So here we are - what you, and I have been waiting for for a long time. All the pictures, all the flights. The shipping delays and hours spent on the details. It all comes together with the final and arguably the most important aspect of any high end product. The finish - the visual eye candy that draws you closer. I often ask myself what a product would look like if money was not a deciding factor. And the Octavia demands the highest of quality.
Anodized in the USA from a company who dedicates most of its time to the medical and military world, the quality and consistency is an absolute treat. Both the Navy and Bronze are deep - rich in color with a certain depth that you can not experience with anything made from aluminum.
Returning again is the ultra limited AMS2488 Type II (Grey). Only the AMS2488 will include both the Full Ceramic bearing, the NSK Platinum as well as white CBC pads and HS pads.
As usual, you can see how the titanium finish reacts to the natural oils on your fingers. One wipe with a clean cloth removes the swirls and finger prints that you can paint on the finish. The thin layer of oil cause the titanium to refract light in a strange way - creating this beautiful iridescence that people who purchased the Evora raved about. Its truly something you need to experience in person.
There will be 30 Navy, and 30 Bronze Octavias available. 10 AMS2488, at a higher price. All numbered with certificates. The release will be interesting to say the least considering the Evora sold out in just 3 and a bit hours. To battle the insanity, I will be doing the release slightly differently. There will be a "North American" release time, and a "European" release time.
The release will be split in half. The initial release will be in a time convenient to most people in North America. Regardless if they sell out or not, the remaining half of the stock will be added 6 hours later, which will be more convenient to Europeans. So Europeans have a better chance this time around - and if an American misses out on the initial release they can pull an all nighter and try again. Europeans will likely be less fatigued so beware.
So that is a wrap. 3/3 done. One thing I will leave you with is a release date: Sunday, December 6th. I will finalize everything with the exact NA and EU times on Facebook. And last but not least your beloved specs.
I didn't go into too much personal details about my life in the last blog post. I think I wanted to - but since it was a colab with CLYW I felt like maybe it would be kind of unprofessional. Its been an emotionally tough start to 2022 but I'm trying to figure out why. This is one of those years I wanted to push myself to grow the business a bit more - with the goal of funnelling everything I made into bigger and more substantial projects (I already put a deposit on a new plastic mold that i am trying to pay off). It's no secret that I went through some rough patches in regards to mental health. Its weird though, because I genuinely think I'm in a better place in life now but every now and then it comes up again.
I never got a chance to reflect on the past year with a blog post - I wrote one that involved the future of Luftverk and what I wanted it to look like but I didn't feel comfortable making it public yet. But the space that Luftverk has occupied in this niche industry has changed so much in the past 6 months - When I first started this back in 2015, there was nearly no one who was consistently making titanium yoyos. Today, there are a slew of new companies that customers can choose from, seemingly releasing titanium yoyos on a weekly basis. It makes me excited that titanium yoyos are becoming more widely accepted. I find myself putting more weight on doing collaborations with brands or friends that I think provide a level of value in the community - I was excited when CLYW reached out again
I get a lot of questions asking about these two very different finishes. I figured it would probably make sense to have a specific blog post regarding this I could link to in the future. Both Ultramatte and AMS2488 are titanium specific coatings, generally reserved for fasteners in the aerospace and medical industry but their functions as a coating for yoyos are very different.
Rowland Balcom
November 30, 2015
Love with what your doing with you company Jeff! Hopefully, I will be able to snag one of these for the release. Good luck to you, and your company:)