Over the last few years I've been lucky enough to acquire pretty much every watch I've had as a personal grail throughout my twenty five years as a watch collector. Most of these watches were produced between 2000 and 2015 and in general I prefer this style of design over the more buttoned down watches you see being released today. These watches are from such industry staples as Audemars Piguet, IWC,
Blancpain and Jaeger-LeCoultre.
If it wasn't for starting Hourstriker I believe I'd be rather bored with a lot of what is currently being released by the large brands and secretly hoping that design trends would shift back to times when bold watches were in demand… but I did start Hourstriker and am now aware of watches I would have never come across in the previous decades of being in the watch industry.
While on vacation with my wife and two young daughters at the coast a few weeks ago I was contacted by the brand
Nuun Official about a new timepiece they were working on. I took some time to look over the release and was thoroughly impressed with the watch. Adding to the interested was that the watch in question was done in collaboration with Omar Traboulsi (@thewrongwrist) who I follow on Instagram.
Before we get into the watch in question, let's take a moment to talk about Nuun Official as well as Omar. Nuun Official is a relatively newer brand and has the distinction of being the first watch brand from the Middle East, being founded in Bahrain.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
Nuun Official is heavily influenced by the Swiss sports watches of the 1970s such as the
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and
Patek Philippe Nautilus. Hailing from a small island off of Bahrain, the spirit of adventure and the outdoors in important to the brand. While the original stainless steel construction of the Royal Oak and Nautilus is strong in its own right, Nuun Official wanted their timepieces to be even more durable. This desire to create hard wearing watches led Nuun Official to use such strong materials as forged carbon for a lot of their timepieces. The watch we are going to be looking at today is just such a watch also using carbon for its case construction.
Omar Traboulsi has had a connection to watches since his childhood. Growing up he was obsessed with digital
Casio pieces and even had a collection of watches as a young boy. As Omar went into adulthood he followed his passions into the fashion industry. Once again Omar found an interest in watches, this time mostly as an accessory to his outfits. As he followed the collecting rabbit hole he finally developed such a love for watches that he decided to leave the fashion industry and dive into watches as a full time profession. Omar is now the biggest figure in the Lebanese watch world and his @thewrongwrist Instagram profile is a must follow.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
Nuun Official and Omar have previously collaborated in the past on the Nuun Official x Omar Traboulsi – The Wrong Wrist Edition which was a 40.5 mm watch made out of Carbon X which will not degrade over time and is known for its toughness. The watch also featured Eastern Arabic numerals as well as a skeleton dial showing off the Swiss Made STP6-15 automatic movement. The watch was a hit and the limited edition watch sold out rather quickly.
For their second collaboration, Nuun Official and Omar decided to step it up a notch or three. Like the first edition, the Wrong Wrist Edition V2 also uses forged carbon for its case. The big difference comes in that now the carbon is infused with SuperLuminova. The end result is a marbled case and dial that has various hues of blacks, grays and greens. When the watch is subjected to UV light or low light conditions the whole watch just glows a brilliant green. Omar is also well known for wearing watches on his right wrist, so the V2 is offered with a choice of having the crown on the right or left hand side of the watch. Finally the Wrong Wrist V2 is powered by the Swiss Made Sellita SW200-1 movement, which we've found to be a superb caliber in terms of accuracy and reparability.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
Naturally the first thing I did when the Wrong Wrist V2 arrived is take the included UV flashlight and see just how much the watch lit up. Having seen pictures of how the lume looked when exposed to UV light I thought I wouldn’t be too surprised with what the watch looked like when glowing… boy was I wrong. The Wrong Wrist V2 gets so illuminated it looks like it could be a prop out of a sci-fi movie, something the aliens would be wearing. The glow is really that out worldly.
