The Rider Jumping Hour
While the name Gerald Genta is synonymous with 1970s sports luxe – your Royals Oak and Nautili – the man was more than a one-trick pony, even if that pony completely upended the watch world. The legendary designer had plenty of feathers in his horological cap that weren’t industrially luxurious, things like his famous Jumping Hours. On the one hand, with that kind of fame comes a price tag to match; on the other, we now have British brand Isotope.
So, how do those two things line up? Well, when in 2015 collector Jose Miranda couldn’t afford the shiny new Gerald Genta Jumping Hours, he did what every sane person does and decided to build his own. It’s a story we’ve heard before from the microbrand sphere – in fact, frustration at mainstream pricing seems to be the single biggest impetus for independent brand launches. But this was now a decade ago, back when ‘microbrand’ wasn’t the ubiquitous term it is today. It was also early enough in the lifespan of microbrands that just drop-shipping some Chinese-made, off-the-shelf watches wasn’t an option, at least not when it came to something as off-kilter as a Jumping Hours. That meant only one thing: a lot of hard graft. The result? The Rider Jumping Hour.
Goutte d’Eau
The Rider was self-evidently inspired by the Streamline Moderne movement, a beautifully rounded piece reminiscent of Pallweber with a distinctively modern dial and six o’clock jumping hour. Most strikingly, the Rider also included the ‘Lacrima’ shape, a teardrop on the dial that has since become an Isotope signature. The run of 99 pieces sold out in no time. Next came the Goutte d’Eau, another modern reimagining of a classic horological archetype, this time the compression diver. It had much the same style as the Rider, complete with the ‘Lacrima’ front and centre, but with a diver-centric sandwich dial and inner rotating bezel. It was one of the more original diving watches of its era, enough that when a new edition comes out in 2025, it’ll barely need changing.
The Hydrium, however, was the watch that really put Isotope on the British watch map. Sure, it was a professional grade diver, but it was one that leaned heavily on the fun factor, with colour combinations that your average Submariner homage wouldn’t dare touch. They had a distinctly British flavour, doubly true of the green exit sign-inspired HydriumX, the first flurry of what would quickly become an avalanche of sold-out limited editions.
Most brands having finally broken through into the ‘no-longer-micro’ brand arena, would take some time, take a breath and consolidate. Release a few more editions of your more popular models, carefully test what works and what doesn’t and don’t upset the boat. Not so Isotope.
Murcury
Last year welcomed what I reckon is their coolest watch yet, the Mercury. Partly, that was to do with the incredible, mirrored steel collaborative edition Isotope produced with Revolution, a monochromatic beauty of shimmering curves. But also because it marked a new approach for Isotope, a more serious one. There were no flamboyant colours, no charming chunkiness, no Lacrima. Instead, the Mercury has been a platform for highlighting serious artisanal techniques – albeit still in Isotope’s accessible price range.
Mercury Marquetry
Marquetry, for example, is generally regarded as one of the most demanding feats of artisanry around, a micro-mosaic of tiny organic elements. And so, the Mercury Marquetry made with tiny pieces of straw, came into existence. And soon to join it are the likes of vitreous enamel, in the UK normally the purview of anOrdain alone, and Cloisonné enamel, creating pictures from gold wire filled with enamel. In fact you can check out the latter right now as it’s one of Isotope’s British Watchmakers’ Day special editions. Isotope have been known to drop some cool stuff without fanfare. At the very least, vitreous enamel sounds like something we here at Oracle can get on board with. Watch this space.
Compax Moonshot
‘But’, I hear you say, ‘I want something sportier, something less tied to all this fancy metiers d’art!’ Well, at the same time as the Mercury, Isotope also launched the Compax Moonshot chronograph, which genuinely innovates with its borderline insane case construction, allowing the time to be read easier than ever before. While the Moonshot is aesthetically a world apart from the Mercury – around 385,000km away – there’s still something distinctly ‘Isotope’ about them both. That’s reassuring as, with plenty more launches on the horizon (36mm case anyone?), the worry is that the brand stretches itself too far, that it tries too hard to do too many things. But when each is done with this level of confidence, that doesn’t seem like something to be too concerned about. At the very least, I hope that Jose finally manages to get himself a Gerald Genta Jumping Hours. He deserves it.
More details at Isotope.
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