Basel Preview: Mod Times
Although Ventura is known for mechanical chronometers in hardened titanium, the watch brand also has always included high-end digital watches, including the 1990 “watch” by Danish designer Flemming Bo Hansen which is in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2000, Ventura introduced the world’s first self-winding digital watch, SPARC, still the only of its kind. Ventura’s v-tec line of digitals features contemporary design and a unique operating system: instead of pushbuttons it uses a single cylindrical wheel-barrel, for scrolling through multiple functions just like on an iPod. Two new v–tec styles will be launched at the Basel fair this April: Kappa and Zeta. Kappa is a rectangular design by Swiss architect and designer Hannes Wettstein. The v-tec Kappa, shown below, is titanium which has been exposed to high pressure and heat under vacuum before being cooled by liquid nitrogenand covered with a layer of liquid glass coating to resist fingerprints and protect from scratches. If that’s not high-tech enough for you, there is a special matte-black ion-coated Kappa with an even harder surface. Kappa will be available in early summer starting at around $2,000. For high-tec women, the new v-tec Zeta is a smaller unisex version of the Sigma men’s watch, designed by Paolo Fancelli, who also designed the Sigma and the SPARC rx. The Zeta will be available in early summer starting at $ 1,600.
