If necessity is the mother of invention, having a little bit of fun may function as the goofball uncle. That at least might explain the most recent trend in high-concept mechanical watches making; rather than detailing a lavish watch with”lume” so that it shines in the dark like a lollipop woman at a school disco.
Beyond the fun of this, I possibly could think of no other motive why Panerai would take its Luminor — the cushion-shaped steely classic, named following a luminescent material the Italian company signed up for Rome at January 1950 — shell everything within an experimental carbon-based material called Carbotech after which trace it using lume it in order that it radiates an abysmal green glow after darkness falls. Even the watch strap’s stitching has been awarded the treatment.
Roger Dubuis must have seen exactly the exact same memo as it conceived its new Excalibur Twofold. The most recent take on the Genevan firm’s knotty signature piece (now covered with a white mineral mix fibre making its debut in watch design) includes the application of the go-to self-powered luminous material Super-LumiNova in to the watch’s skeletonised movement bridges and company logo, in addition to actually into the rubber strap. Turn the lights out and the Panerai watch looks like a picture from an 8-bit flight simulator.
It might be churlish to say both look prepared for an early 1990s rave were it not for that fact that Zenith’s take on the theme is made in honor of Carl Cox, the British DJ and record producer whose house and techno records given a soundtrack for a generation of party-goers currently sending their children to university. The secret in the El Primero 21 Carl Cox may be the Super-LumiNova is integrated to the carbon-fibre bezel and the red rubber band’s stitching. Trippy.
Rightly or no, the makers are encouraging us to marvel in the technical achievement behind integrating Super-LumiNova into watchmaking substances, because they could.
However, the overriding consideration is of the neon aesthetic, which subverts the typical lamp-lit cosiness of haute horlogerie with the sort of joie de vivre sorely lacking in lockdown life.
