The English independent watch brand Mr Jones Watches has released a new watch with an animated dial to celebrate the beauty of the English garden dubbed The Golden Hour.
Press Release information with commentary in italics.
New: Mr Jones Watches The Golden Hour
The Mr Jones Watches The Golden Hour retails for £695 / US$795 / €795. Available on their website.
Commentary
Another independent watchmaking company, established in 2007. Known for their eye-catching designs and decorative dials, the watches have a certain English quirkiness to it. The watches have a high cuteness factor. Some feature cartoons, graphics and bold designs which offer splashes of colour. And this latest release, the The Golden Hour is no different.
The dial features a golden bee right in the center. This is a brilliantly detailed golden bee with its translucent wings spread. A bed of foliage and flora forms a ring below the bee around the peripheral of the dial. This ring makes one revolution every hour. Among the mostly yellow and white flowers is a larger bright red and gold flower which is the marker for the minutes. Below the bee, nearer the center is a sun-dial and a red arrow points at the hours. The seconds is carried in a mosaic patterned disc, located innermost on the dial. As it moves, making one revolution every minute, it gives some additional animation and sense of motion to the bee.
Must be quite a spectacle, and we wish Mr Jones Watches had included a video (they did not) to show this animation. (Edit June 21: Mr Jones Watches sent a couple of videos showing how the hands move. Click here and here for the videos.) And as we said, quirky. But also very cute, bright, bold and over the black case, quite a piece of art. Bombastic perhaps, and all in the fun of being playful and eye-catching. Certainly a success by these measures.
The movement is a Sellita SW200, which is not unusual given the pricing point at which the watch is targetted at. The case is stainless steel, but looks black from the photographs. The press material does not describe how this black is achieved, and we would hazard a guess that it is black PVD.
The pricing is just a tad below USD 800, which we think is rather attractive for a fling at a cute, and frankly very captivating dial design. Especially for the rather nice moving artwork and for a watch which is designed, printed and assembled in London.
Release details
Creative watch brand Mr Jones Watches has launched a metallic gilded watch celebrating the beauty of English gardens to its permanent collection.
Featuring a striking golden bee at the centre of the dial, The Golden Hour is a love letter to the quintessential English garden.
British artist, Andy Wilx, was inspired by the classic children’s novel, The Secret Garden, when designing the watch. The design is also a nod to the ‘Worker Bee’ motif – most famous in cities like Manchester UK and in countries like France – which honours craftsmanship and work ethic.
It also features a moving bed of foliage and flora, including a large red flower which shows the minutes and a red sundial that points to the hours. The seconds revolve beneath the bee giving a sense of motion in the illustrated garden.
“The formal English garden has always been a source of inspiration: with its symmetrical borders, manicured lawns and avenues of topiary. Statues, fountains and sundials entangled in ivy and rose. Butterflies and bees busying themselves. Rabbits and birds popping in and out of secret hiding places.
Andy Wilx, designer.
In this design I tried to capture the balance between the geometric and the organic in a landscaped garden and the magical allure of The Secret Garden. The Bee is one of my favourite motifs. The Honeybee characterises craftsmanship and honest toil, while the Queen Bee symbolises royalty and nobility.”
Liberated by the fact that most people check the time on their mobile phones or smart devices, Mr Jones Watches specialises in playful and eye-catching designs that each has its own unique way to tell the time.
The Golden Hour is available exclusively from Mr Jones Watches on its website or from its Neal Street, London store. For more information please visit www.mrjoneswatches.com
The Designer
London-based Andy Wilx makes art and objects that you simply can’t take your eyes off, but also tell a story.
At first glance it is the natural world that informs an Andy Wilx design, but take a closer look and you’ll enter a world of fantasy and enchantment that wouldn’t be out of place in Carroll’s Wonderland or Pullman’s His Dark Materials.
In all of his work a central character, usually an animal, poses a question of how and why, inviting us to construct a narrative. His use of decorative patterns, opulent colours and 24ct gold, recall the lushness of William Morris and the lustre of medieval manuscripts.
Not wanting to restrict his designs to one medium or discipline, you can find Andy’s work screen printed and hanging on walls, gold gilded glass installations or adorning furniture.
Andy has also illustrated a number of books including Star Stories by Anita Ganeri.
Mr Jones Watches English Garden Specifications
- Mechanism: Sellita SW200 Swiss made automatic mechanical
- Glass: sapphire (hard-wearing) + mineral glass case back
- Case: stainless steel
- Width (3 o’clock to 9 o’clock): 45mm
- Height (from lug to lug): 53mm
- Thickness (including glass): 13mm
- Strap: 22mm
- Waterproof: 5ATM
- Guarantee: 12 months
