Atowak is an up-and-coming Hong-Kong-based watchmaker creating unique timepieces that echo the aesthetics of Swiss luxury independents, at reasonable price points.
The company’s brand name Atowak is inspired by Caesar cipher, which is one of the most widely known encryption techniques. It’s a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet. “Atowak” is a Caesar cipher for the word “Unique” when using a key of 20. With this logic A equals U, T equals N, and so forth.
Beginning with the FM radio-inspired Windows Pro in July of 2021 and the supercar-inspired Ettore in December of 2021 — thanks to two successful Kickstarted campaigns, savvy digital marketing, and highly unique aspirational watch designs — Atowak has quickly gained traction in the accessibly priced mechanical watch space.
Building on the success of those two aforementioned campaigns, which generated, $99,667 and $278,610 from pre-orders, respectively, Atowak has moved away from Kickstarter, and upmarket with the introduction of the all-new Cobra today — which is available exclusively at Atowak.com.
Inspired by a king cobra snake, the aggressive angular case design is shaped like the head of the venomous apex predator. Made of 316L stainless steel, the case exterior is decorated with a scale-like Geneva woven pattern that imitates the hooded head of a cobra and requires 50 different processes of polishing and finishing to produce.
Most notably, the Cobra features a revolving satellite hour wheel with spinning minute hands. The hour indicators are displayed on three-wheel arms that rotate 120 degrees at a time, with four sides per arm to indicate 12 hours. On the tip of the rotating carousel, the hour indicators spin on the hour, while the tips — which are akin to a snake’s venom-injecting fangs — simultaneously point to the minute from 0-60 on the retrograde minute scale located at the bottom of the dial. All of this is visible through two sapphire crystal windows, that allow you to easily read the time, and admire the mechanics.
Delivering the power to the hours and minutes satellite is a 4Hz Japanese-made 24-jewel automatic Miyota 9039 movement that’s been heavily modified to work in this unorthodox configuration. Typically the power reserve is 42 hours, however, as a result of the increased energy required to drive the heavy carousel the maximum power reserve is reduced to 38 hours.
“As our previous watches demonstrate, Atowak has never been afraid to be uniquely different. Our watches are more than fine timepieces, they are personal style accessories that connect with something deeper – a sense of adventure and bold confidence. Atowak Cobra instantly makes a statement, its cobra-inspired shape coils around the wrist, and its exclusive revolving satellite hour with triple wheel arms sharply points out the time like a snake ready to strike. This unforgettable design, combined with precision internal components, and satellite complication, is a paragon of accuracy, performance, and style,” said the Atowak CEO.
Each Atowak Cobra timepiece comes with both a leather strap with a pin buckle and a color-matched stainless steel bracelet. The strap and bracelet can easily be switched without a tool, thanks to Atowak’s own quick-release system.
The Cobra’s numerals and carousel hands are illuminated with a two-tone application of Swiss Super-LumiNova that glows brightly in low-light conditions.
The Atowak Cobra weighs 115 grams on the included leather strap and 210 grams on the bracelet, has a depth rating of 30 meters, and comes with a two year-international warranty. The Cobra is available in Steel Silver, Carbon Black, or Desert Brown for a retail price of $1,999. (Use code NEWCOMER2022 at checkout for 15% off.)
Learn more at Atowak.
Photos by Atowak.
