Rock Candy Beauty & The Beast BLK Edition Watches

I've never heard of either Rock Candy or Chouette - but together they have released a new set of two watches, the "Beauty," and the "Beast." Apparently Chouette is "Hong Kong's premier watch and lifestyle brand." I don't know anything about that, but I will take their word for it - neither do I care, because these watches pretty much speak for themselves. As ladies' watches go these are both quite dark and still feminine. There is a playful aggression to them that will strongly appeal to some women. My top choice is the Beast watch in all black but with its bright, hot pink hands.

Technical details on the watches are scant. They are in black coated steel cases with custom silicon straps and quartz movements. The "spiked" bezels have repeated pyramid shapes on them, while there is a black crystallized Swarovski Elements stone as a cabochon in the crown. The Beauty version of the watch has an addition 502 Swarovski stones all over the dial under the grayish colored hands. Dial design is almost like a stripped down diver's watch - and that helps with the clarity. While Beauty has a subdued and aggressive jewelry feeling to it, the Beast looks like what a biker or rocker chic would wear on days she is otherwise not dressed as a biker or a rocker chick. I think the hot pink accent is really going to be the part of the watch that helps bring together the "strong enough for a man, but made for a woman" style of the case and dial. Oh, and the future of "phantom" all black watches is this, having an all dark case and dial with hands that are legible.

Each of the two watches will be available as a limited edition of just 300 pieces. The Rock Candy Beauty watch will retail for about $900, while the Beast will retail for about $640.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.