Worn & Wound
Review: the Autodromo Group C Turbo Sport
It’s hard to believe in our era of always-online smart watches and AI-everything (eye rolls welcome), but there was a time when the digital watch was the new kid on the block, challenging analog conventions. Cries of “kids these days” abounded, and though the then-genuine worry of traditional timekeeping going obsolete seems a bit silly in retrospect, the modern electronic digital watch was a very real and groundbreaking thing when it was first introduced by Hamilton with the Pulsar in 1970. A battery-powered quartz crystal oscillator and LED display made it a marvel at the time, and it still commands respect on the collector market today. Like many kids of the 1990s and 2000s, my first “real” watch was a digital example, mainly because I was enamored with the ever-beeping buttons and light-up face. Still, I eventually wandered over to the analog side of watch fandom, and haven’t wavered since, a trajectory most enthusiasts will probably relate to. But in the wise words of an El Paso ad executive, “por que no los dos?” The Millennial and Zillenial era of nostalgia is here, creating a new clamoring for “retro” digital displays without sacrificing the pedigree (and social clout) that comes with an analog watch. Enter the ana-digi, a combo of both types of timekeeping. It’s not a new concept by any means, with huge brands like Casio and Citizen offering examples for decades, but those tend to be big, bulky tool watches. Not so with the new slate of s...
