I will admit the Alexander Shorokhoff Avantgarde Watch Dandy caught my eye because of its wild strap. Not sure I have anything to wear with it, or maybe it goes with all of my clothes – or maybe all of them worn at the same time? But it surely is different and in keeping with their avant-garde theme. It comes with a hand-engraved rotor and is limited to 168 pieces.
The Alexander Shorokhoff Avantgarde Watch Dandy is a stainless steel watch that is 43.5mm wide and 12mm high with (you guessed it) 50m of water resistance and an anti-glare coated sapphire case front. The case back is engraved and fixed with seven screws. This watch shares the same ETA 2824 automatic movement as the Barbara. The price on the Alexander Shorokhoff Avantgarde Watch Dandy is $1,885.
I had seen the Alexander Shorokhoff Avantgarde Glocker (alarm) watches last year, but it was good to check them out again this year. Glocke means “bell” in German and you will see there is a bell on the dial, behind the “Glocker” name. They start with a Poljot 2612 which was based upon the AS1475 movement by A. Schild. All components of these movements were produced from 1984 to 1998 and have been reworked and upgraded by Alexander Shorokhoff – the central and balance bridges are hand engraved, and other bridges get a clouds’ polishing, the winding wheels are guilloched, and the screws are blued. The (12-hour) alarm is set and wound via the second crown.
The concept behind the iridescent “paint color samples” is that the mother-of-pearl slivers go from dark blue at 5:30 a.m. to shining white at 9:30 a.m. to correspond with the rising sun and the wake-up time for most people.
The ringing alarm has a mechanical buzzing sound. Not to be confused with the chimes of a $100,000 minute repeater, of course. Then again, the purpose of this alarm watch is to alert you, not to show off with your billionaire buddies in the “repeater club.” It is 43.5mm wide and a slim 10mm high. The upgraded Poljot 2612 movement runs at 18,000bph and has a power reserve of 40 hours. The alarm rings for about 10-12 seconds and is powered by a different barrel. The Alexander Shorokhoff Avantgarde Glocker is available with a silver or black dial – limited to 100 pieces in each dial color. The Alexander Shorokhoff Avantgarde Glocker has a price of $2,850.
And we finish up with what is probably the purest example of what avant-garde means to Alexander Shorokhoff: the Plus-Minus watch. Whether the dial design speaks to you or not, it’s hard not to appreciate the detailing exhibited on this watch (front and back). Hey, if you are a hipster and need a crazy watch without a totally crazy price, this might be the thing for you.
The watch is visually striking, and the whimsical combination of patterns, shapes, and colors looks absolutely brilliant. Powered by the Swiss ETA 2824 movement, the watch sits elegantly on the wrist at 43.5mm wide and 12.75mm high, letting the bold colors do most of the talking. The price for the Alexander Shorokhoff Avantgarde Plus-Minus is just around $1,885.
I look forward to seeing what Alexander Shorokhoff brings to Baselworld 2016, as I’m sure they are not done exploring and inventing in the wild and fun world of avant-garde watches. alexander-shorokhoff.de
