Micromilspec x Black Badger Team Up for Project Sabotage Milgraph

When talking about Scandinavian brand Micromilspec’s latest watch, it’s severely tempting to go all in on the story and theme of the watch. That’s because alongside the watch they’ve created an entire fictional universe for it to inhabit, based off of Japanese anime concepts. The time: the far future. The place: techno-autocratic Japan. The enemy: Grand Psycho (yes, that’s a Grand Seiko pun) and the Crown Guard. Our hero: Black Badger, a pirate and rogue destined to bring down the system. His watch of choice: the Micromilspec x Black Badger Project Sabotage Milgraph.

To be clear, I did not make any of that up. That’s genuinely how Micromilspec is marketing this limited edition collaboration. As a card carrying nerd myself, I kind of love it. The Black Badger character asks the question what if Rocket Racoon and Star Lord were the same person? However, our nerd focus at Oracle Time is on watches not fictional characters so let’s dive into the timepiece.

First of all, who is Black Badger the designer? Quite simply they’re James Thompson, who you may know as the co-owner of the watch brand Arcanaut. He’s also collaborated in the past with the likes of MB&F, De Bethune, Hautlence, Sarpaneva, MW&Co and Linde Werdelin with his creations worn by Robert De Niro, Robert Downey Jr., Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lando Norris. He’s known for signature elements such as his use of lume that creates a disruptive and futuristic aesthetic.

For the Micromilspec x Black Badger Project Sabotage they’ve started with a base of the Milgraph, which is Micromilspec’s flagship model with its 42mm titanium case, destro orientation and military inspired chronograph display. With a 100m water resistance rating it’s not a dedicated diver but if you find yourself hiding from the Crown Guard in a dank sewer system, it should be fine.

Of course, the original Milgraph has a fully tactical display in black and white with hints of orange for legibility and the Project Sabotage essentially inverts that. It has a white base with black timekeeping markings, keeping some of the orange accents and actually expanding the colour to the 24-hour GMT scale around the periphery. It’s a lot less subtle than the original, swapping that tactical design for a tacticool design (another word taken directly from their marketing). The Super-LumiNova hour markers and hands were design by Black Badger along with lume specialists RC Tritec to achieve an intense ultramarine colour.

The display itself consists of a vertical tricompax chronograph with a GMT function. That means the central hand stack contains your standard hours and minutes, chronograph seconds and 24-hour GMT. Then, the chronograph subdials are helpfully labelled minutes, hours and running seconds – by the graduations of the scale you can tell it’s a 30-minute counter and 12-hour counter respectively. They’re powered by the La Joux-Perret L121 automatic movement with 60-hour power reserve.

Alongside the watch, this limited edition collector’s set comes with a serial matching dog tag made from zirconium with Super-LumiNova elements, continuing the aesthetic of the watch. The Micromilspec x Black Badger Project Sabotage Milgraph is limited to just 75 pieces at a price of $3,850 (approx. £2,875). While I can’t promise you a place as part of Black Badger’s rebellious crew, I can promise you a chance to meet Micromilspec at Hands On Horology this June at London’s Protein Studios – learn more here.

More details at Micromilspec.