Prepare your coins. The famous yellow character comes back, this time, waiting for the hunt to begin on the dial of the newest Romain Jerome watch. Yes, it is true. In association with Namco Bandai Games Inc., the renowned Swiss watchmaker created a limited series of 80 watches designed after the cult arcade game PAC-MAN. Just like recently released Space Invaders watches that also recall an iconic video game from 1980s, new Romain Jerome masterpieces are a part of the unique Moon Invader watch collection.
Back in 1980, following the enormous success of SPACE INVADERS, a game designer of NAMCO, Toru Iwatani, had created a little yellow hero that soon became one of the most recognizable video game characters in history. After reaching huge popularity in Japan, the game came to United States, causing unprecedented craze called “PAC-MAN Fever”. With over 300,000 arcade game units sold all over the world, it is the “most successful coin-operated game machine”, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
If you consider buying RJ’s Pac-Man timepiece, you are either a big fan of the game who has already known all these facts or you just do not know what to do with money. It would be the best if you belonged to both groups, because this is the high-luxury edition. Romain Jerome created four variations of 20 pieces and each watch will be available for $17,900, first exclusively at the Colette store in Paris, on 3 September, and then at other Romain Jerome retailers on 10 September, 2012.
Proves of Excellence
The price is probably higher than you have expected, but there are several good reasons for that. Firstly, because of the highly sophisticated dial production process. Each of three levels recalls the iconic game by a high-quality rendered pixilated matrix, providing a three-dimensional effect. Two lower levels are beadblasted, while the upper level features straight-grained edges.
Each of four versions of the watch shows PAC-MAN at the 9 o’clock position, surrounded with his ghost enemies, looking at it. Two versions also feature two pairs of inevitable extra- point cherries. Characters and fruits are machined piece by piece, applied by hand, gem-set and finally lacquered with various colors (yellow color applied with a special glossy lacquer for Pac-Man, while ghosts come either grey or colorful, depending of the version). The official PAC-MAN logo takes the 6 o’clock position. Finally, the tips of hands and the parts of characters are covered with SuperLumiNova.
Romain Jerome PAC-MAN watch has the highly recognizable case of the Moon Invader collection, which is distinctive by a pretty cool design, but also by the unique contexture. It is made of steel fused with fragments of Apollo 11 moon lender. The robust case has the diameter of 46 mm and it is PVD black coated, polished and sandblasted.
Designed to recall the look of lunar landing modules in American expeditions, four ball-and-socket joints at the corners of the case also have a functional purpose. While holding the lugs of a black rubber strap, their mobility makes the watch comfortable to all wrist sizes. The back side of the watch bears another signature of the collection. It is a disc made of Moon SilverRJ – low-oxidation silver fused with moon rocks which reproduces the surface of the Moon. The watch is powered with a Swiss Concepto self-winding mechanism.
Romain Jerome PAC-MAN Limited Watch Editions have potential to overcome the popularity of the brand’s Space Invanders watches. The only thing that could make the watch even more attractive is the moving PAC-MAN character, instead of the static one. Regardless of that, these are super-cool timepieces that will be privileges of exclusive number of the brand’s fans.