The next thing I noticed about the Wrong Wrist V2 was just how lightweight the watch is. I'm used to lighter weight watches with all of my personal watches either being crafted out of carbon, ceramic or titanium. The Wrong Wrist V2 is just feather light though, only weighing 80 grams on the Delugs rubber strap and clasp. To say you don't notice the watch when it's on wrist is an understatement.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
The final thing I noticed about the Wrong Wrist V2 during my initial time with the watch was the stunning Delugs deployant clasp. Omar is a Delugs ambassador, so it only makes sense that his new collaboration with Nuun Official would feature a Delugs strap and deployant. The deployant is made with double leaf springs that just snap the clasp shut. It's actually pretty fun to just play around with opening and closing the clasp. While the clasp action is cool and all, it's not the reason I'm mentioned it here. What really took me by surprise is that the clasp is also treated with SuperLuminova and glows the same way the case and dial does… mind blown…
Now that I've gone over my initial thoughts of the Wrong Wrist V2, let's take a look at its technical specifications. The watch has a case diameter of 40.5 mm and a lug to lug length of 46.7 mm. The watch is 11.6 mm thick and as mentioned before weights 80 grams.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
The Wrong Wrist V2 features a flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on it. Underneath the crystal is the SuperLuminova infused black forged carbon dial. The watch features raised Eastern Arabic hour markers that are also treated with green SuperLuminova and appear white in normal lighting. At 12 o'clock you have the Nuun Official logo and at 6 you have the "Automatic Water Resistant 200m/665ft" text. Finishing off the dial you have hour and minute hands coated with SuperLuminova along with a seconds hand whose tip is also lumed.
Nuun Official is upfront with the inspirations for their watches and the Wrong Wrist V2 does resemble a Nautilus, but we've never seen a Nautilus look like this before! The marbled look of the forged carbon case would have been enough, but thinking outside of the box and infusing the case with SuperLuminova is just awesome. The only other watch I can think of that has a similar case is the newly released Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept which has a forged carbon case with blue lume infused into it. Remember that Royal Oak Concept is a two hundred thousand dollar watch though.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
The Wrong Wrist V2 has been in development between Nuun Official and Omar for over a year. It took them that long to finally get the watch to where they wanted it. The watch is just so unique and the execution of the forged carbon infused with SuperLuminova is incredible. Just one pass of the UV flashlight over the case and dial will have you sold on the watch.
The Wrong Wrist V2 features a slightly rounded off octagonal bezel and has flanks on each side of the case. On the traditional model prototype I'm reviewing the screwed down crown is located on the right side. If you opt for the destro model, the crown will be located on the left. The crown is also crafted out of forged carbon infused with SuperLuminova and features nice scalloping. Once the crown is un-screwed you can manually wind the movement in its resting position. Since there is no date window pulling the crown out to position one does nothing, pulling the crown out to position two then allows you to set the time. Position two also stops the seconds hand allowing you to precisely set the time. Pushing the crown in causes no jump in the minutes hand either. Screwing the crown in takes no extra care and catches with little effort screwing securely into place.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
Flipping the watch over shows you the display case back and Nuun branded winding rotor. Around the outside of the screw down case back are engravings for "The Wrong Wrist", "Delugs", "Nuun Official", "Limited Edition" and in the case of the watch we there is "Prototype". With the screwed down case back and crown the Wrong Wrist V2 is rated for 200 meters of water resistance.
Under the display back beats the Swiss Made Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. The movement beats at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has a power reserve of 38 hours. The Sellita SW200 and SW300 movements we have tested in the past have been deadly accurate and the SW200-1 found in the Wrong Wrist V2 is no different. On our timegrapher the movement had an average accuracy over various positions of +1 second per day, which is way inside of chronometer specifications.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
The Wrong Wrist V2 has a lug width of 20 mm making it perfect to be a strap monster and being able to accept thousands of aftermarket straps since 20 mm is the most common strap width. That was lucky for me since the watch I had in for review was at prototype and I wasn't going to cut a strap to fit me on a watch I don't own. The way the Delugs clasp works is that you have to cut the rubber strap to size since it isn't like a traditional deployant clasp that slides the strap under or over the clasp. To size the strap you just cut along pre-sectioned lines until the strap fits correctly. I did have a spare black rubber strap in 20 mm that I used when I wore the Wrong Wrist V2. I should also mention those that pre-order the watch during the first pre-order window get a second black Caoutchouc rubber strap included as well.
