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Today brings some very exciting news to indie watch fans, and especially those fascinated by more modern materials: the new Tempest Forged http://www.modserap.com/omega-seamaster-replica-australia-for-sale.html watch is, to the best of our knowledge, the first non-limited edition production watch to offer a forged carbon case for under $1,000. While the watch's Kickstarter campaign launches today, I have had the watch for a few weeks already, so what is coming up now is a full review of the impressive and rather unique achievement of this Hong Kong based indie brand.

We wrote about Tempest earlier this year, when Ariel reviewed their 2,000 meter dive omega seamaster
watch, the Viking (review here). That Cartier Roadster replica watch has already set the bar very high for Tempest, as the Viking was arguably one of the most solidly built indie dive watches I personally have ever seen. However, with the Tempest Forged Carbon we are looking at an entirely different approach to the "forum diver" watch, and with that, let us start with addressing the elephant in the room: its forged carbon case.

As we have discussed before, there are four major types of carbon that can be encountered in watches today. For one, there is CFRP, i.e. carbon fiber reinforced polymer, like what we have seen in this omega Speedmaster replica watch (reviewed here). Then, there is what is usually referred to as "carbon fiber," which has a checkerboard kind of pattern to it, thanks to the layered structure of carbon fiber – as seen in the case and bezel of this Hublot Big Bang Ferrari (hands-on here). Third, we have NTPT, a more recently developed material that comprises hundreds of microscopically thin layers of carbon, as first featured in this piece by Richard Mille RM35-01 (hands-on here)...

And with that, we arrive at the final category and the one that we find in Tempest's latest release: forged carbon. It is a material that for long has been reserved to top-tier brands only, who offered it in watches often priced well over the $10,000 mark – with Audemars Piguet possibly being the brand who we saw most frequently use it in its watches. Very recently we brought you the news of Magrette's new 10-piece limited edition that offered a forged carbon cased watch for $1,225 (article here). Forged carbon is different in that it does not feature a layered construction, but rather tiny strips of carbon are cut and placed into a mold, where these pieces melt and bond once and for all under tremendous heat and pressure. This process results in a very light and extremely tough material, as well as a unique aesthetic, where no two cases will ever look exactly the same. That is because the way the strips move about within the mold is never exactly the same, and so their final position – in which they bond – changes from one case to the next.

The forged carbon case has a matte black (under some lighting conditions dark gray) color to it, with some parts of the wavy pattern standing out, thanks to their grey/silvery color. The bare carbon is warm and very soft to the touch, and to some extent, it even feels as though it were a delicate material. That, however, could not be further from the case: forged carbon is a material that was developed to be used in airplanes, military forces' equipment, as well as racing cars and boats. And while it is very likely that neither of these industries care too much about the tactile feel of a newly developed material – their top priorities rather include rigidity, durability, and precision workmanship – the forged carbon case makes for a somewhat unusual, albeit very pleasant wearing experience.