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semperfi55

Showcase: Mr Jones Watches - The Ascendent - Creative Time Telling

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semperfi55

Like the visually impaired Dominic Cummings, I love to find the "weirdos and misfits" too.

Only, in watches.

What better way to celebrate this mutual fascination of oddballs by buying a GREAT watch from a GREAT British brand?

Rolex first started out in London, so surely we can Build Back Better the British watch industry into a World Beating Global Britain Titan. We will become a Titan once again, looming over the world, like Rhodes straddling Africa:

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(Fun fact, the Congo never truly recovered after bearing witness to the Great Undercarriage)

 

Ahem, politics aside, let's get onto the watch.

I did not intend to start the review the way I did, but the only word I can think of to describe this watch and the brand was: oddball. Hence my train of thought above.

 

I present to you: The Ascendent by Mr Jones Watches.

https://mrjoneswatches.com/collections/mens-watches/products/the-ascendent

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It is a watch with jumping hour complication and moving background to indicate the minutes. Mr Jones Watches is a delightful little studio creating some refreshing designs. They have a shop along the South Bank in Central London.

I bought the watch on a 20% discount during the Black Friday weekend. The watch arrived the next day :D 

The watch came in with a topless Santa on the box sleeve....

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As I slowly panicked about what indecent product I have ordered, I realised this was a brilliant Christmas twist to another cool watch in their catalogue:

 

A Perfectly Useless Afternoon

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The person in the float and the duck are the "hands". I first read about this piece on The Truth About Watches . The editor of the site has that cynical, says-it how-it-is attitude, RWGers would like him.

https://thetruthaboutwatches.com/2019/09/a-perfectly-useless-afternoon-quartz-watch/

The article got me interested in brand. From there,  I discovered The Ascendent. The watch was made in collaboration with an artist Marion Labbez who designed the dial. She also has three other collaboration watches with MJW.

The Ascendent was initially released as a limited edition run. My watch is the subsequent re-release with no limit on production. The colours have been slightly altered to differentiate it from the limited edition.

Underneath the sleeve, we have a wooden box with the brand monogram.

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And inside, a bit more information on the Artist and a reminder on how to use the watch.

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Dimensions

Case Diameter: 35.8mm (36mm on website)

Case Height: 11.4mm

Lug Width: 17.7mm (At level of spring bar)

Lug-to-Lug: 47.2mm (46mm on website)

There is a sizeable discrepancy between the stated lug-to-lug measurement and my measurements.

The watch sits on my wrist rather well, thanks to the smaller case diameter. The elongated lugs inflates the the lug-to-lug dimension which should help the bigger wristed.

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Dial

My favourite bit! 

It features a tree atop a rocky bluff in the foreground, with hills beyond. The top half of the dial is dominated by the tree foliage, but you can see the blue night sky behind the tree, with stars and a crescent moon.

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This isn't exactly the conventional Dial section of my  showcase. This is because not all the features are technically on the dial!

The inside of the crystal was painted and gilded with Palladium in different ways to achieve very different effects. The gilded Palladium on the crystal forms the rocky bluff and tree in the foreground. Just beyond the rocky bluff there is a plainer, metallic texture that forms the distant hills. I am unsure what the white vertical lines represent, but I would hazard a guess and say those represent clouds or fog.

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The crystal could do with better AR coating, but I suppose that would further increase cost of production.  In the photo below you can see what happens when light is shined directly at the dial. The shimmering texture of the Palladium in the tree trunk and rocks are now have more of a plain, reflective look. In real life, the the dial reflections and general colour would look more like the photo above. The photo below is to give an indication of what the dial would look like under more extreme lighting. Even then, it shares some features seen in traditional Chinese painting, where the different colours are represented as a spectrum from black to white, using just black ink (most of the time).

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Here's an example below: a Song Dynasty painting by Ma Yuan, the title is not seen in the picture, but  roughly translates as Walking the Mountain Path in the Spring.

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Another gratuitous close-up of the dial. Here the aperture in the foliage near 12 o'clock is painfully visible. It is a similar eye-sore on the website photos, so no risk of mis-representation here. I can reassure you that it is quite well-hidden at normal wrist distance. That in itself presents another problem--which I will get into later.

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Below we have an upside down view of the dial. This is the best way to highlight the different layers that form the entire image. From dial to crystal, we have

1) Blue sky background (true dial)

2) Transparent disk that forms the "minute hand". The stars and crescent moon are on this transparent disk. Note the small shadow just underneath the white star by the white horizontal lines on the left of the photo below. The shadow shows that the star is indeed on a transparent disk sitting above the dial.

3) Layers of Palladium on the crystal which forms the distant hills and the foreground bluff+tree+foliage. Across the midline of the dial, you can see the gap between the Palladium 'horizon' and the blue sky background painted onto the dial.

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Movement

The watch houses a Seagull ST 1721 movement with jumping hour function and stated 42 hours of power reserve.

