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Seiko Collaborates with Rowing Blazers

Seiko’s partnership with the U.S.-based sports clothing and accessories brand Rowing Blazers, announced earlier this summer, resulted in three colorful automatic Seiko 5 Sports watch designs. Two of the watches are limited editions and one model is an ongoing ‘special edition.’

The Seiko 5 Sport-Rowing Blazers trio.

The collaboration offers three distinctive bezels on a 42.5mm steel case with a black Seiko 5 Sports day-date dial with its crown at 4 o’clock. The collaboration includes an unusual red and white seconds hand alongside the Seiko 5’s characteristic wide hour and minute hands.

Also new here is the Rowing Blazers logo on the dial. Inside Seiko fits its ultra-reliable automatic Caliber 4R36 with 41-hour power reserve.

The collection, developed in collaboration with Rowing Blazers founder and creative director Jack Carlson and Seiko’s product development team, features three unidirectional bezel designs: a checkered rally pattern (SRPG49), a red zigzag Rowing Blazers motif (SRPG51) and a four-color red, blue, yellow and green design (SRPG53).

(See our interview with Carlson below for insight into how and why he designed the Seiko-Rowing Blazers collection.)

The latter design is on the special edition model that is not limited in number. Seiko includes a rainbow, green or black nylon strap with each steel bracelet watch.

“Collaborating with Seiko is a dream come true,” says Rowing Blazers founder Jack Carlson. “I have a small collection of both new and vintage Seikos, and I’m obsessed with the brand. This is our first real foray into the world of watches — though we often sell vintage Seikos on our site — and I couldn’t imagine a better partnership.”

As a bonus, each watch is emblazoned on its caseback with a skeleton as a reminder that time flies (a memento mori). Price: $495.

 

Seiko’s Seismic Shift

By James Henderson

By the time you will read this, what has been perhaps one of the most seismic shifts in the ever-growing watch subculture that is the Seiko 5 Sport series will have already happened. In fairness, there have been and will continue to be Seiko 5 Sports models put out in limited edition series. That being said, the majority of them are targeted to a decidedly wider, easier to sell-to demographic.

More to the point, Rowing Blazers has built its fan base (I am a proud member) by decidedly swimming against the current of the obvious. So while it would have been easy to take a basic watch and throw the Rowing Blazers name on it, the Rowing Blazers Seiko 5 capsule did something more.

Rowing Blazers founder Jack Carlson and vintage watch expert Eric Wind rolled up their sleeves and came up with not one, not two, but three unique watches that got watch fans in North America and beyond so worked up that they sold out faster than Wonka bars when everyone was looking for golden tickets.

Although your best chance to get one of these nifty time machines is to scour the various secondary market places, the powers that be here at Isochron Media thought you might enjoy a bit of background on what has proven to be the Seiko 5 equivalent of what happened when the guy said “What if we sliced the bread before we sold it?”

Not unlike when Smith met Wesson, you and Eric Wind have a bit of a story. How did you two meet?

Jack Carlson – Eric and I met on the first day of our freshman year in college, at Georgetown in 2005. We became fast friends. I even persuaded Eric to try out for the rowing team. Eric’s rowing career was brief, but we remained great friends. We were both in the School of Foreign Service; Eric was studying Farsi, and I was studying Chinese.

After Georgetown, I did a PhD at Oxford in archaeology, and while I was there, Eric popped over for a year to do a one-year MBA. I was honored to be the best man at Eric’s wedding to his amazing wife Christine. Aside from being a great friend, Eric has also been my watch consigliere and a great supporter of the Rowing Blazers brand since we launched four years ago. Eric sources and curates many of the vintage watches we sell at Rowing Blazers, and, of course, we also worked together on the Seiko collaboration!

What was the inspiration for the capsule?

I love Seiko, and I’ve been a vintage Seiko collector for a while now. So, it was an honor to have the opportunity to work together. I wanted everything we created to feel timeless, classic, and wearable. But I also wanted them to be fun, a little unexpected, and a little irreverent.

Color and pattern are very important to Rowing Blazers as a brand; and I wanted the capsule to reflect that. The four-color bezel was just something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s so simple, but also fun and unique. It’s a very ‘90s vibe, very nostalgic, like a lot of what we do at Rowing Blazers.

The Rally bezel is inspired by some of my favorite vintage Seikos. Whenever we collaborate with a brand with a rich history and heritage like Seiko, I always try to tap into that history, and to bring some aspects of it that might not be getting a lot of love or attention currently to the surface. And the zig-zag artillery stripe is one of our brand codes. We’ve never rendered it in a circular format before, but it came out brilliantly.

