Cordovan NATO on a Seadweller

We are delighted to share some wonderful photos taken by one of our customers (Thanks R.N.!!) of our 20mm Shell Cordovan NATO strap on his Rolex Sea Dweller. This is the natural with white stitching.  We emailed back and forth several times, discussing which strap would work best on this watch, and we must say that the results are as cool as it gets. The new Sea Dweller is really a serious tool and the Shell Cordovan is a great match.

Our New Shell Cordvan Postcard!

We've just created a new oversized postcard that will be included with your Corvus order. Similar in concept to our popular Real Bond NATO postcard that is included in all Bond strap orders, this one documents the production of the Horween Shell Cordovan used in our leather NATO and Bund-style straps. Watch for our introduction of NEW styles of Shell Cordovan watchstraps in the next few weeks!

The strange code on the bottom right is called a "QRCode," and allows you to scan it with a smartphone like an Android or an iPhone and get a link to our website!

This text is from a Horween Tannery 1950's document. We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

New Corvus Products Review in Japanese

We were very pleased to learn that a popular movie Blog in Japan posted a detailed review of our products, focusing on our new Movie-Style Bond Strap and our King Kong Company Vietnam T-Shirt from theDeNiro movie, Taxi Driver. If you can read Kanji, please enjoy. Otherwise, it's worth a look for some great Blu-Ray screen captures from Thunderball and Goldfinger. Very otaku.

Japanese Movie Blog Corvus Review

Really Vintage Military Diver

We found this photo of an antique cigarette card from the 1920's. I imagine that this is a fairly fanciful image, and I doubt that this diver needed a watch! (Although it looks like he might be wearing a small one on his left wrist!)

It is interesting to remember that until the 1950's, diving watches mostly used horsehide leather straps (for example, WWII Panerai watches). I am pretty sure they were Shell Cordovan, like our NATO straps. No other leather is even close to being as waterproof.

The Greatest Rolex That Never Was.

In April 2004, Antiquorum auctioned a strange watch. It was purported to be a Rolex prototype designed for the U.S. Military. Here is the catalog auction description:

This is the first watch known to be sold at auction, with dial marked "U.S.Marine". The case of this watch is perfectly engineered for heavy military use. Its large size ensures that the wrist will be completely covered, thereby preventing the injuries sometimes caused by violent impacts to smaller watches, the winding crown positioned at 4 o’clock, with its sloping crown guard, affords better protection than the standard configuration of crown and guard at 3. The rounded hoods covering the lugs reduce the possibility of the watch’s becoming caught in equipment and also act as locks for the bezel. The steel rotating 12-hour bezel effectively gives an hour and minute recorder which is invaluable in military exercises. Overall, this watch was designed for only one purpose, to tell time in some of the harshest environments and under the most extreme conditions, the types of activity that are synonymous with the U.S. Marine Corps. According to unofficial information from Rolex, two similar prototypes by Tudor were offered to the U.S. Navy. One of these Tudor prototypes was sold by Antiquorum NY in May 1998, lot 36. The present watch will be illustrated in the upcoming book on Rolex, soon to be published by Guido Mondani.

The sale of this watch caused a great deal of controversy. Some experts declared it an unequivocal fake. At first glance, it would seem to be a very fanciful creation. The citation to "unofficial information" and the laughable "U.S. Marine" (vs. U.S. Marines) inscription did not encourage much confidence either. Still, someone appears to have paid over $100,000 (114,000 Swiss francs) for this admittedly rare and unique object.

My own opinion is the same as what appears to be the consensus among advanced military watch collectors. Fake. Or is it? First, if this is a prototype U.S. Military watch, there would exist some documentation of a RFP or milspec that this watch would have been made to compete for. There is none. In addition, it would have been unprecedented that the Marines would have solicited a separate watch for their branch. Due to historical connections, the Dept. of the Navy's Bureau of Ships has always handled Marines procurement. In fact, the Tornek Rayville TR-900, although a Navy procurement, was ultimately issued to mostly (if not exclusively) Marine Recon personnel during the Vietnam war. We would be led to believe that this watch would have competed with the Benrus Type I. While the Benrus is well documented, no one has found a peep about any Rolex or Tudor competitor.

Finally, a well-regarded Hong Kong-based watch restorer took credit for this creation about four years ago. It was reported to be a fantasy piece put together with real Rolex parts and Vietnamese (some irony there) components, custom made for a wealthy Japanese collector to his specifications.

Real or not, the watch is a masterpiece of design. The Rolex Submariner is the most iconic watch design of the 20th Century. It has been knocked off and "homagde" to death. It is the watch design that has launched a thousand bastard children. Virtually none of these spawn have contributed anything new to this design idiom.

However, the best was yet to come. Enter Sato-san. "Ken" Sato invented the "homage" watch genre in the 1990's with his fanciful and parodic Rolex Submariner reinventions sold in Japan under the "Prolex" label, and then later, the "RXW" brand. (For a primer in Sato-san's work, see here .) These are not knock-offs or copies, and surely not "fakes." Ken Sato is an advanced collector of vintage Rolex watches who combines this with a deep love of the Rolex design vocabulary and a great eye for design.

