We featured the Nixon Rotolog watch some time back, a great 70s throwback timepiece with a price tag of around £200. I expect you’ll be paying a lot more for the Diamond Rotolog version.
It features 764 white diamonds and 1,087 full cut black diamonds, along with a hardened stainless steel casing and a stainless steel bracelet housing all that bling.
So how much is this watch? I don’t know – as yet, they’re not saying. What they do say is that it’s going to be available exclusively in the US at Barney’s stores. So if you’re in the area and have a good limit on the credit card, why not drop in? Nixon website
First the bad news – this Swiss Army Cavalry watch doesn’t have built-in scissors, blades and nail files. But on the plus side, it’s an impressive watch with a great vintage look.
Made in Switzerland (of course), it has a very stylish throwback face – and that should be enough. But anything made by Swiss Army can’t be that straightforward, so you can add to the list water-resistance of 100m,a stainless steel case in a gunmetal finish, luminous hands and markers, scratch-resistance, a black leather strap and of course, the Swiss Army logo.
Paul Frank has some wonderfully quirky and retro watches available right now. We know a number of you fell for the Paul Frank calculator watch – and if you missed out on that, check out the Paul Frank Super 8 watch.
Sadly, it doesn’t double up as a vintage movie camera. It does, however, feature a super 8 camera on the metallic watch face. And just like the watches you might recall as a child, it has a big and bulky brown leather strap.
Although not particularly old, the Alessi Record Watch by Achille Castiglioni certainly looks like a watch with an age to it.
We’ve previously featured the designs of Castiglioni – the Lampadina Lamp, Taccia Lamp and the Sella bicycle seat stool – but this design, created alongside Max Huber, is far more straightforward.
Introduced in 1988 and reissued in 2004, it’s made by Seiko for Alessi with a clear/simple display, stainless steel casing and a choice of coloured leather band. A stylish watch with a heritage and good value for £69.99. Find out more at the Panik Design website
Verner Panton’s Geometri design has been around since 1960 – but it’s still very widely used and is every bit a contemporary design as we approach 2007.
Amongst it’s many current uses is this Verner Panton Geometri watch. It’s a very simple timepiece using this very simple design – a square steel frame for the case, no numbers/markers and a plain black strap. Anything else would probably look too fussy.
It comes in a presentation box and is available online – expect to pay around $120 (just over £60).
We love beautiful design here at Retro to Go, and is doesn’t get more classically elegant than this watch, by Vivianna Torun Bulow-Hube for Georg Jensen.
The Swedish jewellery designer produced an extensive range for Georg Jensen during the 60s, but this is one of her outstanding pieces, and still looks as fresh today as it did when it was designed in 1962 for an exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at the Louvre.
The bangle style wrist watch known as the Vivianna in tribute to the designer, reflected the sculptural confidence of the period, and the clean pure lines favoured by Scandinavian designers. It has a mirror face, which is free from numbers. The idea behind it was that a watch "should not make us prisoners of time – but liberate us"
The watch is still produced today, and is available in a range of sizes and materials. The classic is the stainless steel version, but you can now get a blinged up version in gold complete with diamonds.
You can see the full range, and find out where you nearest stockist is on the Georg Jensen website. The bad news is that, as with any classic watch it isn’t cheap, at around £1,200, the good news is that you will have something that looks great and will last a lifetime.
