OK, it may be a few months before Marty McFly gets Doc Brown’s DeLorian up to 88 miles per hour, but Polish watchmakers G. Gerlach have gone decidedly retro with this red LED watch now available from the site. The G. Gerlach Kosmonaut is an stylish update to those 7-segment LED watches, and specifically to the watch worn by the first and only Polish Kosmonaut, General Miroslaw Hermaszewski.
The brand gets its name from the British horologist, Thomas Earnshaw, who made improvements to chronometers in the late 1700s. This is a polished, stainless steel chronograph powered by a Swiss quartz movement.
When it comes to pilot watches – specifically, Flieger-spec pilot watches – Laco is a name that many are likely very familiar with, and their designs are recongnizeable, in that they follow the specifications set out some time ago for the various Fliegers. Their latest, however, is supposed to be a Type C, and is a design that I do not think I have ever seen before. Or, if nothing else, the Laco Spirit of St. Louis is a less-common style of Flieger.
When it comes to the connected watches, we often see that they bundle in some sort of step tracking, as quantifying our lives has become all the rage (myself included). The Wellograph I looked at did get more into the realm of monitoring more things relevant for fitness (including a heart rate monitor), but it was not something that would feel particularly right on the wrist at the gym or out on the trails. For myself, I have found myself spending more time in the gym, and my Fitbit – while a tidy little tracker for daily use – was not giving me the full picture I wanted. That then brings us to my new workout companion, the Garmin Forerunner 920XT.
There are certainly no shortage of watches popping up on crowd-funding sites these days. There are so many there days that we have actually dialed back our coverage. A lot of that is due to an abundance of very (VERY) similar watches coming out with little differentiation past a dial color and logo. Then you have something like the Automat Oro Dato that is rather unlike what has come before it, and then it merits some discussion here on these pages.
This Sunday I am doing something a little different. Instead of showing off a few videos, I am going to do a pair of re-reviews, Rewind Reviews if you will, second looks at watches that we have featured here at the site. I have a pair of divers that Patrick reviewed the Benarus Vintage Moray and the Van Speyk Dutch Diver. I have had some time with both watches, and I like them both, though they are very different.
After dive watches, I would hazard a guess that pilot watches are the next most popular style – in general – of watches. And if they aren’t, they have to be in the top 5, just based on the sheer number of models that I have seen released. A lot of these tend to come from the more established brands, or those with a particular history with aviation watches. What I have not noticed near as much are pilot-style watches coming from independent brands, especially those using Kickstarter to get the ball rolling. As you might guess, that’s where we find the MEW Depth Pilot.
Want to go Dutch? It is always fun to uncover a new (at least new to me) brand, so it was fun to uncover the Florijn Dive watches from this small Dutch brand. The watches are supposed to represent Dutch design aesthetics, simple and powerful with clean lines, no frills and solid functionality. I think on most of these points they hit the mark.
Patrick and I have both had a chance to check out Borealis dive watches in the past, and we both have been left with the impression that the brand is producing great value dive watches. This trend look to be continuing with the Borealis Seafarer II, now on pre-order from the brand and scheduled for delivery in May/June 2016.
Lew and Huey is a brand that I look to when I want to talk about the potential success of the crowd funded marketplace. The brand began on Kickstarter, with multiple watches launched on that platform, all well received. I put the brand in the category of “friend of the site,” and they are always happy to send us information on upcoming watches and then lend us review copies when they are available. I first wrote up the Phantom in April, and now I have a chance to take a two of the three options out for a test drive.
