Gorilla, the fledgling automotive-inspired Swiss watch brand known for its use of high-tech material like ceramic and forged carbon, has launched a new model, the Fastback Drift wandering hours – its first watch with a serious complication.
Based in Cressier in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel, Gorilla was founded in 2016 by two former Audemars Piguet employees – the Le Brassus brand’s Chief Artistic Officer Octavio Garcia and Senior Designer Lukas Gopp. The duo’s first effort was the Fastback Original, a limited edition of 500 pieces, which was an affordable motoring-inspired watch noted for its use of ceramic, forged carbon and titanium in the construction of the case.
While the Original was a time only watch powered by a Miyota movement, the Fastback Drift houses its first complication – a wandering hours display wherein time is indicated by moving a pointer showing the hour across an arc housing the minutes. First used in clocks in the 17th century, Audemars Piguet is credited with bringing this complication to the modern age when it used them in Star Wheel timepiece in 1991. Brands like Urwerk and Arnold & Sons have since produced watches with this complication.
The Fastback Drift uses a chunky square-ish case similar to the one seen on the Original. The 44 mm wide tripartite case has a layered forged carbon middle, a polished black ceramic bezel sporting exposed screws and a titanium caseback. The 14-mm-thick case is water-resistant to 100 meters and is fitted with a bi-color Viton rubber strap.
The modular Swiss movement was born out of a collaboration with movement specialists Vaucher, the Fleurier-based manufacture that produces movements for brands like Parmigiani, Richard Mille and Hermes. Vaucher built the wandering hours complication as a module that was fitted on a base self-winding ETA 2824-2 movement.
The proprietary Gorilla 5238 wandering hours caliber beats at 4 Hz with a power reserve of 36 hours.
The Gorilla Fastback Drift is a limited edition of 250 pieces and hopes to make the wandering hours complication accessible to a new generation of watch collectors at just CHF2,750 ($2,768 or AED10,170) a pop and will be launched in November 2018 but pre-sales start in August. The watch has already received a GPHG nomination in the "Challenge" (watches below CHF4,000) category this year.
