1/1 Limited Edition BWD x Black Badger ‘Fordite’ TAG Heuer Carrera – Calibre 5 [8]

In collaboration with Black Badger this entirely one of a kind TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 5 is created using a Fordite dial.
Fordite is the commonly used term to describe the collected overspray that builds up in the industrial paint bays of car factories over many, many years. The Fordite material used in this collaboration has come from the Ford factories in Michigan, USA, from the 1970-1990s era.

In modern car factories the various body components, such as doors and bodies, are mounted on jigs and moved through the various stages of the painting process. Primer, paint, topcoat, and the finishing ovens are all steps in the process. While an individual component will only go through the cycle a few times, the mounting equipment will go through hundreds of times before the collected overspray and drops become cumbersome lumps that need to be removed as part of specialist maintenance.

At some point in automotive production history, some intelligent worker noticed that these ugly misshapen lumps had a wonderfully hidden secret inside them. When cut or sanded into, spectacular geological patterns appeared, formed by hundreds, if not thousands, of layers of car paint. The complete randomness of both colour and patterning creates beautifully fascinating effects. Organic patterns are created in what is a very artificial material.