It's been 10 years since Shinola produced its first watch. Since then, the lifestyle brand — which makes leather goods, bags, home goods and many other products in addition to watches — has become synonymous with American-made quality and its hometown of Detroit. So to celebrate its wildly successful first decade in business, Shinola has launched a limited-edition special anniversary model Runwell watch.
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Shinola The Runwell 10 Year Limited Edition 41mm Read More -
The Runwell 10 Year Limited Edition 47mm Read More
The Runwell was Shinola's first-ever watch and remains the brand's flagship. An attractive time-only all-rounder with Americana styling cues and an aesthetic that's both sporty and dressy, the Runwell is most often powered by Shinola's Argonite 1069 quartz movement, which is a Ronda-based powerplant made from mostly Swiss-made parts that was the first movement to be assembled at Shinola's Detroit factory. Typically, as with most quartz watches, the Argonite movement is hidden behind a solid caseback on the Runwell — but not on the Runwell 10 Year Limited Edition.
To show off their hard work, Shinola has fitted an exhibition caseback to the special-edition Runwell, allowing a full view of the movement which has undergone some custom decoration such as black-plated bridges, blued screws, a laser-etched lightning bolt logo and some nice perlage on the rear side of the dial. While there's no motion like on an automatic movement, it's still fun to see the quartz movement here through the caseback, especially considering what it represents in terms of being a still-rare American-assembled movement.
The custom movement and see-through caseback aren't the only fun surprises you'll find on the new Runwell, either. The watches are also numbered x/1,000 on the caseback, with "10 Year Edition" appearing on the dial under 6 o'clock. And the best surprise of all? The watches are priced at just $550 — the exact same price as the original Shinola Runwell when it hit shelves in 2013 (modern Runwells go for $595). Take that, inflation!
Otherwise, you're getting the classic Runwell: a stainless steel case with pumpkin crown, a sapphire crystal, printed Arabic indices, Super-LumiNova-filled hands, a small seconds subdial and a Shinola-made leather strap. Shinola hasn't always been in the good graces of watch enthusiasts for some of its past marketing practices related to its American manufacturing, but the brand deserves a heap of credit for bringing large-scale watch manufacturing back to the U.S. at a time when no one else was doing it. Shinola's Runwell is well-deserving of this anniversary edition, which is available now online in both 41mm and 47mm case sizes for $550.
