Designed by Jason Chan, LORESUM L001 is a mechanical wristwatch inspired by the works of Harry Beck, the English technical draughtsman who created the present London Underground Tube map in 1931.
The name Loresum comes from the famous placeholder text “lorem ipsum”. Drawn to its ability to represent a design template in its purest aesthetic form, the founders adopted the word to signify their passion for creating a perfectly original design.
Their head designer, Jason Chan, established the company in the hopes of raising the bar for creative watchmaking. With successes such as Hong Kong based company JW Watch and designing for Behrens Original under his belt, he is well versed in mixing the unconventional with the practical.
Loresum’s first product, the L001, was inspired by engineering draftsman, Harry Beck. His radical 8-directional railway map changed history, becoming the basis for nearly every railway map we use today. Chan adopted this concept and turned Beck’s 2D map into a 3D watch.
Using multiple layers, he designed each part to resemble a part of a railway station, the gears, rails, tunnels, etc. Pushing his limits even further, Chan challenged the conventional and replaced both the minute and hour hands with numbered discs. Dotted markers on the perimeter of these discs indicate time during the day. At night, the numbers are illuminated by the glow of Swiss Super-LumiNova® BGW9.
The L001 incorporates Miyota 9015 self-winding movement equipped with features such as a 42 hour power reserve and sweep second movement. The movement contains 24 jewels and functions at a frequency of 4 Hertz. The watch front and back crystals are made of sapphire.
Protecting the rest of the timepiece is a 316L stainless steel case finished with a multi-polishing coating while the rose gold models are ion plated. Each watch goes through rigorous testing procedures before they are sent out.
On 25 April 2021, the brand launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the initial mass production of the L001 mechanical watch. Pledges start at HK$ 6,600 (USD 851) and the estimated delivery will be in November 2021.
Technical details
Movement
MIYOTA 9015 automatic movement with in-house module
Case
316L Stainless steel case (for blue and black version), rose-gold plated(for rose-gold plated version)
Ø42mm, height 12.5mm
Both-side sapphire crystal
Water resistance: 5ATM
Dial
Sapphire crystal hour and minute discs
Swiss Super-LumiNova® BGW9
Strap
Fine crafted Italian calf leather or Horween leather
