The American watchmaker is donating proceeds to help frontline healthcare workers battling the coronavirus pandemic
When Shinola first conceived of The Champ, the latest addition to their Detrola watch line, the timepiece’s launch was originally meant to coincide with the 2020 Olympics. The Detroit-based lifestyle brand’s latest watch even came with the tagline, “Athletic to the core and not one to shy away from a little competition, The Champ Detrola embodies the pride of giving it your all.”
Clichés usually come from some place of fundamental truth, and a worldwide crisis that cancelled an event as huge as The Olympics is the definition of changing everything. Shinola, however, isn’t giving up on The Champ—it simply has a new and more noble purpose
The Champ’s colorful matte dial is a plain stripe pattern of red, gold, blue, green, and black, plus Shinola Detroit’s and the Detrola collection’s signature retro-style logos.
The 43mm case is made from creamy TR90 resin around a stainless-steel core structure. This elegant watch, made by hand in Detroit, is topped with double-domed K1 crystal. It comes with a black silicone strap and is pretty much the definition of a unisex watch.
Shinola will make The Champ available to pre-purchase May 29th. They plan on delivering by the middle of July, though the watchmaker says that timeline really is dependent on when they begin factory operations again since they say they “will only begin getting back to work when it is 100% safe to do so.”
The Champ will be limited to just 500 units at $395 each. Shinola pledges it will donate $197,500 to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
