Master Wayne’s Perfect Accompaniment
Be you prowling the rooftops – or just want to cut a dash at street level – Romain Jerome’s latest may be just the ticket
Article by John Galt
Last but defiantly not least on my highlights of BaselWorld 2016 is this Romain Jerome Batman DNA Gotham City and it’s superb. Let me first give you a brief outline of RJ incase you are not so familiar with the avant-garde brand.
A Swiss brand Romain Jerome was founded back in 2004 specializing in watches that have the DNA of legendary machines in them i.e. their past watches included the moon DNA which incorporated pieces of steel from the Apollo 11 and the Titanic DNA which included pieces of coal or steel into the dial and case of the watch from the ship. At the time some found the notion of selling pieces from the Titanic controversial but as they say there is no such thing as bad publicity. Recently RJ have released watches based on 1980s computer with releases such as Pacman ,Tetris and Mario brothers but in my opinion their Batman timepieces first released back in 2014 in partnership with DC comics to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first Batman comic is their best DNA collection to date. Their new piece the Gotham City was timed perfectly to coincide with this summer’s blockbuster Superman V Batman: Dawn of the justice film.
The new Gotham city is relatively unchanged from the previous Batman DNA pieces other than the dial (more on that later) meaning a 46mm case coated with PVD keeping the dark theme and angular lines define the shape of the Batmobile inspired case. The case back of the piece is solid meaning no view of the beating movement inside but instead is inscribed with “The Dark Knight Returns” which referrers to Frank Millers graphic novel by the same name in which a middle aged Batman battles with Superman.
The first Batman DNA had a logo coming crashing through the dial which I have to be honest didn’t really grab me BUT this new Gotham City as soon as I saw it grabbed me hook, line and sinker; its superb, the way RJ have made the 3D dial is exquisite making the buildings of Gotham city seem to move to the edge of the dial giving a real sense of depth to the 3D effect. The dial is built with three layers so to give good depth and make the 3D seem to pop off the dial, the Batman and RJ logo’s are applique on the centre and top of the dial respectively with RJ’s piece du resistance the space between the buildings are filled with blue Superluminova C1 (UV light needed to light up) designed to evoke the feeling of a night setting over Gotham city. Which in turn makes the buildings pop from the dial even more and gives the wearer a feeling they are Batman looking down on his City.
Movement wise there is nothing much different than other RJ piece meaning a RJ001-A movement with a power reserve of 42 hours and comes on a customary Batman DNA spec strap black hornback crocodile strap with PVD coated steel folding clasp, water resistance is only 30 meters so no swimming but hey… Batman wasn’t known for his swimming was he?
Conclusion
I’m sure some of you reading this will be thinking that RJ are just jumping on the bandwagon of film or comic book inspired watches but that would be unfair as these avant-garde, very creative pieces are exquisite and limited to only 75 pieces. It’s a piece of superhero memorabilia what won’t go un-noticed in either the board room of Wayne enterprises or hanging out a Wayne manor. 
Enquiries: www.romainjerome.ch/product/batman-dna-gotham-city/