Introducing: The Mint-Green Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure Powered By A Vintage Valjoux 92 Movement
Imagine driving your mint-green Ford Mustang convertible from the ’60s along the Californian coast during the golden hour. You’re wearing your favorite pair of Wayfarer-style sunglasses, and the wind is gently blowing through your hair. On your wrist is the brand-new mint-green Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure with a vintage Valjoux 92 movement inside. It’s the perfect companion for this nice spring evening. All right, I might not have come up with that little fantasy all by myself. I guess the lifestyle shots that came with the press release helped a little bit.
If you’re familiar with other limited-edition watches in collaboration with the guys over at Worn & Wound, you’ll know they sure aren’t afraid to use some color. A quick scan through the watches we’ve covered in the past shows you some bold color combinations. Well, the new Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure is no exception with its bright and glossy mint-green dial and red hands. Let’s take a quick look at this vintage-inspired chronograph powered by a restored Valjoux 92 hand-wound movement.
The Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure Valjoux 92
When it comes to bright colors, Worn & Wound and Depancel are a great match. The young French watch brand’s designs are mainly inspired by classic race cars. That means its watches often feature brightly colored hands and printing on the dials. Just take a quick look at the brand’s Allure collection, for example. This new Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure Valjoux 92 certainly won’t look out of place with its glossy mint-green color, fiery red hands, and details. But before we take a good look at that dial, let’s go over the dimensions and the finishing on the case.
The Allure Valjoux 92 has a 39mm stainless steel case, which, including the domed sapphire crystal, measures 13mm thick. Its circularly brushed lugs with polished bevels span just under 46mm from tip to tip. The sides are horizontally brushed and combined with either the crown and pushers or a badge stating the name of the watch. The bezel up top is fully polished, and the brushed case back is attached with screws. It also holds a flat sapphire crystal, which allows a view of the restored Valjoux 92 chronograph movement. The Allure’s case is water resistant to 50 meters as well.
Valjoux 92
The Valjoux 92 is a popular movement from the ’50s and ’60s. It powered many watches, such as Tomas’s Yema. This hand-wound column-wheel chronograph caliber operates at 18,000vph frequency, features 19 jewels, and holds a power reserve of 39 hours. It also uses an oscillating pinion for starting and stopping the chronograph. This is a technology invented by Edouard Heuer, and you can still find it in the automatic Valjoux 7750. Depancel has recovered and restored only 20 of these movements. That’s why the Allure Valjoux 72 automatically becomes a very limited edition.
A single-register chronograph
Most of the watches housing a Valjoux 92 movement feature two sub-dials — one with a 30-minute chronograph recorder and one for the running seconds. However, Depancel and Worn & Wound have ditched the running seconds at 9 o’clock. Instead, the collaborators have fitted the center of the dial with a pulsometer scale. You can read it using the short end of the central chronograph hand. That way, you can track your pulse while you’re recording the time of a race. Both the sub-dial and the pulsometer are a little recessed. They have a circularly brushed finish and dark gray hue, just like the outer edge of the dial.
An elegant polished chamfer marks the transition to the glossy mint-green part of the dial. The hour and minute hands feature red racing stripes and are filled with white luminous material. The red detailing comes back in the applied hour markers, which also have lume. Depancel’s three-star logo stands proudly up top as the 12 o’clock marker. Although a lot is happening on the dial, I feel its original layout with the bright colors works very well. You can see that a lot of attention went into the use of color. The result is a dial that feels very fresh and summery, and the red “ribbon” on the octagonal crown perfectly finishes it off.
Available right now
The Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure Valjoux 92 seems like a fun collaboration between these two groups of enthusiasts. Its size should suit most wrists out there too. The original dial layout will certainly turn some heads, and the glossy mint-green color will make you think of summer every time you look at it. It reminds me a bit of the Méraud Antigua and my Autodromo Intereuropa, and that’s certainly not a bad thing.
The Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure Valjoux 92 is available now exclusively through the Windup Watch Shop. That’s also the place where you can find more information about this perfect summer watch. Most of Depancel’s watches sell for somewhere between US$500 and US$2,500. However, due to the vintage Valjoux 92 movement, this Allure is more expensive at US$3,900. Also, keep in mind that it’s a limited edition of only 20 pieces. That means you won’t find one on anyone else’s wrist anytime soon. The watch comes on a perforated black leather strap with matching mint-green stitching.
Let me know in the comments below what you think of the new Depancel × Worn & Wound Allure Valjoux 92.
