Most calendar watches tell you the date. Studio Underd0g’s new watch also tells you how long until the weekend.
The British microbrand has unveiled the 04SERIES Calendar, its first calendar complication and its first automatic watch; that’s a big move to come along all at once. Alongside a moonphase and a retrograde pointer date, it adds something you won’t find on most calendar watches: a weekend indicator.
Around the edge of the dial, a series of windows highlights where each month’s Saturdays and Sundays fall, so the date hand shows you how close you are to the weekend.
Powering all of it is the new Seagull ST-2115B, an automatic movement Studio Underd0g spent two years developing with the Chinese movement maker. It includes 34 newly designed components and builds on a partnership that began with the hand-wound chronograph movement in the brand’s 01SERIES.
The 04SERIES comes in 37mm and 38.5mm sizes, with 50 meters of water resistance. There are four dials, called Cloud10, Arabian Sky, Shepherd’s Delight, and 0vercast, each in the brand’s signature mix of bright, offbeat colors.
A microbrand that’s outgrowing the label
Studio Underd0g started as a pandemic-era Kickstarter project and made its name with colorful, sometimes downright silly chronographs, including a run of pizza-themed watches. The 04SERIES is the most serious thing it has ever made, and it shows how fast the brand is growing up.
Developing a movement is a big step for any microbrand. Most rely on off-the-shelf calibers, and putting real money into a custom movement with three complications suggests the brand (and the customer base) is here for the long haul.
It’s also an unusually accessible way into a moonphase and retrograde date. Those complications usually come at a much higher price, which helps explain why the release has the watch world talking, and why it’d hold its own against plenty of watches under $1,000.
The weekend indicator keeps the brand’s sense of play intact. Plenty of complications track things almost nobody needs to know. This one tracks the thing most people are counting down to anyway.
Where to buy it
The Studio Underd0g 04SERIES Calendar goes on sale Nov. 17 at underd0g.com and by appointment at the brand’s D0ghouse showroom in Maidenhead, England, for $1,100. It isn’t a limited edition.
