Aston Martin DB5 hood used to make Atelier Jalaper watches
There are more than a few famous movie cars, like Eleanor, Doc’s DMC-12, the Bandit’s Trans-Am, and Bullitt’s Mustang, for instance. There are hardly any movie cars that are famous, beautiful, and lustworthy, and that 60 years later are still having a moment. Consider that Aston Martin produced the DB5 from 1963 to 1965, sending only a touch more than 1,020 units into the world, but it seems like every six months we get a new take on either the car itself or something having to do with the car. Atelier Jalaper is the latest to make an entry in the latter category. Two gents got the idea to produce a watch using something from a historic car. After putting the Jaguar E-Type, AC Cobra, Ferrari F40, and Aston Martin DB5 donor cars up for vote on Instagram, the people chose Bond, and the results are the AJ-001 and AJ-002 watches.
The journey started with a successful Kickstarter campaign, which was the easy part. With money in hand, it took the two men behind the company a year to find an authentic hood from an original DB5. To ensure provenance, Atelier Jalaper had Aston Martin Works verify the hood, a two-hour process that produced a 20-page report on the Silver Birch unit.
The men then visited Switzerland to find the engineers and watch maker who could turn the metal into a timepiece. The engineering involved tasks like flattening the hood and removing the nine layers of paint while leaving the metalworking marks and patina of the raw steel, and a 58-minute-long process of lasering texture into the dial. The actual watch bits include a Miyota automatic movement visible though the clear back, numerals that resemble the odometer figures in the DB5, and a choice of two complications. The AJ-001 features the date, the AJ-002 features the day and date. Both are available in a polished steel case or a matte black PVD case. The series is limited to 600 units, each serial engraved into a button on the left side, and customers can choose a serial number if it hasn’t been taken already.
Prices start at €800 ($814 U.S.) for the AJ-001 in stainless steel and go to €1,150 ($1,170 U.S.) for the AJ-002 in black PVD.
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