BWD X BLACK BADGER
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.
There is a real fascination amongst collectors of vintage watches when it comes to the tropical dials formed by irregularly faded dials. These start out in production as black, and turn a dark shade of chocolate brown when exposed to sunlight over many years.
These dials are sought after, and as such we wanted to create our own tropical dial. Each dial has its own unique character. The idea to create this using a recycled source was so irresistible, and that’s how the dial, which is made from ground coffee was conceptualised.
George Bamford, Founder of Bamford Watch Department says “It’s amazing to be working with the awesome James Thompson at Black Badger on our second collaboration. 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”.
James Thompson, AKA Black Badger comments “For me this is a natural progression for the BWD Badgerworks project. In the same way that we previously used to, we are exploring materials outside of the traditional realm of watchmaking”.
James continues. “Few materials are as familiar both in appearance and experience as coffee. Economies are built on it, wars are fought over it, history is tied to it. As a planet over 2 billion cups are consumed every day.
For this BWD Badgerworks project we have manufactured the dials of our watches from coffee itself. One can almost smell the roast and hear the cafe chatter when looking at it !
Our coffee was specially roasted and ground for us at Cafe Da Matteo. A roastery and cafe in Göteborg that has been ranked in the top 5 worldwide by Lonely Planet guidebook. The special Badgerworks coffee was then formed into dial blanks and hand-finished to bring out the natural lustre and colours of the material”.
