William Wood

On the second of August, Kuwait does not celebrate. It remembers — a day that wounded the country, and the same day that belongs to its heroes: those who were lost, and those still among us.

This is the first Arabic edition in William Wood's history — the only watchmaker in the world building timepieces from decommissioned firefighting material, and a house whose every release has been a salute to those who stand in the front line. Smiths has been its first partner in the Arab world for five years. That a Kuwaiti company should be the one to bring this piece home felt inevitable.

It takes the form of a diver because Kuwait is a country of sea and pearl-diving — and because the sea teaches what this people already know: patience, a long breath, and the certainty of surfacing again. The mirror-silver dial is heat-treated to graduate from the blue of the sea below to the clarity of the sky above, ringed by applied Arabic numerals in sunburst blue. At its centre sits the Kuwaiti boom — the dhow once carried on the nation's currency — with the word الكويت engraved and gilded at its heart.

The crown holds brass stamped from a retired firefighter's helmet. The strap is cut from genuine upcycled fire hose. Nothing on this watch sits far from the story it tells.

Fifty pieces. Not simply a watch for the wrist — something to carry.

Caseback commemorative coin — after the words of the late Amir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah: "From Kuwait we begin, and to Kuwait we return."

We see it everywhere, the fire-emergency exit sign with the exit man running. William wood whimsically designed the fireman exit watch with various gestures representing different days of the week (day function) and a fun rotor at the back spinning to different forms of the fire exit man.

With a green bezel, green double sapphire glass, and exit arrows on the dial. This is a definite unique collectible!

William Wood brings us their signature straps made from premium rubber, stitched with fire hose from the top.

William Wood brings us their signature straps made from premium rubber, stitched with fire hose from the top.

Every William Wood carries a real firefighting past. The case is CuSn8 bronze that shifts colour and texture as you wear it, the crown is struck from a British brass helmet over a century old, and the strap is fire hose that served real fires before returning to life on a wrist.

Against that warmth sits a deep burgundy dial, ringed by a chequered seconds track taken from the flank of a vintage British fire engine. The seconds hand nods to the chime of an old fire bell at one end and the head of a firefighter's axe at the other.

A friend of Smiths, Ali Bin Hussain, called it The Red Head. The name stayed.