Introducing Bólido

Courtesy of Bolido

It seems fitting that after yesterday's post, we turn our attention to a new brand on the horizon that is set to do EXACTLY what we talked about yesterday.

Courtesy of Bolido

Bólido is a new collaboration between designer extraordinaire  Simon Husslein, and the man behind the Ventura watch brand, and owner of the coolest eyeglasses in the watch business - Pierre Nobs.  Bólido means meteor en español.

Courtesy of Bolido

The case is very intriguing to me for a few reasons.  Ordinarily, I am not a fan of a crown at 12 o'clock.  But this is one of those occasions where it actually works.  I think a great deal of this is down to the actual design.  You will note that the actual crown is fairly short in stature, and that it is met by case itself which rises up around the crown to create the perfect protector.   It is smooth, elegant, almost organic in appearance. 


 
The case is a monocoque construction which underscores the thought process that went into the Bólido.  The case back is solid, everything goes in through the top of the watch.  It is pretty hard for a watch to get "seepage" when there are no entry points for the water to get in through the back.  This is one of the things that Mido got absolutely right with Commander, and to my way of thinking it represents the type of common sense thinking that is all too often neglected by the watch industry.

Courtesy of Bolido

And there is even more "outside the watch-box" thinking!  As someone who works both sides of the counter at BaselWorld, I can tell you that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to offering a different case design is the "tooling" costs.  And in fairness sometimes those costs are very real.  Other times that are not unlike "dealer prep" or the "undercoating" that the car salesman tries to explain away when the price of your car suddenly went up by $2,000 as you are signing the sales agreement.  So how to get a unique case at a lower cost? Bólido opted to take a slightly divergent path and craft their cases using an automated lathing machine.  And again, this underscores a willingness to look to alternative methods to get the desired outcome at a reasonable price.

The watch will be available in white, black, yellow, red...

Courtesy of Bolido

And my personal favorite - what the folks at Bólido refer to as "pebble" -

Courtesy of Bolido

But beauty is far more than skin deep, and a lot of the beauty of these proposed new time machines is the thought poured into the design -

Courtesy of Bolido

The case has been designed to offer a sort of "sitting up" look to it.  This will allow you to see the time correctly without picking up your hand from the computer keyboard, or taking it off the steering wheel.

Some of the pertinents -

The case is stainless steel, monocoque construction, and the watch when assembled is water resistant to 300 feet (or 100 meters for the rest of you).  My understanding is that the movement is a Sellita (Swiss, self-winding). 

Courtesy of Bolido

The strap is rubber, with what I believe will be a clasp rather than traditional buckle, but I will keep you posted as more details emerge.

This little wrist-bound bijoux will be available through a Kickstarter campaign that is scheduled to launch in June (yes, as it is May 28th, that means just around the corner!), and the price is very attractive!  

How attractive?

Stay tuned!