Submariner homages, am I right?
They're everywhere. Perhaps no other watch has been duplicated,
imitated, faked, borrowed, and downright ripped off as the iconic and
ubiquitous Rolex Submariner. And why not? The real thing has achieved
iconic status and is the standard bearer for the entire industry. Even
non-watch lovers (or especially non-watch lovers) know it and
want it. If you are in the business of selling watches, you'd be a fool
not to offer something like it. The trick is to make one that does not
elicit a collective yawn from your potential customers.
Enter Chris Vail of Janis Trading Company.
As the brain behind Lew & Huey he has spun traditional watch
designs (Flieger, Zenith El Primero, Omega Aqua Terra) with innovative
twists (bold colors, layered dials, rich textures, a dog). I happen to
know that Chris resisted the siren call of the Sub homage for a long
time for exactly the reasons I stated above, but when he finally
relented, he did it right. There
are eight models in the range: Amphion Modern, Amphion Vintage, Oberon,
Näcken Modern, Näcken Vintage Black, Näcken Vintage Blue, Santa Cruz,
and Scorpéne. All are named for submarines (see what he did there) and
share the same platform, but different dials, bezels, and handsets give
each a unique personality. As Chris describes them, the watches are intended "to
either emulate the weathered good looks of a well-traveled vintage
piece or ... to be a modern interpretation of what those vintage pieces
might look like if they were still being produced today." He
succeeded admirably, delivering several fresh takes on the old classic,
all highly desirable, and at the decidedly Bum-friendly price of
$650-675, depending on the model, currently discounted as low as $450
for the pre-order.
I had two opportunities to sample
these watches. The first was at the Philidelphia Watch Get Together in
April, where Chris brought the initial prototypes of the eight model
entire range: These
first watches were 90 percent there. A couple of them were subject to
further tweaking for color and detail, but the key elements were in
place and already the watches looked outstanding. For this review, Chris
sent second generation prototypes of the Näcken Vintage Black,
Scorpéne, and Amphion Vintage that are nearly identical to what will be
in final production. The only difference is that the color of the lume
pip on the Näcken Vintage Black will change to match that on the rest of
the watch.
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