Time "Presses" On!

Okay, in fairness, J. PRESS always had a lot of Ivy street cred. Way back when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth (1991) a young Henki arrived fresh from his undergraduate studies at the University of Oregon in Harvard Square where he worked at Kinko's with dreams of somehow getting into publishing while (poorly) managing the Kinko's Professor Publishing program at Harvard University. Unbeknownst to me and thousands of other "Kinkoids" around the lower 48, Kinko's Professor Publishing was about 3 months away from the terminal sort of body-blow that you just don't bounce back from. An academic publisher sued (and won) over fair use. Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko's Graphics Corp. I saw the writing on the wall, slung my hook, and a little over a year later was living and working in Tokyo. The publishing world's loss was English Teaching's gain ; )

But for a brief, shining moment I roamed the campus trying to convince professors (and more often graduate teaching assistants) of the virtue of letting us photocopy their materials and sell them as bound compendiums to their students. This also led to a fair bit of free time which I dufifully spent around Harvard Square, starring into the store windows of the shops I could not begin to afford to shop in. The Andover Shop (which is still there), and J. PRESS.

Courtesy of J. PRESS and Bamford

So it was with a very large amount of curiosity that I opened my email today to find an announcement of (I believe) the first horological collaboration of what I am calling the "Jack Carlson" era of J. PRESS. 

Courtesy of J.PRESS and Bamford

And well, it's a bit special!

Courtesy of J. PRESS and Bamford

Here are the details, straight from the source -

Order Window: 3/12 - 3/26

Estimated Shipping Schedule: Bamford will begin making these watches once the order window closes on 3/26.  We expect to begin shipping orders from New York the second week of May.

A new way of thinking about a watch dial’s geometry: twelve pennant-shaped slices, emblazoned not with numerals, but with letters spelling out the name of each hour, formatted as they would be on a collegiate pennant. That is the concept behind the limited-edition J. Press x Bamford London B80 Watch.  These watches will be limited to one hundred units, and each will be numbered.

• Powered by Sellita SW300-1
• 25 jewels
• 28,000 vph frequency
• 56-hour power reserve
• Self-winding, Time only
• Hand-brushed, polished titanium case
• Matching titanium caseback
• Width: 39mm; Thickness: 10.5mm
• Sapphire crystal with anti-glare coating
• 100m (10 ATM) water resistance
• 20mm lug width; 48mm lug-to-lug length
• 5-year Warranty from date of purchase
• Presentation box crowned with detachable limited edition Bullion Wire J. Press Blazer Badge

George Bamford writes, "I have long loved and admired what (J. Press Creative Director and President) Jack Carlson has done and when he talked to me about this idea, I was blown away.  Producing something unique for them to embody this amazing brand is a privilege and working with him and diving into the archive of the brand is something that I feel very lucky to have been able to do. I feel excited doing this on one of our Bamford London watches especially with the Bamford 80 as I think it really does create the right canvas for this stunning dial."

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