14 DAY TRIAL // Mechanical wrist watches continue to be the preferred option for those who value their timepieces, since pocket watches have all but gone out of use. There's something particularly satisfying about not relying on a battery to know the time. The Edi line aims to bet on that.
Electrical watches are also, for the most part, less precise than the mechanical ones. Not necessarily because of some technological drawback or other, but due to the required meticulousness being counterintuitive when it's something cheap you want to make.
Spring-winding watches and clocks have now become a luxury item, each costing hundreds of dollars, even thousands in the case of Rolex, Omega and other high-end pieces.
A pair of entrepreneurs and engineers have now introduced a new line of mechanical dive watches, which means that they can survive underwater.
The Edi dive watch series
Created by Philip Allen and Richard Harrison, the watch was designed in Spain and has three face colors, a screw-down crown, and a micro-adjusting strap.
When you're wearing a wetsuit, being able to make minute adjustments to the watch strap is very important. Otherwise the thing could slip or roll around your wrist awkwardly.
So you could say that the Edi watch doesn't look all that different from others of its kind, although the hands do look somewhat like swords, so there's that.
Something the erudite might be curious to know is that the watch is entirely made in China. Mechanical watches are primarily based in Europe, and while some watchmakers outsource parts to Asian factories, the bulk of design, production and assembly is done in Europe.
However, the new Edi is made entirely in a Liaocheng factory, even though the inventors are based in Spain.
That said, there's another advantage that the Edi has over others: self-winding features. You still have hand winding of course.
Availability and pricing
The Edi mechanical dive watch with self-winding features is not up for sale yet, but you can get one by march 2015 if you pledge $500 / €408 on the Kickstarter campaign. The funding goal is a bit ambitious at $180,000 / €147,000, but we'll wait to see what happens.
All Edi watches have a double barrel, full balance bridge, 3-day power reserve, 21,600bph beat rate, resistance to water depths of 450 – 500 meters / 1,480 – 1,640 feet, double domed sapphire crystal with [inner] AR coating, and stainless steel bracelet with solid end links and link screws, among other things.
