The Studio Underdog Watermelon (first generation):

Obviously the most special and striking thing about the Studio Underdog Watermelon is the colour palette. This creative watermelon flavoured watch has a really cool configuration which uses colour to give a feeling of fun and happiness. It courageously uses a bold and bright colour contrast to stand out from the crowd. What’s cool about this watch is that when I have it on my wrist, its just got this really nice of pop of colour about it. At the tip of the chronograph hand, there is a subtle colour pop. Also, there is an artistic colour gradient with really subtle, beautiful changes in colour on the chronograph timer. The asymmetric sub-dial layout is reminiscent of some vintage watches but unique within its own style and I don’t get the feeling that this a duplicate of another brand. The dial is fresh and funky, particularly the arrangement of the indices, as they look like watermelon seeds. Reading the time with the hands feels like slicing up a fresh watermelon, which always reminds me of a very interesting and popular game called “Fruit Ninja”. Personally I think it is a perfectly fun watch to take on holidays or wear at weekends.

The Studio Underdog Watermelon case is 38.5 mm in diameter and 13.6mm thick. It has a 20mm strap and the lug to lug distance is 44.5mm. It has a three part case construction in 316L stainless steel. The domed sapphire crystal is accounting for about 3mm of the thickness. Its double domed on the front and flat on the exhibition back. It comes with a black Italian leather strap which is a bit long for me. With its integrated quick release spring bars, it is easy to swap out for another better size strap. The dial of the watch has two layers with a green outer satin sandblast base dial and a pink/redder coarse graded top dial.

The movement in the Studio Underdog Watermelon is a Seagull Manual Winding ST-1901 with gilt Swan Neck regulator, which has an incredibly rich history. It started life as a Swiss Venus Cal.175 before the tooling and technical drawings were sold to the Chinese Airforce in the early 1960s. It is manual wound and is really easy and simple to operate. It provides a 50-hour power reserve with the chrono stopped, and a 45-hour power reserve if you want that extra chrono dynamism. Most watches with this movement have a solid case back, the watermelon actually has a display back which is a very good feature. What really impresses me is its column wheel. Considering that it is not an expensive column wheel chronograph, it is actually pretty good looking with reasonably good quality finishing on it but without the expectation of incredible levels of accuracy.

The founder Richard, described the Studio Underdog Watermelon as “seriously unserious”. It is actually an “unserious” playful unisex fun watch with serious mechanical specs, texture, functions and materials by using the current-day machining techniques to emulate a mid century vintage silhouette while integrating a modern degrade dial. “So, why can’t horol0gy be a little bit m0re playful from time to time? ”