Style Diary

How to make luxury out of amusement

By November 1, 2017 No Comments

The whole concept of a luxury watch seems to be self-explanatory. It should automatically transport you into a world of complicated mechanisms and precious materials.

But not for Romain Jerome who actually builds its fame starting from nothing more than deep stories. At least for them, putting emotions before anything else proved to be a success. The first step into the luxury Swiss Made league came from the bottom of the ocean. Under the name of Titanic DNA, Romain Jerome watches became famous by including a little bit of steel from the famous wreck in the case and a rusted bezel. Guess what? Everyone wanted a piece of Titanic right away. Then they went to the Moon for inspiration and launched what is called the Moon Dust. And yes, they used Moon powder as the name lets you guess. Stories added one after another, from Earth to Sea to Sculptures and Tattoos.

At one moment, I saw they went into collaborating with Taito video game developer from Japan. Taito name doesn’t say much but their creations fur sure made millions of children smile and stay awake at night (me included). So, you have watches, luxury Swiss Made pieces, inspired by Pac-Man, Tetris and Space Invaders. I thought it is nonsense but this time I got to wear one Space Invaders beautiful 46 mm case ”wonder”. I take my words back as this ”fun” experiment has everything it takes to make you feel like a kid again.

First impression: it is a heavy watch. You take it, you put in on the wrist and you understand it is a luxury watch. The dial is very well made and it is a three level 3D design, starting from the pixels and finishing with the ”invaders” hand painted in cold enamel in various colors. You have only an hour and a minute hands and you really don’t care about seconds. What’s happening on the dial is more important than time. Inside the case you have an automatic caliber and this means you don’t care to rewind and just feel the story. What adds more glamour is the limited edition production for each of the color scheme.

In the end, Romain Jerome is a luxury brand so it delivers only a few pieces out of every story they think of. For the Space Invaders, there are limited editions of 8 or of 78, depending on the exact version. The one I tested was even more exclusive as it comes in a very captivating design scheme. The lime green rubber strap is a magic detail and it adds to the comfort of wearing a big and heavy piece. Here I would add the unique Romain Jerome case which mobile lugs adapt perfectly to the shape of your wrist. Price range, around 15000 euros. Emotion? Priceless!

More details at www.romainjerome.ch/collections/