Why the Seiko 5?

The Seiko 5 Sports are a great canvas to work on. We can do a lot of fun things, and the result is still classic, wearable, and a relatively accessible price point, which I think is great for our first watch collaboration.

Are there possible future collaborations?

Yes! Several exciting things in the works! Stay tuned!

 

Specifications: Seiko 5 Sports Rowing Blazers

(Limited Edition of 500 pieces (SRPG49/SRPG51) and Special Edition (SRPG53)

Movement: Automatic Caliber 4R36, 21,600 vph, power reserve of approximately 41 hours.

Case: 42.5mm steel with limited edition screw-down see-through caseback, water-resistant to 100 meters.

Dial: Black with day-date, LumiBrite hands and markers, red-striped seconds hand, limited edition screw down see-through caseback.

Bracelet and strap: Stainless steel with tri-fold push-button release clasp. Additional green nylon strap included with SRPG49, additional multi-color nylon strap included with SRPG53 and additional black nylon strap included with SRPG53.

Price: $495

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The Watches

Rado Sows a Ceramic Garden

Rado’s high-tech ceramic True Thinline Collection, first seen in 2011, this month debuts the Great Gardens of the World collection with three models featuring dial designs meant to recall natural beauty.

The idea for the collection took root in 2017 when Rado partnered with Grandi Giardini Italiani, an association of 300 Italian and Maltese gardens. At that time Rado debuted a trio of True Thinline quartz watches with beautifully colored and patterned dials meant to represent earth, water and leaves.

Rado True Thinline Great Gardens of the World, Chapter 1.

Rado now extends that idea with three more of the sleek 40mm ceramic and titanium watches, each sporting an artisanal dial and powered by an automatic movement.

One model, called Chapter 1, sports a turquoise-colored ceramic case and bracelet and offers a matching mother-of-pearl dial. Rado decorates the dial with filigree and cloisonné-style organic elements and nature-inspired themes, including jasmine flowers. Diamonds mark each hour, while on the back you’ll find the phrase “Great Gardens of the World,” printed on a smoky sapphire and titanium caseback.

Rado True Thinline Great Gardens of the World, Chapter 2.

The second model, called Chapter 2, offers a similar pattern but on a black ceramic case with a dark, matching mother-of-pearl dial. Again, diamonds mark the hours.

Rado True Thinline Great Gardens of the World, Chapter 3.

The Chapter 3 watch presents a more sophisticated small central dial framed by an engraved oak leaf pattern in its mother-of-pearl and a ring of additional diamonds.

All this natural beauty arrives alongside Rado’s pioneering mastery of the ceramic case and bracelet technology, here all sporting richly colored and polished high-tech finishes. Rado builds each watch with a ceramic case, ceramic bracelet and crown, a titanium caseback (framing a sapphire center) and a titanium tri-fold clasp.

Each watch offers a titanium case back with black smoked sapphire and a printed phrase.

As noted, these Rado True Thinline models sport automatic movements. Inside Rado places the ETA-based Rado caliber R763 automatic movement with an impressive 80-hour power reserve and an anti-magnetic Nivachron hairspring, which Rado says exceeds standard test requirements from three to five positions.

Prices: $2,450 (Chapters 1 and 2), and $2,660 (Chapter 3).

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The Watches

IWC Adds Smaller-Cased Chronograph to Portofino

IWC expands its Portofino collection this week with the Portofino Chronograph 39 (Ref. IW3914), a new design debuting as a set of three 39mm steel-cased chronographs.

One of three 39mm steel-cased references in the new IWC Portofino Chronograph 39 collection.

The new, smaller-cased models complement IWC’s existing 42mm Portofino Chronograph. The new trio’s dial design emphasizes Portofino’s minimalistic layout with an even cleaner look than previous chronographs in the collection. With a smaller dial, the new models do not include the day/date display at 3 o’clock or the seconds subdial at 9 o’clock found on the larger chronographs.

The elegant Portofino often flies under the radar at IWC, which is best known for its technical focus (Ingenieur and Da Vinci), its range of larger aviation collections (Pilot and Big Pilot) and its nautical (Aquatimer and Portugieser) collections.

IWC has enriched Portofino in recent years to extend the collection’s unisex appeal, notably with an attractive series of Portofino Automatic models offered in 34mm, 37mm and 40mm cases. Throughout the Portofino collection IWC maintains a clean dial design characterized by the spare use of Roman numerals set between simple applied hour markers.

