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Tested: Azimuth Mr. Roboto

written by A.Prior - 7th Nov 2011

First off let me be honest about this – I like unusual watches. I collect all sorts – modern, vintage, from a few pennies to many thousands of pounds, and enjoy the more conventional offerings from the established makers, but every once in a while a little insanity overtakes me and I feel the urge, no, the absolute need, to buy something absolutely bonkers.

There have been some time-keeping oddities made over the years, but few are in the same league as Azimuth’s offerings and I like that. Here is a company that has established a (very selective) niche for itself through a heady mixture of creativity and quality.

These watches are not for everyone of course, in fact they are probably made for hardly anyone. The market, at least amongst the traditionally conservative European and American watch buyers must be vanishingly small – but it is there. Watch enthusiasts like me I guess, who have the occasional moment of madness.

I had first spotted the Azimuth brand a few years ago while trawling watch forums. As I recall someone, possibly me, had started a thread lamenting the “sameness” of so many modern watches. Where was the humour, the nonsense, the hubris I asked? Well, another poster pointed me to it.

There can be no doubt that the Azimuth Mr Roboto, inspired by 1960’s Japanese toy robots, is one of the most, if not the most astonishingly insane watch designs of the past decade, or possibly ever. It isn’t cheap with a retail of around $5000 when released in 2008, but it is beautifully made. The attention to detail is right up there with the usual high-end offenders a watch nut normally splurges his cash on and the watch arrives in a very funky box with an outer sleeve brightly depicting one of the robots that provided inspiration.

“Crikey it’s big!” are not exactly the same words I used when first handling the piece. I knew it was going to be large, but it really is a whopper and very hefty. This is not a watch for the shy and retiring, it is a statement of something – I am not entirely sure what, but there is no way it can be missed when on the wrist and may well be visible from space. At 43mm excluding the funky key styled crown by 55mm this is a genuine piece of time-keeping machinery and engineering, not simply a watch. It is also heavy and feels like it was constructed by engineers rather than assembled by watchmakers, but cleverly it is well balanced and quite comfortable on the wrist.

The finish is first class, as you would hope from an expensive piece. The detailing on the case and multiple dials is excellent and the heavily modified base Eta movement runs accurately and reliably.

Wearing the watch I found I was always conscious of its presence, but in a nice way. It makes me smile every time I look at it, and I suspect this is really its purpose. As a piece of horology to simply tell the time it is less effective than so many other watches made or marketed by countless brands – it takes a little while to get used to reading it, being a jump-hour style. But this isn’t the point – it is nonsense, but it is very well done nonsense and thus makes the watch nerd somehow less of a nerd and even quite cool.

Family and friends, usually indifferent at best to my latest purchase, are fascinated by it. They want to look at it, handle it, even hear me talk about it without rolling their eyes or feigning sleep. It might scare the cats, but kids and women seem to love it. Male friends are incredulous – “I’d never wear it” is the usual not very considered response to its debut, but then that is how it should be – it isn’t a watch for everyone. Maybe it is for the individualist (or someone who likes to think of themselves as a person, not a number dammit!), but I get a kick out of wearing it in a meeting or flashing it when delivering a talk or training session. I giggle inwardly when I spy the members of my audience who have spotted it, and I wait expectantly for the one or two to sidle up to me afterwards with a sotto voce “What on earth is that?” And then I get to show them.

Anyhow, I have digressed and this is hardly a revue, you can find those elsewhere probably. It is more a tribute to madness and the lost art of not really giving a damn. I could tell you it arrives on a heavy duty Azimuth silicon rubber strap, but so what? Mine is on a excellent aftermarket mesh – and I think that suits it better. I could pontificate on how it could be a little easier to read – but who wants to just glance at a watch like this? You need to savour it and engage with it. I could mention the clever little tribute to seconds – I like to see a watch ticking and the small but perfectly formed red “nose” on the face rotates reflecting this. Warming to my subject I could enthuse about the permanent 12hr/24hr display, the nicely rendered display window in the back with the tongue in cheek “Verify” engraved beneath.

In fact there are lots of details I could discuss and deliberate upon, but I am not going to. That would be to follow the conventional route of the watch bore (and I am usually a serial offender), and is irrelevant to Mr Roboto. He is more than a watch, he is a toy, an engineering marvel and a defiant two-fingered salute to conventional horology. He is the watch you should want to like even if you don’t. A marvellous conceit and an expensive moment of glorious madness, but above all, like nothing else you have ever owned.
 
A compulsive watch flipper, Alex has yet to find The One. Funds and wife permitting, his search goes on… He used to work in TV and Film, but now spends his time much more sensibly with watches, cars and his kids.