MY 6 WEEKS WITH: The Sorna World Timer
If you want to know how hard you need to slap a chicken to cook it, the internet is almost too ready to give you an answer. On the other hand, if you google any combination and permutation of the words ‘Sorna’, ‘World Timer’ and ‘watches’, you’ll find four to five relevant searches that are older than most high schoolers. Even Wikipedia, the all-knowing and all-seeing, doesn’t seem to acknowledge the existence of this watch and brand. If that isn’t the bleakest affirmation of obscurity, then I don’t know what is. What follows is a distillation of all the research I have compiled and experience I have gained in the month and a half of owning the Sorna World Timer. The original Sorna Watch Company (apparently no association to the Kickstarter brand sharing its name) suffered a fate similar to many other Swiss brands during the quartz crisis. The company went into liquidation, but the name was purchased by an unknown company that continued to produce watches faithfully replicating the original ’70s chronograph designs, but using an ebauche movement that removed the chronograph function and replaced it with a day-month one. Sorna did apparently have some connection to racing, collaborating…
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Editor’s note: The other week, the Bond-centric rumour mill (which is an oddly specific, but proliferate sub-genre of the internet) went wild over (entirely unsubstantiated) reports of 007 being replaced by Lashana Lynch (note, she’s cited as being the next 007, not the next Bond). It seems like the sort of story tailor-made to drive the internet into a frenzy — flipping the gender switch on traditional masculine icons seems to be quite en vogue right now. And while a black, female 007 is something we can very much get behind, the real question is what would her watch be? Omega, obviously, but from what family? Well, history suggests it’ll be a Seamaster … James Bond is always running out of time. Every second that slips away sees the missile nearer to launching, the girl’s life slipping further away, global catastrophe looming ever closer. Time matters for Bond in a way few of us can understand, and this, along with his unfailingly suave style, go a long way to explaining why what this man wears on his wrist is such a big deal. Die Another Day Pierce Brosnan’s 2002 Bond swansong was the last time he slipped on the iconic Seamaster Professional…
The Swatch Group have published their 2019 Half-Year Report, revealing some interesting information. The group has reported an increase in their inventory levels, which include components, movements and watches, to a total of 7.1 billion Swiss francs (up 2.6 per cent from 2018). More broadly, the group, which owns brands such as Tissot, Longines and Omega, has reported a 3.7 per cent dip in sales compared to the previous year, attributing a portion of this negative result to efforts against the grey market, which undercut their retail channels by selling watches at heavily reduced prices. Swatch Group have taken “uncompromising action against grey-market dealers, especially in Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America, at the expense of a short-term negative impact on sales in the first half year in the triple-digit millions. In the long term, this will lead to positive effects, especially in the major markets.” One part of this effort was explained as a “suspension of deliveries to grey-market dealers”, clearly attempting to dry up their access to stock by limiting the number of watches that leave Swatch Group production facilities. However, these numbers have reached concerning heights, with the 7.1 billion Swiss francs…
The new Call of Duty trailer was dropped last week, and it featured an interesting horological detail that was noticed by one eagle-eyed Reddit user. As discussed in an article by Kotaku, the time displayed on the wrists of the game characters will read the local time of the person playing, adding a very cool in-game detail. While here at Time+Tide we are less concerned with the “grave ludonarrative consequences” (yes, I had to look up what ludonarrative meant) and more interested in how this could add another way for players to customise their characters. So while we don’t anticipate that this will be infinitely customisable to allow players to be able to rock a Ref. A/6538 Rolex MilSub, we thought we would still add our suggestions for Call of Duty watches that would rise to the occasion. Casio G-Shock GMW-B5000V In a war zone, robustness is required. If something isn’t literally bulletproof, it had better be as good as, and that is what this full metal G-Shock offers. It’ll survive falling off a roof, as well as any underwater diving you need to do, and will do it all for about a decade without complaint. In addition, thanks to…