Last year, I reviewed Erroyl Watch Company’s first offering, the Heritage, finding it to be a dignified dress watch for an affordable price. I now have a sample of their second series, the Regent. Like it’s stablemate, the new model is a handsome, traditionally styled watch, but where the Heritage was decidedly dressy, the Regent leans more to the sporty side. For this review, Errol supplied a Regent Nero, with a sharp white-on-black dial.
The Regent has a polished stainless steel case with modern sport watch proportions. It measures 42mm wide and 49mm long, but its rounded bezel, curved sides, tapered lugs, and modest 12mm thickness temper its mass, giving it a sophisticated, tailored appearance. A stamped case back embellishes the rear. Overall fit-and-finish is excellent, with no sharp corners or hard edges.
A fluted, diamond crown sprouts from the 3 o’clock position, along with an oblong button at 2 o’clock. These control the Miyota 9122 movement inside. This unit is a triple-date, 26 jewel variant of the 90 series. Like the more common 9015 three-hander, the 9122 is a hand-wound automatic with a smooth 28.8k beat rate and power reserve in excess of 40 hours. Pull the big crown to its second position to set day and date, and third position for the time. The push button controls the month.
These functions are displayed on two horizontally aligned sub dials and a 6 o’clock date window. Erroyl offers two white dial versions: the Luna and the rose gold accented Aurum. Both are attractive, but I prefer the pop of the white registers against the Nero’s shimmering, guilloche sunray black background. This motif is more commonly found on racing chronographs, not calendars, but the sporty layout suits the Nero’s large case and crown. Besides, I’m a sucker for panda dials (or in this case “reverse panda”).
The Nero’s markers are a combination of bars and darts that are polished, faceted, and fairly diminutive, hugging the outer edge of the dial along with the printed white seconds and railroad track minute indices. Fortunately, the dauphine hands are more than long enough to make the stretch. This layout leaves ample room for the date, Erroyl branding, and subdials. Indeed, those white registers may seem quite large for simple day and month duties, but I like them, not only because they are in proper proportion to the dial, but because I can actually read them. I have other triple dates in my collection with registers so small they are not even worth setting. I may not have worried about this when I was younger, but now I appreciate watches that don’t make me squint through bifocals (yes, bifocals – so depressing). The blued indicators and broadly spaced text on the Nero’s high contrast registers give me no such grief.
Erroyl supplies the Nero on an Italian Crazy Horse strap. It is well tailored, tapers from 20mm to 18mm, and secured with a signed butterfly deployant clasp, but the sueded leather dresses the watch down a bit, reinforcing the casual side of its nature. A black crocodile strap with white stitching would look stunning on this watch, playing perfectly off of the polished case and panda dial. I’d also love to see someone try it on a black Paul Newman style cuff, just because.
As I said at the outset, the Regent leans sporty, which is to say it is not a true sport watch – and this is not a bad thing. The watch catches your eye for all the right reasons, looks the business with a charcoal suit, and its AR-coated sapphire crystal and respectable 100m water resistance will carry it through all but the most uncivilized adventures. The Regent Nero sells for $444.88 direct from Erroyl’s website and delivers solid value for the money. Like the company’s previous offerings, the Regent is handsome, tasteful, and beautifully made.
Pro: Dress watch details with sport watch bearing.
Con: Too big for a dress watch, too dressy for a sport watch.
Sum: Why choose? Wear this pretty panda wherever the hell you like. The Time Bum approves.
