URWERK Black Cobra Watch: Can Comics Sell Luxury Watches?

While it is hard to give proper credit, Linde Werdelin is the first luxury watch brand that I know of that employed the use of comics (ahem, graphic novels) to sell high-end timepieces. They still do that, and certainly are going to carry that idea into the future. UPDATE: I just learned that I had it wrong. Linde Werdelin might have been the first to disseminate marketing comic imagery online (that I know of), but Urwerk had published comic content as far back as 2008 (republished here - thanks Ian).

Now luxury brand Urwerk offers a new comic strip (see below to check it out). I think the idea is brilliant. Why has it taken until modern times to do this? Because stuffy people in luxury watch company's were afraid of diluting the "prestige" of their brands with dirty comic book. Psh... what is this? 1986? Comic art has defined much of the last generation. What do you think rich people under 35 are going to associate with more positively. Cool graphic novel imagery for a new watch, or sponsoring a polo tournament?



See above (and in full via link below), this is the start of a futuristic comic series to help Urwerk market their new Linear Time Black Cobra watch. This is the black cased version of the UR-CC1 King Cobra that I discussed here. So what do you think? Is this comic cool? I think so. Will it get people slowly excited about the brand and the timepieces? We will see. Click on the thumb nail below.

Ermenegildo Zegna High Performance Watches

I like these watches but I struggle to envision a scenario where I would spend the money on them. Fashion brand Ermenegildo Zegna recently debuted two watches in a new collection produced in collaboration with the Sowind Group. Based on the label’s “High Performance” collection of clothing, these new sport watches are fashionably (and practically satisfying). But are they worth your money compared to the alternatives?

Watch lovers probably know that Ermenegildo Zegna has worked with watch maker Girard-Perregaux in the past. GP is part of the Sowind Group (now part of PPR), which explains how the Sowind Group is involved in this latest collection. What I don’t know is how much Girard-Perregaux’s team is involved with the High Performance watches. GP goes so far as to produce Ermenegildo Zegna branded versions of some of their pieces, sold exclusively in Zegna boutiques.



Zegna has now moved from an extremely niche collection of high-end, gold-cased dress watches to those competing with the larger world of sport watches. Two watches will be available at debut, the High Performance Sea Diver and High Performance Chronograph.

While I know that “High Performance” is the name of a clothing collection for active urban office goers, it is an almost insultingly bland term. I would venture to say that it is even worse than the label “professional” on a watch dial. High Performance is merely an adjective. Consumers should demand to know why they are high performance rather than merely know that the brand would like for you to think they are. This type of blatant disregard for consumer intelligence irritates me – though it is mostly our fault. We consumers have allowed product makers to place baseless claims on their goods for so long that it is practically expected nowadays. We have become a culture of mostly unspecialized individuals, tending to rely on product makers to tell us how good their products are rather than the other way around. High Performance is practically an opinion. One that originated in a marketing meeting designed to arouse the notion of all day comfort and utility. If I made this watch I would remove the term from the dial and replace it with the more steadfast claim of “Works Just Fine” in bright red print. Enough about that.



Bot of the watches by the way are 42mm wide - which is a rather mainstream case size. Let’s discuss the High Performance Sea Diver first. It is a nice looking dive piece with a name so pulled from the soup of dive watch labels it is almost comical.

Most dive watches begin to look like one another because they share so many things in common. A thick case, rotating bezel, and easy to read dial with technical looking hands and indicators – the Sea Diver is no different. Its case is steel and the watch is water resistant to 300 meters. How deep can you go with Zegna High Performance clothing? The rotating bezel is classic looking and chunky with sharp edging and a black (likely aluminum) scale insert. These days it is hard however to accept non ceramic or sapphire inlay bezels on good dive watches. The dial is matte textured black with a combination of red and white Arabic numeral and baton hour markers. You’ll either love or hate the serpent-head hour hand and sword minute hand combo. Taken as a whole you can see a bit of the Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk Diver’s DNA in this piece. Just a bit. Part of me thinks there is a bit too much red in the dial, but I’d have to wear it for a while to really know. I will give the High Performance Sea Diver the benefit of the doubt until then.



While we know that all Ermenegildo Zegna High Performance watches will have Swiss ETA movements, it isn’t clear which one is in the Sea Diver. I suspect a 2892 automatic. An interesting note about the watch is the case back which is secured with a series of hex screws versus having a screw-down caseback. That is uncommon in a diver. Attached to the watch is a black rubber strap.

The second watch in the High Performance collection is the High Performance Chronograph. Neither the name nor design are particularly original, but again it does look nice. I suspect that the case size is the same as the diver, but in this instance the material for the case is ceramic. That is nice enough, and if the cases are anything like those on the ceramic Girard-Perregaux ww.tc models then they will be lovely.