Of course unlike @Glaude I a unlikely to strip down a watch to show off the movement, especially for a watch with delicate artwork unless I absolutely have to. So here is a photo I have stolen which shows the dial side of the movement. The font of the hour wheel overlay in the photo is different from my watch as it was a photo of a Solvil et Titus watch. Source of pic is from this rather interesting post: 

https://uhrforum.de/threads/solvil-et-titus-jumping-hour-kal-sea-gull-st-1721-revision.354070/

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My watch has a solid caseback, nothing to shout about.

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Case & Bezel

The case is made of 316L stainless steel with a black PVD coating.

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On the 9 o'clock side of the watch(opposite the crown), there is  an odd false crown of sorts which gives the case some semblance of unnecessary symmetry. The only reason I could think of why this false crown exists is to display the brand monogram. This begets the question: why not just put the MJW on the true crown in the first place then?

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The lugs is a noticeable drawback to an otherwise extremely aesthetic watch. It is wiry thin, elongated, and does not share the same gravitas as the dial. It looks as if a sculptor took years to create the centre and then gave up on sculpting the lugs. So much thought has been put into the dial+crystal design, and then they just jammed the watch into a ready-made case...

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See the case below, look familiar?

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Strap and Buckle

MJW has 14 strap options available for this watch. There are options for leather, Hirsch leather(additional charge), stainless steel mesh, and silicone. I opted for a black leather strap with black stitching for a dress watch vibe. A PVD mesh would probably fit quite well with the otherwise rather incongruous PVD case.

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The pin buckle also has the brand monogram.

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Function

Enough with all this nonsense, SemperFi. How do you even read this watch?!

@RussP had his priorities right when he asked me this question on the wristcheck threads.

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The hour is simple enough: peep into the foliage and you can see the hour. The font of the hour may be at odds with the art style of the surrounding leaves, but from regular wrist distance you won't see the clash. Because you may not be able to read the hour in that small aperture. This is NOT a watch for the visually challenged.

For the minutes, they are represented on the transparent disc by the stars and crescent moon. The transparent disc moves in a clockwise fashion.

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Therefore, two large gold stars clustered together would indicate 20 minutes, and a large silver star paired with a small gold star would represent 35 minutes.

The way you tell what the time is based on the cluster that has arrived on/near the horizontal white lines at 3 o'clock. A few examples below.

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And on my watch below, the time is 09:10---the large white star is exactly on top of the horizontal lines.

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Conclusion

This is an oddall watch.

A lot of thought and energy has been put into this beautiful dial. It is a watch that sacrifices function for form, as the time is not immediately apparent.  You could say this watch basically fails as a time-telling device, but then mechanical watches are an obsolete technology as it stands anyway. You could say it is a 'boss' watch (they don't need rush to appointments; the appointment starts when they arrive). I think of it as a holiday watch, when you don't need to be exact on the time.

Still, best not to use this watch to catch your flight ;) 

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If you can get over its shortcomings in doing the one job a watch is suppose to do, the watch is a stunning novelty piece. The main design flaw I would nitpick is the modern-looking PVD watch case which clashes with the fantastical landscape within. Perhaps another way to interpret this: the case-dial dichotomy highlights the essence of a artsy, intricate world captured/bounded within a harsh, sleek cage. :vomit:

 

Regardless, the watch ironically fits in with my sub-collection of oddballs, each with their unique inefficient way to tell the time.

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Thanks for reading :) 

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markismyname

These watches are great!

Going through the rest of their website, I'm really impressed for the price!

Are there any other watch makers you recommend that make really unique designs like Mr Jones Watches?

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GingerApple

Quite fun and not ugly. I think the 'fog' is meant to be a distant mountain isn't it:

'On the face of the watch a mountain shimmers on the horizon, appearing both near enough to touch and also impossibly beyond our grasp.'

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Diluted
52 minutes ago, markismyname said:

These watches are great!

Going through the rest of their website, I'm really impressed for the price!

Are there any other watch makers you recommend that make really unique designs like Mr Jones Watches?

There are some unique designs at www.tokyoflash.com

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paccbet

That is a very, very pretty dial

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Figmo

A real conversation piece to be sure, and not one whose wearer ever needs to worry will also be on other people's wrists at the same social function.

Thanks for sharing!

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Theviking

Superb post. Many thanks x

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FunnyStarSystem

Oh good, you're back to making epic posts again :clap:

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RussP

All that just to figure out what time it is?

Give me a simple two or three hander and I will be satisfied.

When you get to my age, watches like this will forever be destined for watch Queen status.

Thanks for the write up and for answering my query from before.

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tribefan

Quite an awesome review @semperfi55

Like this piece a lot. It's not gimmicky, but a nice piece of art that tells time. Artwork itself is unique and creative, but maybe not 100% my style.  Agree with you on the case, and especially the lugs. I've had issues with long lug watches. But they are consistent across their line with it, so it's just part of their design vibe I guess. 

