In October I shared with you my interview with Thomas Lardière – CEO & Founder of the French brand Obelus Watches. You can read the interview by clicking HERE.
After that I really wanted to try a Chronoscope. Unfortunately for me they were sold out. I say unfortunately because it is clearly a piece that I would have liked to add to my collection.
Anyway, after discussion with Thomas he found me a solution to do this review. So he kindly sent me a piece and I enjoyed wearing it for a while (little secret but it’s his wife’s personal piece).
I will now share my opinion about the Obelus Retro Chronoscope Pink Robin.
The Case
In hand you have directly the feeling of having a neo-retro watch that stay true to the original spirit of chronograph from 50’s or 60’s. The main difference here is the size. This Obelus measures 42mm / 11,4mm while in the past the size was more like 36/38mm. To be honest I would have loved this piece in 39 or 38 mm.
The stainless steel case has three kind of finishes. Polished bezel then verticular brushed. And when you turn the watch there is also circular brushed finishing on the solid and screwed caseback.
I love the design of the bezel, I don’t know but it’s not flat and gives some kind of volume to the watch.
And to give even more volume the watch has a double dome sapphire glass just above the dial.
The crowns are all engraved and that’s quite cool for a watch at this price. At three, the bigger one used to set the time has the three dots of the Obelus logo. Then, and I find this really fun, at two the pusher to start the chrono is engraved with a S – meaning Start, and the one at four is engraved with the R of Reset. I find the detail subtle and quite funny.
The Movement
What to say about the movement of this watch ? For this Chronoscope Obelus decided to use the meca-quartz Seiko VK46. This hybrid movement gives you the best of two worlds combining quartz precision and mechanical features like a sweeping seconds hand and instant reset chronograph.
The battery inside gives an autonomy of 30 months but obviously the more you use the chronograph, the more the life of the battery will reduce.
This Japanese movement has as functions central hours & minutes, central chronograph seconds, 60 minutes counter at 9 o’clock, 24 hours indicator at 3 and date at 6.
It is a bi-compax style chronograph movement that uses quartz technology for the main functions of the watch, and a mechanical module for operating the chronograph.
Seiko/Time Module states that the expected accuracy of this movement is less than +/- 20 seconds per month.
If you want to know more about this movement I invite you to click HERE.
There’s a lot of watches that use this movement. We can note the Yema rallygraf, the Dan Henry 1937, but also watches from Straton or Furlan Marri.
The Dial
This is the main attraction of watch and as I love colorful watches, this one is really what I want for a modern chrono. Well first thing is the legibility of the watch which is clearly perfect. The white applied indexes have good relief and a nice contrast with the sandblasted matt pink outer dial.
Man this color is so cool and we find it too in the upper part of the 24-hour dial.
Inside it we find a moon and stars which are filled with Luminova, and in the lower part there is a printed sun.
The white and red hand is a nice added detail. The sub-dial of the 60 minute counter has the colors reversed, i.e. red and white. This hand reminds me of the Tintin Destination Moon comic strip.
These two sub-dials were placed on the floor below compared to the main dial. This gives a little depth to the watch.
The date is also well highlighted thanks to its large applied window.
For the hours and minutes the hands are white, sword-shaped with Super-Luminova® treatment.
On this side the chronograph hand is red and contrasts well with the entire dial. The latter follows the outer ring of the dial on which we find the second indexes, which are printed.
At 12 o’clock we find the logo and the name of the brand. I must admit that at first glance the size of it bothered me a little. But the more I wear the watch, the less I pay attention to it.
There are several color combinations for this watch, but I think pink is my favorite. Not that I’m a Barbie fan, but I find that this color gives a really fresh style to the watch that’s not what we’re used to seeing.
Strap
The rally style strap gives the final look to the piece and it goes perfectly with this watch.
It is very flexible and wears really well. The latter is finished with a polished and brushed pin buckle with the engraved logo.
What could we have added to it? stitching in the same color as the dial perhaps. It might be a little too much but I’m sure it would work well.
The strap size is 22mm and unfortunately I don’t have something in this color to try. Oh yes, I forgot, these bracelets are equipped with a quick change pin which allows you to have fun change the strap whenever you want.
After Thoughts
I don’t know if I forgot to mention something in this review, but in any case I must say that I really love this piece.
The retro design of the watch is very successful and I find the proportions interesting. As I said above, I would have liked one at 39mm even if the 42 is not disturbing at all. This one is sold out but who knows, maybe by reading this review Thomas Lardière will want to grant my wish by making a 39mm version… Never know lol.
I forgot to tell you that the watches are assembled in Versailles / France and that they have a 2 year warranty.
If you’re interested to get an Obelus, they still have other watches and of course chronos. Jump on their website to find out more.
Well no more to add… I’m a bit sad that I have to send back this beautiful watch.
I invite you to follow Obelus Watches on their social networks profile : Facebook / Instagram
Specifications
Jonathan Kopp
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