Right now, the RJ (formerly Romain Jerome) watch brand is in hibernation, but I understand it will be relaunched in some form soon. Romain Jerome is one of the more interesting watchmakers of the last 20 years and before its current “shut down” phase in 2020, the company rebranded from Romain Jerome to “RJ” after being taken over by a new owner with a new manager (Mr. Marco Tedeschi) in around 2018. Marco later founded Kross Studio, but his innovations are still interesting at RJ and worth paying attention to, especially since many of these watches are still out there and able to be purchased in new condition.
Mr. Tedeschi’s greatest achievement at RJ Watches was the development of the Arraw watch collection. This included a new (yet familiar to RJ’s heritage) case design, which was used across a few models also with a few different movements. Prior to the RJ closing down in its last form, I reviewed the RJ Arraw Chronograph watch. Today, I’d like to review a few of the quite rare RJ Arraw Space 6919 watches with their “360-degree moonphase” mechanism. These three Arraw models represent — to my knowledge — all of the Arraw Space 6919 model versions that were made. One version has a predominantly titanium case, while the other two models have mainly black ceramic cases.
Marco Tedeschi spent a number of years at Hublot, where he learned the value of having a modular case design system (such as that of the Big Bang). Modular systems allow designers to mix and match case parts that offer maximum cosmetic flexibility, without having to industrialize new components. One merely makes existing shapes in new materials or finishes. The Arraw watch family is modular in that sense, which allows for the great variety of versions that RJ released. Most of the Arraw watches were the chronograph versions, with more than 20 varieties in the brief time the original Arraw watches were being made.
The RJ Arraw Space 6919 takes the brand’s interesting history with space-themed and “DNA watches” and applies them to the (at the time) new Arraw family. The movement offers a novel way of representing a moon phase indicator, and the decorative bezel is made from a composite material containing parts of the NASA Apollo 11 landing module spacecraft. The bezel’s grid design is inspired by the windows in the Apollo 11 command module, and the material has an interesting organic, blended silvery aesthetic that is unlike other materials used in watches. The composite material will not be for everyone, but it does blend storytelling with a bit of showiness (it is a bit sparkly) in a way that suits a luxury timepiece such as this quite well.
The 45mm wide Arraw case is easily the most comfortable RJ/Romain Jerome watch I have ever worn. I’ve liked a lot of the historic Romain Jerome models, but few of them scored very high when it came to wearing ergonomics. That all changed with the very comfortable to wear (despite the size) Arraw. The case also has a quick-release mechanism for the straps, which works rather well, but unfortunately, it only works with proprietary RJ straps. Rather than using a hard-to-press button or lever on the underside of the case, the quick-release mechanism for the straps is activated by pressing the faux screws on the outside of the lugs in together at the same time. What helps make the Arraw case so wearable is how the straps point downward as opposed to outward, and how the lugs are relatively short.
In addition to being 45mm wide, the Arraw case has a roughly 12mm thickness (looks thinner as part of the height is the domed sapphire crystal), a 50mm long lug-to-lug distance, and 100 meters of water resistance with a screw-down crown. The sapphire crystal is excellent being ideally shaped to have as little glare as possible. It really helps offer an expansive and deep view of the rich dial, which is important because that visual experience is a huge allure of the watch.
The Arraw case uses a few different materials, including rubber for the side bumpers and titanium for the bezel frame and other bits. The RJ Arraw Titanium reference 1S45L.TZTR.8023.PR.ASN19 has the most titanium parts with a more natural gray finishing. The other two versions here have a more black-colored theme and mostly brushed black ceramic as the case material. That includes the reference 1S45L.CZCR.8023.PR.ASN19 Arraw Ceramic with the silver-accented dial, and the RJ Arraw Ceramic Gold reference 1S45L.CZCR.8823.PR.ASN19 with the gold-toned elements on the dial. Each of these watches was limited to 100 watches. So in total, if RJ produced the entire volume of the limited edition set, there are no more than 300 RJ Arraw 6919 360° Orbiting Moon Phase watches out there in the world.
From a complication perspective, this mechanical watch features the time (with no running seconds), the date, and a novel-looking moonphase indicator display. It is based on a movement RJ called the caliber RJ-2180, which was a special proprietary module put onto a base Swiss Made automatic movement with a custom RJ rotor (inspired by the engines from the Saturn V rocket). The movement operates at 4Hz with 38 hours of power reserve. The 360-degree moonphase indicator is an interesting spin on the traditional phase indicator in that the display itself revolves around the dial. My belief is that the moon phase indicator hand makes one full rotation around the dial, for each roughly 28.5-day cycle. Thus, in addition to the shape of the moon changing a bit over the course of the month, the position of the indicator itself on the dial moves around.
The dial, overall, is a very neat composition that is better executed than it is actually designed in the first place. Meaning, the somewhat generic hands and hour markers are made so much more impressive by the fact that RJ really got all the materials and finishes on the dial correct. Even the texturing on the long side wall of the case between the top of the bezel and the flange ring is an excellent detail. You’ll also see extra windows for the date disc, so that you can easily know the date when the moon phase hand is over the main date window. Again, some of the styles and features on the dial are not exactly universally considered refined, but the way RJ was able to render them in the Arraw 6919 makes this a better watch than it probably should have been. I wish more watches would have gotten that level of dial detail and attention.
In addition to mostly unpolished watch face surfaces, the hands and hour markers are painted with luminous material. These factors help contribute to an overall very legible dial reading experience, much more so than one might expect from simply seeing marketing images of this watch. This type of outcome is rare in the watch industry today, but part of the reason why these watches were given so much attention is related to their original intended retail price – which was high. At least RJ really wanted to offer as much value as possible for customers. Too bad the brand shut down in its then form not long after the Arraw 6919 watches were introduced.
Paired to the watches are water-resistant fabric and rubber straps. Not only are the straps much more complicated than they look at a glance, but they are comfortable to wear on the included RJ-signed Big Bang-style folding deployant buckles. The overall wrist presence of the RJ Arraw Space 6919 is impressive, with many people merely calling it “fancy looking.” The watch doesn’t per se fit into any specific theme aside from “high-end artsy futuristic sports watch inspired by historic objects.” It takes imagination and open-mindedness to understand and appreciate a watch like this. Thankfully, there are plenty of folks like that who enjoy watches. Even though they are no longer made to my understanding as of writing there are some unsold RJ Arraw Space 6919 watches out there. The specific RJ watches written about in this article were supplied by the SigmaTime eBay store and you can view the RJ Arraw Space 6919 Moon Phase Titanium here, the RJ Arraw Space 6919 Moon Phase Ceramic here, and the RJ Arraw Space 6919 Moon Phase Ceramic Gold here.
More so, the brand is planning a sort of relaunch in the near future. At the least, these interesting watches deserve a second look given that the RJ era they were birthed in didn’t last long enough. The original retail price for the titanium reference 1S45L.TZTR.8023.PR.ASN19 RJ Arraw Space 6919 Moon Phase was $26,000 USD. The retail price for the ceramic references 1S45L.CZCR.8823.PR.ASN19 and 1S45L.CZCR.8023.PR.ASN19 RJ Arraw Space 6919 Moon Phase watches was $28,500 USD. Learn more at the RJwatches.com website.