The included green rubber Delugs strap is very nice and supple though. I've used Delugs rubber straps before and they are a premium and very comfortable rubber strap. The rubber has a texture on it similar to the pattern of sailcloth and the back of the strap says "Delugs For Nuun Official". The strap has a slight taper from 20 mm at the lugs down to 16 mm at the clasp.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
My time with the Nuun Official The Wrong Wrist V2 was spent mostly doing pretty boring stuff like running errands and going to dinner and drinks. The beautiful thing about the watch is that at 80 grams it just disappears on the wrist. I mean that as a compliment since the watch was never bothersome to me like some of my larger and heavier pieces can be. Also being crafted out of super tough forged carbon I didn’t have to worry about grazing the watch off of a shopping cart like I do my titanium and ceramic pieces. When I did notice that watch I was pleasantly surprised by the black and green marbled case and Eastern Arabic numerals, both novelties to me.
Since the Wrong Wrist V2 is mostly black with some dark green elements woven in, the watch went just perfectly with my normal dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. I don't think the watch could really be pulled off in a formal setting, but I don't really attend those so that's of no concern to me. The Wrong Wrist V2 is just a super interesting casual and summer watch which fits my lifestyle perfectly.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
The watch actually got a lot of attention while wearing it out. The black rubber strap probably didn't help the watch get noticed as much as the green Delugs strap would have though. I had a few people approach me and ask about the watch. I think the look of the green and black carbon really got the piece noticed. I did also have my wife carry around the small UV flashlight that came with the Wrong Wrist V2 so that I could show people how the watch looked when lumed up. I have to say people were just blown away when they saw that pretty much every aspect of the watch including the case, dial and clasp lit up the same stunning way. It would have been awesome if Delugs could have done something similar with the strap though. One thing repeated often was how people thought the watch would cost a lot more than what the asking price for it is.
Speaking of price, the Nuun Official The Wrong Wrist V2 retails for $1,196. At that price you are getting a ton of value for the money. The forged carbon case alone would warrant most of that price never less having it infused with SuperLuminova. The use of the Sellita SW200-1 is also a big step up from cheaper Japanese automatic movements and adds a decent amount of cost as well. I do think that now would be a good time to look at what other options are out there that compare well to the Wrong Wrist V2.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
First up let's take a look at the newly released forged carbon
Tissot PRX measuring in at 40.5 mm. The PRX has a forged carbon case and dial but lacks the party trick of being infused with SuperLuminova. The PRX is powered by the in group ETA Powermatic 80 automatic movement with 80 hours of power reserve. The PRX is a great watch, but just doesn't have the uniqueness of the Wrong Wrist V2. The PRX also retails at just under the price of the Wrong Wrist V2 at $995.
Next up we have the limited edition
Studio Underd0g 02SERIES Eastern Arabic Edition. This watch is crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 37 mm. The 02SERIES continues Studio Underd0g's fun use of brightly colored gradient dials but this time features Eastern Arabic Numerals printed on the sapphire. The 02SERIES is powered by a similar Sellita SW210-1 movement with 42 hours of power reserve. The 02SERIES is a bit more expensive than the Wrong Wrist V2 at $1,634.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
Moving on we have the
Norqain Wild One Khaki which actually reminds me a lot of the Wrong Wrist V2 in its looks. The Wild One Khaki has a 42 mm case diameter and is crafted out of black NORTEQ carbon fiber. The watch features green flanks on both sides of the case and comes on a green rubber strap as well as having a green suspension ring around the outside of the dial. The Wild One is powered by a manufacture movement made by Kenissi with 70 hours of power reserve. The Wild One is a lot more expensive than the Wrong Wrist V2 at $5,490.
