First Look: KAAL Multiverse

Singapore, The Microbrand Mecca, has produced a new brand with a new watch. KAAL Watches is set to release their debut piece, the Multiverse. Founded by Alvin Lye (the founder of Azimuth Watches), KAAL has created a truly unique watch for the microbrand market. If you’re one to scroll through the pictures and just want the skinny: The Multiverse is available for preorder on the KAAL website now for $369. That deal ends tomorrow, but as of Friday, October 23, you’ll be able to get it via Kickstarter for as little as $399. We’ll have a full review soon, but in the meantime, let’s take a brief look at the watch by way of the press kit.

KAAL is the Sanskrit word for “time,” and the brand means to suggest that time and the efforts to track and measure it have been with humans forever. As Jeremy Piven told us in PCU, Sanskrit is a 5000-year old dead language, which makes appropriate the pulling words for the sake of suggesting oldness (although it’s closer to 3000-years old).

The Multiverse is a behemoth of a watch (19mm thick, thanks to the enormous sapphire crystal), and comes in three variants: Earth, Moon, and Sun. The celestial disc is suspended over the dial by the bridge. With the exceptional dimensionality of the bridge and the domed crystal, the Multiverse brings to mind the far more expensive Vianney Halter Deep Space and MB&F Thunderdome watches. If those watches appealed to you but not your wallet, the Multiverse is the answer you’ve been looking for.

How the hell do you tell time on this thing? Let me know give you a lesson. The photo above shows the watch at 2:24:47. The hours are printed on a rotating disc, with a 12 o’clock arrow indicating the current hour. At :24, you can see the “Northern Star” minute hand. At :47 (just above the bridge), you can see the “Orb” second hand. Got it? Good.

It’s always a roll of the dice for a brand to complicate the timetelling process. In this case, you’re trading a learning curve for a unique design. Powered by a Seiko NH35, you won’t need to worry about reliability. Even at retail ($699), this watch appears to present great value simply because it is so unique (look at that lume!). I’m excited to go hands on in the next few weeks, and hope you’ll check back for the review.

Check out the KAAL website

KAAL Kickstarter