The 1969 Heavy Metal collection of watches by Romain Jerome present not only a fresh case design, but also timepieces with silicon dials. Actually, the four models for 2014 include three versions with silicon dials, and one with a meteorite dial. Of course, when looking at the piece at a glance they all have the distinctive look of meteorite dials, but actually only the silver-colored dial is meteorite.
For the last several years, silicon (also known as silicium in French) has been a hot material in the watch industry. Brands such as Ulysse Nardin started to use silicon in high-end mechanical watch movements over a decade ago in their Freak collection, and as of 2014 even Rolex has begun to use silicon in some of their watch movements. Having said that, silicon has for the most part been used as a mechanical component, and not as a decorative element. Here, Romain Jerome introduces a more aesthetic use for the common earth element.
Of course, the irony in these Romain Jerome 1969 Heavy Metal watches is that the mechanical movements contained within do not use any silicon parts. Speaking of which, they are the Romain Jerome Swiss-Made caliber RJ003-A automatic movements (by La Joux-Perret). Silicon is rather used for the dial as a sheet of cut silicon crystal. Romain Jerome colors the silicon in a few forms, but the blue dials are perhaps the closest to what people tend to associate with the element.
I have to admit that it is very cool to see silicon used as an aesthetic element in a luxury watch. The dials are undeniably cool, and in addition to the blue silicon dials, the Romain Jerome 1969 Heavy Metal collection includes a gray and brown colored set of silicon dials. Against the spacey design of the 1969 cases they look pretty slick, and with the applied hour markers and hands the dials further enjoy a healthy degree of legibility.
Technically speaking, the 1969 case is part of the Romain Jerome Moon DNA collection. Though, it is smaller and thinner, making it overall much easier to wear for most people. The case for this collection is in steel and offered either in a brushed finish or with a black PVD coating (depending on the dial). At 43mm wide, this isn’t a small watch, but it certainly is much more manageable compared to the brand’s 45mm and over fare. Of course, the design of the case is deeply inspired by both the Romain Jerome Titanic DNA collection as well as other Moon DNA timepieces.
On the rear of the watch is a Romain Jerome “Moon Silver” medallion textured to look like the surface of the moon. It contains small trace elements of moon dust, I believe. The rear of the watch is really cool actually, and done a bit better than on some of the previous Moon Dust DNA timepieces. The cases are built well, but only have 30 meters of water resistance. That more or less makes them akin to a dress watch, and I would have liked Romain Jerome to up that to at least 50 or 100 meters of water resistance, as in my opinion, these have a bit of a sporty feel to them.
