Recently I had the pleasure of writing an in depth review of the phenomenal SP-1 Landship. It truly is an amazing watch and felt very comfortable to wear. Primarily this is down to the innovative design and use of titanium in production. Azimuth is renowned for pushing the boundaries of conventional design. Their entire collection of timepieces display an enormous amount of skill and creativity including the SP-1 Landship Battle Tank Collection.
A few weeks ago Azimuth’s Co-Founder Alvin Lye told me about an exciting new limited edition he had been working on. He explained that he had employed an artist to customise the already successful SP-1 Landship. The result is a collection of six unique models that replicate historic tanks. I was fortunate enough to see a few preview images so I could appreciate the meticulous detail involved. To achieve these marvellous effects involved a process of many fine layers of paint. On 1st October 2013 these incredible timepieces were unveiled at Krasnaya, The Watch Art Gallery in Singapore. As far as I am aware they received an exceptionally positive response. Here is a summary in the company’s own words explaining the inspiration behind each design.
Tank “000”
This watch embodies a WWII German 1943-1945 inspired three-toned camouflage scheme. The markings depict a knight on a charger, the symbol of the 505th Heavy Tank Battalion, which consisted of the famous Tiger and King Tiger tanks.
Tank “116”
This WWII German early war (1937-1940) inspired watch sports a German grey paint scheme. The markings depict a skull and crossbones emblem, used by the 192nd Sturmgeschutz Battalion.
Tank “110”
This watch portrays a WWII German mid war 1943 inspired two-toned camouflage scheme. The markings of this famous Tiger I tank consists of a “Dao Fu”(inverted Chinese character “Lucky”) and imp emblems that identify it as a part of the 13th company of the 2nd SS Das Reich Division.
Tank “112”
This WWII German early war inspired watch sports a grey paint scheme with winter white wash camouflage. The tank crew often applied coats of white wash to camouflage their tanks in the snowfields. The markings of a white steel helmet depict a tank from the premier elite Panzer Grenadier Division, Großdeutschland, which consisted of the best-equipped units of the German Army.
Tank “139”
This watch exemplifies a WWII US inspired olive drab paint scheme. The markings consist of the ubiquitous white stars that clearly identify a US vehicle. American crews were known to give their tanks nicknames, in this case “Classy Peg” was found on this M4A3 Sherman tank.
Tank “062”
This watch symbolizes the new range of tanks with the design based on modern pixelated camouflage patterns and is yet to be used in combat.
