After presenting their very first watches at Baselworld 2018, VAULT has teamed up with master artisan and custom watch strap creator Mirea Marian, RC-Tritec and Ecoparts to create the “electric blue” V1.
The “eb” V1`s inception was back in 2014 where during a design briefing Philippe Schmid, VAULT`s resident engineer, expressed his vision of the perfect V1. Or in other words what he wanted to feel when wearing the “eb” V1: A full moon illuminating the cold, electric blue waves, crashing into the dark sharp-edged cliffs of a Nordic fjord.
The picture stuck in the heads of the team for years so in 2018 it was time to infuse the V1 with the Nordic sea.
The spectacular ostrich leg leather strap was the perfect choice to create the illusion of cold icy water colliding with the black steel case symbolically standing for the dark fjord cliffs. Just like the froth of a wave the structure of the strap builds up before meeting the sides of the V1 case while colour matching “water” splashes onto the 12 minute markers placed in the CNC machined aluminium rehaut placed inside the watch.
Creating the strap was far from easy and required a complete redesign of both the strap and the insert which links it to the case. For maximum strength and lightness, the inserts were re-engineered and created out of grade 5 titanium with the help of Ecoparts, a Swiss company specialised in additive manufacturing, after which Mirea Marian skillfully combined all the parts to create a masterpiece on its own.
Staying true to Philippe`s envisioned landscape, the mentioned minute markers are filled with a bespoke SUPER-LUMINOVA composite created by our partner RC-Tritec which let them glow just like the moon illuminates the dark Nordic sea.
All in all the V1 BLACK STEEL “electric blue” is a spectacular watch with an incredible wrist presence and the only way to carry a fjord cliff on your wrist – at least in your imagination.