TAKE it from maverick watchmaker TW Steel CEO Jordy Cobelens himself who, all while some can go extreme and feel naked divested of a wristwatch, dons a timepiece not as much to know the hour of the day as for its design element.
“[You wear a wristwatch nowadays] because you want to make a statement. You want to have something that sets you apart from the rest. It’s not about reading the time anymore,” Cobelens told the BusinessMirror. “You have your phone; everywhere, there is something that shows you what the time is. Watches have become a fashion statement.”
On Cobelens that day was an au courant piece carved out of TW’s newest roster, called, well, the Son of Time Maverick Collection, a character, and at that a telling one.
That has always been the case, with TW Steel; boy how it draws attention without even trying, all despite the boldness, despite the oversized-ness. It is rebellious, if only because rebelliousness is an understated elegance.
If one can anthrophomize it, beyond how the brand is being embodied by its equally maverick brand figures MotoGP and F1 World champions Mick Doohan and Emerson Fittipaldi, a Maverick watch, or any TW Steel piece of cake for that matter, is so much like a bearded Frenchman. A bearded Frenchman that rides a massive bike. Or a skydiving bearded Frenchman—it could be anything.
Because the Son of Time concept, according to Cobelens, is like opening a plethora of possibilities. “Now it’s a collection for the bikers that we’ve created, but Son of Time can be anything.”
This time, it is the technical elements of a motorcycle engine that led to the unique piston design of the pushers of the new Maverick collection.
The Son of Time concept is the product of the creative collaboration between TW Steel and Amsterdam-based custom-motorcycle builder Roderick Seibert, yielding a unique one-off custom motorcycle and a revolutionary timepiece that perfectly goes with it—a seamless blend between the oversized “You Can’t Contain Me” TW Steel trademark style and the Sport Heritage world’s vintage appeal.
Inspired by the Son of Time seminal masterpiece, the Maverick Collection lays on the table 42 creations, each model either 45mm and 48mm in size, and comes in a three-hand, chrono and automatic-movement edition.
For variety, the wearer can custom his strap to either premium quality, very exclusive vintage-inspired leather with bold stitching detail, or equally impressive steel Milanese bracelet that doesn’t require a clumsy tool to adjust.
All of these things have the practical Capsa/Quick Change construction, while double-layered sandwich dials on all leather strap models bring the digits and indexes to sharp depth and focus.
The creative vision is to closely follow all trends in the industry and what it means for TW Steel because it knows its consumers’ tastes and which designs work in terms of what can be a good fit for oversized executions. But Son of Time or not, the mantra, according to Cobelens, is to sacrifice nothing and create something that holds true to the unadulterated DNA and heritage of the TW Steel brand each time.
And there are just about a lot of things in the works for the Maverick campaign that will embody this design philosophy.
“Way before the Maverick Collection, just about 10 years ago, we began our company by launching an iconic timepiece collection that shook up the market and established us as a bold new attitude in the watchmaking world,” Cobelens said. “It’s only appropriate that we shake the market up again with the launch of a new design icon.”
Because, indeed, it is not about reading the time anymore and rather about adding a bulk to a character, a new design icon that cuts it away from the rest of the crowd, the Maverick, as how Cobelens puts it, is about wielding a parcel out of every potent personality and making sense not so much of its sense of time as its sense of style.
A Maverick watch can be a paean to a bearded Frenchman, or a bearded Frenchman that rides a really massive bike, or a skydiving bearded Frenchman—“they can be really anything,” Cobelens said, “as long as they represent rebellion, a revolution, or something that stands out.”