The transparent dial with the stars is quite clever and I imagine you would catch on the telling time with it pretty quickly. But hey, when you are wearing two watches, who cares if one of them is a problematic time reader. :)

Thanks for writing this, takes time to do these posts and yours are of the highest quality. Probably never would have heard of this watch otherwise.

Finally your left off the best part. I was expecting some swanky central London crazy Arab Prince prices for this, but 245 quid retail was surprising. Right there with a Seiko or Citizen.

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Glaude

Really really nice watch ! Sure it's not an everyday watch just because if someone ask you the time, you'll have to ask them if they have a moment to allow you to figure out what time it is

I think the only thing that ruin the dial a bit, is that unidentified fog, it has no purpose for the artistic appearance of the dial and look out of place.

From them I really like that piece : https://mrjoneswatches.com/collections/mens-watches/products/the-last-laugh

Thanks for the review !

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semperfi55
11 hours ago, markismyname said:

Are there any other watch makers you recommend that make really unique designs like Mr Jones Watches?

I'm afraid not...MJW is the first time I've encountered an affordable brand doing this sort of thing!

11 hours ago, TheGingerFerret said:

'On the face of the watch a mountain shimmers on the horizon, appearing both near enough to touch and also impossibly beyond our grasp.'

For one second I thought you were going all Gatsby and the Green Light there...

 

From what I understood, the shimmer mountain would be this shiny it here (bound by the red line). The description doesn't really address the vertical lines (circled in green).

Shit man, this is how religious wars/schisms start. The ideology clash between the Foggists and the Mounties.

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11 hours ago, Diluted said:

There are some unique designs at www.tokyoflash.com

I had a look at the site. Have you got any of their watches? They sell more robust LED watches than a novelty no-brand one I bought on Amazon many years ago. Mine crapped out in less than a month. That was waay before I properly got into watches.

11 hours ago, paccbet said:

That is a very, very pretty dial

Thanks :D 

11 hours ago, Figmo said:

A real conversation piece to be sure

Indeed, the conversation being started by me, asking somebody else for the time! :lol:

11 hours ago, Theviking said:

Superb post. Many thanks x

Cheers mate :) 

10 hours ago, FunnyStarSystem said:

Oh good, you're back to making epic posts again :clap:

This took me longer than expected, I had the post half-written and left in the post editor for a week. But that might be the way forward. Otherwise it's always all or nothing for me.

10 hours ago, RussP said:

All that just to figure out what time it is?

Give me a simple two or three hander and I will be satisfied.

When you get to my age, watches like this will forever be destined for watch Queen status.

My generation is all about flexing on the 'gram. Many can't tell analogue time anyway.

10 hours ago, tribefan said:

But hey, when you are wearing two watches, who cares if one of them is a problematic time reader. :)

This guy gets it ^^^

MJW has a few other time-telling concepts I like but the dial designs were hit and miss for me. With this one I can pretend to be in with the Classic Arts crowd.

Now that you mention it, the price is actually amazing. Especially considering other derivative brands that 'cut out the middlemen' sell watches with cheap Chinese/Japanese movements for way more than 245 quid.

10 hours ago, Glaude said:

I think the only thing that ruin the dial a bit, is that unidentified fog, it has no purpose for the artistic appearance of the dial and look out of place.

From them I really like that piece : https://mrjoneswatches.com/collections/mens-watches/products/the-last-laugh

Perhaps they fucked up the gilding there on the prototype and so covered it up with some lines, but that design went into mass production?

Use that explanation for a vintage Rolex and watch the vintage market add 3 more zeroes to the price...

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They do have quite a few Memento Mori type watches don't they? Some are a bit on the nose and other more subtle. Same movement and genius execution here!

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GingerApple
18 minutes ago, semperfi55 said:

From what I understood, the shimmer mountain would be this shiny it here (bound by the red line). The description doesn't really address the vertical lines (circled in green).

I reckon the snow capped peak of the mountain must be the green circled bit. It doesn't really look like it, but based on their description, that's the only mountain type bit that shimmers.

This watch must be real art if it's lead to this discussion!

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Figmo
3 hours ago, semperfi55 said:

Indeed, the conversation being started by me, asking somebody else for the time! :lol:

Reminds me of back when I was a teenager in the 80's and my then best friend bought himself one of those really complex Seiko quartz pilot chronographs:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Me]: Wow, that's really cool.

[Friend]: Yeah, watch this! *starts pushing all four buttons randomly, watch hands start going nuts*

[Me]: Whoa. Nifty!

[Friend]: I know, right?

[Me]: So how do the functions work?

[Friend]: I haven't a clue!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hats off to you for answering everyone's comments, by the way.

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Diluted
4 hours ago, semperfi55 said:

I had a look at the site. Have you got any of their watches? They sell more robust LED watches than a novelty no-brand one I bought on Amazon many years ago. Mine crapped out in less than a month. That was waay before I properly got into watches.

I had one, was quite nice, well made, more than a novelty. I gave it to a friend as a gift after owning it for a year or so.

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