FIRETRAP WATCHES

Firetrap Watches

On the dark edge of the fashion world, there is Firetrap. This London designing house, creators of clothing, accessories, watches and more, has styled itself as the purveyors of a futuristic urban lifestyle embodying a decidedly shadowy view of the world. Their attitude seems to say that the apocalypse is coming soon, and they want to design the fashions for it. In the brief time that we have to live, we will at least look good.

Firetrap began in 1991 and have established themselves as leaders of what they term the "maverick elements" of popular culture. However, those who find the company's heavy-handed rhetoric a bit off-putting should not let it prejudice them against Firetrap Watches.

Predictably, these are not prim, delicate watches. There is a feeling of substantiality with large dials and wide, bulky bracelets. Most of the dials average over 40 millimetres in width, some even as high as 45. The occasional exceptions more than make up for their lack of dial size with massive bracelets.

These watches are celebrations of metal, but instead of emphasizing the rusty, grimy aspects of it as some watchmakers have done, these pieces highlight metal's cool, gleaming quality. Link bracelets of brushed or tinted metal are common in Firetrap's men's watches, while the ladies' models have bracelets of square metal panels.

In this last group, the dials are quite small and dwarfed by the square panels of the bracelets, a design surprise. Dials have standard arrangement with central axes and prominent hour markers, sometimes with numerals but more often not. These faces seem a bit plain and austere with a complete lack of decoration.

Special mention should be given to the Alpha line of Firetrap Watches. Every visible part of these watches, the cases, dials, hands, and even the metal link bracelets, are a single, solid colour. The colours are red, grey, black, white or gold, and in each example, the watch seem to have been entirely carved from a block of that colour. The grim gurus of Firetrap would probably deny it, but the look is quite bright and appealing. The red model is particularly cheerful.

With names like Edge, Shrapnel, Full Metal Jacket and Rock Chick, the watches of Firetrap could be viewed as statements of more than just fashion. On the other hand, those who just want a watch that is unusual, artistic and interesting should also consider Firetrap Watches.

© SDK Jewellers Ltd.