I do applaud Romain Jerome for being so ballsy and avant garde. They have made some nice one-off or limited edition pieces that spit in the face of fellow Swiss who are highly conservative most of the time – especially in terms of watch design. Actually, even Romain Jerome’s non limited edition watches are “special.” Love them or hate them you have to appreciate their niche and determination to be different.  However, that doesn’t mean I have to love everything they make. This new special “art” watch by French artist André Chéca is a bit much for me. It is one of those things that I freely admit not liking, but appreciate the artistic endeavors behind it, and that it exists. As though I wouldn’t get pissed about it being in a museum (“That isn’t art, I could do that!”), but I would openly discuss my distaste for it (“My lord this piece tickles the vomit enticing regions of my gullet”).

According to Chéca, the watch is meant to appear like the “tortured” pieces of metal that lay thousands of feet underwater being corroded and abused by the elements. This is how a lot of metal on ships tends to end up after that long submerged in salt water. The metal here is bronze – although I understand that little bronze was actually used on the titanic. Though bronze does have the quality of oxidizing – so this watch will look even more weather battered in a few years. This one-off watch is big at 72mm wide (with crown) and  about 21mm thick.  Really massive. The form of the watch resembles the other Romain Jerome Titanic-DNA timepieces, but does not look exactly like them. It is as though the standard line has been, well…melted. From the messed up looking crown, to the hands on the dial that look too sad to read, this watch will work. I have a feeling that it will share the other models’ ETA 2892 automatic movement inside of the watch. The highly abused looked of the watch continues onto the strap and the clasp. None of it feels realistic – as though it was pulled out from the depths – hence the artistic component. The only smooth and clean looking element of the watch is the sapphire crystal that is perfectly round and clear. The water didn’t touch that part!

Aside from the 280 grams of bronze used for the case, the rusted metal cross on the dial is made from a blend of steel that include the “Titanic DNA,” or otherwise a little bit of metal actually collected from the Titanic, as is the case with all Titanic DNA watches. I don’t know whether this unique watch is for sale, but perhaps there will be a wealthy and appreciative buyer out there. I’d love to see them wear it though. “Sir, there appears to be something wrong with your watch.” Perhaps his response would  be how the observed was not able to appreciate the Dali-esque form of his “wrist watch art.” How dare they degrade creativity! So there you have it, an unique artistic creation from Chéca or a big screwed-up piece of metal that looks like it used to be a watch – also by Chéca. www.romainjerome.ch

See Romain Jerome watches on eBay here.

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