The UFO of the watch world is back! Amida's "Digi Trend" is back!

In recent years, a major trend in the watch industry has been reviving defunct brands and bringing them back to market with their signature models. Clément Meynier, founder of the independent French brand Depencel, and his designer Mathieu Allègre have revived the Amida "Digitrend" watch, which was released in 1976. This is a "Digitrend Takeoff."

Jumping Hour UFOs reappear in the 21st century

　Clément Meynier, founder of the independent French brand Depencel, and his designer Mathieu Allègre have revived the Amida "Digitrend" watch, which was released in 1976. The name of the revived model is "Digitrend Takeoff."

What is Amida and "Digital Trend"?

　The 1970s was a period of remarkable creativity in the Swiss watch industry, with designers from various brands experimenting with bold new ideas in terms of form, color, and time display.

　Among these brands is Amida, which specializes in jumping hours. The name alone probably doesn't ring a bell for modern people, but for watch collectors, it brings to mind memories of Baselworld 1976. The brand was founded in Grenchen, Switzerland, in 1925. It later moved to Montreux, where it launched its "DigiTrend" watch, a unique design that allows you to check the time by looking at the side of the watch rather than directly from above.

　Other companies also released watches with a similar shape, which could be called "unidentified flying objects," in the same year. This was the Girard-Perregaux digital watch "Cassette" (revived by Girard-Perregaux in 2022). Bulova's "Computron" also followed the same design approach.

　The watch industry's "unidentified flying objects" couldn't survive the changes brought about by the quartz revolution, and Amida ceased operations in 1979. Now, Clément Meynier of the independent French brand Dépencelles and his designer Mathieu Allègre have revived the digital trend in a largely original form.

Amida's "Digitrend Takeoff" is now available

　The new Digitrend Takeoff is approximately 40mm wide, has a case made of 316L stainless steel, and is water resistant to 5 bar. This unique case shape is aptly called "pilot-friendly." To check the time, you peek at the watch from the side, rather than looking at it from above. The reason for this design is that pilots can check the time without taking their hands off the control stick or turning their wrists. Pilots can check the time while flying by simply shifting their gaze slightly.

　The watch has a unique way of displaying the time. The hours are displayed using a jumping hour system, with the time changing every hour, and the minutes are also displayed using a disc. Two discs are arranged horizontally at the top of the movement for this display format. The sapphire crystal crystal with its prism function reflects the two discs with hour and minute scales at a 90-degree angle vertically, making them appear larger than they actually are. This system, called LRD (Light Reflecting Display), was patented on April 5, 1973.

　The movement is automatic, with a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, and has a power reserve of approximately 44 hours. The movement can be viewed through the partially transparent case back. The movement is Soprod's high-end Newton model. A module using new parts was developed just for displaying the hours and minutes.

　The included strap is made of Alcantara, an artificial leather, in anthracite color and lined with orange calfskin. Pre-orders for the Digitrend Takeoff are already open, with deliveries scheduled to begin in August 2024.