Lensmaker Artra’s Stylish New Watch Is a Love Letter to Photography
Artra, the company behind lenses like the Artra Lab Similar 35mm f/1.4, has entered the world of timepieces. The new Artra Designs Camera One watch combines a photography-inspired design with a relatively aggressive price point and includes some really nice camera-related touches.
As reported by Leica Rumors, the Artra Designs Camera One watch series has an automatic mechanical movement, a 316L stainless steel case, and a sapphire crystal.
Starting from the side, the Camera One watch has depth of field markings, and its crown has a little red dot, like a lens mount alignment indicator.
At the top, there are shutter speeds around the face, along with an aperture f-stop marking at the 12 o’clock position. On the interior of the face, ISO speeds and apertures are listed in order, ranging from ISO 50 to 800 and f/1 to f/22.
The wearer can set the watch face to be clear, showing the complex mechanical movements inside flanked by a transparent film strip, complete with sprocket holes, or, alternatively, close the “aperture,” showing an aperture mechanism similar to that found in a photographic lens.
Perhaps the most interesting photography-related design aspect of all is found underneath the watch. Here, there is a silhouette of the famous Muybridge horse photos captured in 1878 by Eadweard Muybridge. These photos, which showed a horse running and proved that a horse has all four legs in the air during parts of its stride, were the first example of chronophotography. It’s a fitting touch for a photography-themed timepiece. Further, since the Camera One is an automatic watch that self-winds using the wearer’s wrist movement, the horses will actually move.
The Artra Designs Camera One watch sports a 42mm case and is 15.2 millimeters thick, including the glass. The watch has a quick-release rubber strap with a stainless steel buckle. Further, the watch is water-resistant to 50 meters (164 feet).
While Artra Designs’ new Camera One watch is not necessarily cheap — starting at $887 — it is actually a very affordable watch when it comes to automatic mechanical designs. Similar watches from more established brands can easily cost anywhere from two to eight times more. The Camera One is also much more affordable than Leica’s various watches, like the ZM1, ZM2, and ZM11, which cost from around $7,000 to nearly $30,000 depending on the variant. The ZM1 and ZM2 are manual-winding timepieces, while the ZM11 sports an automatic movement.
The Artra Camera One is available to preorder now from $887 to $992 and is expected to begin shipping in mid-December.
Image credits: Artra Designs
