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Thanks to uprated gearing that spins the minutes at around 1.1 times the usual rate, the time can always be read as a straight line through the compass. CIGA Design delivers the Blue Planet – Gilding Version with two options to secure it around your wrist. The first is a rubber strap, as we already know from the original Blue Planet, yet it is now in black. It comes with a well-executed folding clasp that not only looks good, but also wears comfortable. The other option is perhaps even more exciting, as this is a black ceramic bracelet.
Hands-On Debut: CIGA Design Blue Planet – Gilding Version Watch
The domed and detailed globe spins slowly on the wrist, adding to the feeling of an extraterrestrial perspective. The landmass is detailed to the extent that one can identify the Himalayas and other geographical formations. As CIGA Design describes, the domed sapphire crystal represents the atmosphere. The strength of sapphire in this case may not help sell the metaphor.
Hands-On Review: The CIGA Design Blue Planet
The bracelet also comes with a nice butterfly clasp in a gold-tone matching the face of the timepiece. The overall quality perception of the case and the bracelet rivals that of a Rado, which I still count as the benchmark when it comes to ceramic watches. Although the dial of the CIGA Design Blue Planet – Gilding Version may follow the pattern of its predecessor, a change in both materials and colorway gives this design a markedly different character. However, CIGA Design makes this already ornate visual layout even more dramatic with the addition of 24K gold finishing for all landmasses as well as the compass rose hour indicator. Pure 24k-gold is a relative rarity in watchmaking, but its use here is a real spectacle on the wrist, turning an already dramatic and stylized watch design into a true showstopper. This results in a more open, spacious look overall as well, although it does shift the design away from the original’s theme of the fragile beauty of the Earth and its oceans.
It’s Chinese
The CIGA Design Blue Planet Is The GPHG's First Chinese Winner - HODINKEE
The CIGA Design Blue Planet Is The GPHG's First Chinese Winner.
Posted: Sun, 14 Aug 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The aluminum impression is incredibly well done, and I’d even compare it to some of the big brands and their motif’s. The impression uses actual topographical data for mountain ranges and islands as well, so it truly is stunning to look at. As something that could really look a little kitch, CIGA Design has killed it. It’s encouraging to see original design and high quality in homegrown Chinese watches, and more so for it to be reaching a global audience.
Inside the CIGA Design Blue Planet – Gilding Version beats an in-house designed automatic movement. Finishing on this movement is solid if a bit simplistic, with a striped signed rotor and broad perlage across the plates and bridges. Some of the simplicity of this finishing is masked by the printing atop the sapphire display caseback, which proudly celebrates the original Blue Planet’s Challenge Prize win at the 2021 GPHG awards. In terms of performance, this unnamed movement is similarly simplistic, with a 40-hour power reserve at a 28,800 bph beat rate. CIGA Design claims a surprisingly broad accuracy range of -20/+40 seconds per day, but the lack of a seconds hand and the nature of the overall display helps to mask some of these shortcomings on the wrist.
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The Blue Planet’s set-up makes the inner minute hand – make that the inner dial – rotate to the correct number of minutes as the hour hand – make that rotating dial compass – points to the correct hour. The CIGA Design U-Series Blue Planet Titanium is worn on a very soft and supple blue Fluorine rubber strap with a signed pin buckle. When handling and wearing the watch, the level of comfort is surprising, and even on warmer days, the Blue Planet never felt uncomfortable or sticky.
Hands-On with the CIGA Design Blue Planet – Gilding Version
I don’t see many brand’s chomping at the bit to compete with that. In fact, I can’t think of a watch off the top of my head that can throw it’s hat in the ring. And I think that’s what makes Ciga Design such a powerhouse in the microbrand space. I said on my last review that I looked forward to seeing what Ciga does next, and they did not disappoint.
Buyers will also have the opportunity to apply for a bronze-level EarthDay.Org membership. The sapphire crystal is a subtle dome that almost magnifies the dial - which is also a unique effect, and part of the core DNA of the watch itself (we’ll discuss that more next). The crown sits fairly deep into the case at the 3 o’clock position, but again, due to the drastic curvature of the case, is easy to grip and use while on the wrist. And since the case doesn’t feature any kind of bezel, it allows for an unadulterated look at the dial, which is hands-down the most unique part of the watch.
According to CIGA Design, the Blue Planet comes with a brand new movement. Although it looks very similar in design to an ETA 2824 or Sellita SW 200-1, the automatic movement in the Blue Planet has some particularities. As mentioned, when the hour hand rotates by 30 degrees (or one hour, basically), the minute ring rotates 390 degrees. This lines up the hour and minute hand at any given time of day, something not found in conventional two or three-handed watches.
CIGA Design's Asynchronous Technology Offers A Novel Approach To Time-Telling With The Blue Planet - aBlogtoWatch
CIGA Design's Asynchronous Technology Offers A Novel Approach To Time-Telling With The Blue Planet.
Posted: Sat, 20 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Those more eloquent than I have described the feeling as a sensation of simultaneous fragility and oneness. To see Earth as it is — a tiny rock flying through the vastness of space — is to experience one of the stronger reality checks afforded to humankind. "I want this watch to be a symbol for people who love the earth. I want to remind people to protect and love the earth."
Is the Blue Planet the most practical way of telling the time? For starters, and most obviously, there is a domed motif of Earth in the center of the dial. The globe itself is curved, and about 26mm across, making it a significant portion of the dial make-up. On top of the blue sphere is an aluminum impression of parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East with a small compass used as the hour hand (More on that in a second).
A new time display requires a new movement, and that’s just what CIGA Design has used in the Blue Planet. Collaborating with Chinese movement powerhouse Sea-Gull, CIGA Design has developed a 30-jewel automatic movement with a gear train that allows for the model’s display. The movement features a 40-hour power reserve, an accuracy of -15/+30 seconds per day, and perlage on the plates with a customized rotor with striping. It’s on display through a screw-down display caseback with text celebrating the Blue Planet’s 2021 GPHG win. There is still a cloud that hangs over watches from China, a cloud of dismissive judgment that automatically assumes that if it’s (openly) made in China, it can’t be of any merit. The irony, of course, is that many of the high-end brands we hold dear outsource some or most of their manufacturing to the country.
It is time for us to start adjusting our perception of Chinese watchmaking. It is no longer ‘just’ about cheap labour and (mildly put) unoriginal designs. Instead, some watchmakers are shifting into intriguingly original mechanical creations and occasionally Haute Horlogerie levels of watchmaking. One such brand hard at work to change the perception of the Chinese watch industry is CIGA Design, a young company with quite a track record.
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