Bamford Watch Department, the world’s only authorised customisation partner for TAG Heuer, has created a 10-piece limited edition TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 5 collection using Fordite dials, each of them completely unique.
They have been co-branded with Black Badger, a consultancy in industrial design that specialises in using unusual materials.
Fordite is made from paint residue that builds up over many years in the old fashioned industrial bays of car makers.
It can be scraped up, shaped, sliced and polished into any form and, when used for watch dials, ensures no two are the same.
The Fordite material used in this collaboration has come from the Ford factories in Michigan, USA, from the 1970-1990s era.
“What I really find fascinating about working with the Fordite material is that it is very close to actually being able to create 4D art. As well as the normal 3D aspects, you are actually incorporating time as an additional element. You are quite literally moving through layers of time, of human endeavour. Each layer you uncover represents someone painting a car, and then that car went out somewhere into the world. It’s a very fun concept to have kicking around in the back of your head,” says Black Badger’s James Thompson.
George Bamford, Bamford Watch Department founder, adds: “Thank you to Instagram for helping me to discover the wonderful world of @blackbadger (editor’s note: Black Badger came to the notice of WatchPro back in the pre-Instagram days of 2013).
“A fantastic guy, I am so happy and proud we are working together on our first project, of hopefully many. I love how each watch is a unique piece that can never be replicated. The decisive moment of these dials is truly unique and captures what inspired me to create Bamford Watch Department.”
The limited edition watch is based on a TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 5 with a black PVD case and bracelet.
They go on sale today at Bamford Watch Department’s website for £5,500.
