The wonderful people at Éditions de la Tour have created their second deck of watch-themed playing cards. You might remember their first one from my post less than a year ago. If not, feel free to have a read and scroll through.
The first deck featured only three watches, depicted on the face cards (King, Queen, Jack). The new Vintage Watches deck is a step up. Those with a sharper eye will notice that it keeps the same design language for the face cards and adds an extra design element to the numbered cards and Aces. What do I think?
First, this is only my second watch-themed deck. My collection stood at 172 decks only recently and, as of this writing, has already passed 200. That says something about how under-represented watches are in the playing card collecting community.
Second, I welcome the changes compared to the previous deck, most notably the light-blue watch sketches on the Aces and numbered cards. The face cards of Steel Watches were all more or less the same, with only a slight change in colouring, and, importantly, the watch models were the same throughout. Vintage Watches goes a big step further, with a different model on every face card, which is impressive.
Third, Bicycle could phone or email the people at Éditions de la Tour to ask how to make a proper card box. Not only does theirs have a reptile-like texture, but it is also firm and reasonably well crafted. Something Bicycle, for reasons known only to them, lacks.
My respect, and my Red Bull Racing hat, off to these wonderfully creative people at Éditions de la Tour.
As Rocky Balboa once said, not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a beautiful deck of cards. But remember, I have seen plenty of playing cards. So, for better or worse, I know how these could be improved. Not massively. Just a few things.
First, the Ace. Say what you want about Bicycle card boxes, but those guys know how to design their Aces. The Ace is the big dog: as a fighter pilot, you need five confirmed kills to be called an ace. So when I saw that the Aces have only a slightly larger watch print than the numbered cards, with no extra colouring or design features, I was left a bit underwhelmed. An Ace is an Ace and, in my opinion, it needs to stand out. At least the Ace of Spades.
Second, little extra touches. As I said before, I love that this deck is different from the first one. Most probably, the third deck will be different again. I also hope it will have little details on the numbered cards, like a small third wheel next to the middle row of the Six of Hearts, or an escape wheel next to the two on the Two of Clubs. You know what I mean? Those small details you notice when you shuffle through a freshly opened deck.
Third, I need Jokers! The first deck had them; this one doesn’t. We need Jokers, guys!
I hope my photos do justice to these playing cards. My 200-strong collection has only two watch-themed decks. The world needs more. So please support the wonderful people at Éditions de la Tour and gift someone one or three decks. I want that third deck. And I haven’t given up on the idea of creating my own deck in the not-so-distant future.
Shuffle up and deal, lads.
How about a poker evening?
Kindly,
Olaaf
