My Batman Timepiece

If anyone of you out there are a batman fan, then you would have known that in 2014, was the 75^th anniversary of Batman.

Hence a whole range of products were launched and labelled limited edition. These items included some gnarly looking timepieces.

This isn’t your usual lovely classy timepieces, it’s the Dark Knight we are talking about here, so it has to be quintessentially dark, rugged and manly. Everything that encapsulated Bruce Wayne’s alter ego Batman. Also did I mention, I am a huge Batman Buff.

I am a fan, so yes you are right, I definitely had to get my hands on some kind of Batman Limited Edition merchandise, sadly yes I am a sucker for such memorabilia.

Firstly, let me say that Romain Jerome was the right choice for this collab project. As few of their other timepieces have a rather sinister and alluring look about it. Go check it up and you'll see what I mean. 

There was the big hype about the release of the Romain Jerome collab with DC comics timepiece, it matched the dark side of Batman, as shown in recent years with the image portrayed in the Dark Knight installment played by Christian Bale. The watch looked so sweet, it was in the distinctive matt black, nice scratched edges looking somewhat carbon fibre-ish. Topped off with the newer batman logo seen in the recently Dark Knight movies. It was lovely, plus the strap looked perfect all crumpled and crackled like the batsuit or cape after a night long of vigilante chasing.

 It was only limited to 75 pieces and cost roughly 19,000USD, you can see a picture below.

(taken from : HTTP://blog.luxurybazaar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/RJ-Batman-front-3.jpg)

Well, that wasn’t the timepiece I got, since I did not have 19,000USD lying around.

What I got myself wast the HCG Batman 75^th Anniversary Chronograph.  So more details into the watch, the back case logo was designed by Jim Lee, with a serial number, limited to 100 pieces. It is a quartz movement made ny Miyota Japan. It came in a nicely packed comic stlye book style box.

The features are as follows;

 - Case: 46.5mmx 55mm
- Movement: Japanese Chronograph JS50
- Super Luminous : C-3
- Water Resistance: 200m
- Band: Anti-Alergic Silicone
- Limited to 100pcs worldwide

 

So my watch was numbered 25, pictures above. From the way I see it, this was released to target the Asian Market and I have been seeing it mostly on websites in Singapore, Malaysia and Hongkong. Though I would say little was really done to market this watch or advertise it as it would should have been done. With the correct marketing, I am sure this timepiece would have been snapped up in a heartbeat. As I myself wasn’t really aware of the release of this timepiece until much later and am glad to be able to still get my hands on it.

I must admit, I got the watch because it was a Batman colletor’s item and it only looked alright to me.

Since I have gotten it, I must say it has grown tremendously on me. The more I look at it and wear it on my wrist the more I love it.

The way it feels and the bulkness of the timepiece feels just right. I like that rugged look, yet I feel they did not go overboard, which actually makes the timepiece look quite contemporay. What do I mean by that, well it feels like a timeless Batman classic, meaning it matches the entirety of Batman from begininng till date. It did not lean nor focus too much on the recently darker image of Batman due to the Dark Knight series movies, like the Romian Jermoe piece. This piece stuck true to the original batman logo and yet managed to keep the look of the face current and all around as well. I though that the Silicone strap was a good move in making the piece look sporty, current and active to go along with the theme.

The chrornograph was a nice added feature to add some complexity to the face of the timepice, which I could compare to Batman’s utility belt.  You can time how long your batarangs take to hit your target if you’d wish.

The surface is entirely black and has that nice smooth matt finish. With 3 nicely sized knobs for the time setting and the chronograph features.

I really like the feel of this timepiece plus it is a collectorable Batman memorabilia, what’s not to like.

My frist Swiss Timepiece & what is GMT

The first Swiss timepiece I got was a Cyma, it was a world time GMT in rose gold.

 

Just to share something on Cyma, so the back story of Cyma (in French meaning Summit) watches, is that it was founded by brothers Joseph and Theodore Schwob in 1862.  By the 1920s, Cyma’s strategy or route was  inclined to standardise watch part manufacture. For Cyma producing average parts wasn’t good enough. Precision was paramount to ensure long term accuracy. Though there was magnificent accuracy, it wasn't all that study and these wasn't something faced only by Cyma. Despite all these efforts, early timepieces were known to be vulnerable to damage when impacted upon.  Till there was a breakthrough technolody. A reliable and fantastic shock proofing system being used in 1930s, invented by Georges Braunschweig and Fritz Marti. From this creation it led to an in-house revolution by Cyma, in the 1950s, it developed its own shockproofing system known as Cymerflex. This is a true testament of Cyma’s pinnacle, sort of reaching its “Summit”. Thus till today, you hardly ever hear of a Cyma of the yesteryears giving you much trouble.

Today, having spoken to so numberous people it seems the name Cyma is somewhat a forgotten thing of the past.  In recent times, its prestige and presence has dwindled down over the years from the way I see it and am not entirely sure why so as well.

On to my first Swiss timepiece, it is a GMT World Time (pictures below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a quartz movment, a beauty to behold, aesthetically to me it is lovely and classy. So after getting my hands on my timepiece, I had to figure out how exactly does one read the time on a GMT watch. So here I will try explain what exactly is a GMT watch and how it functions in lay man’s terms.

 

Firstly, “GMT” stands for Greenwich Mean Time and is the zero point on the 24 hour scale of international time zones. Greenwich is in England, and from there other time zones are plus or minus GMT. This was set in place so that travellers could tell time of the location they are in, where ever in the world. As long they knew the GMT time, they could then add or subtract from that time to get the local time or somewhere else. Point to note, GMT is also known as UTC ( Coordinated Universal Time), this may be a common sight in German timepieces.

 

Most GMT timepieces have two hands to display both the time in a 12-hour format and an independently adjustable 24-hour hand. If the 24-hour hand cannot be adjusted independently, its only purpose then is to solely indicate if the time is AM or PM. One of the primary reasons a GMT timepiece is used so that people can tell the local time along with other time zone that is not usually GMT. So this helps to tell the time in any two different time zone, which may be locally or internationally and doesn’t not have to be GMT.

 

Once you have accustomed yourself to reading two different time zone, since most GMT timepieces have a rotating 24 hour bezel (if a GMT scale is available on the dial) you can use it to follow a third time zone. Though this may need some calculations.

 

So basically a GMT timepiece shows you 2 times zone at the same time. This may be the second most handy complication out there in next to a chronograph. Or even the second most common?