The Marloe Watch Co. is a young British company grounded by two guys, Oliver and Gordon, with a clear intention to revive the affordable hand-wound watches world. Their successful start-up started last year with the Cherwell watch and continue this year with another really nice project – the Lomond Chronoscope, which is available right now on Kickstarter.
The Lomond Chronoscope is a manual mechanical wristwatch that includes a “stop-watch” feature, a ceramic bezel insert and exhibition case-back. It is 43mm in diameter x 11mm high (13.6mm to crystal zenith), 46.6mm tip-to-toe and has a 22mm strap-width.
It is a lovely mix of old school and new age which comes in four bezel / dial version: the Classic White dial and the Classic Grey dial with matt ceramic Telemeter scale and the Vintage Coffee dial and Vintage Vanilla dial with a 60 seconds polished ceramic bezel. Sure that with these combinations the watch will have the entire attention of the wearer.
On top there is a high domed acrylic crystal that raises the total height of 13.65mm. For those with fear for the crystal – there are 70 years old watches with the original domed “plastic” glass still going on strong. The acryl crystal might be easier to scratch but in case of the impact, I think the acryl survives where a sapphire would crack (Never tried, but I think so). Another advantage of the acryl is that it can be easily polished, or, in the worst case, changed. Using this type of crystal significantly drops the price of the watch.
We have also this crystal on the caseback which offers a full view of the Seagull ST19 movement.
The ST19 movement is based on the caliber Venus 175, developed by the Fabrique d’Ebauches Venus S.A., sold at some point to the Chinese government for military watches and later becoming commercially available. In this way the Lomond has a cheap movement, yet robust and accurate. This movement is the hidden gem of this piece. There’s something palpable about a reaction to the Lomond Chronoscope’s exhibition case-back, when turned over to reveal the open window to the heart within. The oscillating balance wheel and hairspring gently bouncing back and forth; the three central wheels all moving in sync; the warm shimmer of gold, blue and ruby all encapsulated under the sapphire crystal case-back. It all adds up to a visual spectacle unlike most others.
The Lomond’s dial, in four colours: white, grey, coffee and vanilla, has multi-depth areas designed to make a difference between the time reading function with baton applied hour indexes and luminescent dots and the 30 minutes chronograph function with painted indexes. The hands are Super-Luminova filled and the chrono’s seconds hand has the entire arrow tip painted with Super-Luminova – a great view in the dark.
If the dial’s colour has no influence on you, maybe one of the leather straps can help you to choose: the Classic models come with a padded orange or grey calf leather strap with embossed crocodile texture; the Vintage models have a brown or black calf leather strap with a bold grain, contrasting stitching and brass rivets.
The campaign starting price (super early bird) of the 229GPB / 286USD for any of the models is a serious competition for any watch in this price range. The project can be funded till 31 of March 2017; it has already reached more than three times the funding goal and now can be ordered with a price of 299GBP / 373USD.
Please visit the Marloe Watch Co. Website and the Kickstarter Campaign.