We expect watches to do more than just tell the time for us these days.
We’re not even talking about the features of modern day smartwatches or even the watch of the future that will take your blood pressure and report back to your doctor.
No. We just expect that for something we now give such pride of place on our body and ask to be our daily compass through time and space should really make us feel something. I don’t think we’re asking too much here?
Here at Boss Hunting, you know we dig a good timepiece. But what we like more is a watch that tells a good story and gives us them good feels.
So when we got the call up for the first showing of Tudor’s 2017 Baselworld collection in Hobart this year, we were intrigued. When we learned it also coincided with the infamous Dark Mofo x Mona festival – we knew we’d get a good watch story.
A good watch can be a symbol of recognition, of passion and of experiences, but most of all it should be a reflection of our emotions. Otherwise, why the f*ck would we wear one? My iPhone can tell me the time.
Since 1926, the Tudor brand has always been what Hans Wilsdorf envisaged it to be, designed for the adventurous, synonymous for those who lead extreme lifestyles and those who are are prepared to push the boundaries. Tudor wearers go right to the edge, or to the bottom of the oceans, we’re told.
In keeping with the Tudor’s spirit of adventure, the brand’s #BornToDare campaign was launched as part of Baselworld in 2017. It’s tagline:
“We are devoted to the classic. But reject the status quo. We keep the best of the past, the best of watchmaking practices, the best designs. And push the boundaries of what’s new.”
The Mona brand expresses the same adventurous and harshness between ancient and contemporary, humans and nature, religious and secular traditions, darkness and light, and birth, death and renewal.
Both brands are purposefully designed to stretch our emotions to their absolute limit. This gives us all the ‘good feels’ we are after.
Descending into one of the Dark Mofo ‘Welcome Stranger’ venues shortly after Tudor’s launch, its solidified why these two brands made such perfect strangers. Climbing through a twisting ancient staircase of a mystery building in a Hobart back alley – we finally reached the upper chamber of what was an operational Freemason Lodge filled with former Grand Mason portraits and a giant glowing inflatable snake that twisted itself around the room.
This experience and similar weird Mofo moments (like the nude swim in Hobart Bay at the end of the festival each year) are the ‘new boundaries’ that I think these two brands are so good at giving us.
While Mofo imbues a sense of Born To Dare for us here in Australia, across the ditch it’s less experiential and is personified with the All Blacks headlining the Kiwi campaign.
Globally, it’s style icon Beckham who headlines the brand. Good choice. He’s a man who, as we know, has reinvented himself more times then we’ve had hot dinners.
Here’s a closer look at the the two signature timepieces from the 2017 collection, including Becks new favoured Black Bay S&G:
Heritage Black Bay Chrono
The famous Heritage Black Bay family welcomes its first chronograph powered by Manufacture self-winding movement with column wheel and vertical clutch. Tudor has created a classic hybrid of its motorsport past affinity and renowned, historic diver’s watch with this special piece – remaining faithful to the Black Bay style with the famous snowflake hands. These hands have been around for the brand since they were first delivered to the French Navy in the 1970s
Heritage Black Bay S&G
The Black Bay S&G is a Boss Hunting favourite. A perfectly balanced mix of steel and gold and designed specifically to reference Tudor’s 60-year affinity with diving. The Tudor diver’s watch is an institution. But this is not the watch we��d expect to wear at 25m – the steel bracelet is dressed in gold to give people like Becks a much more formal feel.
