Latest Review
We first heard from Visitor Watch Co. in late 2014 as they launched their inaugural piece, the Calligraph Duneshore via a successful Kickstarter campaign. Our own Zach Weiss was able to get a hands on with the Duneshore and gave worn&wound readers a thorough walk through of the unique timepiece. In the time that has passed Visitor Watch Co. has not been sitting idly by. They have had a few things in the works and chose to announce them over the course of a work-week during February and March (2016, for those reading from the future). From Monday, February 29th to Friday, March 4th the brand showcased a surprising five new releases. Four of the new items are built from the Calligraph line and share some characteristics, as we will see, with the fifth coming from their new Officer line.
February 29: Calligraph Linden
The first release of the week is the new Calligraph Linden. The Linden borrows the dial and hands from the Duneshore, but places them in a smaller more traditional styled 3-piece case. The case dimensions come in at 39mm in diameter, 10.5mm thick; lug to lug it measures 48.5mm and has 20mm lugs. Where the Duneshore has a cushion case style the Linden is definitely a step more towards a more classic circular watch case. The dimensions put it in the area of a “modern” sized dress watch which appears to be the aesthetic Visitor was after.
The 3-piece case has both brushed and polished finishes along with drilled lugs, as well as sapphire crystals on and back (anti-reflective coating on the front only) and a Miyota 9015 movement with a custom rotor. The dial and hands, as mentioned, come from the Duneshore, but will be offered in additional colors in the Linden line. The date wheel on all dial colors is black with BGW9 luminated numbers; the unique hands and markers share that same lume. The Linden is a step in a more traditional look while still maintaining the interest from the Duneshore hands and dial. Pricing is expected to be set around $550 USD.
March 1: Duneshore Bracelet
The Tuesday release was not actually a new watch but rather a component for the Dunshore. As the name above applies, it is a bracelet for the Calligraph Duneshore model. The bracelet is a beads-of-rice style (with each “bead” shaped to mirror the hour indicies on the dial). The bracelet has a rather large clasp featuring the Visitor Watch Co. logo with the clasp sharing the cushion style of the case. Final pricing is not yet set but expected to be around $100 USD.
March 2: Duneshore Shallows
The mid-week release was the Duneshore Shallows, a diver representation of the Duneshore watch. The Shallows shares the same relative dimensions as the Duneshore (44mm in diameter, 51mm lug to lug and 22mm lugs), most everything else has changed. First the water resistance was increased from 100M to 200M by using a solid case back, increasing the thickness of the wall of the central case by 1mm, adding an additional seal to the screw-down crown and a 3mm thick sapphire crystal. To keep the dimensions the same as the Duneshore meant trimming the dial by 2mm and using new hands. The minute hand now has a larger lume area, and bolder shape to it, giving it more emphasis.
The dial remains the same, only with no date window this time and the luminescence has changed from BGW9 to C3 SuperLuminova. The caseback is interesting as it is a curved, solid back with an sculptural sea lion holding the Visitor Watch Co. door knocker in its mouth. It’s one of the most dramatic case backs we’ve ever seen, and a great addition to the watch. Lastly, they added a very cool, domed rotating bezel, with lumed markers milled in.
The Duneshore Shallows will be offered on the new Dunshore Bracelet as well as a new rubber strap. At present the bezel is a 120-click uni-directional bezel, however despite the announcement the bezel design is still in flux and very well could change before the watch is fully released. Pricing is currently estimated to be in the $750 area, and will be available with teal, white, blue or orange dials.
March 3: Duneshore & Duneshore Shallows Blacksand
On the heels of the Duneshore Shallows, Visitor added a DLC option for both Duneshore models, called the Blacksand. Both the Duneshore Blacksand and the Duneshore Shallows Blacksand add a blasted black DLC finish to the watches with a black dial on the Duneshore and dark grey on the Shallows and a black, rubberized textile strap. The rest of the features of the individual watches remain the same, including the hands, dial and case styles. You can expect to pay around $30 more per model for the Blacksand version of the watches.
March 4: Vale Park Officer
The final of the five new releases is the first watch in Visitor Watch Co.’s new Officer line, the Vale Park Officer. The 41mm case (44.2mm across to the end of the crown) has a mix of curved and straight sections and a blend of polished and brushed finishes. The case has an almost porthole like design, and in fact when you flip the watch over you can expose a view of the movement (behind sapphire) after opening a hinged, hunter-style case back. The back stays closed via the screw down crown, which when unscrewed just a bit will allow the catch-lip to release.
The Miyota 9015 rotor has been customized to show the Visitor Watch Co. emblem in a dramatic fashion. The dial has a matte black finish and is a sandwich construction with cross-hair and hour markers cut out to allow the C3 SuperLuminova to shine through. The markers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 are a triangle of three dots while the other hours have a wide teardrop shape. The minute track around the outside of the top dial is also lumed in C3, as are the (otherwise) black hour, minute and seconds hand. The Vale Park Officer is a very interesting watch and is expected to sell for around $800 USD when officially released.
—
Visitor Watch Co.’s aim is to “offer unexpected designs with unexpected details” and looks to have continued their theme with these new pieces. They have managed to tweak and evolve the original Dunshore into the Linden and Dunshore Shallows while also adding DLC coating as an option as well as a new piece. The Vale Park Officer is a new concept from the brand that is very exciting. While a unique design, it very much keeps the feel of the Duneshore, creating a line of watches with a strange and interesting aesthetic. You can see the full information on each of the releases by visiting the Visitor Watch Co. website.
