Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. Meet the Accessible, Dutch Fromanteel Pendulum Traveler Night Flight
Fromanteel offers a GMT watch for less than EUR 1,000. But there’s a catch…
Young brand Fromanteel continues its quest to combine Dutch Design with Swiss reliability. The latest weapon in its line-up shows how well that combination can work out. Meet the Pendulum Traveler ‘Night Flight’, a new iteration on the brand’s GMT watch – and a watch that comes as a very interesting offer initially, but that will actually get less interesting every day.
Nearly a year ago we first mentioned the Fromanteel Pendulum Traveler White on MONOCHROME. At the time, we wrote: “The overall design is fresh, contemporary and doesn’t try too hard to mimic iconic vintage watches or designs from more established brands. This new Fromanteel watch has its own personality and that’s a very good point.” A very good starting point it was indeed, because this year Fromanteel expands its GMT-line with the dark blue Pendulum Traveler ‘Night Flight’. And yes, it lives up to the expectations.
Flash sale
But that’s not the only news. Fromanteel has chosen to sell the first batch of 100 Pendulum Traveler ‘Night Flight’ watches through a flash sale, which more or less works as follows: the earlier you buy, the cheaper your price. Gradually increasing a price is obviously not entirely new, but it’s usually done during Kickstarter campaigns. For a brand like Fromanteel, however, it’s a really interesting strategy and makes this one an interesting thing to follow.
The party starts on Sunday 27 October. People who signed up for the waitlist will get a notification via email that the watch is available. The starting price will be EUR 949, the lowest during the campaign. Each following day, the price will rise until it finally reaches the retail price of EUR 1,299 on Thursday 31 October. That is, if the 100 pieces haven’t sold out by then of course.
Dutch Design, Swiss reliability
Ever since the introduction of the Pendulum, the first mechanical watch by Fromanteel, the brand has worked with Swiss mechanical movements. Most of them were sourced from ETA, but as with most other brands, Selitta has gradually taken over delivery. So, in this new Traveler Night Flight, you’ll see the automatic calibre SW330-1 through the sapphire case back. This is the default GMT in the Selitta range, and it’s an automatic mechanical movement oscillating at 28,800 v/ph. The power reserve is 42 hours.
The Fromanteel Pendulum Traveler displays the second time zone on a 24-hour ring, which might not make it a pure GMT, but it is capable of showing a second time zone thanks to this fourth hand. Other hands show hours, minutes and seconds.
The design shows that Fromanteel is still steadily evolving both as a brand and as a watchmaker. The dark, midnight blue dial is nicely layered and shows some fine details that really give the watch a mature appearance. It has steel indices and Arabic numerals on 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. Other details come in off-white. The minute and hour hands are dauphine-style and the second hand is baton-shaped with a rounded short edge. The second time zone is shown with a very minimalistic baton-shaped Fromanteel-signature yellow hand. The second time scale is shown in a ring inside the main time scale.
Another interesting choice is the placing of the crown: you’ll find that at 4 o’clock. Also at that position is the date window, thereby following the aesthetic character of the crown. The case is nicely sized at 42 millimetres in diameter, is made of steel and is water-resistant to 5 ATM. The case height is 10,8 millimetres and the crystal is flat, with anti-reflective coating.
The strap was also given a touch of modern elegance. It’s made of what Fromanteel calls “oiled brown leather”, and it’s made exclusively made for The Pendulum Traveler. The strap is finished by hand and is equipped with a folding buckle and the easy-to-use Quick Release System.
Prices and availability
This Fromanteel Pendulum Traveler ‘Night Flight’ is available in 100 pieces and expectations are that they will be sold out before the watch reaches its final retail price of EUR 1,299 on 31 October. The flash sale begins on October 27 and the starting price is EUR 949. The final good thing about this idea is that buyers will barely have to wait for the delivery of their Pendulum Traveler ‘Night Flight’. All orders will be shipped within a week after the final day in the flash sale on October 31st. The watch comes with a 2-year international warranty.
More details on Fromanteel-watches.com.
6 responses
That date window really jars. The rest of the watch looks good but why on earth they thought the date works is beyond me.
Aún no han entregado la primera versión que era en verano, dicen ahora que en Octubre.
Un SW 330-1 precio de salida 949,00€ . No es ninguna ganga, no habrá segundas oportunidades.
Red alert. Date at 4.
#Gil
Red alert. Crown at 4.
I was looking at their website a few days ago and saw this. My usual watch has a 2824 in it and the date window replaces the “3”. The 2824 and sw330 are the same diameter. On this watch its well in from the edge of the dial probably because a larger date wheel would be expensive to implement. The proportions just look wrong . The on the wrist shot shows to my eye it is just huge it looks like a (largish) pocket watch. The crown at 4 looks pretty much unavoidable on something that big as I think it would stick into your flesh everytime you bent your wrist if it was at “3”. The date at 4 follows on without a different date wheel to present proper at “3”.
Nice watch aside from the date placement, which is tragic.