RJ is not the first watch brand to collaborate with Marvel on the Spider Man franchise, in fact the Eco-Drive Citizen Spider-Man watch, gives an elegant spin to the timepiece.
The only difference is that on one end of the spectrum you have a $316 watch, and with RJ you are looking at minimum $20,000 to $90,000 watches.
Somehow the traditionalist in me finds it hard to comprehend a mass-y iconic figure, inspiring an haute horlogerie timepiece. However, you have to hand it to watchmaker RJ (formerly Romain Jerome), for making it easy for us to accept the luxury aspect of Spider-Man.
Partnering with Marvel RJ brings us a pair of limited-edition watches – the RJ ARRAW Spider-Man and the ARRAW Spider-Man Tourbillon and both of them stand for advancements in materials and movement design.
The RJ ARRAW Spider-Man Tourbillon.
This highly intricate and durable watch hosts a central tourbillon, which is a first for RJ. The unmistakable and attention-seeking central tourbillon is seen in the form of a web-shaped tourbillon cage crafted in Grade 5 titanium.
The simple dial compliments the easy outlook of the skeletonized tourbillon; however the hands add a dash of complexity to the uneventful design. On the get-go, the hours and minutes are difficult to read, but if you focus a little, you will the white hands moving at their due pace.
Thanks to the central tourbillon, which takes up a considerable amount of space, RJ has designed the hands with an ornate planetary ring gear system. And because of this, the gear-driven modules are connected to both hands around the outer chapter ring.
Interestingly, you can completely miss out the sneaky black Spider-Man eyes, which can be seen at the lower half of the black skeleton framework. I’m not sure why RJ has designed such important cues in a way that you can completely miss them. Of course, the spider embossed on the strap is evident, but perhaps the joy of discovering secret cues, makes it more exciting.
The RJ-7000 in-house central tourbillon movement provides 150-hour power reserve and the Spider-Man Tourbillon does not have a traditional crown. In place of this we have the twisting ring that folds flat against the caseback when not in use. You get to use it for both winding and setting.
The RJ ARRAW Spider-Man Tourbillon comes in two distinctive 45mm cases that take their cues from Spider-Man’s suits. Catch them in red and black as the watchmakers use sandwiched layers of carbon and red fiberglass.
The ARRAW Spider-Man Tourbillon watches are teamed with a black strap in polyamide lined with rubber and are limited to 10 pieces each. They retail for $97,700 for the red watch and $92,000 for all-black carbon.
The Affordable RJ ARRAW Spider-Man
The RJ ARRAW Spider-Man has its eyes on the staying true to classic RJ cues, for example the trademark skeletonized ladder hands that are teamed with blacked-out skeleton design that looks like a web. The applied indices are designed to look like long, dagger-like tapering wedges.
At the spot between 8 and 9 o’clock you will find the Spidy reference in the form of a sub seconds disk that is designed as a red lacquered spider symbol, as a hand. The 45mm carbon case houses the in-house RJ-3005 hand-wound skeleton movement and is water resistant up to 100 meters.
The movement offers 48 hours of power reserve and is limited to 100 watches, selling for $20,000 each.
