Nike and Oakley created the watches of the future 20 years ago

Exercising is objectively the worst. But the watches for exercise they are another roll. In the 1990s and 2000s, brands like Nike and Oakley created science fiction clocks for apparently sporting purposes, but which looked—and still look—outrageously cool in looks casual and informal now those clocks from the future are coming back with such force You don’t need to join a gym to get one.

I fell in love for the first time with these models thanks to the Instagram account Prekesayangan, where Mansor Mohd R sells pieces from the late 90s and early 2000s that are now considered retro watches (which doesn’t make me feel old at all). And I am not the only one. “More and more people are interested in them, especially in the Nike Triax Armoredbut they are increasingly difficult to find, which is why they have risen in price”, Mohd R explains to me through a private message. “Judging by the number of inquiries I receive daily, many people are beginning to be interested in the Nike Triax watches. I started selling locally and now my customers are from all over the world.” Mohd R says he now receives between 10 and 20 requests daily direct for these pieces, and that the new announcements usually receive some 100 queries.

It’s no surprise: Nike manufactures the most attractive watches of all these. The company knows how to combine functionality with a radical style (and, in this case, possibly ahead of its time). He asymmetric triax, released in 1998, seems to be stretching in opposite directions. the silver version Armored This watch, which Mohd R says is in high demand, looks like a special piece of equipment you’d wear in a video game. The Web Blackbird Spyplane also mentioned these pieces in a newsletter from last year. Another underrated option is the Grand Cayman Dive by Nike, shaped like the underside of a UFO.

Yet of all its sporting rivals, the sunglass maker Oakley was the one who launched the most future clock game. The brand significantly increased its watch offerings in the late 1990s and came up with some truly wacky designs that are still futuristic decades later. “One of Oakley founder Jim Jannar’s mantras was ‘define problems, find solutions, and surround them with art,'” Brian Takumi, Oakley vice president, said in an article in highsnobiety about him Time Bomb Of the brand.

He Time Bomb was marketed less as a standard fitness watch and more as a clock of the future. Its price was almost 1,400 euros now, despite carrying only a quartz movement. In the following years, Oakley continued to release highly conceptual designs, such as the Torpedo, shaped like a rocket, or the Jury, also space-inspired.

Oakley also made a watch called Crush 2.0with a serpentine shape similar to Triax, which is now sweeping your local second-hand page. At Grailed, some versions of the Crush sell for more than 500 dollars (about 460 euros). Interestingly, a particularly popular version of the watch has the image of a bulldog on the dial.

He attractive of these watches it’s simple. As Mohd R says: “The shape of the watch and the straps are not like normal watches.” Of course not. Goodness. Mohd R describes the design as “Liquid metal”. If a sci-fi hero turned into a clock, it would look a lot like the Nike Triax or to Oakley Crush. Plus, for just a couple hundred bucks (or less for many of Nike’s pieces), they’re further proof that watch collecting can be a boon, even for those who aren’t sitting on a massive pile. of money.

This article was originally published on the US edition of GQ.