Zegna uses the exact same hands for the Chronograph as they do on the Sea Diver. However, the dial space on the Chronograph is a bit larger so the hands end up being a bit too short on the Chronograph. Cost saving was likely to blame for this. The High Performance Chronograph is available with a black or white dial – with contrasting rings around the subsidiary dials. The red outlined Arabic numerals return as well, along with a few baton hour markers. I do like how bold the hour markers are, but only a long term test will help me understand how good they are on the eyes over the long haul. Around the dial is a tachymeter scale on the bezel. This element was practically guaranteed on a race-themed chronograph piece.



The High-Performance Chronographs compete in price and style with Porsche Design, almost too much so. At first glance I could see many people confusing these for Porsche Design timepieces. They clearly aren’t exact analogs, but there is a lot of “Porsche Design flattery” going on here in the Chronograph’s execution. Inside the High Performance Chronographs are Swiss ETA 2894 automatic chronograph movements. You can see that Zegna uses decorated versions of the movement with custom Ermenegildo Zegna rotors. Attached to the High Performance Chronograph watches are the same rubber straps as on the Sea Diver, or black textile straps with red contrast stitching.

While these timepieces aren’t priced up there with the Girard-Perregaux-made Zegna watches, they still compete with “name brand” watches. For the same money, what would you rather have? It is an interesting question as I have to ask myself in what instances someone wants a clothing maker’s name on a sport watch rather than a sport watch brand. Interestingly enough I care much less when it comes to dress watches. Even fashion types would probably opt for Omega, Porsche Design, or JeanRichard on a watch as opposed to the company that produced their button-up shirt. Would I wear these Ermenegildo Zegna High Performance watches? I probably would without hesitation, but not necessarily on my dollar. By the way, price for the High Performance Sea Diver is 2,500 Euros (2,800 Swiss Francs) and 4,500 Euros (5,000 Swiss Francs).

Tech Specs from Zegna:

High Performance Chronograph

Housing
Material: black ceramic with tachymeter engraved on the crown and side buttons and rubberised
Screw-down crown
Diameter: 42.00 mm
Height: 14.30 mm
Crystal: anti-reflective sapphire
Case back: Stainless steel, secured by 7 screws
Water Resistance: 3 ATM

Movement
Automatic ETA 2894
Calibre: 12 ½'' '
Frequency: 28,800 Vib / h - (4 Hz)
Power Reserve: 42 hours
Jewels: 37
Functions: hours, minutes, small seconds, date and chronograph

Bracelets and clasps
Materials: rubber strap + 2 additional fabric bracelets
Clasps: stainless steel folding clasp engraved with "EZ" + clasp steel tip for fabric strap

High Performance SeaDiver

Housing
Material: stainless steel unidirectional rotating facet in alumunium black screw-down crown
Diameter: 42.00 mm
Height: 14.30 mm
Crystal: anti-reflective sapphire
Case back: Stainless steel, secured by 6 screws
Water Resistance: 30 ATM

Movement
Automatic ETA 2824
Calibre: 11 ½'' '
Frequency: 28,800 Vib / h - (4 Hz)
Power Reserve: 38 hours
Jewels: 25
Functions: hours, minutes, central seconds and date

Bracelets and clasps
Material: rubbery c
Clasp: folding clasp in stainless steel with engraving "EZ" on top

The Christopher Ward C900 Single Pusher Chronograph

British retailer Christopher Ward has been on a roll as of late. They have announced a series of interesting watches like their first COSC certified watch the C50 Malvern, and the innovative and quite exclusive C9 Jumping Hour. Adding to their growing list of noteworthy watches, Christopher Ward has just announced a pre-order for their newest limited edition, the C900 Single Pusher Chronograph. Exhibiting a reserved and very elegant design, this new chronograph from Christopher Ward is just as cool inside as it is out. Sporting a movement modified by one Johannes Jahnke, the C900 uses an ETA/Unitas 6497 movement customized to feature a monopusher chronograph complication. A monopusher (or single pusher) allows the chronograph to be activated, paused and reset from a single button, which on the C900 is cleverly built into the crown.






The C900 features a 43mm case with a thickness of 15.7 mm so the size should suit nearly any wrist. Inside, the JJ02 hand wound calibre features traditional timekeeping with a sub-dial devoted to a 30 minute measure for the chronograph, and one to display the running seconds. The dial design is a mix of thin baton markers, roman numerals at six and twelve, and lovely needle-point hands. The effect is luxurious yet muted and can be matched with either a black or brown leather strap.



