BWD X REVOLUTION X HUITCINQ1988
The coolest watches with the most enduring designs, those that conjure up feats of heroism and courage in the face of innumerable odds, are invariably born as pragmatic tools. The fact that every aspect of their design was optimised for performance is what endows them with such evocative purposefulness.
Case in point, the lever-locking mechanism of the Panerai Luminor Marina, used to prevent the intrusion of water as Italian frogmen piloted massive, unwieldy, human-guided torpedoes. In the days before GPS, that was not just a distinguishing design element, but a hard-used and tested innovation. The lyre-lugged, two-pusher iconography of the Omega Speedmaster, distinguished in particular by its tachymetric scale emblazoned boldly and audaciously on the bezel (a world’s first) not only renders it the world’s most famous chronograph, but conjures up the extraordinary bravery of the Apollo 13 astronauts using a Speedmaster to angle their crippled spacecraft for safe re-entry. A failing in either their calculations or
