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.
Patrick took a look at that first design, and there is much that is carried over to the Squared version. The hour hand is directly coupled to the exposed movement in the top part of the watch, with the arrowhead hand indicating the hour like a regulator would. On the bottom of the watch, there is a minute hand with a two circles at the ends of a bar. You read the minutes depending on which 1/2 hour lines up with the opening, with the larger opening reading the time scale on the bottom from 45 minutes through the hour to 15 minutes, and the smaller opening reading the upper range from 15 to 45 minutes.
It gives the watch a little bit of the feel of a retrograde minute hand. There is a separate single hand dual time zone indicator off on the left, and a power reserve indicator on the right. The watch itself is driven by a Chinese, 24 jewel ST1201 skeleton automatic with orbiting mainspring, and the crown is set on the left side of the watch.
The 316L stainless steel case is 45 x 45mm square and 13mm tall and comes on a 24mm leather strap. It is rated to 5 ATM and the crystals are K1 mineral glass. There is a 12 month warranty with the watch, and because i is from Watchismo, you have an actual business to stand behind it, unlike with a typical start-up watch firm.
The watch comes in 8 versions (from what I can tell at the moment), an all stainless (on either a black or tan strap), a stainless case with black dial, an all black, a black watch on a tan strap, and gunmetal, rose gold, or yellow gold plated. Pricing is set at $600 for the stainless and $650 for the plated watches.
Overall, it is an interesting design, and one that will get other folks in the room to look at your watch. In looking at the comments posted on the first Kickstarter design, the reception was generally very positive. It looks like there were some hiccups in production, but that is to be expected with the first watch out of the gate. Hopefully, with much of the original design echoed here, there is much less of a learning curve and production goes smoother and faster. If you are interested, check out the order page. watchismo.com
Watch Overview
- Brand & Model: Watchiso Xeric Xeriscope Squared
- Price: $600 – $650
- Who we think it might be for: Those that want people to stare at our wrists.
- Would I buy or recommend it just on the photos?: It is a bold, different statement, and if you like that from your watch, this may just be the watch for you.
- If I could make one design suggestion, it would be: I don’t think the power reserve adds anything here.
- What spoke to me the most about this watch: It will start conversations.
