Mr. Jones Sun and Moon Miyamoto

Alright, I got an interesting piece to talk about today.

It is Mr Jones Watches from UK. Well firstly, Mr. Jones is not your average line of watches.

It has an artsy feel about it with many witty designs. Most of the time (pun intended) it forgoes the usual conformity we are accustomed to seeing on a watch face. Instead it has vibrant, bold colours, artistic and imaginative designs in place.

Their unique styles make telling the time an altogether different process.

It makes time telling quirky and hip!

They have a whole Sun and Moon range, which unlike your usual timepiece that shows you ‘day and night’ through separate dial on the piece. Mr Jones, makes use of the movement of the sun and moon and they have referred to this as the “hour disc”. The hour disc is used to tell the time and the hands on the face are used to show the minutes and seconds.

So today I am going be to talking about my Mr Jones Watch.

It is a limited edition Sun and Moon Miyamoto.
This piece is inspired by the world of Super Mario Bros, and pays homage to its creator Miyamato.
Limited to 100 pieces. (or so I thought when I ordered mine)

So about 3 weeks later after my purchase, this piece seems to have been added to their regular line of Sun and Moon pieces. Which means it is no longer limited edition but a regular sale items.

 
To be honest, I am a little disappointed as I thought that I was one of the privileged 100 to be able to own this piece.

As why to this particular piece was reinstated is perhaps due to the reason it was very successful and sold out rather quickly. I have checked their website again and they have relaunched the piece to keep the vast number of customers happy. This is one of those times where the collaboration done by the watch maker, seems to have been done right.

To be fair, Mr Jones probably saw it as an opportunity too good to pass up.

Mr. Jones has managed to leverage on the vast number of Mario fans out there, whom by now should be in their late twenties to early forties. Indeed a good target market and with the style of the watch being so androgynous that it appeals to both man and woman (another plus point for sales and style). The team behind it did a great job, this would be somewhat like their golden goose.

Let’s face it, it is definitely a great piece but also a cash cow for now.

I am sure it would outsell may of their other pieces, just due to the fact that it is somehow linked to Super Mario. Well done and good move by Mr Jones, to bring it back to both satisfy the cravings of customers (definitely more than a hundred) and ring in the profits.

Only difference is that, when I got mine it read "No 45 in an edition of 100". (as you can see from the picture below)

For the regular pieces on the back case, the ‘No XX in an edition of 100’ words on the backing are no longer there, as shown below.

 

Taken from: http://mrjoneswatches.com/sun-and-moon-miyamoto/

As I have mentioned, there is a unique or unusual way of time telling on this watch.

The sun and the moon are the indicators for telling the time, sort of like your hour hand.

Before I get onto my take of this peice, let me share some info from their website.

The website explains it in detail how you can read the time properly. (Taken from http://mrjoneswatches.com/sun-and-moon-miyamoto/)

“The position of the sun or moon in the crescent shape indicates the hours.

The crescent shaped sky represents 12 hours with the time running from left to right.
At 6am the sun 'rises' on the left of the dial. The sun slowly climbs in the sky until it reaches the apex of the crescent noon.

The sun descends until it reaches the right hand marker at 6pm.

After 6pm the Sun ‘sets’ and disappears from view, meanwhile the Moon ‘rises’ on the left.
The position of the Moon in the sky shows the hours from 6pm until 6am.”

As for the minutes and seconds, it is displayed in the middle and tells the time in the conventional type of way.

So let us get down into this piece.

The first thing that definitely stands out is its cool Blue and Grey strap with pink stitching.
The strap surely is something funky and cool, the metal buckle also has a nice crisp finishing. The watch has a nice clear sliver lug with a mostly white face, with the hour disc having the day and night designs of the Mario world.

The design on the hour disc is not too complicated, it is done simple enough to be admired and I feel it makes use of the space flawlessly, without making it too congested with over complicated graphics, it is perfectly balanced.

It would look nice both on the wrist of men and women. It is nicely assembled to look good nice on a man's wrist not too small, and neither too big for a woman's wrist.

It feels good on the wrist, not heavy or bulky, just nice.

Since all the detailing was on the hour disc, the main point was to visualise the landscape moving along as time ticks on. They left it at that, leaving minimal details for the markers around the minute and second hands.

Having done a range of sun and moon pieces, the balance in this piece is perfected harmonised.
 
Thought it is a nice piece, when looking at it I must admit the finishing looks a tad bit shabby.

 


Especially 2 particular points. First it is the block markings (see in above picture) on the face along the "hour disc", there are 12 blocks which are used to help tell the hours as the sun or moons are directly below it. The colours of these markings seem to look faded, as though a poor printing method was used. It gave it an overall poorly finished look. If the colours were more saturated it would have come out looking more vibrant and eye catching, unfortunately this finish seemed to be below par.

The second point which I have to highlight is the print finishing on the back case of the timepiece. Once again here, the printing looks mediocre and somewhat like a childish finishing. It does not look good and professional. If the printing would have been more sharp and perhaps a shade darker to make it stand out a little more, that would have been enough to make it look more satisfactory.

Lastly, another confusing point was that on the back case of the piece, it says “Made in London”. Though when the item came and on the parcel box, country of origin was declared as “China”. This is perhaps another point to ponder on? I would not really think too much into it but it makes you wonder if the watch was indeed pieced together in London or not?

The specs of this piece shown below;

Case: brushed stainless steel

Strap: navy and grey leather with pink stitching
Mechanism: Ronda 515-24H single jewel quartz mechanism
Width (3 o'clock to 9 o'clock): 37mm
Height (from lug to lug): 46mm
Waterproof: 5ATM
Smallest strap diameter:150mm
Largest strap diameter: 205mm

Now let us delve into the story of this piece, so we know the inspiration came from the graphics of the highly popular Nintendo game Super Mario.

The image of the hour disc showcases the landscape of the scenes from the game. If you played Super Mario while growing up I am sure it would strike a chord with you.

Remembering the times you had to run pass the turtles and trying to get your mushrooms. It shows both the day and night landscape or 2D background as we would have known it back then.

So why is it called the Sun and Moon Miyamoto, is basically because this piece pays homage to the designer of this game Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto.

As I have mentioned Mr. Jones tends to be an artsy-fartsy sort of brand. They have an explaination the story behind the design of this piece. You can read more from, http://mrjoneswatches.com/sun-and-moon-miyamoto/ in the description tab.

All in all, it is a nice piece and especially if you are a Mario fan.