Three new outrageous Romaine Jerome creations (including a US$300,000 watch that doesn't tell the time)

The sculpted instrument has a detailed form incorporating the shape of the famous vessel’s ventilator cowls, and a cap whose clip is shaped like one of the Titanic’s elegent staircase handrails. Its opening is covered with a sapphire crystal, revealing an 18-carat-gold fountain pen nib, artfully engraved with the image of the Titanic. The barrel of the object bears a ring of oxidized steel, born of the fusion between rusted steel from the wreck of the Titanic and steel supplied by the Harland & Wolff shipyards, where the great ship was built almost a century ago. There’s also a propeller resembling the secondary propeller of the Titanic, an ink reservoir fitted with a piston discernable through a porthole, a miniature replica of the ship’s wheelhouse mechanism on the base and steel and/or diamond rivets highlighting the instrument’s lines.

Completing the ensemble is a blown-glass inkpot filled with cuttlefish ink, formulated using a classic recipe of eras past.

The wheelhouse steering gear at the object’s base is engaged by a toothed wheel which, in turn, rotates the propeller, which moves the piston upwards, thus letting the ink be drawn into the pen nib.

Yvan Arpa, in artistic collaboration with Jean-Pierre Lépine and his son, Benjamin Lépine, brought this most uncommon writing instrument into existence, albeit in a limited edition of just 88 units.

Romain Jerome has been around just a few years. Its first watch was created in 2006 to provide well-heeled golfers with the ability to keep track of their golf score on their timepiece along the course. Quite naturally, with such an optimistic perspective on life, the watch was called the ‘Hole in One Golf Counter.’

In a time frame which mocks the centuries-old tradition of Swiss watchmaking, the company’s first and subsequent offerings have created a globally recognised brand that offers irrefutable proof that mechanical watchmaking represents a field of exploration that is still open to ingenious minds.

We applaud the company’s audacious approach and look forward to just what it might do next!

Mike Hanlon