British indie Fears Watch Company has forged a productive relationship with California’s Topper Fine Jewelers and this week unveiled four watches that will only be on sale at the Silicon Valley store and its ecommerce site.
The new watches follow a successful collaboration in 2022 (pictured top) and a follow up visit by Fears founder and managing director Nicholas Bowman-Scargill early last year.
“In January 2023 I visited the Topper Jewelers store in Burlingame California to meet with Fears owners from the bay area. While there, the Caplan family [Russ and Rob] kindly took me to different spots nearby to show me what winter in Northern California was really like. The warmth, hospitality, and incredible landscapes inspired a limited-edition collaboration with Topper Jewelers,” Mr Bowman-Scargill recalls.
The first collaboration watch sold so well that the partnership has been expanded to deliver four watches exclusively to Topper named the Fears x Topper Edition Series II: Tribute to Northern California range.
Each of the four watches, inspired by the sights of the Bay Area and beyond in winter, is limited to 25 numbered pieces.
They all adopt the popular California dial mix of Roman and Arabic numeral hour markers.
Whiteout has white lacquer dial with a stamped guilloché pattern that gives the appearance of snow underfoot. Orange accents and a matching strap are said to represent the warning signs found on ski slopes and snow-covered highways.
Winter Lake comes in an icy blue that reflects the coldness of Lake Tahoe in the winter. Its wet-feel lacquered dial has glossy white painted indices and hands that contrast in the way the snow touches the water’s edge.
Pacific has a saturated green dial inspired by the coastal waters by the Pacific Ocean when winter storms wash mica and pyrite down from the hills and change the colour of the sea. The pale golden indices, hands and printing are inspired by the ‘fool’s gold’ deposits found on the beaches in Half Moon Bay.
Snowed In’s dial in a white and green gradient is created with dots that change in size and frequency as they get closer to the centre. This gives the feel of snow falling on the pine trees around Tahoe and the Palisades Tahoe ski resort.
All four exclusives use Fears Brunswick 40mm cases in steel.
They are powered, for the first time by Fears, by a La Joux-Perret G101 automatic movement with a customer decorated rotor.
Rob Caplan, co-owner of Topper Jewelers, says he wanted the Series II capsule to be more grounded in actual places in California home. Nicholas has an incredible eye for theme and detail, and we are super proud of what we’ve created. We hope this capsule is inspiring to anyone who shares our love for the beauty of California,” he adds.
The new Fears x Topper Edition Series II: Tribute to Northern California retails for $3,900 on a leather or textile strap.
