My Favorite Rugged Sports Watch Now Has Its Grail Edition

I haven’t exactly been shy about my love for the 39mm version of the Norqain Wild One Skeleton.

The watch’s proprietary lightweight Norteq carbon composite material, its innovative shock-resistant case structure, and its avant-garde styling put the Wild One Skeleton in a league of its own as far as automatic sports watches go, with its closest conceptual competitors arguably coming from Richard Mille — and costing about 50 times more.

The Wild One Skeleton 39mm is a luxury watch, but its combination of brightly colored rubber and carbon fiber don’t exactly scream traditional luxury. So if you’ve always liked the idea of the watch but wanted it to feel a bit more high-end, then Norqain’s latest grail version of the Wild One Skeleton 39 is just what the doctor ordered.

Norqain

I like gooooold

Norqain has two new references in the Wild One Skeleton 39 collection, both of which add a hefty dose of solid gold to the formula.

The new watches keep their basic structure of a shock-absorbing rubber inner case, a Norteq back plate, a titanium movement holder and caseback with a sapphire exhibition window, an integrated rubber strap and a skeletonized Sellita-based Norqain Calibre N08S movement. But the Norteq top plate — essentially the bezel and top lugs — has been swapped out in favor of a solid 18K gold version.

The gold used comes from Norqain’s latest Swiss production partner, PX Group, and is known as “PX Impact Gold” since it’s fully traceable, mercury-free and comes from artisanal mines, with the company also supporting mining communities. In other words, it’s more ethical than your average gold.

Norqain

The new gold top plate is complemented by matching gold plating on the diamond-cut hands and indices, creating a cohesive, luxurious look. Water resistance and shock resistance remain at 200m and 5,000 Gs, respectively.

There are two versions of the decadent new Wild One: one with a black rubber strap and shock absorber, black Norteq back plate and yellow gold top plate, and the other with white rubber elements, a brown Norteq back plate and 5N red gold for the top plate. The black version also gets a black ruthenium-coated movement, while the white version’s movement is bare.

While the black and yellow gold pairing is certainly the more classical of the two, I find myself drawn to the other version. For one, I’ve really been into white rubber watches lately (maybe it’s the holiday season), and I always prefer red gold over yellow. The pairing looks very contemporary and decidedly androgenous, which makes sense for a unisex watch like the Wild One Skeleton 39mm.

Norqain

Pricing and availability

While gold versions of the larger 42mm Wild One Skeleton exist, this is the first time we’ve seen the smaller 39mm version — introduced earlier this year at Watches & Wonders — get the precious metal treatment.

I think the new watches look great, but gold, of course, comes with its drawbacks. Norteq is practically scratchproof, while gold scratches fairly easily. Gold is also much heavier than Norteq, and while Norqain hasn’t shared the weight of these new models, they’re definitely going to be noticeably heavier than the 64-gram Norteq models.

The other drawback is the price. Gold is expensive, and it’s impossible for a brand like Norqain to simply eat the cost of the material. As a result, the new watches cost over ten grand more than the standard Wild One Skeleton 39mm. Both the yellow and red gold versions come in at $16,990 with a Norteq pin buckle, or you can upgrade to a matching 18K gold buckle for an extra $2,960.

Is it cheap? Certainly not. But it’s a whole lot cheaper than a gold Richard Mille.

Norqain

Norqain Wild One Skeleton 39mm Red Gold

Specs

Case Size	39mm
Movement	Norqain Cal. N08S automatic (Sellita base)
Water Resistance	200m

• $16,990 at Norqain

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