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Helgray Watches, who got their start on Kickstarter with their (now sold-out) line of military-inspired watches – which we covered here on worn&wound – is back on the crowdfunding site with a new watch, this time taking its design cues from the world of racing.
The Helgray Silverstone is the next piece the brand plans on launching, with your help. The watch is a chronograph taking its design from racing chronographs from the 1960’s. The design used is that of a two-register chronograph powered by the Seiko VK64 Meca-Quartz movement. The movement gives you quartz watch accuracy with a mechanical chronograph’s functionality. We have covered this movement before with the Autodromo Prototipo (the watches also share pretty similar looking dials as well) and it’s sibling the VK63 in the Techne Sparrowhawk II.
Basically the movement uses a quartz engine for all parts of the timekeeping, but when the chronograph is engaged the seconds hand ticks 5 times per second, as with a mechanical chronograph rather than the one click per second normally found in a quartz chronograph. When the chronograph is reset the chronograph hands are disengaged from the quartz motor and snapped back to zero as they do with mechanical chronographs. No slow sweep back around to zero as seen in a fully quartz chrono. It’s a pretty slick movement that gives the accuracy of a quartz with the “feel” of a mechanical.
The 316L stainless steel case measures 40mm and only 11mm thick (thanks to that meca-quartz movement) and only 47mm long, making it overall very reasonable in the size department. The lugs are 20mm and the crystal a slightly domed sapphire. Water resistance is low, expected on a racing inspired watch, at 50M. The dial will come in four colors: black, blue and green, each with silver sub-dials; and white with black sub-dials. The sub-dials are the 60 minute chronograph register at 9 o’clock and a 24 hour hand at 3 o’clock. The date is found at 6 o’clock below the “MECA-QUARTZ” and “CHRONOGRAPH” text. The only other text on the dial is the “Helgray” logo at the typical 12 o’clock location. The dial uses stick style markers for the hours and matching stick hands as well. The hour indices and hands are coated with SuperLuminova C3 for legibility.
The Silverstone is set to ship with a leather strap, but the campaign is close to reaching its first stretch goal wherein each watch would ship with both the leather strap and a stainless steel bracelet. This would give the watch an even sportier appearance and given the current funding level and time left seems almost a guarantee.
The Kickstarter for the Helgray Silverstone runs until Friday, January 16, 2015 and currently has well exceeded its funding goal of $20,000 (over $70,000 as of this writing). Picking up a Silverstone will cost you a pledge of $249 (limited to 400) and $279 when that runs out. For $449 you can get in for two of the Silverstone, or $649 for three. You can get in on one now on their Kickstarter Campaign page and find more brand info on their website.
