Introducing Barrelhand: the First Watch Company to Participate in a Moon Mission Since the Apollo program
Barrelhand are extremely unique as a watch brand in so far as the fact that they don’t describe themselves as one: they’re a technology company, based in San Francisco, that promote collaboration between all domains of science and creativity - And sending the memory disc of their new watch to the Moon! There’s a reason they’re included in some of the best American watch brands on the market.
The final frontier, Outer Space, is at the forefront of their design philosophy and manufacturing process. The company was born out of the mind of Karel Bachand, a former NASA researcher who had the determination to create his own Urwerk style watch - So much so the brand invited him to see their process. Thus, Project One was born a number of years ago, and quickly sold out (You can read more about that here). This new idea of the next-generation product is founded in the use of cutting-edge aerospace technologies and innovations that make Barrelhand’s designs some of the most capable and avant-garde on the market. As we said, the “memory disc” on their latest piece, Project Monolith - a purpose-driven watch - is currently scheduled to hit the moon via the the Falcon 9 Rocket sometime tomorrow (2/22) afternoon.
Project Monolith serves two-purposes: firstly, it is an EVA resistant timepiece, that will be available to both the aeronautical industry and civilian market. Secondly, it serves as a repository for our human culture, but more on that later.
The watch’s case will be made of Airbus’ proprietary material, Scalmalloy, which combines Magnesium and Aluminium. Barrelhand have moved away from machining and instead, have been pioneering the latest laser based 3-D printing techniques. The case also boasts an airlock crown, which completely seals the movement off from the outside elements- vital if you’re heading out into space.
The movement, the M-1 Engine, was developed from the Sellita SW-300-1b. However, Barrelhand have completely supercharged it. Equipped with the industry’s best anti-shock devices, the movement can resist a shock of up to 555G which is absolutely mind-blowing. Obviously, being a tool watch built for high-performance space exploration, it boasts a really strong anti-magnetic construction- absolutely essential to ensure its accuracy and precision.
The Memory Disc, the aforementioned repository of culture, is attached to the back of every single piece of the Monolith Project. The 4.5GB memory drive contains over 1000 pages of data, that include artwork, literary extracts, and much more. A copy of this memory disc is currently on its way to the surface of the Moon in the Intuitive Machines Nova-C Lunar Module- this makes Barrelhand the first watch brand to participate in a Lunar landing since the Apollo missions.
The Barrelhand Project Monolith is so completely out of this world. Combining some of the most innovative technology with an extremely imaginative passion for the next chapter of our history. Putting themselves on the map in such a spectacular fashion with their multi-purpose inventions for the space age, Barrelhand and Karel are vying to become one of the most interesting and dynamic actors in not only the watch industry, but the space age as well.
If you’d like more information on Barrelhand and it’s founder, we did a full interview with Karel that you can read here.
How much is the Barrelhand Project Monolith?
The Barrelhand Project Monolith will retail for $8,750 USD and will be available on the Barrelhand website for pre-order now.