By Jovan Krstevski
Let’s say how about a grade 5 titanium wristwatch? Ain’t that the materials used to built airplanes? Whew, plenty of questions swirling in my brain… well folks, once fully delivered to the backers, the Robusto watch will be a Kickstarter pioneering wristwatch project that’s totally made of the strongest alloy designed for planes and aerospace products, titanium. As for me, what’s very interesting about it is its lighter weight. This means over time, TIME22 could be releasing new designs with a very thin profile, exciting! For now, this Kickstarter project has risks involved but limited since the founders Stefan Wessels and Marc Schot both Dutch have previous experiences in the eCommerce of a Swiss watch brand, maybe the relation here is about the Robusto’s production relying on a foreign factory.
So what do we have here? One thing about Dutch design that impresses me is minimalism. I love it. The Robusto is full of it plus the added benefit of titanium which is durability and lighter weight. Being passionate creators, we can really admire the design (using aerospace software = absolute precision) of the watch which is akin to a classic steel watch. The 45mm case is made of brushed grade 5 titanium which is a no-brainer when it comes to its quality. It has also a surprising 10mm thickness thanks to its choice of a Swiss movement that’ll I’ll impound on later. Being a minimalist case, you’ll see that the lugs seem to blend in the background plus the bezel is nowhere to be found with the exception of the robust screwed down crown. This means that the 200m water resistance of the watch is perfectly ensured.
As for the dial, backers can choose either Royal Blue or Mocha colors. The latter features a Pantone 411PC painted bronze dial while the former has a Pantone 281PC painted bronze dial. The hands are designed for perfect legibility using Tritec Super-Luminova® BGW9 with very strong luminescence lasting for 10 hours, wow. Of course to protect these goodies is an equally sturdy sapphire crystal. The indices are also lumed except the small date window at 3 o’clock. Branding is simple at 12 o’clock that reads Time with the Ti presented as titanium on the periodic table of elements thus we have Ti22. Looks very nice to me.
The Robusto runs on either Time22 Robusto Precision ETA Normflatline 955.112 (with 7 jewels and battery End-of-Life display) or Time22 Robusto Automatic ETA Mecaline 2824–2 (with 25 Jewels, 28.800 vibrations per hour and ETACHRON regulator system). Being engineers, the founders decided to build their movements based on the high-quality Swiss movements from ETA SA Manufacture Horlogère Suisse. This is more quality for the backers folks and we can only see them on luxury watches like Tag Heuer, Omega, Hublot, Baume & Mercier and Panerai. Of course, it all boils down to the movement’s high precision, durability and of course prestige.
Note that these watches are of limited edition thus every Robusto will be individually numbered with a commemorative serial string however for extra €100 one can request for personal serial string in replacement for the KICK in KICK0001. There’s also a QR-code laser-etched on the case back that one can use to verify the authenticity of the Robusto watch. Plus they come with the same titanium bracelets sporting stainless steel (316L) hidden butterfly clasp with double push button.
