Luxury watches take on Pac-Man

Haute Horlogerie manufacture Romain Jerome has announced the latest in its collection: a Pac-Man collaboration with Namco Bandai.

If you've not heard of Romain Jerome before, it built its brand around what it calls "DNA" watches, taking fragments of machines or landmarks and infusing them with its watch casings. For example, its Moon DNA watches contain fragments of the Apollo 11, and its Eyjafjallajökull DNA watches contain volcanic ash.

The new Pac-Man collection — due to hit Romain Jerome stores on 10 September — don't have Pac-Man's DNA (although fragments of an old arcade machine would have been appropriate), but, like the Moon watches, contain fragments of the Apollo 11.

We're not sure how Romain Jerome gets these fragments. We're a bit scared to ask.

The watches follow the success of the manufacture's Space Invaders timepieces, which were released in June this year. There will be 80 pieces in the collection; 20 watches with four versions apiece, each with a different arrangement of Pac-Man artefacts on the dial.

The watches contain self-winding mechanical movements housed in a 46mm black PVD-coated case, water resistant to 30m, with superluminova-coated hands and rubber straps.

Be prepared to take a hit to the wallet, though; each watch comes in at a cool US$17,900.

Check out more specs and images here (PDF).