Bamford Watch Department’s founder, George Bamford, could walk into a power station, a car mechanics garage or a Starbucks and find inspiration for a new material to use for his personalised watches.
It wasn’t actually Starbucks where the penny dropped for BWD’s latest watch, but the dial is made from recycled ground coffee.
And it is not just any coffee, it comes from Cafe Da Matteo, a roastery and cafe in Göteborg that has been ranked in the top five worldwide by Lonely Planet guidebook.
The dial is used in a TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 5, made in a limited run of just 20 in collaboration with Badgerworks design studio.
Mr Bamford says he is trying to create unique watches — no two recycled coffee dials are precisely the same — that will appeal to hard core collectors that value black dials that have faded over time to mottled browns (known as tropical dials).
Priced at £5,500 and available from today, the BWD X Badgerworks TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 5 with Tropical Coffee Dial comes is a three-hander in a 41mm steel case with a light grey titanium coating.
“I’ve always wanted to create a wonderful tropical dial but in a modern way, and I think this recycled coffee dial really has an authentic tropical vibe to it. Accentuated inside the Carrera watch this really works well together,” Mr Bamford says.
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