Ril Concept is the brainchild of Roger Gilbert and Nathan Halfon, two finance professional buddies who shared a passion for watch collecting. Gilbert works between Chicago and London, Halfon works between Genva and London and together the jet-setters decided to create a company that would deliver lifestyle solution for timepieces, clothes, homeware, food and events.
Their first release is a timepiece, which as watch conoisseurs they have chose to model after the legendary Rolex Submariner worn by actor Sean Connery in the 1962 James Bond movie Dr. No.
image hotlinked from IAlreadyHaveAWatch.com
There are many Bond Submariner inspired projects, but Gilbert and Halfon are amongst the very few who tried to get the case design right.
credit www.fabricegueroux.com
Latter and more recent versions of the Rolex Submariner feature shoulders that protect the crown, but the original design was based on a shoulder-less Oyster case. Ril got it right, but on the other hand, the dial design seems to lack the same attention for detail: the Scuba features applied galvanic indexes while the vintage Rolex featured painted-only indexes.
My guess is that the founders choose to give a more qualitative feel to the dial. Sold for USD 999.00 and housing a Japanese movement (probably by Miyota), this watch is not what one could call “agressively” priced. It is set to play agains competitors who use Swiss movements. The Ril Scuba uses a flat scratch-proof sapphire crystal, which unfortunately goes away from the vintage look of the Rolex Submariner. Also, water-resitance of 30 meters (3 BAR) could be deemed insufficient, considering the nautical looks of the timepiece.
For every watch sold, Ril Concept will donate USD 6.00 to the housing and homeless charity Shelter. Those USD 6.00 barely represent 1% of the total retail price, wich leaves room for philantropic improvement…
