Watches, Stories, & Gear: Finding the Lost Tapes, Living with the Apple Vision Pro, and a First-of-its-Kind Dial From Sarpaneva

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear.

Share your story ideas or interesting finds by emailing us at [email protected]

The SpaceOne Tellurium, Explained

One of the watches we were most looking forward to seeing in Geneva earlier this month was the sophomore release from SpaceOne, Guillaume Laidet’s brand focusing on making traditionally high end horological concepts accessible to everyone. Last year’s Jump Hour was a favorite, and the teases we had seen of the new Tellurium seemed to indicate a significant jump in complexity and refining of the overarching concept. We were not disappointed. 

In this video, Zach Kazan and Zach Weiss talk to Guillaume himself about the Tellurium, and he walks us through its unusual complication and what makes this watch special. Seeing this watch in action was a true highlight of Geneva Watch Week, and a great reminder that in addition to the glitz and flash seen at Palexpo, there are independent brands doing incredibly creative stuff at price points that are plenty approachable. 

The Chore Coat Gains Traction at…Restaurants? 

We love a chore coat at Worn & Wound. If you come to a Windup Watch Fair event (like the one happening in San Francisco in less than a week) you’ll almost certainly see members of our team (and plenty of guests) clad in the classic workwear staple. But the chore coat is fashionable in venues well outside the watch enthusiast space, including, according to the New York Times, some of the city’s trendiest restaurants. In this piece, Ella Quittner explores why so many restaurant staffers are wearing the chore coat, what it potentially signals about the restaurant, and how that corresponds with larger trends in the dining scene. 

A Different Kind of Apple Vision Pro Review 

We continue to be fascinated by the Apple Vision Pro. The next generation spatial computing headset is the most ambitious product Apple has released in years. Most of the reviews of the device focus on the user experience, and have a similar theme: impressive, but clearly a first-gen product. This review in Wired is a little different, because it’s not so much about the device itself, but about living with someone who is using it. For every early adopter, there’s someone – a coworker, a spouse, a child or parent – that is bearing witness to what must be a very strange adjustment period as a new type of technology is learned. As it turns out, at least at this early stage, the larger promise of tech like this making us feel more connected might actually be doing the opposite. 

Finding the Lost Tapes

For music lovers, the move to a digital world has had a series of pros and cons that now spans decades. An undeniable pro is access. Anyone, anywhere, can stream almost anything you can think of for the price of a monthly subscription to the service of your choice. The flipside to that, of course, is that as everything moves to the cloud, we get more and more disconnected from the original physical materials where that music originates. And for music from a prior generation, recorded on analog equipment, original master tapes are flat out getting lost. This article in the New York Times explains how a new project, Master Tape Rescue, is seeking to preserve this material before it’s completely discarded and lost to history. The sheer volume of tape out there (and the amount of it which has already been lost) might surprise many, and underscores the important work of preserving it for generations to come. 

Independent Watchmaking and EDC Collide with the New Sarpaneva Dragonskin

Justin Matine-Frost is Director of Digital Content at Sharp Magazine, and a longtime watch industry journalist. If you follow Justin on Instagram, you know that he has been a longtime fan of Sarpaneva, the Finnish indie run by Stepan Sarpaneva, known for their imaginative moonphase creations, unusual case construction, and evocative dials. This week, Justin and Sarpaneva unveiled a new project that has been years in the making: a new take on the brand’s signature K1 design with an unusual dial made from Dragonskin Damascus steel. 

The idea was born out of Justin’s interest in EDC culture, and the ties that bind it to watchmaking. As Justin points out, the machining of a great knife requires a level of precision comparable to what we see in watchmaking, and indeed many makers are using the same CNC machines for these projects. When Justin came across the exotic Dragonskin Damascus material after fully falling down the EDC rabbit hole, it occurred to him that it might make for an interesting watch dial. He reached Stepan Sarpaneva, connected him with the team at Grimsmo Knives, and a partnership was born. 

The result is a truly unique watch, and a reflection of Justin’s interests in combining the things he’s passionate about and bringing creative people together. It doesn’t appear on the Sarpaneva website, but can be produced on a custom, made-to-order basis. The retail price is €21,000.