Reasonably Priced WATCH SELECTION
Not all cool watches are crazy expensive.
We are sharing with you a selection of 4 different watches coming with a reasonably price tag, which all have something special to offer. The selection could have of course been much bigger, but from time to time we will share alternatives compared to some of the timepieces we are more accustomed to talk about on the WATCHESTV.
Christopher Ward and its C1 Moonglow
Despite being a British brand all the timepieces are made in Switzerland - English Swissness or “Ingeniously English. Unsurprisingly Swiss” as they say. Back to the watch, it has a nice classical design, 40.5mm case and a Sellita movement (SW200), but rebranded to Calibre JJ04.
The main thing that draws attention is its dial with some deep dark starry sky and two moons opposite of each other found on a disk, which rotates around the center axis of the dial in 59 days. The nice feature of these moons is its 3D aspect that brings all the life to the watch, especially at night with superluminova applied to them.
The disk is moving constantly and the moons are not jumping from one day to another. So yes, if we didn’t have the pictures to show, we would have imagined talking of Hermes with one of our favourite timepieces, Heure de la Lune. It is not the same, of course, but believe us, for its price (CHF 1.970) you will be more than happy to watch a night sky on your wrist!
Nivada Grenchen and the new version of the Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver
The brand itself has been in the watchmaking industry for a long time, founded in 1879 in the Swiss town in Grenchen (the same one as Breitling). The company was pretty successful at one moment until the quartz revolution came in the 1970’s, which had a devastating effect on the mechanical watch industry.
The original model of Chronomaster was first introduced in 1961 and the new version does indeed look very similar. Diameter of 37mm, which you won’t find that much anymore, reminds you of the old times, and some people with small wrists will be just happy as it sits perfectly. There are different combinations available, like for example black dial and black chrono subdials, white and black subdials, beige, full white or panda style - you choose whatever you like. Arrow type hands or batton style - both are naturally coated with SLN. This 37mm also features a regatta feature with a scale going from 5 to 0 found on the minute sub-dial. For the bracelet you can choose between rubber, leather or metallic, or for those who don’t like to choose, just take all three as it’s very easy to change.
The price for the watch is between CHF 1,700 - 1,900 depending on the configuration.
Formex Essence Leggera
This is the forged carbon edition with only 63 grams on your wrist, which makes it very comfortable to wear. Carbon fiber composite case, carbon clasp and a fabric strap - this is basically what makes it so light. Bezel and the crown are made out of ceramic, which brings a little shininess to the watch. As for the movement, it has the STP1-11 (kind of a clone of the ETA 2824-2). The size is 43mm, 100m water resistance and 44 hours of power reserve for the self-winding watch. For the strap you can choose between rubber and the leather ones for approximately the same price CHF 1,900, but with the worldwide shipping included.
Thomas Schnelle or Schnelle.Co
This last watch is more or less a prototype version, but it already gives you a very good idea of how the final watch will look like. Thomas is a German watchmaker based in Munich.
One of the most interesting and specific aspect of this watch is its movement, as it is a vintage Longines movement from the 40’s. Thomas managed to get about 20 of them, serviced them all and then decided to build a case around in his workshop, why not!? So it does bring a feeling of wearing a watch with a history, but the matt grey color of the case, dial, hands and numerals font definitely remind you of today’s modernity and bring a slight parallel with some Nomos watches. The final version will have a proper sapphire glass, both for the front and a back of the case. Obviously the number of pieces is limited by the number of the movement itself and the price is set around CHF 2,000.