"Hey, check this out." I said to Sam. "I think you're going to get a kick out of these." Sam is my go-to watchmaker at Afram Jewelers in Washington, DC. In
addition to the usual parade of battery changes and bracelet
adjustments, he also services Rolex, TAG, and a host of other high-end
brands. On this day,
I had brought
in an old Omega for a tune up. Now Sam knows my blog and while I suspect
he finds my fascination with independents and micro brand watches to be
a bit odd, he is always curious about the
watches I review. "This guy has done something really different," I said as I withdrew a pair of CJR Airspeeds from my briefcase: a matte black Pilot, and a beige and polished Vintage.
This was not my first CJR watch. I reviewed the Velocita
bullhead chronograph last year, and coincidently, I had those on hand
when dropping off a different watch for repair, so Sam got to play with
that one too. I didn't love the Velocita, but I did appreciate the
creativity and ambition behind it and was curious about what CJR would
do next. The Airspeed is next, and it is amazing.
I could see Sam's gears turning as he handled the watch. "Look at that crystal!" He exclaimed.
Indeed, it is hard not to because the Airspeed is all crystal. A
43mm wide, 5mm thick dome encompasses the entire upper surface of the
watch. There is no bezel to contain it, just an uninterrupted arc that
seems to drop off the edge like an infinity pool. The back section is
another slick dome. Other watches may have a display window case back;
the Airspeed's case back is the window. Sandwiched between the two crystals is a stainless steel case just thick enough for the crown and wire lugs. I've
never seen anything quite like it. The arrangement only permits 30m
water resistance, but as you may have already guessed, the Airspeed is
not a tool watch.
The
crystals were mineral glass on the review samples, but will be Hesalite
acrylic for production. I think this is a good call as the high dome
and exposed edges will invariably take some knocks, and acrylic is more
forgiving than mineral or sapphire, both of which will chip or
shatter with sufficient impact. True, plastic will scratch, but it also
polishes easily. I have been amazed at what you can rub out of acrylic. Bet of all, it has that warm vintage look The Time Bum loves.
The dial is as unorthodox as the
case. It is a regulator, so each hand occupies its own register. A
24-hour dial is on the left at 9 o'clock, with a pilot's triangle marker
at 0. Seconds are offset in the lower right quadrant in a sub dial
marked in increments of five and banded with color, an arrangement that
is more for decoration than accuracy. The large minute hand operates
from the center of the dial and while only the first 15 minutes are
clearly delineated on the dial, there is a minute track on the bezel (I
use the term loosely since it appears to be separate from the dial but
it is under the outermost part of the crystal) that serves this purpose.
There is a porthole date window at 3 o'clock, encircled in the same
color as the seconds dial. The two sub dials are further accented by
channels cut through the surface, ringing the dials and looping around
two decorative screw heads. If you squint, you might glimpse the
mechanism beneath, but they are there for added depth, not a skeleton
peep show.
If you want a good look at the movement, you need only flip the watch over and check out the unhindered view of the Miyota 8215. The 21 jewel, hand winding automatic is
a solid performer with a 21.6k bph vibration rate and a 42-hour power
reserve. It is finished, but not particularly decorated. You get some
Geneva stripes, and a skeletonized rotor with a frosted edge, and that's
about it. I know many of my fellow watch nerds are put off when a watch
displays a pedestrian movement, but I don't mind, particularly in this
case with the wide-open views the Airspeed's rear crystal affords. If it
really bothers you, take comfort in the fact that it will spend most of
its life mashed against your wrist.
On
both sides of the watch, a brightly colored ring encircles the dial. It
is green on the Pilot and red on the Vintage. CJR calls them
fluorescent but note
that this merely describes the intensity of the color. They do not
actually fluoresce; however, they do look particularly cool as they bend
and distort under the crystal. They also play another important role,
as I discovered shortly after Sam asked, "How do you open this?"
That was the sort of question I
might have expected from a man who fixes watches all day, but it hadn't
occurred to me. I had absolutely no idea. He pored over the Airspeed and
discovered a notch at the top of the case, just below the rear crystal.
"There," he said. "Slip a case knife in there and you'll pop it that
crystal right off," he said. "Then pull the movement and you should be
able to push out the other one. It's a pressure fit, which means..." he
trailed off, and his eyes lit up, "that's a gasket!" He rummaged through
his bench, pulled out a tray of red and green rings in little plastic
bags, and pointed to the fluorescent color ring inside the Airspeed.
"See, they're the same color," he said. And so they were. CJR has not
only constructed a lovely all-dome watch; they turned a utilitarian
component into a signature design feature. It's brilliant.
Now that I had mastered its secrets, it was time to take the Airspeed out for a test drive. You might think a 43mm
watch would be a bit large but is in fact, remarkably compact. The pure
disk shape is one factor, as it has no shoulders to add bulk, and both
front and rear surfaces get thinner at the edge. Slender wire lugs that
are angled downwards are another factor. They barely register in your
vision. On my 6.5" wrist, the Airspeed is remarkably discrete, occupying
little space and easily tucking under my shirt cuff. I found it a bit challenging
to wind the watch with that smooth round crown, but it was not
impossible. Perhaps a bit more grip would be nice, but fluting or other
texture on the crown would have destroyed the watch's streamlined
aesthetic.
Telling
time on a regulator takes some practice. I kept double-checking the
hours and being totally unaccustomed to military time did not help
matters. All the elements are laid out for you, but it requires an
adjustment to the way you view them. No doubt some will find this
maddening, but it is also a key part of what makes the watch special.
For me, the greatest difficulty came not in reading the novel layout,
but seeing the hands on the Vintage model. Matte silver over a beige
background offers no contrast, and there is no luminous material at all,
so there is nothing to help you pick out the hands in low light. I have
to say, the hands are the most disappointing aspect of these watches.
They are flat, featureless, and bland.
The
black Pilot model addresses the visibility problem with high contrast
white-on-black printing and bright green SuperLuminova at night. The
glow looks particularly impressive through the expansive crystal and its
crazy edge distortion, although the minute markers on the bezel
appeared weak to me. My UV light did not light them up them the way I
would have expected, so I was unsure if the faint glow came from the
markers themselves or if it was just the light from the dial bouncing
off of the bezel. In either case, it is a missed opportunity. A brightly
lumed bezel markers would have been stunning. I hope this is something
that can be addressed in production.
In both style and function, the Airspeed is an appealing mix of retro and modern design cues. The disk shape and off beat
layout offer a sci-fi vibe, while the wire lugs and mechanical movement
seem almost quaint. The strap options present the same dichotomy. A
nylon NATO would give it a more contemporary style, while the minimally
stitched, 20mm Italian leather straps on the samples were more of a
throwback, particularly the crackle finish on the Vintage. It's like a
1950's vision of the "watch of the future." I love that.
More than anything else, it reminds me of an old-fashioned incarnation of the jaw-dropping, high concept Ressence
watches. Granted, it does not have traveling registers or an oil-filled
case, but it doesn't cost $20k either. The Airspeed will retail for
$600-650 USD depending on strap options, and the earliest of Kickstarter
birds can snag on for as little as $329 on a NATO. I'd call that a hell
of a deal for such a creative piece. For more information or to order
your own, check out the CJR Airspeed Kickstarter page.
Pro: Dreamy crystals, ingenious case design.
Con: Ho-hum hands.
Sum: A risky design, a quality result, and a bargain price. This is what micro brands do best.
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