Christopher Ward is producing just 250 examples of the C900 Single Pusher with a list price of £2,450 (~$3875), which is a truly astounding price for a mechanical monopusher chronograph. Consider the Bell and Ross WWI Monopusher which sells for ~$7500 USD, the Longines L27764213 Single Push-Piece Column Wheel Chronograph at $4550, or even the Corum Centro Monopusher which will set you back around $9,000. The monopusher chronograph is a rare and expensive complication so it's noteworthy that Christopher Ward has produced one, let alone an example for less than four thousand dollars and still backed by a five year warranty. For those in the market for an interesting, rare and great looking watch, the Christopher Ward C900 should definitely make the cut.

Richard Mille RM 053 Watch

Richard Mille follows in Jaeger-LeCoultre's footsteps (sort of ) by creating a watch specially designed to be worn while playing polo. Jaeger-LeCoultre did this over 80 years ago with the Reverso, and now Richard Mille has the RM 053. While the Reverso was about flipping around the case to protect the crystal from shock, the RM 053 is about minimizing the dial (vulnerable area) while angling it towards the wearer like a driver's watch. Why anyone needs to wear a watch while playing polo is still a huge mystery to me. That does explain why the RM 053 will be part of a very limited edition of just 15 pieces.

The full name of this watch is the Richard Mille RM 053 Pablo Mac Donough. According to Richard Mille it was Mac Donough who had the idea. Mac Donough is an Argentinian polo player, and "partner of" the Richard Mille brand. I guess he pushed hard enough to have this watch made. In all titanium, the RM 053 is meant to be like a case of armor, putting the dial out of the way, and protecting it. Yes, it still has a tourbillon.







The coolest part of the watch is easily the RM053 movement. It is inclined to a 30 degree angle and looks as such when seen through the rear sapphire caseback window. You've never quite seen a movement that looks like this. The tourbillon is visible through the dial to the left under the seconds hand. Not too easy to see, but it is there. The movement is manually wound and has 48 hours of power reserve.

Reading the watch is done via the hour and minute hands on the right dial and the seconds on the left. The deep view into the movement is nice, but the legibility could have been improved if the Richard Mille included a full set of hour markers, not just some of them. For their size, the hands are rather easy to see, and both the hands and hour markers have applied lume. If anything saves this watch it is the view into the movement.







Those familiar with Richard Mille know of their pledge to put tourbillons in activities where they do not belong. Here, the case of the RM 053 is said to be rather shock resistant, but I personally wouldn't want to test it on my dime. The case is 50mm tall by 42.70mm wide and 20mm thick. For having such a small viewing area this is still a lot of watch. Of course, you need to make it clear you are wearing a Richard Mille right?

Then there is the matter of the design. Each of the dials flows out of the case with two arches behind them. The result is what looks like cleavage on the case. Either chest or rear cleavage - you decide for yourself. If the crack isn't enough to make you smile, the beady eye style dials should. This watch even looks like the head of a funny little robot that I really want to make my own. This is easily one of the strangest Richard Mille watches around and there will only be 15 of them.

Sinn & Paul Parey Limited Edition Hunting Watch

Sinn has announced the release of a limited edition chronograph in partnership with Paul Parey publishing. For those not in the know (myself included), Paul Parey is a German publisher of a wide range of hunting and fishing magazines. Sinn has essentially customized their excellent 756 chronograph with a dark green dial and earthy brown strap to make a hunting watch.


Hunters can be subjected to a wide range of environmental extremes so I think a Sinn fits nicely into the hunter/woodsman ethos. They are tough, no-nonsense, reliable and legible timepieces that are not meant to be safe queens, I can think of few better watches for the active outdoors type. Many of the military-ready qualities which Sinn incorporates into their watches are also of value to hunters and anglers alike.


While not specifically referenced, the Sinn Paul Parey Hunting Watch does appear to be a standard reference 756 which is built on a 40 x 14mm tegimented steel case and fitted with an AR coated sapphire crystal, ETA/Valjoux 7750 automatic chronograph movement, and aviation inspired dial with a vertical bi-compax layout. Additionally, the 756 is water resistant to 200m and boasts considerable anti-magnetic protection (80,000 A/m) and shock resistance.


The 756 is one of those watches that ticks every "sport watch" box but still manages to cost less than you might guess. The base Sinn 756 on a leather strap can be had for $2400 USD. This new hunting version will be limited to 100 units and is being sold directly through a specialized website (found here, in German) for € 1,990.00 ($2570 USD). For a limited edition with a lovely green dial and two strap options, an increase of only $140 USD is quite reasonable. I think they should have given it a better name like "The Hunter", or the "Sinn 756 Hunter". Regardless of the name, the Sinn Paul Parey Hunting Watch is a cool and attractive limited edition variant to the standard Sinn 756.