Here two totalizers (at 6 o’clock and 12 o’clock) balance the dial, each partially hiding the display’s only two Roman numerals. A very thin seconds track frames the dial’s primary elongated markers. Inside IWC fits its Caliber 79350, built by IWC from a very highly modified ETA Valjoux 7750.

IWC offers three steel-cased references in the new Portofino Chronograph 39 collection. Dial options are black, green or silver-plate. All models are fitted with top-notch alligator straps. Price: $5,900.

 

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Ladies

Omega Goes for Gold with Final Seamaster ‘Tokyo 2020’ Watches

Omega, the watchmaker that has officially timed the Olympic Games twenty-eight times, is currently timing its twenty-ninth at the summer games in Tokyo. And in case you missed it, Omega announced that in addition to three steel-cased ‘Tokyo 2020’ debuts it announced earlier, its final two ‘Tokyo 2020’ models are two gold-cased Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M watches.

One of two gold-cased Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M watches.

These are the fourth and fifth official Omega ‘Tokyo 2020’ Olympic watches.

The three Omega watches to previously receive the Olympic designation include a limited edition, white-dialed Seamaster Planet Ocean, a Seamaster Co-Axial Master Chronometer and a limited-edition steel-cased Seamaster Aqua Terra.   

This Omega Seamaster Co-Axial Master Chronometer is an Omega Tokyo 2020 watch.
Omega designed the Seamaster Planet Ocean as a tribute to Tokyo.

Echoing the top medal the Olympic athletes strive to take home, Omega’s fourth and fifth official ‘Tokyo 2020’ watches are cased in gold.

Omega offers the new Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M watches in 38mm or 41mm gold cases, both with blue leather straps. To underscore their Olympic designation, the watches have been laser-engraved with a pattern inspired by the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games emblem. The emblem is also visible on the back of each watch printed on clear sapphire.

Inside the new Seamaster Aqua Terra watches Omega fits its superb Co-Axial Master Chronometer Cal. 8801 (inside the 38mm model) and Cal. 8901 (inside the 41mm model.)

Prices: $17,500 (38mm) and $18,500 (41mm).

 

 

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The Watches

The AOS Feline Frenzy

By Steve Huyton

Roland Stampfli founded a watch brand in 2010 called AOS Watches to honor his father’s memory. AOS is located in the picturesque Swiss town of Cressier in the district of Neuchâtel, where Stampfli has been handcrafting exquisite watches in small batches for the last decade.

The new Black Storm Spirit 1916 from AOS Watches.

 

The AOS Classic Day and Night

Probably his pièce de résistance is a timepiece called the Wheels of Time. This impressive watch has a 68mm x 26.8mm aluminum case weighing just 68 grams and is powered by a bespoke cylindrical movement. Due to popular demand and restricted numbers, this model sold out very quickly. I’ve never seen one for resale on marketplaces like eBay and Chrono24.

The AOS Wheels of Time

More recently, AOS unveiled a new series of watches called The Cat Edition. If like me you love Art Nouveau designs, you’re in for a real treat.

When Stampfli first sent me the press release for The Cat Edition I was pretty blown away. Within the range, there will only be four pieces, each with a completely different aesthetic. Clients have a choice of colors and also the option of an extravagant diamond-encrusted version.

My particular favorite is the model with a 47mm purple anodized aluminum case. The sublime hue really complements the vibrant tones of the distinctive screen-printed dial. This feature portrays a tattoo style illustration of a cat, which is unlike anything I’ve seen before.

When I spoke to Stampfli about this matter, he said the inspiration came from pastel art nouveau designs and cat tattoos. Other features include a complex bezel with twelve torque screws and a small date window located at 6 o’clock.

Beneath the beautiful façade this piece is a customized Swiss-made ETA mechanical self-winding Caliber 2892-2. This mechanism has a bespoke multi-colored rotor, which is visibly showcased via the sapphire crystal exhibition case back. Functionally The Cat Edition features hours, minutes, seconds and a date indication. The watch also has a power reserve of forty-two hours.

In my opinion The Cat Edition is a competitively priced collection. You get a true Swiss made watch that is highly exclusive and exceptionally well designed. If you’re interested, Stampfli reports he has only a few Cat Edition models available. Prices start at $3,800.

Steve Huyton is an industrial designer, illustrator and author who publishes Total Design Reviews.

 

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