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Victorinox, a swiss legendary company is reviewing swiss mythology with a modern twist via a mini web serie called Swiss myths. It is an initiative run by the Watch team division in order to highlight new incoming products. The first episode shows a nowadays Heidi who decides to visit her Grand-father. It is apparently the first film of many displaying new adventures of Switzerland’s mythic heroes. When heritage meets modernity… the result is outstanding.

swissmyths-victorinox

In this episode, Victorinox presents a special limited edition of the Original watch, here proposed with a natural leather strap and cover.

Victorinox Original watch limited edition

Victorinox_Original-Watch

The Original is a watch with three hands and a date window, animated by a Ronda quartz movement. The Original Chronograph has three central hands, date window at 4 o’clock, three sub-dials and an ETA quartz chronograph movement.

In both versions, the natural leather strap can be worn in the traditional way, or else with the addition of a cuff that fits over the base strap with two loops. The chronograph – a limited and numbered series of 1989 pieces (the number refers to the year of birth of the first model) – has an additional design element: a removable hood, also in leather, covering the housing assembly.

The idea of revisiting the Swiss heroes is a great one because they are, not only anchored in Swiss traditions and lifestyle, but most of them became universal references. Heidi is definitely one of them.

Heidi story

Heidi is a novel written in 1880 by swiss writer Johanna Spyri. It tells the story of a young girl, Adelheid, familiary known as Heidi. After the death of her parents, Heidi ended up living with her Grand-father, a lonely man in the middle of beautiful Swiss mountains. And of course this is only the beginning of her adventures. The Heidi novel is one of the best-selling books ever written. More than 20 flms were made starting in 1937 with a marvelous version with Shirley Temple.

Spyri_Heidi_Cover_1887
Johanna Spyri Heidi Cover 1887

The end of the 19th century was also a very interesting period in literature as authors like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Felix Mendelssohn or Lord Byron, gave a romantic vision of the mountain landscape and way of life. At that time tourists started visiting many regions in Switzerland, searching the ideal landscape. From the Bernese Oberland up to the top of Jungfrau, Mountaineering got trendy. The Heidi novel disseminated around the world following this trend.

le moine de la jungfrau, berne
Original steel engraving drawn by Girard, engraved by Sears. 1858

Today Heidi is completely linked to Switzerland, to an idea of a perfect world that we all fight for. Victorinox aligns all the different references of the story and gives a modern twist with a smile.

In this video, Heidi character is played by young Swiss actress.

The Grand-father is done by Norbert Gubser. He played in a couple of movies like Kavinsky in 2011 and we also saw him in a couple of advertising (BMW).

Norbert_Gubser

Maybaum Film developed the screen play in collaboration with Victorinox and the movie was directed by Laurent Ulrich. The landscape is a true landscape from “Heidiland” in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland.

The screen play is very original as it shows a modern Heidi vising her Grand Father. A good sense of humour and a clever end (a happy one).

And of course the key piece of the film, the Victorinox Original watch:

Victorinox Original Watch mood

Victorinox Original Watch mood 2

As you can see, the natural leather strap has the option of a hood, also in leather. According to the brand this casing is a nod to the military wristwatches of the first half of the 20th century, which were protected by a grille or a lid. Today, it is a stylish accessory. The two- and three-part straps also pay homage to Victorinox’s famous Swiss Army Officer Knife, whose original case was manufactured in leather of the same color. And here are the watch specs:

2 versions

  • Original version
  • Original Chronograph version in limited edition – 1989 units produced
  • 40 mm in dark grey nylon
  • Mineral glass
  • Water resistant to 100 metrs (10 ATM / 300 feet)
  • Dark grey Aluminium bezel
  • Stainless steel screwed-in caseback

Original:

  • Dark grey dial with military hours, brown leather strap
  • Swiss Made Quartz movement, Ronda 515

Original Chronograph:

  • Dark grey dial, with brown leather strap and adjustable protective cover.
  • Skeleton hands, luminescent hands, numbers and markers.
  • Swiss Made Quartz movement, ETA G10-211
  • Functions: 1/10th of a second counter at 2 o’clock, 60 seconds at 6 o’clock, 30 minutes at 10 0’clock

Victorinox has a dedicated website for this project:
http://swissmyths.victorinox.com

There you can rediscover the video, but get more news about the project and behind the scenes images. There is also a online contest.
You can also connect to Victorinox.com and find more information about the Original Watch.

So what do you think about the new Heidi?
LA

Info sourced at the Brand official press release, wikipedia and Werbe Woche. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.