The Hodinkee Eight-Day Travel Clock Limited Edition was launched and is sold out in less than a day

This new Hodinkee Eight-Day Travel Clock is exactly what happens when the biggest watch nerds on the planet (probably) gather in a room and decide to make desk or travel clock. It is a fantastic mechanical, hand-wound instrument that takes its inspiration from the travel clocks of old. With the Hodinkee editorial team being one of the foremost experts when it comes to high-end mechanical watches, you can be sure that when they decide to put their name to something, it must be worthy.

This, I think is a piece that every watch enthusiast has in some form or way thought about when they travel. Sure, they may have a few nice watches in their watch roll, but when it comes to the bedside, it is often just the standard Hotel digital clock they rely on. Therefore, being able to bring around what is essentially an enlarged mechanical, hand-wound watch is something that I would think fills a void for the watch-loving, jet-setting man/woman of the world.

The Hodinkee Eight-Day Travel Clock is made with a case of PVD-coated steel and upholstered by hand with goat leather dyed in their signature grey. One of the interesting things about the design of the dial is the typeface that they use – Decimal. This typeface, designed by Jonathan Hoefler, who by the way also appeared on the Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design, was inspired by his study of vintage wristwatches.

As with most of the Hodinkee collaborations, this piece is also a limited edition of 96 pieces. This number isn’t done with any significance in mind but rather because they only managed to find an untouched stockpile of 96 vintage movements. These hand-wound movements were originally built by Pontifa, a small Swiss manufacture from Les Ponts-de-Martel, Neuchâtel. They used to make movements for pocket watches and dashboard clocks, but their speciality was the eight-day travel alarm clocks like this one. Oh yes, this travel clock does come with an alarm that emits a sort of buzz instead of a ring.

As per most of the other Hodinkee collaborations they sell out quick, and at the time of writing, there are no more left on their website. However, these limited editions have been known to pop up on second-hand watch sites from time to time and because of its demand and relatively small quantity you can expect to pay quite a bit more than the original asking price of USD 5,900.