Just a few short months ago, Vannen hit the collectibles scene with their vision of wearable art. They released their first series of limited edition watches designed by four incredible artists. Last month Colette reviewed one of these excellent timepieces. They're back at it again, this time with a much more limited edition in celebration of Halloween. The Halloween Exclusive was designed by artist "Dirty" Donny Gillis.

I was lucky enough to receive one of the only 150 of these watches in existence. These can be ordered straight from Vannen's website at a premium price of $85 each. If you hit the jump, you'll find my take on this festive time-piece along with photos by Thomas Ruffo.

Casting off the packaging of the first series of watches, Vannen has opted instead to do something even more creative. The watch is wrapped in an orange plastic poly-bag, much  like a  goodie bag that you might get while out trick-or-treating.

There are actually two different watches based on the same design. 100 are the standard black and purple, and 50 are randomly packed chase watches. These special versions contain the same interior design, the difference is that the watch's case is yellow, as is the strap which features black bats. The bags are sealed and act as a sort of blind-box for these collectibles. Before opening I was hoping that I wouldn't get "lucky" as purple is my color.

That perfectly illustrates the issue that I have with this creative idea. Though very neat in theory, these aren't just any kind of collector's toys. These are technically fashion accessories. Not having $85 in hand to just wantonly throw away on a timepiece, if I like a watch enough to sink the cash on, it had better be the exact one that I like. A purple watch would definitely be my jam. A yellow one is junk drawer fodder. It's just not my style.

I got lucky and received the standard version that I was hoping for. Another fun and creative feature was that the goodie bag contained not just the watch, but also actual Halloween-themed goodies. Among other treats, I found a Halloween pencil, a pumpkin eraser, a (purple!) bat ring, temporary tattoos, and vampire teeth. I really want to give props to the person that thought up this whole concept. It's a simple touch, but it adds so much charm.

Finally, we have the watch itself. It's an incredibly sharp and detailed design that was silk-screened onto the watch face. I really love the  strap. The vivid purple bats on the black background are exactly my style.They stand out and just look plain cool.

One look the design on the watch-face and I was immediately taken back to my skate-punk youth at around 12 years-old. It has a style reminiscent of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Rat Fink. I totally could have sported something like this while I was rocking out to DRI and the Dead Milkmen as I tried to jack my ollie a few inches higher. Then I started feeling like Matthew Lillard at the end of SLC Punk. I'm all grown up and my tastes have changed. Nostalgia has a total hold on me, but I just can't see myself wearing a watch that has a snot-nosed demon on it at 31.

Obviously a person would only pick one of these up if they were a fan of the design, and this just comes down to my personal preference. So, I'll just move along.

The watch is plenty big enough to fit most wrists. I'm a pretty skinny guy, but I am pretty big, I've got a lot of room to grow as I only come up to the 4th of 8 notches.  I'm confident that these watches will fit nearly everybody over 4  feet tall. It goes on easily, with no fussing, and the plastic strap seems very durable and is really comfortable.

The size of the watch is nice. It's perfectly unisex. It doesn't seen like it would be considered too large for a woman, and I don't feel like it's too small on me. And as a Halloween exclusive, the colors and design are certainly fitting.

In the two weeks that I've had it, it doesn't seem to have missed a second. So, it's definitely a reliable watch. However, I am one of those people that likes to have hour markers or numbers on my analog watches as it makes it much easier to tell the time at a glance.

Really wanting to put this designer watch through it's paces, I was happy to find that by simply rotating it 180 degrees that it could be worn on my right hand just as well as my left. Now that's versatility! Overall, I was now satisfied. It is a good watch. With that settled, there was just one thing left to check out...

The vampire teeth work just fine!