ReviewReview: The SevenFriday Hot Rod Limited Edition

SevenFriday’s watches have been the talk of the town in the last few months. We were pretty excited too when the brand made its debut in India. But before we go ahead with this review, it’s important to place SevenFriday watches in their proper context.

While most (almost all) watchmakers have followed the mainstream system of producing simple circular dials with different style of hands, for centuries, Sevenfriday has chosen to stay away from the conventional. Their main goal behind every timepiece being: a watch having a visually “impressive mechanical display of complications”. Their interplay of impressive visuals and complex mechanics is one of the reasons why the brand has achieved so much success in only four years. But one of the main reasons why SevenFriday has done so well for themselves in such a short span of time is because their watches are extremely reasonable (for what they offer).

2016 saw the brand enter ‘Limited Edition’ territory for the first time. The new P3C/01 or Hot Rod is a watch inspired by classic American modified cars of the world war era – and is already their most successful watch yet. Let’s find out what makes it so desirable all over the world:

Inspired by the Hot Rod racing era:

The Hot Rod era extended from 1930 to 1965. During this time, there was an adequate supply of vintage junk cars that could be bought cheaply. Of course, these cars had sound bodies and frames and were junked mostly for mechanical reasons, but following the Second World War, the Hot Rod culture flourished in America.

The typical ‘Hot Rod’ was a heavily modified version of the junk car.  And because post the war more soldiers had time to leisure, all innovations used for destruction were used for the development of new engines and technologies instead. The excess of military installations, especially airports, also helped Hot rods become popular in America. These abandoned air bases and airports were where all drag races took place and were even used as testing and racing grounds for the modified cars. The Hot Rod era is also where the Ford V8 became famous.

At the 2016 Bonneville Speed Week, SevenFriday revealed their limited-edition watch that was decorated with details of the iconic parts of hot rod cars. And in a crowded world of ‘racing-inspired’ watches, The P3C/01 easily stands out thanks to a combination of good design and the fact that a SevenFriday watch is going to stand out from the crowd anyway.

A 5-layer deep dial made of 22 parts:

The Hot Rod is an example of SevenFriday’s impressive interplay of visuals and complex mechanics – an eye-catching, polished stainless steel bezel and a 5 layer deep dial made up of 22 applied parts. But even with so many parts and layers, time readings are extremely clear. The minute hand is mounted on a ‘wheel rim’ style design, and the seconds’ sub-dial is also mounted on a frame inspired by the wheels of a Hot Rod car. The inner layers of the dial attempt to replicate the chrome radiator grill of the Hot Rod and allow the wearer to see the inner workings of the watch.

Familiarly sized, having a square-ish 47mm case (like all other SevenFriday watches), the watch is further protected with a grooved rubber side protection and is fastened by a thick leather strap inspired by the look of a seatbelt. The crown also bears the same classic wheel rim design to complete the overall theme.

A mechanical watch powered by an NFC chip:

The back of the Hot Rod denotes where the watch was designed and what powers the watch. The P3C/01 runs with a Miyota 82S5 movement which has an accuracy of 21,600 vph and a healthy power reserve of 40 hours.

However, the interesting bit of the watch is that it’s equipped with an NFC chip that has several advantages. Primarily, the chip allows the owner to authenticate their watch via their official app. All you have to do is simply scan the watch with an NFC-enabled phone to instantly register your watch onto their warranty program. Maybe something watchmakers should take note of, considering it’s a handy tool to confirm the authenticity of the watch. Over time, SevenFriday even expects to introduce more features to the owner (NFC payments, maybe?).

Final thoughts:

Which brings us to the value offered by SevenFriday’s first limited edition watch. The greatest strength of this timepiece is without a doubt, the visual impact and interest you get for the money. While the P3C/01 doesn’t offer a racing inspired ‘Master Chronometer’, remember it costs a fraction of it and doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket either. If you’re someone interested in haute horlogerie and want a solid mechanical watch that grabs almost everyone’s attention, without spending a year’s salary (or more) on a watch, the SevenFriday Hot Rod is a great and worthy buy. You’ll end up with a very interesting looking watch that performs simple functions but will probably get noticed more than your friend’s ‘mainstream luxury’ watch.

The SevenFriday P3C/01 Hot Rod is limited to 450 pieces around the world and available in India at ethoswatches.com.

Do you like the Hot Rod? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below!