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The Spike Lee’s Cool Hand Brooklyn Project

Having always had a profound admiration for Spike Lee’s body of work, creating a timepiece reflective to his image was a great challenge. In our opinion, this fine balance between future and past is one of Spike Lee’s most notable characteristics. The ability of keeping the features and reliability of a modern timepiece, with a marked vintage touch was a crazy bet to make. Hence, we moved along with this challenging endeavor, wanting to create a watch that blended modernism with tradition, that would keep the timelessness of the Rolex Daytona 116520 while bringing singular and innovative details into play.
This personalization has been requested by a private customer. It is a sample of our know-how and of the personalization services made upon request of our customers. If you would like to customize your timepiece in the same way or following your wishes, please contact us. Please note that due to the limited capacity of our workshops, we are not able to satisfy every demands so please accept our apologies in advance.

Service not available

Because we provide crafts services made in a very limited capacity, Artisans de Genève is not able to satisfy all demands.

Spike’s
Specifications

Technical Sheet

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Base
Rolex Daytona 116520
diameter
39.5mm
Color
Navy blue « Blee SPZK » created exclusively
Dial
Modified by hand in Blue and Orange
Hands
Refined hours and minutes hands
Pushers
Orange and blue smooth pump pushers
Bezel
Handmade navy blue bakelite
Case
Machined and finished by hand
Materials
Stainless steel
Sealing
100m waterproof (except for the alligator strap)
Bracelet
Handmade strap in alligator front and back in a nato style Original steel bracelet
Polishing
12h/6h Vintage Polishing
Movement
Rolex 4130 modified with 22ct gold rotor treated in blue
Back
Transparent sapphire Individually engraved
Manhattan Bridge Dumbo
We imagined a watch that would go over the edge, reflective of Spike Lee’s work. Striving to create a piece that would respect the rigorous codes of Swiss watchmaking, while simultaneously remaining unique, modern and innovative is no easy feat. This is how the watch was thought out. That was the spirit. This is life in The Republic of Brooklyn. This is New York City. New York is both a modern and an authentic city and the watch had to embody this duplicity.

From Brooklyn
To Geneva

Inception

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Artisan at work
Spike Lee Cool hand Brooklyn watch front and back

Spike Lee’s
View

As chance would have

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My Life Is Crazy. I’m At The Apple Store In SoHo, New York And A Man asks Me If I’m Spike Lee. I Get This Question A Lot And I Answered « Yes, It’s Me ». Well That Gentleman Is John Isaac. Who Is He? Well, Glad That You Asked, John Is The Chief Executive Officer of Artisans De Genève. We Started A Conversation And He Asked Me If I Wanted To Do A Collab. WHAT? And Here We Are with Our Cool HAND BROOKLYN WATCH. Folks, I LOVE THIS WATCH. (I LOVE DAYTONA ROLEX. I Own Several From Back In The Day). I Love The Late Great Paul Newman. I Only Got To Meet Him Once. I Did The Film 25th Hour And I Wanted To Show Paul Love, A Homage To Him And One Of My Favorite Film Cool Hand Luke, So I Asked Mr. Newman If I Could Have The Poster Of Cool Hand Luke In The Apartment Of Edward Norton’s Character. Mr. Newman Not Only Agreed But He Also Signed The Poster To Me. This Is Truly One Of My Prized Pieces Of Art. This Watch Encompasses Excellence, Tradition, Style And Love. John And I Have Often Talked About What If One Of Us Did Not Decided To Go To The Apple Store In SoHo That Fateful Day, We Would Have Never Met, There Would Be No Watch. The Fact Is, The Powers In The Universe Made Our Meeting Possible And I Believe It Was Meant To Be.

COOL HAND BROOKLYN
WITH L-O-V-E
With Regards, Tenured NYU Graduate Film Professor Spike Lee
portrait of Spike Lee as Artisan

Modifications

Focus

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Spike Lee Cool Hand Brooklyn bakelite bezel and case

Bakelite Bezel

The Bakelite bezel is a typical element of the watches of the 1960-70’s. We replaced the current bezel with an orange and blue Bakelite one, using authentic machines.
Spike Lee Cool Hand Brooklyn Dial

The dial

The dial is inspired by the mythic 6263 and has entirely been reworked in Orange and Blue, with a sunburst finish.
Spike Lee Cool Hand Brooklyn 22ct gold rotor

The gold rotor

The timepiece wears our signature, a 22ct gold rotor that was treated in blue, with orange engraving.
Spike Lee Cool Hand Brooklyn Close up pushers
Orange and blue are the colors of NYC and its beloved New York Knickerbockers. Orange and blue are the colors of Spike Lee. Orange and blue are the colors of our Cool Hand Brooklyn. We have developped a unique navy blue color. The dial, inspired by the mythic Rolex Daytona 6263, is treated in Orange and Blue and wears a «Brooklyn» marking. The hands are individually refined by hand, getting the typical look of the vintage watches. The case has been modified by hand. We replaced the current ceramic bezel with an orange and blue bakelite one. Our signature sapphire transparent case back, individually engraved, shows the movement of the watch, wearing our signature 22 carat gold handmade rotor, treated in blue and engraved in orange.

New York is
Orange and Blue

Color Scheme

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Close up on the cool hand brooklyn watch dial
Spike Lee Cool Hand Brooklyn watch face with tools
Cool Hand Luke Poster
Paul Newman is an inspiration for all generations. He was and will always be a legend. Spike Lee has an immense admiration for this man who embodies the American Class and « Cool ». Cool Hand Luke is one of Spike Lee’s favorite movies. This is how we named the watch, this is why we have chosen the Rolex Daytona model and this is how we wanted to pay tribute to the amazing Paul Newman.

Cool Hand
Brooklyn

Hommage

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Spike Lee portrait in Dumbo
Spike Lee Cool hand Brooklyn watch flying
Cool Hand Brooklyn nato straps
We replaced the bracelet of the original Rolex 116520 model with our Cool Hand Strap. The famous Nato strap was revisited and entirely made by hand in alligator leather, front and back. The steel bracelet is provided with our timepiece. We applied it our 12h/6h vintage polishing, entirely made by hand.

The Cool Hand
Strap

Unique

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Spike Lee Cool Hand Brooklyn watch with nato and with steel bracelet
Spike Lee Cool Hand Brooklyn watch profile view

Some of our
Past Projects

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