Limited to 99 pieces, the ArtyA Son of a Gun Russian Roulette Blue Blood takes the unique stylings of the brand’s earlier Russian Roulette watch and applies a blue PVD treatment to the case and dial, along with a matching blue leather strap. For more details and to refresh your memory of the ArtyA Son of a Gun Russian Roulette, I recommend reading Ariel’s hands-on with an earlier version of the watch from 2014.
Essentially, the collection takes heavy design inspiration from the “game” of Russian Roulette and the revolvers used to “play,” within the larger context of the brand’s gun-themed Son of a Gun range. This inspiration is most obvious in the representation of a spinning six-chambered cylinder on the dial, with the bottom of a bullet “loaded” into one of the chambers (from “legendary calibers such as the Magnum 44, 357, P38, and so on,” according to ArtyA). The side inserts in the case are further made from the cartridges of used bullets.
It is quite the statement piece, but skeletonized and with the Blue Blood coloring, it will be even more noticeable on the wrist than the other available versions with steel, black, or brown finishes. If you are a collector interested in this piece (or anything by ArtyA, really), then the added pop of color is likely to be an additional selling point. Even in the more subtle colors, this is not a watch to be hidden under a shirt sleeve. Sized at 44mm and with a round dial, it is slightly larger than the current “standard” case size of 42mm, but not drastically more.
The standard 316L stainless steel is used for the case and the sapphire crystal has a double anti-reflective coating. The same treatment is applied to the sapphire case-back, through which the manually wound ARR Skeletonized movement (which gives the watch a 52-hour power reserve) is visible. Even though the revolver-style dial spins on ball bearings with one’s wrist movement like an automatic rotor, it does not wind the movement. You will notice that the mainspring barrel, visible beneath the spinning and stationary portions of the skeletonized dial, also echoes the six-chamber gun motif.
ArtyA self-describes its Son of a Gun group of watches as a “talking-piece collection” and with the Russian Roulette now in Blue Blood, it keeps adding to the line. The ArtyA Son of a Gun Russian Roulette Blue Blood is a pretty striking watch and sure to cause much more of a reaction on the wrist than many other similarly priced Swiss alternatives. The ArtyA Son of a Gun Russian Roulette Blue Blood watch is, again, limited to 99 pieces and it can be had for 9,900 CHF. artya.com
