Chronoswiss’ New Electric Blue Watch Blends Traditional Craftsmanship With Contemporary Style

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In the U.S. market, Chronoswiss may not have the same name recognition as many of its Swiss watchmaking peers, but the brand’s latest model, the Flying Grand Regulator Open Gear Retrograde Second (ReSec for short), is bound to make collectors with a penchant for bold color take notice.

The striking piece, unveiled at the Baselworld fair in March, builds on Chronoswiss’ longstanding tradition of creating regulators, which owner and CEO Oliver Ebstein says account for about 70 percent of the brand’s timepieces. (For the uninitiated: a regulator watch features the hour and minute hands on separate axes). And in keeping with Chronoswiss’ reputation for making “watches for nonconformists,” the model now comes in an electric blue version unlike anything currently on the market.

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But the ReSec’s radical hue—achieved through a scratch-resistant DLC (diamond-like-carbon) coating that boasts a hardness of 4,500 Vickers—is only part of the story. The model’s open gear construction puts its regulator mechanism front and center, drawing attention to both the eponymous retrograde seconds hand and the dial, hand-guillochéd on a historic rose-engine in the brand’s Lucerne workshop.

“The Flying Grand Regulator Open Gear ReSec is a key piece in the 2019 collection,” says Ebstein. “The timepiece is a sophisticated fusion of a very contemporary design with traditional crafts used in watchmaking for centuries, such as the dial being embellished with guilloché by hand.”

Ebstein also emphasized “the complex construction of the dial,” which contains multiple layers and 42 parts, including screwed-on skeletonized train wheel bridges, a retrograde seconds hand, cylinder-shaped SuperLumiNova indexes and a double-coated sapphire crystal.

The 44 mm case—redesigned by Chronoswiss to feature a robust bezel and shortened horns, allowing the piece to sit comfortably on the wrist—houses an automatic movement (the C.301 automatic calibre). Available in a limited edition of 50 units worldwide, the ReSec retails for $9,900.

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