danish design, swiss precision (issue 1)
DESCRIPTION
The London Lifestyle, on what you get when you mix two best friends, extreme sports and a love for the finer things in life... Linde Werdelin.TRANSCRIPT
DANISH DESIGN
SWISS PRECISION Linde Werdelin
Above: The Spidolite II Tech Green
looks the business. Carbon, AWL, and
green details. Fantastic.
DANISH DESIGN
SWISS PRECISION The London Lifestyle, on
what you get when you mix
two best friends, extreme
sports and a love for the finer
things in life...
The story goes that in
the winter of 1996, Jorn
Werdelin, mountaineer
and off-piste skier, was
taken by surprise in a
bout of bad weather, got lost, skied off a
cliff and broke his back. This then gave
him the idea, in conjunction with a life
long friend, Morten Linde, to create
high end sports watches with the capa-
bility to provide useful information to
the wearer while
On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, The
London Lifestyle went down to the
Linde Werdelin show room at Pem-
bridge villas in Notting Hill, to check
out some of the current line-up of ho-
rological creations.
After the detailed and interesting talk
about the company with their head of
press, Madina, we set off outside with
6 watches from the Linde Werdelin
line up, for a closer look at the Danish
designed, Swiss built time pieces.
‘By watch making standards, they‘re a
young brand...this hasn’t stopped them
from becoming a success’
diving or skiing (we’ll get onto that
later).
Linde Werdelin was founded in the
year 2002. The company is very young
by watch making standards. They also
have certainly what could be defined as
a very niche market, but clearly, this
hasn’t stopped them from becoming
quite a success. Now that you’re up to
speed lets go onto the details of our ex-
citing visit to the Showroom.
(Shortly after this we had a short time
with Jorn himself; short, because, before
long, he had to whisk of to a meeting.)
We managed get a great cover shot of
Jorn, who was very chilled, relaxed, and
very, very cool.
SWISS PRECISION
The watches we had were from two
main lines.
Both of which would introduce the ag-
ony of choice to the potential buyer..
Firstly we have the Oktopus. The Okto-
pus is LindeWerdelin’s timepiece used
for diving. The Oktopus watches are
designed to be attachable to their own
diving instrument, known as the reef.
This allows users to see real time, useful
information, while underwater, and
greatly enhances the experience.
Right: Oktopus II Yellow; The
Rock Instrument.
Far right from top left:
(Clockwise): The Rock Instru-
ment, the Spidolite Tech II
Green, the Oktopus II Yellow
& Spidospeed Titanium Blue;
The gorgeous underside of
the titanium blue.
The Oktopus watch was the first full
line made by Linde Werdelin. The first
example of which was created by the
company, to be used to scale mount Ev-
erest; but that’s another story.
Secondly, we have the Spido range of
watches. While the Oktopus line of
watches are made with diving in mind,
the Spido watches immediately strike
you as being designed for something
quite different.
The Spido’s are Light, and purposefully
beautiful.
LindeWerdelin describes the Spido’s as
‘a true 3-dimensional skeletonised ex-
perience’ and they were spot on. These
watches look gorgeous. Having a look
at them, you can just get a sense, of the
sheer time, and skill, that has gone into
creating these skeletonised watches.
They’re made from a solid block, and
then crafted down into what you see
today as the case of the timepiece. The
design of the various Spido watch is
technically complex, and artistically
magnificent.
The skeletonised case, takes inspiration
from the design of racing cars, where
bare beauty, and weight reduction, take
priority place.
We’ve decided to take a close look at the Spidolite
II Tech Green.
In hand, it’s a light, but clearly, very durable and
very luxurious time piece. The watch is quite sim-
ply, a revolutionising step for Linde Werdelin, as
it heralded the introduction of the material that
they have created after 2 years of research and
testing. Known as ‘ALW’, this material is an alloy
of metals, which is 50% lighter than titanium, and
is used to craft the inner case of the II Tech Green.
The outer case, is also geared towards weight re-
duction, as the skeletonised case, is made of
forged carbon. Yes. Carbon. The carbon gives the
watch a very cool, futuristic look, and in coordina-
tion with the green between the angular hollows
of the skeletonised carbon outer case, it looks like
something straight out of a Sci-fi flick. We like
that.
The watch has the dimensions 44mm (w) by
46mm (l) by 15mm (h), and while this isn’t the
smallest watch, it most certainly wasn’t too large
or at all cumbersome; lightness, was very appar-
ent.
The company only release small quantities of
watches per year. The Spidolite Tech II Green was
released together with the Spidolite Tech II Gold.
Both are available in a limited production run of
75 pieces.
Above: The Spidolite II Tech Green is cool.
Everyone likes carbon right?
The dial of the Spidolite
II Tech Green reveals a
small glimpse of the
movement, and has the
Linde Werdelin logo
and a black satin fin-
ished hand.
The SpidoLite II Tech is
powered by the LW 04,
calibre 2251, which is
custom made by
Concepto, who are an
independent movement
manufacturer based in
La Chaux de Fonds.
The front and back of the
movement are finished
with a circular perlage
and engraved with the
Spido icon.
All things considered,
Linde Werdelin certainly
make some great time
pieces. Although they
may not appeal to every-
one, they will always
have a strong following.
Those of us who appreciate the unique
shapes making up the Oktopus II Tita-
nium Yellow, and the otherworldly
style of Spidolite Tech II Green.
Linde Werdelin, Danish Design, and
Swiss Precision.
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