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The Force Awakens With Devon's $28,500 Star Wars Limited Edition Watch
MojoKid writes: If the Force is strong in your bank account and you're looking for a new timepiece, luxury design firm Devon Works has come up with a limited edition watch that's perhaps more advanced than the Death Star. It's the new "Star Wars by Devon" co-branded watch with a patented system of interwoven "Time Belts" and hybrid electro-mechanical power. The watch is a celebration of Devon's fifth anniversary. It combines glass-reinforced nylon belts (same as used in the gauges on the original 747 aircraft) with multiple high-tech optical recognition cells, micro-step motors, and no less than 313 electrical contacts. Materials used in the construction of the Star Wars timepiece are sourced from an aerospace company located in California. Keeping true to the Star Wars franchise now owned by Disney, the watch incorporates elements of Darth Vader and the TIE Fighter. Only 500 of these watches are being made. If you want one of these timepieces, you'll need a $2,500 down payment towards its $28,500 retail price.
...although a BMW 1 Series is also attractive for that price.
looks like somebody ran over Vader's face--not a chick magnet
Table-ized A.I.
313 electrical contacts... what does that even mean?
Does it mean they didn't know how to make a simple PCB?
It uses the same glass-reinforced nylon belts used in a 45+ year old aircraft... how is this a good thing?
Also; the watch is garish and gaudy. A casio calculator watch looks more stylish than this..
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When other electromechanical watches last years.
Sounds like some great engineering there.
It means this watch has AT LEAST 313 single points of failure.
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I can think of an awful lot of other things I'd prefer to spent $28,500 on (even if I were in a situation where $28,500 was back pocket change, which unfortunately I'm not) that would be much more preferable than that rather garish watch that I'd probable pick up, for a laugh, if it was maybe $10...
What were they thinking? Like, I don't think even Apple would go so far as to sell one of their products for that amount of money (and they _know_ that the apple fanboys would buy them at any price) -- apart from, maybe, the overly ridiculously priced gold apple watch.
Yeah, they made 500 of them, and there are probably enough people out there to buy them. And if I even meet one of them, I'll probably just laugh in his face.
obviously a lot of work went into this. what a pity, that it turned out so ugly. but, no problem, just make it a star wars collectible and only make 500 pieces - it'll sell, eventually. as if they knew beforehand, that it won't be pretty...
"You made it ugly enough and expensive enough that tales of the new Star Wars enterprise will be ejaculated into the face of every human on the planet who has access to some kind of social or mass media provider?" "Yes, Captain". "Well done, Marketron V. The Farce is strong in you."
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
on the included picture. This is one of the ugliest watches I have ever seen.
Did anyone consider re-writing this blatant advert into something a little less... like an advert?
Is that like an Edition Watch with less features?
Quartz is the technically superior solution. Gears may have a nostalgic appeal but are less accurate.
At least? Yup. Point of failure #1 isn't even in the case, it's in the brain of the person thinking about buying this garish monstrosity.
Bear in m mind, I LOVE the belts and the seeming use of electromechanical elements. But the visual design is so... painful to look at with its dragon's worth of scales, ridges and pointy bits.
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
I'm in my late 40s now and this has got to take first place as the ugliest watch I've ever seen in my entire life. I wouldn't pay $5 for it, let alone $28,000. I would consider wearing one if they paid me $10,000.
For men at least, its one of the few forms of acceptable jewelry, and thus can be seen as a status symbol.
Bring back the old version of slashdot.
that's $28,500 for a badly designed prop, except that it's not actually a prop, it's just an ugly and impractically cluttered commemorative watch.
The belt time indicator is an interesting idea, but it's not really impressive. Of course you can make series of mechanical belts tell time, and if you make only a few thousand of them a year by hand of course they'll cost like crazy. If you want to make it *impressive* you've got to make it small -- say 12mm thick by 45mm across at a minimum. 6mm thick would be better.
The humblest Chinese-made mechanical watch movement is a marvel of miniaturization. You can get one from a watch materials company like Esslinger or Otto Frei for under $15; self-winding movements for as little as $22. Typically the movement will be 11.5 ligne wide (that's 25.6 mm; "ligne" is a length unit used to measure watch movements and buttons); and about 5mm thick. If you look though a magnifier at the tiny gears running in their almost microscopic jeweled cups, it's astonishing that you can buy something like that for the price. For about 15x as much you can get a fine Swiss ETA movement that shaves 1.5mm off that thickness.
For less than half the price of this monstrosity you could have a Jaeger LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Jubilee, a watch that is only 4mm thick fully assembled. The movement is 1.85 mm thick, which is exactly halfway between the thickness of a quarter and a nickel.
Of course I understand that the market for *this* watch is not the market for fine watches; I'm not part of that market either, I collect *cheap* watches. But design should be more about separating customers from their money -- which by the way is the dominant design philosophy in the cheap watch market segment. That's what makes it challenging to find well-designed cheap watch. The technology in that price range is more than good enough, in fact on an objective level the technology in cheap watches is *better*. What's hard to find in a cheap watch is good taste.
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