DAEM watches Basquiat skull

There are seemingly a million-and-one quartz dress watches on the market. So many, in fact, that we often wonder why anyone bothers making them – especially when the majority look identical to one another! DAEM watches is a new company based in Brooklyn that thinks it has more to offer.

Introducing DAEM Watches

First up, DAEM are not making identikit “Daniel Wellington” watches, so full marks for coming up with some rather cool designs. DAEM’s first collection – the Kings Collection – is an homage to its roots in Brooklyn (a.k.a. Kings County).

DAEM Watches – First Impressions

At first glance, we struggled to find enthusiasm for DAEM watches’ offerings. The dials look quite good, with a bit of depth, and the properly fitted straps are a nice touch. On the other hand, the watch cases are very “standard”, the knurled crown seems a bit much for a dress watch and the $300 price tag seems a touch high for a quartz – there is a Ronda Swiss movement inside, but only the well-known brands can really justify asking over £200 for a battery-powered timepiece.

Then we saw their special editions: There is a mechanical DAEM watch: the Skull. This one really caught our eye. Fitted with a quality ETA 2824 movement, it blends two of the neo-expressionist artist Basquiat’s most powerful works. His Untitled artwork (a.k.a. Skull) was presented at his debut solo exhibition in New York and is seen on the dial of the watch. The canvas strap is made with excerpts from Basquiat’s Undiscovered Genius painting. At $1,250 it’s not cheap, but you do at least get a Swiss mechanical ETA movement – which are becoming rare. We can see this one getting some attention for its unique looks.

It’s often telling when we ask a watch brand for more photos and we get dozens of pictures of cool-looking models with the watch so small as to be almost indistinguishable – and we almost passed over DAEM watches due to the photos they sent us of their “basic” range. However, after a deeper dig into their website, we changed our mind somewhat: the dial designs (even the plain ones) are promising and, should a full automatic range be developed in the future at the right price point, DAEM could become a brand to watch.

By Mike Richmond

Mike spends what little spare time he has writing for WRUK; and what little money he makes building up his collection of timepieces.

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