Can a watch designed by a digital marketplace and AI look good?
Plus ejection seats, Monta and more
If you were hoping for a double dose of sensationalism I'm sorry. The HH saga has calmed down, and we've moved onto other things — like coronavirus! The outbreak is making its presence felt on the watch industry in significant ways. Retail is down, obviously, and events, both local and international are being cancelled left, right and centre. Of course, the big question is in my part of the world is, will they call off Watches and Wonders and Baselworld?
If I had to put money on it, I'd say they're not happening as planned, which will make life even more interesting.
Oh yeah, here’s your semi-regular reminder to like and share and all that. It means a lot to me.
Drop out
If you haven't heard of Drop (formerly Massdrop), in the context of watches, don't worry too much. The San Francisco based company has been around since 2012, and bills itself as a community based around products. Users can buy products through the platform, and the more people who buy, the better the prices become. The main focus is tech, but watches have a not-small audience too, typically lower-end mechanicals and less mainstream brands with a healthy smattering of straight-up grey product. Deals can be had. Recently though, Drop has been leveraging its consumer-base to do in house design, and collabs, which is where Felix comes in. Drop's first in-house watch design. A snappy little field watch with wire lugs and a Swiss auto inside. I flicked Leopoldo Padron, the designer, an email and asked him a few questions about the watch.
Are watches a big deal on Drop?
We've sold close to 200,000 timepieces and have grown into a community of two million watch fans; we believe one of the largest on the internet.
So, your own watch makes sense. When did you start making it?
We do collaborations with major brands, and our desire to make Drop branded products stems from many instances where we've identified gaps in the marketplace that other watch brands may not have a strategic interest in. By doing it ourselves directly, we can also maximize the design, engineering, and the value proposition in ways that might be harder to achieve otherwise.
In the case of the Felix, we wanted to release a Swiss Made Sellita SW-200 movement field watch with double domed AR-coated sapphire crystal, Superluminova C3 luminous hands and markers, 10 ATM water resistance, and a fresh design sensibility at a price point ordinarily dominated by lower-end automatic or quartz movements. So we took it. The result is a watch that you can preorder for $299. That's quite good value.
Who did you work with on the design?
It's an in-house design, and everything, the dial, hands, case, etc. is original to Drop. The parameters of the timepiece (it's specification, size, some feature decisions, etc.) are informed by community signals.
How did you make this field watch stand out?
Field watches are a great everyday carry item but unfortunately can lack in the personality department. My goal was to make what is unmistakably a field watch but refine it. I was pretty conservative with the dial, but as far as everything else I really wanted to make it feel contemporary while keeping usability first. The case is a seamless piece -- no welded lugs, no separate bezel, and this was done to make it feel a little more high tech. I gave the dial surface a slight upward curvature to impart a more sculptural feel and skeletonized the hour markers to lighten the look. I used a wire lug style too to lighten the look of the case and make it a little reminiscent of the very earliest field watches. Drop is also a data company that uses AI to suss out some inflexion points that simultaneously turn out to be fairly obvious common sense. For instance, we rotated the crown to the 4'o o'clock position to keep it away from the wrist and used a screw-down crown. We derive a specific lug length and angle based on ergonomic data.
There's a lot in here I find fascinating. A digital marketplace listening to their consumers and delivering a product using said input, along with AI and big data. And thew watch doesn't look half-bad. What a time to be alive!
I'd love to know what you think of the watch as well (aside from its well-chosen name).
Hot seat
A few weeks ago I hung out with Bremont Australia and visited Martin Baker's office, which is in 'technology alley' near RAAF base Williamtown. A mate familiar with the area said: "yeah, it's pretty weird out there". He wasn't wrong. Squat industrial building for military contractors. Not my usual haunts. But, fascinatingly focused stuff, learning how parachutes are packed and just how intense a seat can get. It's a great partnership between MB and Bremont though, as was demonstrated by the pure enthusiasm (and low key salesmanship) of Andrew Eden, who's in charge of MB Australia. Read more about it here.
Office chair flex.
The 30-second review
I first tried on the Monta Atlas for about five minutes last Baselworld. I've now worn it for significantly longer and I still really like it. There's nothing outstanding about it, and I mean that in the best way possible. It all works together really well. And mostly that's down to good proportions — 38.5mm wide and 10.2mm tall is pretty sweet. The construction is solid too. It feels like a Grand Seiko on the wrist to me. I liked the attention to detail on the radially brushed bezel (scratchy tho), and the healthy application of lume. However the dial text/logo proportions seem a bit off to me, and god forbid you wanted to quickly read the 24-hour time off that dark-on-dark rehaut — impossible under anything less than perfect light. It's priced up there too for a micro at $1840 USD in this configuration. A substantial offering, but for nearly 3K Aussie there's a lot of competition out there.
The reading list
Whup, Omega is onto the sunnies too. Tension around Top Gun 2 is growing — and the NYT is in on the watches. Suspicious lack of IWC though. Horology House's Youtube channel is back (with comments off). I’ve been busy on Revolution. Georges Kern leaked his own watch. VC for women. Lovely tourbillons. Baltic. The one and only Antiqua. Ken Kessler makes sense. Tudor's watch marketing in 1970 was on point. Eric Giroud is the most important man in watch design you've never heard of.