Welcome back to our weekly installment, Watching the Web, where we have a quick look at some interesting watches and articles that have popped up over the last week (or so), as well as taking a second look at what some of our more popular articles this week were. Today, we have an editorial about Shinola, a crazy Urwerk, and news of an official repair shop for Lew & Huey. After those, we’ll highlight (as usual) some of our more popular posts from the last weekRead on to see what we’ve got in store for you.
First up, lets talk Shinola. I’ve made no qualms about my attraction to the brand, which is, of course, largely based on the story they are building around being a Detroit company. As with many things these days, there is a lot of spin around a kernel of truth. For example, I fully know that while the watches are “made in Detroit”, they are simply being assembled there from components coming from elsewhere. I was made aware of this article over at Four-Pins.com that paints a much more cynical look at what the company is doing (or not) for my former hometown. Right, wrong, or otherwise, the article does give you some food for thought.
Next up, the crew over at The Horophile have a writeup on the new Urwerk UR-100 Eastwood. While most of the attention for Urwerk watches is (rightly so) on the unique and innovative ways they come up with to tell time, the Eastwood actually gives more focus on the materials surrounding the movement than anything else, if you can believe that. While the guts of the watch itself seem very much like they are from the future, the tactile bits of the watch are from an era gone by.
The bezel of the Eastwood has an inlay made of Ebony (either Makassar or red), and the strap is either a tweed or a houndstooth pattern (depending on the bezel color). For me, many of the Urwerk collection are intriguing, but these hold some special attention. As it is, it sounds like all 10 pieces of this edition are already spoken for. In the meantime, at least we have the great images in the article to fuel our dreams.
Last up from the wider world of watches, we got word earlier in the week that Lew & Huey have settled in on an authorized (read: official) repair center for your collection of L&H watches. The place in question is Neighborhood Watch Repair Company, and it sounds like Vail and co have really hit it off with the shop. For those looking specifically for maintenance on their L&H watch, the shop has donor watches on hand (from Vail) in order to fix up your watch.
It is also worth noting that, even if your watch is out of warranty, you won’t be charged for parts (if they have them), just the time involved for the work. Finding a good shop to work on your watch is tricky (I know, I’ve been searching for recommendations for one here in Chicago), and having a brand recommend one is a great starting point.
Now, lets turn the attention to our own pages. First up, we had news about the new Swatch Irony XLite collection. At first blush, these may look like “just another Swatch collection” with the use of bright colors and plenty of plastic. To leave it at that is a bit of a disservice, as these also mix aluminum in, creating what are the lightest Irony watches to date, as well as giving us some rather polished looks in some of the models. Check out the writeup, and see what these latest affordable beasties from Swatch are all about.
Next up, we’ve got our look at the Alpina Star Timer. While these are definitely a bit more pricey than the Swatch watches mentioned above, these are still rather affordable (considering what you get), hovering around the $1,000 mark. While I tend to prefer the three-hander version, there is also a chronograph variant available. You can get the run down on these from Matt (as well as some more pictures) right here.
And now I’m going to throw a third writeup in here, because frankly, it surprised me that it showed up in the top metrics for the week. That is none other than last week’s edition of “Watching the Web”. In it, Matt has a nice round up on both ends of the price spectrum, as well as, well, what we have in this post – our weekly roundup.
And last, but not least, a question: do you have your entries in for our current giveaway? Head on over here to get your chances to win a Trintec Zulu-03.
We also want to put the call out for wrist shots of our reader’s favorite (or at least favorite of the moment) watches. Put together an email of your wrist shot and tell us a little about the watch and why you love it. If you happened to be introduced to it through our site (or won it through a give-away), even better. Just make sure the image is a JPEG and at least 800 pixels wide. We have a handful of submissions so far, but we’d like to have a few more before putting the inaugural post together.
With that, we’ll wrap things up. As always, if there’s something you think we should be covering, feel free to drop us a line. If you bring something up that we end up writing about, we’ll be sure to tip our hats (electronically, if not literally) in your general direction.
Pictures courtesy of the source site; header image courtesy of DesktopNexus
