Often times, a brand – be it automotive, clothing, or watch – will spin off a second division with its own brand name to produce products that don’t necessarily fit with the vision of the main brand, but are still interesting and worthy of standing on their own. That seems to be happening now with the introduction of the new brand Helberg.
Helberg is an offshoot of the rather well-known (at least in watch circles) H20 company. So here, this is allowing them to be a bit more experimental without worrying about diluting the core of what H20 has come to represent.
Of course, here you still have a fairly robust (and Swiss-powered) diver – albeit one that, with some of the customization options, can make for a very intriguing looking watch. I speak of course of the very highly domed (aka spherical) sapphire bezel that I have at the top of this post, which rather reminds me of a planetarium for some reason. I’d be concerned about bashing it into things, but that’s offset by the pure visual thrill of having something like that on your wrist.
Other customization options would be with the bezel (minimalistic and highly polished, or a functional divers timing bezel), case back (solid or display), as well as the case material (stainless steel or CuSn8). Of course, this watch isn’t all flash – it has some nice specs behind it as well:
- 42mm case (19 or 27mm thickness depending on crystal); 22mm lugs
- ETA 2824 automatic movement
- Water resistance rating: 3000m (with the domed crystal) or 6000m (with the spherical crystal)
- Antimagnetic rating: 70.000A/m.
- 120 position bezel
- Stainless steel bracelet with micro adjustment optional
The watch is scheduled to go up for pre-order the same day this post goes live (I’m writing well in advance, so I’m not clear on pricing just yet), with delivery anticipated in the summer of 2013. You can visit the product page here and check out the information on pricing when the pre-order is live.
