Chronoswiss Regulateur 30 Anniversary Edition Hands-On

Chronoswiss – although its name suggests otherwise – was founded in Germany by Gerd R. Lang in 1983. In 2012, Gerd R. Lang sold his shares to the Ebstein family in Switzerland. Although I own a Chronoswiss myself (click here for the review on the Chronoswiss Regulateur I did in 2002), I lost a bit track of the brand over the last few years. During our meeting with Chronoswiss in BaselWorld 2013 I was happily surprised to see that they still produce the wonderful tuna-can shaped cases with ribbed details and large onion shaped crown. In fact, in 2013 Chronoswiss introduced their 30th anniversary edition of their Régulateur watch in both gold and stainless steel. Coincidentally, it is the 25th anniversary of the Régulateur that was introduced in 1988.  It was actually the first wrist watch to have a regulator dial lay-out.

The 18 carat red gold version of the Régulateur 30 will be limited to 130 pieces and the stainless steel version will be limited to 300 pieces. The normal Régulateur always had a silvered dial (there were also black versions and copper versions) but now they come in a wonderful sterling silver dial with a guilloché pattern cut into it. This watch is richly finished with engravings and patterns as you’d expect from a anniversary edition. The watch is a tad bit bigger than the good ol’ 38mm Regulateurs but still very wearable and perhaps a bit more up-to-date anyway with its 40mm.

Instead of a normal hand, the hours are now indicated using an aperture which means it is a jumping hour complication. So, instead of a centralized minute hand Chronoswiss used a sub-dial for indicating the minutes and moved it a bit to 12 o’clock. The sub-dial for the second indicator is located at the lower part of the silver dial.

The caliber C.283 movement has a wonderful finish as you can see and feature a gold rotor. The finish on the plates is a feast for the eyes and the little Cr logo in the rotor is a subtle detail that we’ve seen in their other watches as well. Did you know that the very first Chronoswiss Regulateur timepieces in the 1980s were hand-wound? They are quite sought-after and were limited to 500 pieces only. We found a pre-owned one here.

Attached to the Chronoswiss Régulateur 30 is a louisiana crocodile skin strap and the watch can be delivered with either a pin buckle or folding clasp. To be honest, I use the Chronoswiss straps for some of my other watches as well. They are very nicely crafted and have a soft touch.

Each watch comes with a nice winder which appeared to me as being a Swiss Kubik. The 18 carat red gold Chronoswiss Rérulateur reference CH 2811 R has a 13.800 Euro price tag and the stainless steel reference CH 2813 has a 6400 Euro price tag.

More information can be found here on the official Chronoswiss website.