Adding pizzazz to highly spirited modern classics
I hear you asked who Studio Underd0g is. Studio Underd0g is a design studio established in 2020 during the infamous global lockdown, when a young and creative Richard Benc, the founder, who is also a watch enthusiast himself, found the existing watch industry is a bit stuffy where 1mm difference in diameter of the case sent the world horology into an orgasmic realm. He decided to start something that would take the industry into another stratum of aesthetic excitement! The British designer decided to set up his studio and design his watches with a dry British sense of humour. Hence, Studio Underd0g was born in March 2021 and has grown from one to five team members.
Studio Underd0g’s design aesthetics are concentrated on their dial designs and centred around fruits, food and beverages, Watermelon, Blueberry, Pink Lemonade, Pizzaz, Pumpkin, Mint Choco chip, etc. Have you got the drift yet? Yes, party pieces (no royal relations here). Its tongue-in-cheek marriage with the Swiss independent movement endears many young urban professionals who are not only watch-savvy, but they are also fun seekers.
To take the game one step up and above, the Meylan brothers of H. Moser & Cie saw the kindred spirit in Studio Underd0g and immediately engaged them as design partners, with their high horological savoir fair, they will be something interesting. Two Passion Fruits were born, the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Passion Fruit by H. Moser & Cie and 03SERIES Passi0n Fruit by Studio Underd0g, and they are delightfully fun and juicy, you can almost taste them by just their vivid imagery of a slice of the passion fruit itself.
The Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Passion Fruit is, un-abashedly, in its original form, an H. Moser & Cie bestselling super classic minimalist perpetual calendar. But let’s take a tour around the zesty amber dial, the main dial has an 18kt gold base, and it is decorated with a Maracuja “Grand Feu” enamel with hand-beaten texture mimicking the pulpy surface of the fruit, its sub-dials and the contrasting flange is in striking lacquered sunburst purple, where the small seconds is at six o’clock, and the 7-day power reserve is at nine o’clock. The hours and minutes hands are rhodium-coated leaf-shaped hands. The large date window is at three o’clock, and the month indicator is centrally located with a small arrow in green, mimicking the pip of the fruits, the leap year indicator is on the flip side, viewable via the caseback.
The perpetual calendar has the iconic in-house manufacture hand-wound double-barrel calibre HMC 800 with an interchangeable Moser escapement and Straumann hairspring. It is a haute horlogerie marvel, which still amazes today for its complex simplicity and polarity. Together with the delicious aesthetics, they are housed in a 42mm stainless steel case and limited to 100 pieces.
The Studio Underd0g 03SERIES Pasai0n Fruit is no slouch compared to its fraternal twin. The aesthetics of the dial are very similar to the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar. The amber main dial also has an 18kt gold base with the same treatment and a touch of Moser’s iconic fume effect, and the tachymeter chapter ring with white scale and the chrono minutes sub-dial at three o’clock is in lacquered sunburst purple. A continuous seconds sub-dial is in gold with concentric patterns. The central hours, minutes and chrono seconds have a baton-shaped hand in black coated with yellow SuperLuminova with a green tip on the chrono seconds hand and chrono minutes hands.
What makes the 03SERIES special is its monopusher Chronograph, Studio Underd0g’s most complicated movement by far, a rare complication in the watch industry. Once deemed a primitive Chronograph function technical marvel, thanks to recent technical advancements, it is now a superior complication. Thus, taking the Studio to be a force to be reckoned with, rather like a wolf-in-sheep-clothing demeanour. The watch is powered by a hand-wound Sellita calibre SW510M re-engineered chronograph functions, which emits 28,800 v/ph and has 63 hours of power reserve. The modern classic beauty is housed within a 38.5mm stainless steel case and is limited to 100 pieces.
If you are into classic complications, grand or just above the norm, here is your chance to own something rare and something fun, something that will not only put a smile on your face every time you look at it but also subtly grab attention to those around you, and a light conversation piece.
