For 2024, watchmaker Eberhard & Co. has launched an fascinating assortment of watches often known as the Chronographe 1887 household. The gathering contains a 250-piece restricted version and a non-limited model with an automated (versus manually wound) motion. Eberhard & Co. presents just a few totally different dial colours for each the restricted and standard-production mannequin Chronographe 1887s, although it’s a bit complicated to particularly decide what number of dials there are. On the model’s web site (and once I met with the corporate), Eberhard & Co. solely shows the black- or white-dial variations. The technical specs, nevertheless, focus on extra dials, together with 4 dials for the Chronographe 1887 Automated and three totally different dials for the manually wound Chronographe 1887 Restricted Version. It’s additional unclear if the restricted version is 250 items whole, or 250 items per dial colour. Regardless of the confusion, these watches are fairly beautiful in a traditional manner.
Eberhard & Co. was based in 1887. The corporate has at all times specialised in software watches, but in addition watches that look fairly whereas indicating the time. Accordingly, these chronographs are supposed to evoke a way of timeless type and useful excellence in a package deal that’s extra trendy than it’s novel or experimental.
All the Chronographe 1887 watches characteristic 41.5mm-wide polished and brushed metal circumstances, which are supposed to evoke the sensation of traditional hand-held stopwatches. The circumstances are designed in a “semi-monopusher” type, with one seen chronograph pusher and one that’s constructed into the crown. This isn’t completely distinctive, however not significantly frequent in new watches, and is barely represented out there at present. The restricted version reference 31081 Chronographe 1887 fashions have a barely thinner case that’s 13.9mm thick. It’s because they include a manually wound motion, so the elimination of the automated rotor helps shave off a little bit of thickness. The automated non-limited Chronographe 1887 circumstances, in the meantime, are 14.4mm thick. There’s a domed AR-coated sapphire crystal over the dials.
What’s it about these classic instrument dials that someway feels fascinating and stylish at present? Little question, when these “spiral dial” chronographs first got here out, folks complained that they had been too busy. Now 150 or so years (first such dials appeared on pocket watches after which afterward wristwatches beginning in maybe the Nineteen Thirties) later, they give the impression of being mature and fashionable by comparability. Why will we like these retro-sport watch dial faces? At the least for me, I believe it begins with the elegant but formal hour markers (the Arabic numeral ones on the automated fashions are my favourite), and the daring palms that also have eye-pleasing designs. These parts alone are satisfying to take a look at. The busy, difficult dials simply really feel too esoteric to spend that a lot visible effort on. They don’t hassle our eyes, as a result of we largely ignore them because it turns into background ornament. Nobody within the final half-century has wanted any of these scales, in order that they mix in as ornamental background noise when positioned on fashionable timepieces. We like figuring out that somebody, someplace would have used such numbers, however take consolation in figuring out that we are going to by no means need to hassle ourselves mastering such tedious calculations. However we nonetheless get pleasure from carrying the software that measures them.
The motion contained in the Eberhard & Co. Chronographe 1887 is named the Calibre EB 280 (manually wound) or EB 380 (automated) relying on how it’s configured. The motion is produced for Eberhard & Co. by Sellita, and they’re based mostly on the corporate’s AMT 5100 chronograph actions which have a column-wheel transmission and flyback system for the chronograph. The actions function at 4Hz with about 58 hours of energy reserve. The manually-wound model is actually simply the automated motion with the self-winding system eliminated. Rather than it, Eberhard applies a shield-style plate on the motion (which is visually paying homage to its emblem).
On the finish of the day, what makes the Chronographe 1887 watches good is their type and their quirks. One thing about Eberhard & Co. at all times feels a bit extra Italian than Swiss (due to who works there, after all), and accordingly, its watches have persona on high of competence. The daring presence and retro visuals of those watches are enjoyable and good-looking. They’re each conservative and maximalist, each up to date and classic, each primary and complex. These fascinating inherent contradictions make Eberhard’s greatest watches so beguiling, and that’s actually true for lots of the new Chronographe 1887 watches as each the non-limited reference 31082 and the restricted 31081. The Eberhard & Co. Chronographe 1887 Restricted Version is priced at 7,800 Swiss Francs, whereas the Eberhard & Co. Chronographe 1887 Automated is priced at 6,570 Swiss Francs. Learn more at the Eberhard & Co. website.
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