Upon reading the title, you might wonder “what?” A watch for black belts only? Yes, it’s true. Eccentric watchmaker and black belt Bushido fighter, Yvan Arpa, has come out with the Black Belt Watch. Yvan was known as the brains behind the Romain Jerome brand, and helped that company develop and design the genius Moon Dust DNA watch and then was abruptly fired. Arpa went to court over the unfair firing, won the case and perhaps with the proceeds was able to start his own watchmaking business.

As intense as Arpa is about watchmaking, he is more so about martial arts and has decided that in order to purchase one of his Black Belt watches, you must be a black belt yourself and show proof (re an award certificate) before he will actually let you buy one of his watches, which are not that cheap: about $3,000. Partial proceeds from each watch sold (which are currently only available for pre-order) will be donated to the “No Difference” foundation, which helps handicap people learn martial arts.
The Black Belt watch has a rose gold caseback that has “For Black Belt Only” engraved on it. The entire watch is colored in five different shades of black, the main shade being PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coated steel with a satin finish. The strap is made of specially textured rubber and waterproof leather. The strap is supposed to look like a kimono. The dial has the image of a black belt and the hands are meant to resemble the shinai wooden swords that are used for practice in Kendo. The bezel is black steel and has Japanese Kanji characters engraved on it. The watch runs on an automatic mechanical movement, is made in Switzerland and is water resistant up to 100 meters.

Read more about this watch, its philosophy and its creator at BlackBeltWatch.com