Velociphile - No longer in the building
1397
Jumbo revisited
May 24, 2018,08:46 AM
I stumbled across this excellent photo by Paul Boutros that makes it very easy to see the differences between the 15202 and 2012 reboot that are otherwise missable when viewed in isolation.
(Annotations added by me.)
A: The clasp. Nice idea of AP to try and update things here. I know some find the single fold version uncomfortable but I wish that at least three things could have been achieved -
1) retention of the AP logo in the folding elements,
2) integration to retain thinness and low profile (compare the Bulgari solution) - the overall height of this new arrangement is thicker (?) than the watch!
3) find some way to allow fine adjustment.
B: The bracelet. Notably thicker and losing some of the sensuous silkiness of the original as a result.
C: Dial. Small block dial is a nice return. Lower logo location is a nice touch. But the hour markers give an unfortunate impression of thickness. Reinforced by….
D: Hands that mount too high off the dial. This is disappointing aesthetic difference giving an unwatned impression of thickness
E: Coordinated date wheel colour - hurrah
F: Case finishing revisions that are great to see and more of a return to the original concept that had got a bit lost on the way over the four decades probably a result of worn tooling (?) so the tapering facets now arrive pin sharp at their desinations.
It's a shame because a combination of aspects of these two variants and some tweaks to a couple of other areas such as
- movement upgrades with modern materials: e.g. antimagnetic hairspring, escapement efficiency....
- water resistance of 100m!
- and careful alignment of the watch head to bracelet (previously discussed and somewhat an oversight for the entire life of Jumbo where the watch sides are non-parallel but the bracelet sides are!)
could result in the best Jumbo ever made.
Velociphile