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What Makes Ikepod Watches A Show Stopper

Let’s find out what the watch brand brings to the table in regards to quality, craftsmanship, and more Ikepod watches have been around for a very long time. Seeing these timepieces in person is hard because the brand is so rare. The brand has seen peaks and valleys, but it looks to be doing well right now. Marc Newson is the designer and has extraordinary creative power, but he is not involved in day-to-day operations, which changes the perspective of the company in several dynamic ways.

In essence, anything he wants to create gets made. An excellent illustration of this is the Hemipode, a 44mm-wide timepiece that was enormous for its day (the 1990s). Similarly, the 47mm-wide Megapode was seen as massive.

On the forearm, they appear fine as of right now. Marc changed his mind more than ten years later and created the 30mm wide, two-sided Solaris watch. He simply will do whatever comes tohis imagination. If you are interested enough in Ikepod, then let's dive in deep to know about this iconic brand and its watches:

How Much Do Ikepod Watches Cost?

Regarding pricing, Ikepod stands in the middle between cheap and expensive. They aren't ridiculously expensive like swiss watches. However, they aren't cheap either.

Take the example of Ikepod's iconic Seapod series. Talking of straps, Ikepod provides a couple of other strap hues, including black and orange for this model and blue for the S002 Jacques Seapod variant. The Seapod, which Fabrice Gonet developed, was a pretty good effort by Ikepod and the company. It's a member of a more recent breed of fashionable watches with expert craftsmanship at more affordable luxury pricing points.

Consumers benefit, it should be more accessible to see more of it. The Ikepod Seapod S001 Zale has a retail value at approximately $1,500. You can visit Ikepod's website to learn more or to place an order. Moreover, Ikepod has some watches under $1000 to facilitate their customer. Ikepod maintains its name as a premium watch brand but also plays well in the budget segment.

Most Popular Ikepod Watches

Marc Newson, a design architect, and Oliver Ike, a businessman from Switzerland, launched Ikepod in 1994. The brand gave rise to concepts and styles that continue to define watchmaking today, including greater proportions paired with cutting-edge geometries and designs that pushed the boundaries of what watches might be while still commanding hefty prices.

The brand maintained its dominance through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, when the dot-com bubble burst, post-9/11 global affairs cooled down business, and it finally succumbed to the weak economy. Marc Newson, a design architect, and Oliver Ike, a businessman from Switzerland, launched Ikepod in 1994.

Behind closed doors, however, three fervent watch aficionados and astute businesspeople were formulating a plan to buy the company and give it a second life, this time by addressing past problems and opening up a new market for the positive things that were still alive in Ikepod. This ambitious move was viewed by many in the industry as posibly the start of a new revolution in the watch world and one to pay close attention to.

In April 2017, the group acquired the name and logo and immediately made Ikepod great once more (that adage isn't exclusive to Trump and H. Moser & Cie., it must be noted). Analysis, development, and testing over the following year reduced many choices to two model lines for the debut. The second rebirth launch is now on Kickstarter, the preferred modern method for establishing a new brand. It will be fascinating to see whether Ikepod can secure funds easily or not.

What's So Special About It?

Given the history of Ikepod, it seems sensible that the people behind the new Ikepod could wish to exercise some prudence by using a crowdfunding platform to gauge the first response before making a significant investment in production parts.

But why, you might be wondering? Because according to mythology, Ikepod watches were notoriously prone to issues throughout the company's existence. These were central issues that had many potential investors sitting on the sidelines instead of rushing to put money up for the company.

It all began with the design and concluded with problems with quality control. Firstly, despite a special tool, opening the watch for servicing or maintenance proved to be a major ache in the neck since the design "needed" the case to have no case back and the dial plain. It wasn't optimal to remove the movement from the front; it appeared as though they hadn't considered the fact that no movement would ever operate flawlessly.

Additionally, there were some problems with the original rubber straps and other quality control difficulties, such as pushers sliding off the Hemipode chronograph. Of course, consumers could start having doubts when you add to the expensive costs, limited supply, and the reality that the company flopped twice (or thrice).

Because of this, the new owners are making an effort to be as open and honest as they can about the new Ikepod, what it is and isn't, and why customers should feel confident purchasing a brand-new Ikepod watch. At the end of the day, transparency has become a vital component in business affairs these days as more consumers demand it before investing in exclusive or statement pieces.

Ikepod in the Present Day

Ikepod has a completely different structure than its predecessor. The new watches aim to address every single one of the criticisms leveled against Swiss-made products. Such as their production in extremely small quantities, their fussy servicing concerns, occasionally made of precious metals, and their price tags of thousands (or tens of thousands of dollars). The quartz movements of the watches are Japanese (Miyota) and are currently serviceable without any additional tools. All of this is due to the redesigned back cover.

Skilled watchmakers in Switzerland build the case, dial, and hands after purchasing them from high-quality manufacturers who also supply the Swiss industry (is that even a special anymore?). The end result is a high-quality, dependable wristwatch that slightly evolves the Ikepod design, is hassle-free, and extremely economical.

The Duopod, a descendant of the Horizon collection, will be offered for a fairly reasonable price of around $590 retail, while the Chronopod, the replacement for the Hemipode, will retail for $725. You may order directly from Ikepod without going via an outside sales force, as is the case with almost everything else you buy online these days.

Less Known Ikepod Facts

The "Pod," the first watch concept ever created by Marc Newson, was created in 1986. He was just 23 years old back then. At such a young age, of course those with more years of experience in the field viewed his ambitions with cynicism, but he quickly worked through these assumptions and made bold decisions that continue to reverberate within the industry today. Newson reportedly put 100 components of the Pod watch together by himself, and it was at that point that he learned the backend of the business and was able to better sell his concepts en masse. Moreover, he realized how challenging watch creation, manufacturing, and assembly might be.

