Gorilla debuts the retro-futuristic Outlaw Drift

Gorilla is an iconoclastic Swiss watch company founded by two former Audemars Piguet employees and takes its inspiration from automotive engineering. Unlike other micro-brands, Gorilla carved a niche for itself by presenting watches in modern materials like forged carbon, ceramic, and titanium at very attractive prices.

The company has now introduced the Outlaw Drift, a limited edition with a “wandering hours” complication at an affordable price. In a “wandering hours” display, time is indicated by moving a pointer showing the hour across an arc that has the minutes scale. For example, on the images that you see here, the time indicated is 10 o’ clock. First used in clocks in the 17th century, Audemars Piguet was the first to use it in contemporary watchmaking when it debuted the radical Star Wheel timepiece in 1991. Brands like Urwerk and Arnold & Sons have since produced watches with this complication. As a rule, most of these watches are priced beyond the realm of the average watch enthusiast, which is why the Outlaw Drift demands your attention.

Gorilla debuted this display on the GPHG-award nominated Fastback Drift Wandering Hours in 2018. The tonneau (that’s French for barrel) shape of the case is a throwback to 1970’s design. The case is made entirely of grade 5 titanium and measures 42 mm in width and 13.8 mm thick. The satin-polished case has a concave bezel with a mirror-polished finish, the bezel is fastened to the case by four corner allen head bolts. A blue anodized aluminum flange with the minutes scale slopes upwards from the sides of a dark gray NAC-coated baseplate that has a subtle spiral pattern. A black carousel cage at the centre of the dial holds the three blue star satellites with luminescent numerals that “wander” around the dial indicating time.

The modular Swiss movement was born out of a collaboration with specialists Vaucher, the Fleurier-based firm that produces movements for brands like Parmigiani, Richard Mille, and Hermes. Vaucher built the G-5238 wandering hours a module to fit atop a base self-winding ETA 2824-2 movement. The movement has a 38 hour power reserve.

The tonneau silhouette of the Outlaw Drift flows seamlessly into the form of the rubber & Cordura hybrid strap that fastens to the wrist with a titanium pin buckle. The case is limited to 250 pieces and is priced at $3,950.