✦ Damascus Watch magic. the Obscura | No. 578
Evening all! Oh my gosh I have been busy! Most of this Pips is about our Damascus Watch the Obscura but first we need to talk about the website, yes, I know – yawn, which has been updated again. Perhaps this is just default business but for me it feels like nearing the end of a two-week creative project and that’s worth a share. Anyway, the About page may have new insights for you. Buoys Club, Lighthouse, home page, etc… All with new contributions.
There is a currency switcher too! A highly requested function in the survey.
And that’s not all! The Daymark Dark sold, the last Red Strange Lights and all the SWC Agent caps. So, furnish those noggins with the UFO type before it is too late!
Back to the web. Did you see the Random Access Blog? It is just images, but a whole heap of beauty.
Let’s tuck into what is IMHO the best Damascus Steel watch on the planet, both now and ever.The Obscura! It is a proper watch! I tooted on Sunday how there are 5 left. So let’s talk about the Obscura.
The Obscura dial is an extremely complex, multi-levelled affair with runnels of Super-LumiNova in different colours and different emissions (the glow colour). Schofield has mostly been ‘business at the front, party at the back’, and lume design is no different – austere in the day and a laser show at night. Some of the Super-LumiNova was developed for us, not pigmenting which we and many others have done, but the emission colours. Concept luming is something we know a thing or two about. The dial base is dark grey rhodium-plated with a fine matt texture.
The Damascus watch case work has a steel back with letters up engraving these fonts are interesting. One that could be Mayan, Witcher or Incal – who knows? It does not rank for legibility but is still cool. The other shows semaphore flag positions – a contracture of the N and the D in this alphabet makes the CND logo, a masterpiece of design by Gerald Holtom done in 1958. It is worth noting that all the detail on the case back is letters up, not down, meaning that it is the background that is machined away. It is then DLC coated and the top surface ground back to give contrast.
The recognisable Schofield case shape is fully machined and finished in Sussex by acid etching the Damascus watch case surface, less for colour but more for texture. In a more recent update we added bronze bushings around the strap bar holes. This contrasting material acts like a friction bearing but also frames the steel strap bar screws, creating an obvious boundary and shadow line.
Those who came to the Show in Brighton got to see this – a new Canister! However, it may be too expensive to make. But there is a slim chance still – hold tight!
