We here at AUGUSTMAN are suckers for history, tradition – the whole shebang. So when a brand explicitly states, “No history. No story. Just a new adventure,” it’s hard not to stop and consider for a minute what exactly they might mean. For Orodeus, a Singapore-based brand, eschewing this spirit of tradition is a “challenge to the notion of classic watchmaking.” Its founders believes in taking inspiration from popular modern culture, arts, science fiction and an open source of traits of our era – in a bid to create a classic of our own times.
It’s a tall order, of course but one that the brand is steadily achieving. Its latest arrival, the Orodeus Time Odyssey OD-1 pays tribute to the late and legendary Stanley Kubrick, a visionary in film. Taking inspiration from his seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey, the brand pulls out all the stops for a sci-fi timepiece.
Straight off the cuff, the unique manner of presentation for time display is an obvious homage to the monolithic Space Station V that orbits Earth in the film, what with the cross bar across the dial reminiscent of the sprawling Xs of the station. On the watch, the cross bar adds distinguishes where one should read time, on the northern part of the dial. The rotating discs under the watch hold both the hours and minutes, letting you tell the time based on the red line at 12 o’clock. Powering the timepieces is the ever-reliable Miyota 8250 automatic movement, designed with a custom gold-plated rotor and modified for the rotating discs.
There are five models in the OD-1 collection and while all of them maintain the same sizing and 316L stainless steel construction, each watch in the range is finished in physical vapour deposition (PVD) differently. There are choices in black or brown PVD bezels, each offering a different feel to the futuristic watch. The sizable timepiece, coming in at 13mm thick, is also about 50mm wide. Its presence on the wrist is not necessarily bad, of course. Our belief is that in a watch that is obviously a stand out, it wouldn’t make sense to have it at an understated size.
If you’re looking for a timepiece that doesn’t fit the mould and isn’t set for yesterday or today but for tomorrow, the OD-1 is a good bet. In the absence of tradition, going forward is the only way and we like that Orodeus has a blank slate to build on with nothing but imagination guiding their path.
The Orodeus OD-1 is available at Red Army Watches (Millenia Walk, Wisma Atria, ATRIX, e-shop: www.redarmywatches.com) and Krasnaya (ION Orchard).