Kappa watches

• Official website

   YOU MAY NOT be familiar with the new Kappa Watches making their debut here at Baselworld, but anyone who’s watched sport during the past 36 years will recognise the Omini Logo – a silhouetted man and woman sitting back-to-back – on the dial, and the sportswear brand it belongs to.

   You’ll have seen that logo on the arm of club captain Gianluca Vialli Holding up the trophy as Juventus became Euroean Champions in 1996. And beneath the medal ribbons as Carl Lewis took gold fort he USA at the 1983 and 1988 Olympics. And you’ll have seen it on footwear, kit and accessories if you follow golf, fencing, football, basketball, hockey, rogby union, volleyball, skiing or any other of the sports that Kappa supplies.

   So when LC International, the Istanbul based company who also make watches for Lee Cooper, took over the Kappa licence it was starting with guaranteed global brand recognition.

   The new Kappa collection is aimed at men and women who enjoy an active, sporting lifestyle. Targeted at markets in North America, South Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East, up to 50 models have been launched, anda re divided into three all the pieces available are analogue, with digital lines to follow. These are watches to appeal to anyone seeking a practical, well-built watch suitable for an active life.

   The three chronographs from the KP-1501 range have a stainless-steel case, a dished dial with a textured carbon central section and red, blue or orange detailing on the subdials, hands and indexes colour-matched to the nylon strap.

   There are also a number of sturdy multifunction models. One has a sleek black steel case, a tachymeter on the bezel, a patterned black central dial with minute and subdial hands picked our in red, and a black leather strap with a grey dial, large luminescent hands and numbers, protected crown and a grey stainless-steel case finished off with an army-green leather strap.