The name "Ikepod" was not just a short abbreviation of Oliver Ike's last name and Newson's first watch, the Pod; it was also a nod to Newson's fixation with ‘pod’ and ‘capsule’ type designs. It dominates most of his work and is reflected in many of the product names from Ikepod.

The first Ikepod watch was given the deliberate moniker Sea Slug after the unusual marine animal. It was intended to create the impression that the brand was hip and distinctive. When it was initially offered, the price was less than $1,000 retail. Ikepod swiftly established itself as a premium watch company with pricing to match. Ikepod produced various watches using Hemipode tourbillon movements. However, the majority of their most costly timepieces featured solid platinum casings.

At costs close to $100,000 or more, they were formerly the most costly platinum watches with a relatively basic chronograph mechanism since the design of the cases needed such a massive block of platinum to deal with.

The ‘big watch’ trend, which swiftly took over the wristwatch industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was popularized by Marc Newson in its infancy. When most men's timepieces were 38mm wide or less, Marc Newson created watches like the Hemipode, which were 44mm wide.

This size would eventually become universal for modern sports watches with striking designs. Marc Newson is a major proponent of symmetry in design, much like Apple.

However, it is occasionally fashionable to experiment with a controlled imbalance in watch architecture. Moreover, Newson was primarily engaged in identical case and display designs.

Famous for Comfort

Marc Newson was a comfort and ergonomics maestro in the summation of those working in the industry. To make his Ikepod watches fit precisely balanced on the wrist, he created a unique and bespoke rubber strap for most of them.

The Ikepod rubber strap, the first outcome of Marc Newson's CAD experiments, was made available in 1996. (computer-aided design). Update: It is quite likely that Newson worked on the fluoroelastomer strap for the Apple Watch because it resembles this design.

Is Newson comfortable with smartwatches being mostly square or rectangular but becoming more and more rounded? The Solaris, Newson's lone angular watch for Ikepod, launched in 2009 and had a pretty odd appearance. It was one of his smallest watches, and it had watch dials on both sides and was intended to be reversible. For Ikepod, Newson also created the Manatee, a slightly rectangular and oblong watch.

Ikepod Seapod

We would especially like to share our thoughts about Seapod with you. You might be asking why only Seapod? The answer is that Seapod is Ikepod's most iconic watch series. Seapod took the popularity of Ikepod to whole new levels.

The Ikepod Seapod is a brand-new wristwatch that has been available since 2021. It is one of Ikepod's most ambitious attempts to date to develop a contemporary, reasonably priced timepiece that looks to fit within the brand's bigger DNA legacy.

Moreover, The Seaslug was an Ikepod diver's watch from the 1990s. This is one of the most intriguing if eccentric, diving watches from the 1990s, and the fact that its case is just roughly 37mm wide has dampened its appeal.

Gonet didn't only create a contemporary replica of the Seaslug watch. Because many Ikepod watches were distinguished by their bulbous, pebble-style cases, Ikepod now appears to seek to promote this feature.

The task was to combine the pebble-style casing with part of the original Seaslug's design Heritage to create the Seapod, a new product the company is marketing. Is it the opinion of some, of many, or does the Seaslug name seem difficult to remember? Calling a wristwatch by the name of an unusual but generally tranquil ocean mollusk sounds pretty delightful in an era where diving watches take on some of the most violent sounding names of the ocean.

Design And Technical Specs

Let's go back to the Seapod and go through its construction and technical specifications as a clock. With a sleek style and straightforward charm, this is primarily an enthusiast-oriented product that modern watch collectors love. The absence of a date window is an excellent example.

Often, mainstream customers prefer date windows, and any watch shop will tell you. Watch aficionados occasionally become irritated by how the positioning of a date window detracts from overall symmetry rather than caring much about the date's additional utility. The Seapod is a gorgeous, symmetrical time-only dial that shouts.

Seapod and its Variants

Seapod comes in three different variants by Ikepod: the S001 Seapod Zale (with a black and orange dial), the S002 Jaques (with a black and blue dial), and the S003 Francois (with a black casing and a monochromatic black and white dial).

The steel casing of the Seapod is 46mm broad, 17mm thick, and water-resistant to 200 meters. A sharply curved sapphire crystal covering the dial has an amazing amount of AR coating to help with glare reduction. The numbers and hour markers are blue-lumed, but the luminance is on the lesser side; this is likely because there is a restriction to how much may be added.

Although the Seapod case measurements appear substantial, the watch wears smaller for a few reasons. The first is that it doesn't wear as thickly as its dimensions may imply due to its pebble-like form. Second, the case is ‘UFO-style’, which means it lacks lugs and is directly connected to the strap or bracelet.

This gives the Seapod a cool style and allows it to be stylishly worn on the widest range of wrists. Although the Seapod's casing form differs from the Seaslug's, Mr. Gonet reused many of the Seaslug's design components.

Undoubtedly, the hour markers and hands on the dial come first. The dial instantly reminds anybody familiar with the Seaslug that the historical model is related to the Seaslug, even if they are not perfect replicas.

Bezels

A revolving diver's style bezel with a lume dot at the 60-minute mark surrounds the dial. The bezel, with which Ikepod is quite pleased, is crafted from brushed steel to match the rest of the casing while also being able to be turned.

This seems to need some specialized technical effort, and we understand how challenging it may have been to get the parts and tolerances right for this function. The 42-hour power reserve automated mechanical movement is still very new and works at 4Hz. The Seapod, like the original Seaslug, has a showcase window made of sapphire crystal on the back that lets you see the movement.

All told, these components are pivotal in making Ikepod watches a showstopper and worthy of being adorned by aficionados and lovers of excellent, meticulous craftsmanship.