With the Olympics coming to an end last week, one of the unexpected sports that dominated headlines was skateboarding. If you didn’t see any of it, it was amazing and had one of the youngest fields of competitors at any Olympics, with multiple 13 year olds finishing on the podium including Sky Brown who scored a bronze for GB.
The apparent boom in the popularity of skateboarding can also be seen in watchmaking earlier this year with Baume’s collaboration with Aurelien Giraud, a 23 year old French pro skater who made it to the finals at Tokyo 2020 but failed to medal due to injury.
My skateboarding knowledge comes exclusively from a misspent youth playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and so my vocab is limited to ollie, Indy grab and kickflip but fortunately the Baume Skate is far cooler than me and my long past skater boy fantasies. The watch has a 42.2mm case made from upcycled skateboard decks, giving it a unique aesthetic from the combination of aluminium and wood.
The use of skateboard decks for watch cases actually makes a lot of sense because they have both a strength and a flexibility to them while also being lightweight, all of which are attributes useful in watchmaking.
However, the most obvious skating reference on the Baume Skate is the dial, which has the classic texture of board grip tape because that’s precisely what it’s made of. Charmingly, the tech spec describes it as anthracite and I guess they’re kind of right, it has similar dark grey, near metallic properties. The disc of grip rotates to perform the function of the hour hand and is punctuated by the large minute hand in signature Baume style.
Aside from the classic skate appearance, the dominant colours are red and blue, Giraud’s favourite colours. They are perhaps best displayed on the cotton strap, which has a stitched out blue design on it and a red tag featuring Giraud’s initials.
Housed inside is a real workhorse calibre movement, the Sellita SW200. It has a 38 hour power reserve, not great compared to others but still useable, especially as it has some kudos for being Swiss made. It also keeps the price down, which is never a bad thing.
The Baume Skate Aurelian Giraud Special Edition is £1,380 which is not bad for a watch with plenty of attitude and street cred. Additionally, in the spirit of upcycling, a portion of profits will go to the Waste Free Oceans movement.
Price & Specs:
Model: Baume Skate Aurelien Giraud Special Edition 10653
Reference: M0A10653
Case/Dial: 42.2mm diameter, aluminium and wood case, anthracite dial
Water resistance: 300m (30 bar)
Movement: Sellita SW200 calibre, automatic, 26 jewels
Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
Power reserve: 38h
Functions: Hour hand
Strap: Black cotton interchangeable strap
Price/availability: £1,380
More details at Baume.
