The Miami Dolphins
Aqua and orange. If you’re an American Football (or just Football) fan like me, you think of little else when you hear those two colours mentioned in the same breath. Sure, the aqua has changed its shade more times than Jason Taylor ate an entire cow for breakfast, and the orange has gone from a glorious near-red to a somewhat insiped “electric peach” (my words, not the Miami-based franchise’s), but the feeling I get is still the same. Those colours remind me of the greatest quarterback never to win it all, and the running back who not only boasts the best moustache in league history, but also wore it throughout the only unblemished season we’ve seen to date.
And so whenever an aqua and orange dial pops up, I’m won’t to think about the Miami Dolphins; about Dan Marino’s arm and Larry Csonka’s legs; about freshly cut grass and the anticipation of an equally fresh season. Those colours remind me of beind a kid and that, I’ve come to realise, is something I treasure more and more the older I get.
But we didn’t just choose those two legendary football players as the namesakes of these summery, Floridian dials. No, no: that would have been far too straightforward. The truth* is that we chose to honour Danny and Larry (as we call them), because they fought along us in the Battle for Copenhagen, that raged for almost six weeks from the 23rd of April until the 3rd of June, 2125. Confused? So were they when we turned up on their doorsteps in 1985 and 1974 respectively…
Larry Csonka before he grew his incredible moustache
Okay. Just so the elephant in the room is addressed before we go any further, we are indeed talking about time travel.
It will come as no surprise to any of you who have been following our journey thus far, to learn that we mess around with a lot of things we shouldn’t. Some of our experiments result in amazing dials (like the Havender, the Klint, or Fordite pieces themselves, of course).
Many result in explosions, lost or damaged body parts, noise complaints, or the accidental tearing of a portal through time and space (although to be fair, the latter has only occurred eight times and on seven of those occasions nothing really bad came of it).
James was mucking about with a time crystal I’d won in a game of dice with a pirate while holidaying in Skegness, and he discovered time travel. Of course, given it was my time crystal (this time), he asked me where I’d like to go (a common courtesy).
Even though I’d been inspired and impressed by Anders choosing to visit the 1920s so he could appreciate the Art Deco architecture and fashions the last time he’d won a time crystal off a pirate (which happens to us as a team on a semi-regular basis), my focus lay elsewhere…
Dan Marino screaming in anger that Arcanaut doesn’t exist in the ‘80s
You see, Anders is the designer. James is a pinecone that fell in magic water. Anders can conjure weird but wonderful forms with the flourish of a pen, while James can make music out of last night’s leftovers. I’m the strategist. The bulldog. The bad cop. It’s my job to be laser focused and highly competitive.
It falls to me to take their output and put it out into the world. As such, I have a different mentality. A mentality I always liked to tell myself was similiar to that of a competitive athlete (however deluded it might have been). And so I decided to go and visit two of the greats of my favourite game, one week before each of them appeared in Super Bowls VIII (Csonka) and IXX (Marino), and see if there was anything I could learn from them that might be relevant to Arcanaut’s success.
And so we travelled back in time, first to January 18th, 1985, two days before Dan Marino would appear in the Super Bowl and asked him for tips for success. Of course, Marino hadn’t actually won a Super Bowl (and sadly never would) and so apologetically excused himself from answering. He did, however, suggest we go and see Larry Csonka, who knew a thing or two about winning. And thus, we travelled back to January 10th 1974, three days before Csonka was due to defend the Super Bowl title from the year before.
The Moustache that gives more than it takes
One day, over a beer, I will tell you exactly what Larry Csonka taught us all, but it isn’t suitable for writing down and committing to digital eternity. Trust me. If you ever leave your inbox open and your seven year old daughter reads it, you’ll be baying for my blood. I don’t need another crosshair on my back so let’s make sure we grab a drink as soon as possible…
And so we decided to return to the present day and continue working on more Fordite dials but James typed in our coordinates wrong, flinging us 101 years further forward than intended, slap bang into the middle of a global conflict that will become known to future historians as “The Cyber Wars”, damaging our time machine in the process.
Unfortunately for our pair of Dolphins, because Anders was standing on Marino’s foot and because I was stroking Csonka’s moustache when James hit the button, they were dragged with us.
We fought side by side for a month and a half, blasting cyberpeople for 20+ hours a day until, finally, a triumphant Larry Csonka ripped the metallic head from the suddenly powerless shoulders of their last soldier and roared in bloodless triumph.
For the first time in weeks, we had a moment of peace. James quickly repaired the time machine and sent the Dolphins home to live out their fates, and we returned to our respective corners of Europe, vowing to honour those brave men, who stood by our side in a time of need.
Arcanaut Arc II — Marino
A little about Fordite…
Known also as Detroit or Motor City Agate, Fordite is a fascinating material created as a byproduct of the automobile industry.
Fordite is car paint that has accumulated over time in the paint bays of Detroit area car factories between the 1970s and 1990s.
Each piece is entirely unique, with hundreds of stories revealed by every slice. Sadly, modern car production techniques mean Fordite is no longer produced in such enduring quality, so these pieces are the first and last of their kind.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out directly. Please email rob@arcanaut.dk with all queries.
All standard Groovy models retail for USD 3,950 excluding taxes (but including shipping). Ripple Milled variants retail for USD 4,450 excluding taxes (but including shipping).
Assembly times are coming down, but please allow 6–8 weeks for the watches to be shipped. We’ll do our utmost to get them to you sooner, but it will all depend on where your order falls in the assembly queue.
We look forward to welcoming you to the tribe.
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