buttons for me, so I jumped in an bought a Zelos Helmsman, in bronze, serial number 01/50, and was actually the first backer on the project.
Cobra de Calibre is a small brand out of Canada that is back with a second watch project on Kickstarter. I really like the style of the watch, though my timing in making other purchases always seems to put these projects at the wrong time for me. I covered their first watch when I was still just a friend of the site in February of this year, and they are selling a slightly refined version as their model 2 on their web site. This project, the Cobra de Calibre 3 Twin Crown carries forward a lot of the brand’s established identity, but takes it in a new direction with a bronze case, and a DLC coated bronze case.
Cars and watches seem to go together, don’t they (Morris Mini/Mini Cooper, Ferrari, Aston Martin, the whole Scuderia catalog…)? And one of the staff favorite brands, Christopher Ward is making yet another entry into this field. The Christopher Ward C70 D-Type is set to pay homage to the Le Mans winning Jaguar D-Type from the 1950s. In line with the previous car/watch pairings (the Ferrari and Aston), the watch is based on the C70 quartz chronograph and color matched to the car.
