Guns—effin’ Roses, played the soundtrack to my youth. In fact, the band was formed in the year of my birth. From Appetite for Destruction to the Chinese Democracy, I’ve obsessed over the swaying, screaming Axl Rose to the wailing, wah-wah pedal-stomping, guitar slinging Slash from track to track for more hours of my younger days than I care to admit.
But I’ll tell you this that when I dreamt of picking up the guitar, it was because of that scene from November Rain with Slash and his tobacco burst Gibson Les Paul outside of the church in the middle of some-arid-nowhere. Although, the first ever “lick” I managed to learn on the instrument was Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. It was an easier feat (somewhat).
Skip now, from my wasted youth, to the 21st of June 2016, and an article on Forbes written by a certain friend of Revolution by the name of Elizabeth Doerr — editor-in-chief and co-founder of the site, Quill & Pad, in which she writes of Axl Rose having been spotted wearing an HYT Skull Maori during AC/DC’s recent European tour, where he was standing in for frontman Brian Johnson who had been having hearing issues.
HYT took full advantage of the organic endorsement of the Rock God and ran with it. Vincent Perriard, cofounder of HYT, himself went to meet with Rose, backstage at a concert to ask about how he got to know of HYT. Perriard found out that Rose had known of the brand for a while then and had also been wearing his Skull Maori for sometime.
The stars were aligned and a collaborative timepiece was inevitable. Enter the all new Skull Axl Rose, an incantation of the incredibly evocative HYT Skull. Considering it was the Skull Maori that started Rose’s love affair with HYT, it is perfectly understandable why he would want a version of the HYT Skull of his very own.
At 51mm, the Skull Axl Rose is of the same form factor as the other preceding Skull watches, featuring the same “philosophical” fluid time indication with the fluid this time in a gorgeous rock and roll, black. But the centre of focus on the piece, as it is in all the other Skull pieces, is, of course, the Skull.
Inside of the Skull Axl Rose, the skull is forged out of Damascus steel and then finished off with a blue PVD treatment. Its eyes, thereafter, serve as a seconds disc on the left and a power reserve indicator on the right.
The exclusive Skull Axl Rose will be produced in an incredibly limited run of just 25 pieces — though it’s safe to say only 24 will be available since it looks like Rose has already grabbed the first piece for himself.
