Lesablier Chronosport

Update! The Chronosport goes live on Kickstarter Wednesday, September 7.

Ensuring the viability of a brand from model to model usually imposes design constraints to make sure that each watch will sell. Creating a unique design that can sell is a delicate balance that involves finding the limits of the market’s tolerance for outré concepts and toeing that line. That’s where Lesablier Watches seems to excel: it’s about to release the Chronosport, a unique MechaQuartz chronograph that borrows from the multifaceted, angular case of the brand’s last release, the Sport Classic. With the Chronosport, Lesablier is both expanding its offerings and showing the watch community that it’s found its footing by establishing a clear brand DNA.

The first thing you’ll notice when you handle the Lesablier Chronosport is the case, which features an engaging blend of crisp edges, facets, and curving surfaces in polished and brushed finishes. The balance of color and legibility is achieved well, with the translucent Evo dial winning for cool points and the green dial with Arabic numerals (not featured here), taking the top beauty prize.

Strong work here. The brushing and edges are exceptionally well-defined, creating a lot of light play. I’m especially keen on the curve of the case as it drops down to the hooded lugs, and the wide polished triangle as it reaches them. The way the pushers are labeled is also a nice touch, and they work with a satisfying click each time you depress them. Unfortunately, the crown is undersized; for its dimensions, it’s surprisingly easy to use, but it needs to be enlarged, perhaps at the expense of the positioning and sizing of the crown guards.

Given the chunky silhouette, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Chronosport would wear large on the wrist. On the contrary, the fitted bracelet and hooded lugs help it wear nearly perfectly (at least on my 7-inch wrist). The scalloped bezel recalls Girard-Perregaux’s Laureato line, though note that this is properly scalloped in its style while the GP has an octagonal bezel stacked on top of a circular one. No matter, the Chronosport’s bezel is lovely.

The Chronosport is going to be available in 6 different dials. The white and blue you see here are basic, but the other four are a bit more exciting: aventurine, the translucent Evo, green with Arabic numerals, and a lovely starburst salmon. Needless to say, you’ll probably have trouble choosing. The Evo—clearly the best option—is an evolution of the ghost dial offered on the Sport Classic.

The polished markers are nice, but what I wanted to show here was the polished ring creating a partition in the dial. It adds more light play to the matte dials and creates interest without creating clutter. And I always appreciate a hand with some dimension. Have you ever encountered an ultra-flat, two-dimensional handset that just felt lifeless? Not this one, and thank god for that.

See what I mean with the hands? Even the subdial hands! As someone who hates panoramic date windows—where more than one date is visible at a time—I was surprised to find myself enjoying the dimmed numerals around the dial on the Evo option. The radial subdials add a bit of texture to the flatter dial options, namely the white and blue.

AMERICA! Or France! Or Slovakia! Or the Netherlands! Or Australia! Or the UK! Or Chile! Or Luxembourg! Or the Czech Republic! Or Costa Rica! Or Thailand! Or Puerto Rico! Or Norway! Or Cuba! Or Iceland! Or Liberia! But not Russia (Fuck Putin).

The lume on the Lesablier Chronosport is middling. The area of total lume is small and limits how bright it can be, but also the hands and markers differ in brightness. I’ll acknowledge that uneven brightness is not an easy problem to solve, but it still bothers me. I’ll also acknowledge that lume isn’t that important on a chronograph.

Steering wheel, hourglass. Polishing, brushing, frosting. Thank goodness Lesablier has some decency and didn’t put every spec possible on the caseback. Underneath you’ll find the Seiko VK64 MechaQuartz, which provides a smooth sweep chrono hand and no ticking seconds, as this VK configuration omits a running seconds hand. With a 3-year battery life and service that involves swapping the entire movement, the Seiko VK64 is reliable and keeps owners’ costs low.

The alternating finishes of the bracelet and hexagonal center links complement the finishing and lines of the case. Many will gripe about the butterfly clasp, which offers no method of fine-tuning. You’ll either get a perfect fit (like I did) or you won’t.  While the bracelet has quick-release pins, they’re small and the angle of the connection makes it hard to reconnect after sizing. The leather strap (available as an extra) is adequate, with quick-release pins. However, the transition from the case to the leather is jarring and as such makes the watch look larger on the wrist. Due to the shallow lug box, you’ll not be able to put a NATO strap on, nor any non-custom option; an adapter to get around this is being explored. All that considered, it’s probably best to size the bracelet and keep it on.

The Lesablier Chronosport, like the Sport Classic, is highly stylized and won’t be for everyone. The dials are engaging and well-designed, and the case is unique. With the bracelet affixed, the watch wears surprisingly well. While I like the design of the pushers and the crown guards, their sizing needs to be adjusted. Fortunately, on a MechaQuartz watch, the crown rarely needs to be used. This watch is all about looks, and in that regard, it scores big. If you’re interested, you can head over to the Lesablier Watches website to sign up for updates. The Kickstarter is set to launch in May and pricing is targeted at $265 for early backers.