Swiss BA111OD isn’t just a watchmaker — it’s also a novel retail concept and social watch buyers community. If you recall my hands-on discussion about the BA111OD Chapter 1 watch, I talked about how certain watches can only be purchased through community engagement. It was never BA111OD’s intentions for the community to only sell BA111OD watches, however. In fact, the community concept and use of “afluendors” was part of a larger push to promote a brand new type of sales and marketing concept for today’s watch industry. The first additional brand to jump aboard is Bomberg, also Swiss-based. Together with BA111OD, Bomberg has launched a special version of its BB-1 Automatic watch that is exclusively available for sale via the ba111od.community website.
To get the watch, you need to join the ba111od.community website. The reward is a good price compared to other BB-01 Automatic watches, not to mention that this piece isn’t available elsewhere (not even the Bomberg watches website). Bomberg does very well in Latin America, which should help explain the dual theme of this watch that celebrates both the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday, as well as the bandito, along with the preferred weapon of banditos, the pistolero. As such, the highly detailed, stamped and painted dial has a raised mustachioed skull wearing a sombrero with two pistols flanking his face. Instead of all his teeth, his mouth includes a date indicator window, and the watch hands seem to double as his expressive eyebrows (when placed in the right position on the dial, that is).
The 43mm-wide case (water-resistant to 50 meters) is in steel with a black-colored PVD coating and topped with a box-style sapphire crystal. The Pistoleros is all about fun little details, such as the laser-cut “flames and skulls” motif that is placed on the periphery of the case. The watch comes with an additional strap (or you can opt for a t-shirt, apparently) that has embossed flames on the leather and red stitching. The stock strap is black silicone with a red silicone lining and perforated style. It comes on an effective fold-over clasp. The case is simple, but the 2 o’clock location of the crown and the decor around the side of the case help to give it plenty of personality.
Inside the Bomberg BB-01 Automatic is a Swiss Made Sellita SW200 automatic movement (4Hz, 38 hours of power reserve), and the simple movement is visible through an exhibition window on the rear of the case. The dial indicates just the time with date, and despite the busy, artistic dial, there is a distinct hour and minute marker track, as well as easy-to-spot black hands brightly painted with red.
Bomberg has produced 100 pieces of this BB-01 Automatic Pistoleros Black & Red as a limited edition to be sold exclusively on the ba111od.community website. It is also a good deal compared to the standard Bomberg BB-01 Automatic Pistoleros watch that has a retail price of 1,775 Swiss Francs. Price for the limited-edition Bomberg x BA111OD Automatic Pistoleros Black & Red watch is 895 Swiss Francs. Learn more or order at the ba111od.community website here.
