Devon Works, a high-end watch-making company based in Los Angeles, California, is now taking pre-orders on its recently-announced Darth Vader-themed high-end watch.
The watch will see a limited release of 500 watches and will cost $28,500 each. It will be launching in October and will also come with two TIE Fighter cufflinks to match the watch. Pre-ordering the watch requires a $2,500 down payment.
“To harness the Force, Devon incorporates the key elements of Darth Vader and the TIE Fighter, the starship of the Imperial fleet,” a press release from Devon Works reads. “Naturally, the case of the watch is created in all black DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon Coating) on stainless steel. The wings of the TIE Fighter spacecraft are part of the architecture of the case – spanning out on either side to enhance the bold rectangular case. The main screws that connect the case and lugs are reinterpreted as aircraft turbine intakes, finished with pointed silver screws that emulate the ones on Darth Vader’s helmet. Additionally, the crown is finished with the Galactic Empire logo.”
Founder and creative director of Devon Works Scott Devon says that creating the watch required his company to engineer new technology for the watch because “technology for our watches didn’t exist.” Some of that technology includes a belt system, which can be seen in the video above, that was created through a partnership between Devon Works and its “partners from the U.S. aerospace industry.” The system uses “four microstep motors powered by hybrid electric-mechanical power source along with an optical sensor that tells time more precisely than any purely mechanical watch made today.”
Devon defended the high price of the new watch in a Facebook post last week.
“Funny, if we were a Swiss Watch company and it's been said before about us that we would be hailed as the savior of the entire watch industry,” the Facebook post reads. “No kidding. We get attacked by an NBC journalist troll who has no idea what advanced watchmaking with limited production entails. But that's the US. We attack artists and compare what we make vs McMansions and McDonalds. No one does a deep dive into how complex and expensive micro-production and advanced engineering with aerospace technology can become. In the US they think it should be less expensive if it's smaller. Any engineer understands how difficult it is to minimize parts vs mass producing parts in large quantities.”
Source: Devon Works (1), (2), Devon Works on Facebook (via GameSpot)
