It’s safe to say this is one of the nicest Chronomaster Originals we’ve seen. The salmon leans more towards an orange-yellow colourway as opposed to red, and the matte opaline finish allows that colour to shine without any unnecessary finishing, all while beautifully balanced with the counters in three shades of grey. The colours for this new Chronomaster Original were chosen by the Hodinkee team, who endeavoured to push the boundaries on this collaborative timepiece. For starters, it’s a self-winding, high-beat, three register Chronograph on a beautiful tapered steel bracelet with a date window.Īnd while an aesthetically-pleasing watch by all means, it’s the outfitted matte salmon opaline dial that immediately draws in the eye, providing a dynamic and warm backdrop not often seen in a watch of the modern era. This timepiece has so much to offer so much so that it sold out on the Hodinkee website within hours of its release. This isn’t any ordinary watch collaboration, folks. Its late 1960’s aesthetic is modernised with the El Primero 3600 paired with an unprecedented opaline salmon dial and chronograph counters in three shades of grey. #ZenithxHodinkee: The Chronomaster Original Hodinkee Edition reinterprets the modern chronograph icon. But I’m thrilled that enough people liked what we created to say they are all already sold out,” Clymer added. And certainly nobody needed the one we launched today – our second collaboration with Zenith in six years of limited editions. “I’m always the first person to say that nobody needs watches. “When we launched our first collaboration with Zenith, we asked if they could bring back that “Striking Tenth” caliber – but were told it simply wasn’t ready,” recalled Clymer via an Instagram post.įast forward to 2022, and Hodinkee has once again teamed up with Swiss watchmaking powerhouse Zenith for one incredible, extremely limited Chronomaster Original. Only this time, with the Striking Tenth caliber in tow. This mind-blowing watchmaking feat served as the impetus for the first Zenith x Hodinkee collaboration in 2016 – but without the ‘striking tenth’ calibre, which was put on pause for many years due to ‘reliability issues’. In this case, the result's been a watch which it's very likely Zenith would never have produced on its own, but which also, seen against the backdrop of the El Primero's history, seems a very good fit to the basic EP identity.Hodinkee founder Ben Clymer took to Instagram this week to reference the first time he wore the Zenith ‘El Primero Striking Tenth’ Chronograph way back in 2011 – a limited edition watch that was described as “hacked” thanks to its El Primero caliber that allowed the seconds hand to beat faster providing 1/10th of a second accuracy. At the moment, of course, it's still very much a niche activity from a commercial perspective, but it's also a good look for any brand that's willing to make it a real collaboration, and for any organization which has a clear vision of what it expects from its design objectives, and which also understands the need to respect certain core aspects of the brand's identity as well. The center seconds hand is now rhodium plated, and the chronograph pushers have a brushed finish, the better to bring them into visual harmony with the rest of the watch.Īs fine watchmaking continues to find an even broader audience worldwide, and on the internet, the creation of custom-designed timepieces for such communities – which is very much distinct from creating limited editions as a part of larger commercial relationships, such as sports teams sponsorships – may more and more represent a commercially important market for fine watch brands to explore. The date display at 4:00 is also gone, in pursuit of greater simplicity and visual clarity, and dial numerals are executed in an easy-on-the-eyes, but still highly legible, light grey.
The colorful treatment of the overlapping subdials, as well as the signature red center chronograph seconds hand, are gone instead, a palette of matte whites and greys takes its place, playing off the metal facets of the dial markers. For its first outing, Collective, whose membership is primarily folks working in tech, wanted a watch that represented the simplicity in design and clarity of purpose characteristic of an elegant and well designed user-interface. It will be immediately obvious to anyone familiar with the standard 38mm EP, that the aesthetics are pretty dramatically different. In terms of basic physical design and dimensions, the Chronomaster C.01 is identical to the 38mm El Primero Chronomaster, but the aesthetics are very different.
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