I am an enthusiast for Star Wars as much as I am for luxury and talking about watches I consider myself what we call a “watch-head”, and this independent watchmaking brand made a personal dream come true, to see my all time favorite saga involved in high end watchmaking. Let me tell you about Kross Studio and the ultimate collectible: The Death Star Tourbillon.
Kross Studio is a brand founded in 2020 by Marco Tedeschi with the sole purpose of creating top tier watches for the new generations, “for those who don’t like to be labeled” as they stand for. The brand has made up a big name in a small amount of time, personally I met Marco and his brand at the 2021 SIAR (Salón de Alta Relojería) at Mexico City when I came across a life size stormtrooper that instantly grabbed my attention, as I came closer to the stand I saw something…really special that I was not expecting to see at a Haute horlogerie event; a big orange crate as the ones I saw in Rogue One, yes, the ones that the empire used to store the Kyber Crystal. As I kept getting closer I saw it, a timepiece that instantly fulfilled my geekest side, a central tourbillon inspired by the Death Star, I thought I was dreaming.
I could not believed my eyes, the case of the watch was perfectly done to emulate something out of the starwars universe, inside, a central tourbillon cased by a little death star full of details, Marco approached me and started to tell me about the brand and this unique timepiece, he was kind enough to let me handle the watch while he was explaining the perfect details around it: this center tourbillon makes one revolution per minute, despite the size of the death star you can see the green superlaser cannon, the hour hand takes the shape of an imperial class star destroyer while the minute hand appears as a super class star destroyer. I was mesmerized, it also had aurebesh writings on the sides of the DLC coated titanium case; of course as expected, this being a high end watch it features an inhouse-developed manual winding mechanical movement with a 5 day power reserve. I was impressed by the level of detail this 45 mm timepiece had. At that exact moment I was thinking one thing and one thing only, “this is the perfect watch for me”.
This timepiece is very special and highly detailed, it feels like something you could actually see in the movies, by knowing that, this watch would be enough for any enthusiast and collector, but, what truly makes this piece the ultimate collectible is the full set, as it includes the big orange crate I mentioned before, on the inside it is divided into nine storage units shaped as the capsules to store Kyber Crystals. Three of these removable capsules contain the Death Star Tourbillon watch, three accompanying straps and a piece of cinematic history, yes, an official screen-used Kyber Crystal! As an ephemeral fan of the saga and watchmaking this is history in the making, there is nothing similar out there, the level of commitment and detail Kross Studio put int this collaboration is mental; Im glad I met Marco and this phenomenal project because it felt as if they had me in mind while creating this collectors set, and I believe that’s exactly the feeling they were looking for…to get each collector to feel this set was made just for them.
I would definitely recommend you checking out Kross Studio, the collaborations they have achieved in such a short period of time are huge, I can assure you, if you like geek stuff and collectibles as much as you like watches, well, this will be your new favorite watchmaking brand.
Written by Founder & Head editor: Anton Fernandez