Worn & Wound
The Arken Alterum Returns to the Internet in Sage Grey
Arken, the UK based microbrand founded by Kenneth Lam, is back with a new version of their Alterum model in a Sage Grey colorway. The Alterum has been a tough watch to catch since its introduction in 2023. The first batch of 200 sold out quickly, as did a subsequent run. For the last year or so, Lam has been focused on getting out to watch events and showing people the Alterum in person, offering secret “Speakeasy” versions of the watch made just for those events (no photographs, please). So, a new version of the Alterum that you can actually order on a website is a bit of a novelty in and of itself, and for folks that haven’t been able to make to a show where Arken has been in attendance, or just would prefer this particular dial execution, now is the time to mark those calendars. We covered the Alterum here, but a quick refresher is likely in order for anyone not familiar with the watch’s unique mechanical footprint. It’s a two timezone watch, with a module built on a Miyota movement of Lam’s own design. That module allows for the tracking of day and night in two time zones and the independent setting of the local time by “locking” the GMT hand when rotating the crown counterclockwise. I’ll be honest here: setting the Alterum is kind of complicated. I’m an owner of an Alterum, and I still don’t quite get it myself. I have the local time set to my own time zone on the east coast of the United States, and the GMT hand permanently set to “Ken tim...
