There is a common theme that I like to revisit from time to time because of a few reasons. One reason is that I can easily relate things to my past and another reason is because it makes me happy to go back in time while reviewing time. So let’s revisit the magic of my childhood shall we? “The year 2005 and the Autobots were forced into hiding on their home planet of Cybertron by the evil Deceptions.” Well technically the years were 1984-1986, but according to the above quote that was our future. I loved Transformers and even to this day I have a soft spot for them. I had my favorites on both sides of the battle but there are certain Deceptions that were so freakin cool. A common theme in the cartoons of my era, the bad guys were always designed so much better than the good guys, even though they always lost the battles. Generation 1 Shockwave was one of my favorite characters, along with Soundwave, Starscream, Megatron just to name a few others.
Shockwave is the cold and calculating one that drew me into this watch that we will be looking at together today. This year, each watch I review I will be creating an art piece that is inspired by the watch and my favorite artists. This is my first art piece I drew/painted for this year. The Achtung Classic or as I like to refer to it as “Shockwave” is the watch that we will be examining. There is so many unique areas to explore on this watch, that I just stood back in awe of it to take it all in when it first arrived to my doorstep. I love when a watch is able to do that to me even after all the years of loving watches.
The “Shockwave” certainly demands attention straight out of the cyber-gate. The dial colors are what screamed to me “Deceptions we are under attack” and made me instantly think of Shockwave. There is purple, grey, blue, yellow, red, and more found throughout this dial, but it is done with a meticulous eye, so all the colors truly come together in galactic harmony. Let me start with the matte grey backdrop that sets the tone for this on this piece. I am a sucker for matte dials, not only do I think they are beautiful but I think they create the perfect backdrop, better get the perfect canvas for creating a work of act on the dial.
That is exactly what Achtung has done with the Shockwave, they immediately set the tone by choosing the grey in a matte finish. The bold shaped hands were the next apparent choice that Achtung. I am such a sucker for unique hands on a watch. The yellow seconds hand is Not only bold in color but is also bold in shape with its generous length and it’s cool/unique star shape at the end. The red and blue hour/minute hands are nice and wide with skeletonized accents. What I like about the functionality of the hands design is how the length wasn’t compromised for the width. That is a problem I have often seen in design where length is sacrificed for width and you are left with these short stubby hands.
A nice combination of different shaped applied markers can be found on the dial. In most cases I would consider a dial such as this to be too busy, but in this circumstance it works to Achtung’s advantage. What is the difference here you ask? Let me put it this way if you put this dial on a dress watch, or a pilot watch it wouldn’t work. Take this watch for what it is meant to be and the dial works. There will be negative people who will bitch , moan and criticize this dial, this watch. But let’s break that down.
A. Negative Nancy, this watch isn’t for you
B. The horse blinder viewpoint will keep a person from experiencing life, or for my point in this review, it will keep a person from experiencing what this watch has to offer.
And before someone says it, not by any means am I forcing everyone to like this watch because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”….. Rant over, now back over to our regular scheduled program that is already in progress……………
The text is pretty much kept to a minimum on the “Shockwave”, which is Achtung done in a old school calligraphy/brush stroke style. The other printed piece of text on this dial is Automatic. Traditional date w. ndow located at the 3 o’clock position. The chapter ring is one of my personal highlights of this dial. The colors alone are quite stunning. The tachymeter is a cool feature and gave me more fuel for my Transformers fan boy mind.
The case is definitely a feature that gives this watch commanding wrist presence. It’s bold, large and looks awesome on the wrist. What really surprised me about this watch case is looking at it I did not expect it to be so comfortable on the wrist especially considering the flat case back. Since I just touched on the caseback, I will continue with that. The case back is an exhibition caseback which allows you to view the Seiko TM movement with it’s Achtung signed rotor. There are some flathead screws on the back of the case that secures the round piece of the case to the flat piece that contain the very short, angled lugs. Which gives this watch that cool instrument panel look.
The case is a unique combination of matte and polished finishes which creates a very cool contrast. The push/pull style crown is extremely easy to grip, operate for both setting the time/date and for winding. The crown is signed with an ‘A’ that matches the style/font that is found on this dial. I must admit that I had very mixed feelings about the choice of strap that this watch came on. The black shine with the yellow stitching and yellow edges had me sorta scratching my head at first. But the more time that I spent with this watch the more sense it made to me, the shine of the strap was a nice complementary detail to the polished finish on the case, as was the yellow stitching to the yellow on the hands. Though this strap would not be my first choice it certainly makes sense to me where Achtung was going with this.
This is such a unique piece and I really like it. It is fresh, well made and has so much character. I have been doing a lot of drawing lately and I have been doing a lot of anime style art. Akira has a special place in my heart and this watch has that Neo-Tokyo essence about it. Team that with the Transformers vibe and you have this watch in a flashback nut shell. I am a dive watch fan by heart, but this watch really appealed to me on a multitude of levels.
There are a few areas that I can recommend for improvement in my opinion. There are four faux screws in the corners of the watch’s base. I would like to see actual screws instead even if they aren’t holding anything together. The other area is the use of plastic for the movement holder/stabilizer. Overtime plastic becomes brittle and can begin to break apart. Some sort of a metal stabilizer would be much better especially at this price point.
If you are looking for a unique and very limited edition style watch, then look no further. This watch truly makes a statement, breaking the same old thing chains.
I want to personally thank you all for reading and as always your questions and comments are welcome below.
Thanks so much to Achtung.
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