Worn & Wound
Lorier and Grand Central Watch Debut the Roosevelt, a Limited Edition in Bronze
Every Windup has its share of surprises, and the recently completed New York edition of the fair (in our big 10th anniversary year) was no exception. Something I was definitely not expecting was the newest release from Lorier, the Roosevelt. Lorier is a brand that’s on my personal Mt. Rushmore of microbrands – I just find their watches endlessly charming and Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega are among my favorite people to run into at a watch event. The existence of the Roosevelt itself isn’t so much a surprise, but the way it was presented felt different. Lorier didn’t have a booth at this year’s NYC show, but introduced the watch through their partners at Grand Central Watch, who had a space on the second floor of our venue, showing off the Roosevelt and doing some bracelet adjustments and strap changes on the side. The Roosevelt feels in some ways like a cousin of the Zephyr, Lorier’s Art Deco inspired dress watch from a few years back that felt like a real departure from their midcentury sports watch roots. I was a huge fan of the Zephyr, and remember thinking at the time it could signal an entirely new lane for Lorier to experiment in. Now we get the Roosevelt, which feels like a departure in many of the same, satisfying ways. Inspired by the design of Grand Central Terminal, the Roosevelt is a cushion cased design reminiscent of sports watches from the 1920s. Today, it presents like a dressier piece, but in a lot of ways this watch is very much in line with Lorie...
