Monday, September 8, 2014

Artya Russian Roulette Watch

Artya's version of "Carpe Diem" - Seize the day is a Russian Roulette Watch with a spinning dial. One cannot argue with the Artya's inevitable albeit positive proclamation beneath the image of the watch:
" "Remember to live.  Because you see the time. But you don't know yours."
Wow! What a statement and so true.  I am just about to leave my desk, jump on a train, find a boat and set sail for unknown lands. 
This watch is part of Yvan Arpa's Son of a Gun Collection, which is a collection where bullets and barrels are part of the decor.  Although watches bearing various depiction of bullets ,especially one depicting the daring and the somewhat dumb game of Russian Roulette, do portray violence and death.    Yvan Arpa's actual idea behind the watch is LIFE.
As far as aesthetics, I think this is one of the most elegant Artya watches to date.  If one would replace the gun barrel dial with a simple black dial, the result would be quite a conventional timepiece.  However I would not describe Artya as anything conventional.  If I may say so myself and supporting the statement with quite a few examples, Artya is the least conventional watch company out there.

As promised - examples of Yvan's Artya's daringly unique watches are:

The Heaviest Watch in the World
Two Silver Bullets, rubbed in garlic above werewolf blood.
A entombed spider discovered in Yvan's garden.
Having fun yet.....Shall I continue?
A Watch themed watch baring gears upon the bezel.
Mechanical watches baring burnt bezels.
Toad skin straps and dinosaur dung.

Watches paying homage to guitar greats and gunslingers. Entomologists and paleontologists; to free thinkers and watch lovers. With each new year, Artya founded in 2009 by Yvan Arpa - formally of Romain Jerome, the company is proving to be quite a formidable presence in the world of horology.  A huge amount of horological interests are paid to new models with quirky articles and blogs describing Yvan Arpa's latest endeavors. In a world where individuality seems so hard to come by; Artya forges ahead.

Even by looking beyond the dial of Artya's Russian Roulette Watch, you may think the lateral inserts you see are traditional rose gold, but everything is not what it seems when it comes to an Artya Watch.   What looks like rose gold on the lateral inserts are in fact ArtOr - an alloy of gold, zinc and copper.  The copper is used from real bullets further accentuating the Son of A Gun theme.



The Revolving Dial
Of course, the revolving dial is quite an interesting aspect to the watch.  The watch is manual, which means the mainspring must be wound by hand via the crown.  The dial on the other hand moves by the motion of the watch wearer, but does not wind the mainspring.  So although this watch may seem to be automatic likened to Perellet's (father of automatic watches) winding turbine on the dial idea, it is not.  Yet again another mysterious aspect to the watch. So what is the purpose of the revolving 6 cylinder baring a single 357 Magnum round end hand applied to the dial?  The purpose is of course entertainment, intrigue and mechanical mysteries.  Beneath the dial rotor, which revolves with the aid of ball bearings and weighted by the single bullet,  is another plate punctuated by 6 holes.  These theme is expanded to the mainspring barrel which also sports 6 holes.  As to the more technical specifications of the watch...  the case size is 44mm size, slightly smaller than Artya's usual 47mm.  The movement is a Swiss ETA Unitas which has been skeletonized and optimized with custom components, visible in all its Artya glory via a transparent case back. Blued screws, jewels and artistically rendered bridges create quite a grand spectacle of the movement.

As you can see the hands are bold and relatively simple allowing for a  clear read out. 

Most often Artya's watches are individual - no two alike, but in the case of the Russian Roulette steel models, Artya is producing 99 models available for around $8,300. The gold models ,which are individually unique cost around 31,800 Dollars.

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