Thursday 25 September 2014

Kahuna S23 watch

The Kahuna brand is one I've been aware of for some time, but it turns out to be more mysterious than I'd expected.

The Kahuna watches I can find now seem to be from a British brand (not Hawaiian as the name would suggest) which seems to be owned by the Peers Hardy Group Ltd. The group are a specialist watch, clock, and jewellery manufacturer  who own a whole range of brands including Ice Watch and Cross. This all seems straightforward, but for that brand, there is no logo on the site which matches the logo on the watch (a wave in an oval), and the font used on the watch face is different now. The watch also refers to a website address of kahunaextreme.com, but that doesn't exist anymore (without even a redirect). As there was one watch shop which linked this logo with the brand, I'm going to assume it is the same company, and they just had a major redesign at some point in the brands life.

The name Kahuna is a Hawaiian word and means expert, but there are both craft uses (expert makers) as well as for sorcerers (which was an illegal practice). It became linked to surfing with a movie where The Big Kahuna was the leader of a group of surfers, and I'm sure that'll be where the surf brand got the idea.

The watch has a model number of S23 and is a an analogue metal watch. It has a 3 hand dial design with date at the 3 o'clock position, and there is a rotating bezel. It has a heavy steel case (with the Kahuna name at the top) and is 10 atm water resistant (which helps confirm this is not American or for the American market as they would then use bar not atm).

Age-wise, I guess this is a 90s, or early 00s design because it is a different style to the current brand and there is little online info on watches with this logo version.

4 comments:

  1. I have one...bought it in a charity shop in Norwich for £6 and was hoping it was worth a fortune! Now I am not so sure and cannot find prices anywhere online for it :( Great watch though to be honest.

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