It’s always great to find a watch brand just down the road, and Manchester based LPW have a great looking Sellita powered dive watch on the Kickstarter launch pad, ready for take-off when the Coronavirus dies down a bit.

This is a dream project, like so many watch manufacturing micro-brands today, driven by the founder’s passion for watches and bringing the best elements of classic inspiration together with modern CAD design and low volume production methods. Fact is, you can find movement, crystal, case and strap suppliers online fairly easily – what you need is that old magic ingredient; charisma.

For us, the Luna One in pale, kinda eerie blue dial guise, is something that stands out from many other Kickstarter watch projects. It has all that you want from a watch that can venture into water; 200m depth resistance, screw down crown, domeed sapphire crystal and a 316L steel, 40mm wide case. There’s plenty of superluminova on the hands and markers that really stands out as well.

A deep dish dial, and a 120 click unidirectional bezel finishes off the 70s retro dive watch look perfectly. The best bit? LPW reckon they can ship this beauty out of the door for £549, which considering the spec is remarkable value. Let’s be honest, there are plenty of Kickstarter watches around that retail for £600 or so and feature Seiko/Ronda quartz movements.

The virus has delayed things a little at LPW, but as soon as they get closer to retailing, we will let you know. Meanwhile you can join the mailing list for updates and early bird discounts if you like this one.