About BaliHa'i…
BaliHa'i was born in early 2008 of an initial
vintage-inspired 1000m-rated diver's watch
“project”, which first came to life in a series of discussions on
dive watch collector forums and discussion boards. The
object then, and now, was to assemble a high-specification Swiss
dive watch that participants would be happy to actually abuse
in the water (a so-called “tool watch”), by drawing from
characteristics that we, and the other forum participants, admire in
many of the excellent new dive watch brands that have formed in the
past several years. Of
course, we may have added a few irreverent tweaks along the way. The
concept has gone through several evolutions, and we’re very proud of
those initial watches (the “BaliHa’i”
and it's sister/variant model, the “CaliHa’i”),
as well as all of our newer models. We aspire for each new
generation of products to build on the experience of the earlier
projects, so that BaliHa'i is continually producing new and
innovative watches that our customers will use and enjoy.
So please, browse the site, root through the links and forums, and
learn about both the project and the watch. Please feel free to
contact us at info@balihaiproject.com if
you have any questions or comments on the watch or project. We’re
enthusiasts and fans first and foremost, and always look forward to
hearing from other dive watch enthusiasts.
About the artist…
Perhaps the most unique single attribute of the
BaliHa’i is its caseback design. So far
as we know, this is the first watch to rely on the services of a
professional illustrator and comic book artist, and we’re pretty
pleased with the results.
That illustrious artist is Gene Gonzales, a South Florida
resident and all-around nice guy with more than fifteen years of
professional illustration experience.
Between working for small unknown companies such as DC
Comics, McGraw Hill, and Hewlett-Packard, Gene has found time to do
tropical-themed work for suppliers of the Ron Jon Surf Shop and
Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville.
As a result, he turns out a mean tiki, and was nigh
irresistible for our project.
Fortunately, he was also a consummate professional, and
willing to work in our sketches on short notice.
Learn more about Gene and his work at his site and his blog:
http://www.genegonzales.com/
http://genegonzales.blogspot.com/
(I think he even Twitters, if you’re into that kind of thing…
http://twitter.com/genegonzales)
There are many excellent forums and chat groups
available on the internet for dive watch fans, and much of our
inspiration for this project, is derived from discussions and
debates held in these virtual bar-rooms.
Accordingly, we're very pleased to have been invited to start our
own sub-forum on the 3T forums at
www.timetechtalk.com.
This forum, hosted by watch super-aficionado Oagaspar, is a great
source of information about watches, dive watches in particular, and
has always been a friendly watering hole for small new brands like
ours.
The BaliHa'i sub-forum can be viewed here:
www.timetechtalk.com/view_forum.php?id=57
On that BH forum, you'll find discussion threads with some
background and information on our watch projects, as well as a
lively discussion with fans about what we're doing, right or wrong
(we learn more from the wrong, even though we like reading about the
right). We'll also engage in threads about what we should do
next, and what our fans would like to see...
In addition, the BaliHa'i design has been influenced by a number of
different discussions in threads on other sites:
Watchuseek.com (an excellent and lively forum owned by Ernie Romers, of the
Netherlands)
Watchuseek Dive Watch forum:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=74
(look for our banner at the top of the page – we’re proud
sponsors)
Some of the many specific threads there that have shaped the
BaliHa’i include:
“The BaliHa’i Project” thread (well, of course):
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=166322
“Best casebacks”:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=169553
(I’ll put ours up against of ‘em!)
“Coolest Crown”:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=164438
“Best Case” (no, not that kind of case):
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=153851
“Best dive watch names” (ok, so we ignored most of this discussion…
but post #27 was very helpful):
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=181392
“To dome or not to dome”:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=175606
“The BEST bezel”:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=169160
… and many more.