After coming up with his uniquely Japanese take on the Milgauss, Comex, and Milsub, Ken Sato took on the design of the controversial U.S. Marine watch, calling his creation the "Subpromarine." I hope that he never believed that this U.S. Marine "prototype" was real. However, I am sure that he immediately recognized the beauty of the design. But, where the design of the Hong Kong fantasy piece was overblown, Ken Sato's take on it was subdued, and in so doing, achieved design perfection. To summarize, Ken Sato's watch was an homage to a fake, one that arguably surpassed the original. The ultimate irony was when Sato's Subpromarine began itself to be faked, and was being sold for 1/3 the price on Ebay. There was no comparison, however, the fake having a glass crystal, a cheap Chinese movement and a plastic retainer ring. A fake of a homage to a fake.

I have had my eye on this watch for some time. But when I saw that Ken Sato's Website showed that only a dozen were left in stock, at a clearance price, I couldn't resist.

The Corvus TimeSquare

We received this question through the website the other day:

I have a TimeSquare, Model:4000005 that has worked incredibly well for years, but the center two "lights" have stopped working. Can this be repaired? Thank you.

At first we thought it was spam, but then the gentleman sent the same message again and I realized what he might be getting at. A quick Google search later led to the following discovery, courtesy of something called Google Books:

We had previously learned about this "other Corvus" when a customer sent us a photo of a funky 1960's LED wristwatch made by them. It's good to know that the gentleman's Corvus TimeSquare gave him many years of good service. We are sure that our "new Corvus" timepieces will give equally good or better.

Sadly, we could not repair his TimeSquare for him.

Why Does This Pair of Pants Cost $550?

His cotton gabardine khakis, sold at Bergdorf Goodman, cost $550.

“It sounds crazy to say this, I know, but our pants are a steal,” Mr. Sternberg said.

This is an interesting article that was an eye-opener about the true cost of luxury goods. There is some relevancy to the business of manufacturing and selling fine wristwatches. Value doesn't always equate to cost. It made me think of the Real Bond watchstrap knockoffs that are made in China and wholesale for $2 each, but are sold as a "bargain" for $20.

Why Does This Pair of Pants Cost $550?
By ERIC WILSON
Published: April 28, 2010 - New York Times

EVEN in a season when designers made no secret about reining in prices to appeal to the newly chastened luxury consumer, it is still possible to walk into a store and wonder what exactly they were thinking when a pair of khaki cotton pants — right there on the hanger, no special packaging or 3G plan or anything — can cost as much as an iPad. 

Never mind that classic button-fly chinos at Abercrombie & Fitch cost $70 or that Gap sells “original khakis” for $44.50. The fact that luxury chinos exist — and in surprising numbers — is another story, one that illustrates the challenge faced by designers to justify the still sky-high prices of their clothes. A distinctive design might strengthen the argument, but is $550 really a fair price for basic pants?

How about $480, for plain khakis from Michael Bastian? Or $495 for light cotton twill pants from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen of The Row? Or $595 if they are by Giorgio Armani? Or $780 for ones with elasticized cuffs from Bottega Veneta? Or is $350, as Thom Browne charges for chinos, the right price? The range suggests that since the luxury bubble burst, designers have no clue what customers are willing to pay.

“The cost of creating those things has nothing to do with the price,” said David A. Aaker, the vice chairman of Prophet, a brand consulting firm. “It is all about who else is wearing them, who designed them and who is selling them.”

Yet, from the designers’ perspective, there is value to be found in pants that are thoughtfully designed with high-quality materials and labor. For new designers, like Scott Sternberg, whose Band of Outsiders label is largely defined by preppy basics that are studiously fitted and expensively priced, it costs more to make his clothes because they are often produced in small batches. His cotton gabardine khakis, sold at Bergdorf Goodman, cost $550.

“It sounds crazy to say this, I know, but our pants are a steal,” Mr. Sternberg said. To make his case, he gave a tour of the factory where they are made, Martin Greenfield in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where little has changed in the production of tailored clothing in a century.

A man was hovering over an 80-year-old contraption called a jump iron, hot enough to mold fabrics into shapes they will be unlikely to forget. Another man basted panels of suit fabric to springy canvas, which makes the garment more flexible. In a machine-made jacket, the canvas would be fused or glued into a suit.

Mr. Sternberg’s khakis are tailored like dress pants, and the details are largely sewn by hand, including buttonholes and split waistbands, which can be altered easily. The fabric, which costs $24 a yard, plus $3 a yard to import, is a cotton gabardine fine enough to withstand basting stitches. About two yards, counting for boo-boos and such, is used to make a pair of pants, so the fabric cost is $54.

At Martin Greenfield, a union shop where employees earn about $13 an hour, before benefits, it takes an average of four hours of labor to make a pair of pants. The pants pass through the hands of at least 20 people in the process of cutting fabric, adding pockets and building out a fly. So with labor and fabric, the cost to make Mr. Sternberg’s pants was about $110 — a fifth of what they cost in a store.

The final price reflects the markups of the designer and the retailer, what they charge to cover expenses, pay their employees and, with luck, make a profit on what sells to cover the losses on what does not. Mr. Sternberg doubles the cost to arrive at a wholesale price of $220. The retailer adds another markup, typically a factor of 2.5, which brings us to $550.

Is it too much?

Not if that’s what people are willing to pay, Mr. Aaker said. Jeffrey New York had some nice Gucci chinos with a tiny tab of red-and-green striped ribbon at the waistband for about $500. They sold out.

A machine might make pants more cheaply, Mr. Sternberg said, but for a designer who wants to be known for quality, what would be the value in that?