Finally we have the previously mentioned Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date featuring a Chroma Forged carbon case with a diameter of 43 mm. Like the Wrong Wrist V2 the Royal Oak Concept is infused with lume and the case glows a brilliant blue under UV lighting and in low light situations. The Concept is powered by an in-house Calibre 4407 with 70 hours of power reserve. Now this was just a fun one to compare to the Wrong Wrist V2 given its usage of a carbon case infused with lume. The Royal Oak Concept retails at just over an eye watering $200,000.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
As you can see from the above four watches the Nuun Official The Wrong Wrist Edition V2 gives you a ton for its asking price. The Tissot PRX might offer a carbon case but it's nowhere as interesting as the Wrong Wrist V2. The Studio Underd0g 02SERIES has the Eastern Arabic Numerals but is much more a plain watch, even with its fun colors. The NORQAIN Wild One Khaki shares its looks with the Wrong Wrist V2, but cost nearly five times as much at the Wrong Wrist V2 and doesn't have the infused SuperLuminova in the case and dial. Finally the Royal Oak Concept does have the infused lume but is just so much more than the Wrong Wrist V2 that us even comparing it is a huge win for the Nuun Official.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
So in the end, is the Nuun Official The Wrong Wrist Edition V2 for me? You know it really is. If there was one thing I could change about the watch would be making it a tiny bit larger to get nearer my beloved 50 mm lug to lug length. As it is the watch fits my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area just fine. I can also see that the integrated nature of the Delugs strap would make the watch flare out a bit more than an aftermarket strap does, meaning it would wear a little larger. I just love bold and technically advanced watches and the Wrong Wrist V2 is both of those. I don’t own a watch with Eastern Arabic numerals either, which is something I've always enjoyed on a dial. Being super lightweight and crafted out of forged carbon are two more big pluses for me as is the all black and dark green color scheme. Nuun Official also choosing to go with quality manufactures for their movement and straps in Sellita and Delugs respectively is another big positive for me.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
With all that said, naturally I'd recommend the Wrong Wrist V2 to anyone looking for a super unique sports watch. For just over one thousand dollars you are getting a super interesting and tough as nails timepiece that also happens to be deadly accurate. Also with the only other watch I can think of that has a carbon case with infused lume costing over $200,000 how could you not recommend this watch? I guess the Eastern Arabic numerals aren't for everyone, but I find their inclusion as not only interesting but meaningful for a brand from Bahrain that collaborated with a collector from Lebanon. I also didn't really touch upon that the Wrong Wrist V2 is a true "Go Anywhere Do Antyhing" watch since the forged carbon case can take any abuse you throw at it and the 200 meters of water resistance is more than enough for anyone but a professional deep sea diver. Only weighing 80 grams and coming on a super comfortable rubber strap with brilliant clasp also make it a great watch to just throw on and forget about. If you're looking at a watch in this niche, I can't stress enough how you really should give the Wrong Wrist V2 a good hard look.
I'd really like to go ahead and thank Nuun Official for sending us this The Wrong Wrist Edition V2 Prototype to review. I am really going to be sad to see this one go as I have really enjoyed my time with it. I also can't wait to see what's next for Nuun Official and can't wait to review some more watches from them sooner than later.
Wrong Wrist Edition V2
For more information about the Wrong Wrist Edition V2 please visit :
Nuun OfficialTechnical SpecificationsReference Number: The Wrong Wrist V2
Retail Price: $1,196
Case Size: 40.5 mm
Lug to Lug: 46.7 mm
Thickness: 11.6 mm
Weight: 80 Grams
Case Material: Forged Carbon Fiber Infused with SuperLuminova
Bezel: Forged Carbon Fiber Infused with SuperLuminova
Strap: Delugs Green Rubber Strap with SuperLuminova Treated Deployant Clasp
Movement: Swiss Made Sellita SW200-1 Automatic Movement
Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds
Power Reserve: 38 Hours
Water Resistance: 200 Meters