take | studio underd0g 02series.

taking design from past to present — feat. a vintage Longines 6b/159.

i’ve already written about my vintage Longines 6B/159 — a watch produced by order of the british ministry of defence for the royal air force around 1940. to me vintage watches have a special appeal. they tell more than just time. they tell their own story and the marks and scratches from times past give them a unique beauty. on the other hand, older watches tend to be more delicate than their modern counterparts. this particular watch has already once been away for a service in the past for over 6 months and does require a little more attention to keep running smoothly.

that’s what got me excited when I saw the first pictures of the Studio Underd0g 02SERIES. this was a watch based on the same part of history as my Longines 6B/159 and — in this white dialed ‘Full Mo0n’ version — with a similar look. the 02SERIES takes inspiration from the past but adds 100 meters of water-resistance and is just generally more suitable for daily use.

besides being more useable, there is something else that Studio Underd0g got right. with the outer railroad track on the dial, the plain numerals and the (still relatively) small case size the watch stays true to the original design — with a twist. the team at Studio Underd0g didn’t just look to the past to recreate it. they make use of modern technology and manufacturing processes to give this watch the presence to be its own thing. the ‘twist’ is a full-lume sandwich dial that, through the addition of a sapphire disc on top, also creates a floating look for everything that is applied onto it.

In this SERIES02 Studio Underd0g combine several things we love: they continue a story, they write a new chapter and, most importantly, they seem to have a whole lot of fun while doing it.