The words Duke and Orient don’t often go together in my mind, so when I first saw the Orient Duke Automatic Executive Sport Watch, I was intrigued. I thought John Wayne but instead I saw a classically designed mechanical dress watch under $300.
Last December, I took a look at a new automotive inspired watch from Ferro Watches, the inaugural offering from the brand on Kickstarter. The watch was funded, and from the looks of the comments on the campaign, delivery is ongoing to very positive reviews. Now the brand is back on Kickstarter with their second watch, a more involved design, and one that takes its inspiration from aviation. I wonder if they will do a trifecta of transportation watches with a locomotive inspiration (Planes, Trains and Automobiles) or nautical inspiration (in the air, on land and sea). Regardless of where they go next, this watch, the Ferro Watches Airborne, and the last one, are making me a fan of the brand.
Those of us who are in to watches (and that is why you are here, is it…
A while back I took a look at the Mr Jones Watches Sun and Moon Miyamoto, which was a limited edition watch to honor the creator of the Super Mario games. At that point, we had covered more than a few Mr Jones Watches, but neither Patrick nor myself had been able to check out one in person. Well, a few emails later, a Mr Jones Watches Sun and Moon Miyamoto, now part of the regular collection, was on its way for me to check out. The bottom line: it is fun, well finished, and colorful.
Christoper Ward C8 01 Christopher Ward is one of our favorite brands here at WWR. They produce high quality watches, sell direct, and are generally priced fairly. They are also vary their designs, so there is something to fit most everyone’s taste, and they cover different sizes. Of late, we have featured their diving watches, a number of auto-inspired watches, and dress watches, but we haven’t done an aviation inspired watch in a while. I love my C11 (I own one of these), but the new Christopher Ward C8 Flyer Collection goes away from the instrument style case and back to the more traditional round case.
One of the benefits of being a watch reviewer is that we get to see a lot of watches, particularly when new ones come on to the market. Or are in the process of coming, which means that on some rarer occasions we do get to go hands-on with a prototype. This is what we have today with the R. Paige Crash of ’29, which is the result of a collaboration between Richard Paige and Mark Carson of Individual Design. Let’s take a closer look at what this collaboration has wrought, shall we?
We have written about a few different watches from Michelsen, and their Arctic Explorer (abtw link) remains one of my favorite watches. Of what I have covered, though, none of them were from the more limited-edition collections that the brand has produced. Well, that changes today with a quick overview of the Michelsen Watch Reykjavík 64°N/22°W.
What do you do if you are bored with the same old way of showing time, with the hands spinning about, pointing out at numbers? You could go with a Tokyo Flash design, with their (usually) cryptic digital display. Or maybe a Mr. Jones, with a rotating skyline or the time showing up in a toothy smile on the dial? Or you could head over to Kickstarter and check out the Mykonos Design Visus, Where the lone red “hand” stays still and the numbers rotate around the dial.
Wait a minute, wait a minute – this is a post on a Kickstarter watch that is not written by Matt? That’s right, folks! Not to worry, he is still on the crowdfunding beat, this is just one that I took a particular shine to, so I jumped in to write it up. And yes, this is a project that cropped up before. That earlier project was trying to be a philanthropic effort, but Kickstarter does not allow those. Due to that, Azula Watch took a step back, rebranded and refocused, and came back with their watches. Without any further pre-amble, let’s jump in to see what the Azula Watch is all about.
The Mako lineup from Orient has been a popular one for a long time, due to its diver styling (and capabilities, one assumes) combined with a very attractive pricepoint. It has been so popular that there have actually been three iterations so far – the original, the Ray, and the Mako XL. While I am not intimately familiar with those three prior models, it seems that this latest – the Orient Mako USA – takes bits and pieces from the earlier models and comes up with a sort of superteam of styling.