The Classic Chrono – Reviewed by The Kavalier

Out of the three, I would pick the L’Heure Luxe, personally. It is a little bit more expensive than the others, but I’ve just been really impressed with the build quality of L’heure Luxe. I am a little bit more preferable to the chronograph

Review of our Classic Chrono by The Kavalier 

Video Transcript 

Okay, hi guys and welcome to the show, and today– No, I’m just kidding, this is not TGV, this is a love letter to TGV, but this is a great format for getting into these three watches that I want to get into today. I’m going with the white gloves. I’ve been wearing these watches for the last few weeks, just put them back in the box for presentation here, but I think this is a really interesting part of the market.

I’ve got a Vincero automatic, I’ve got a Tissot Swissmatic, this is the brand new one that they just released. It is an automatic time piece Swiss made for under $400, and I’ve got L’heure Luxe, which is a brand new micro-brand that just launched, where they hand-make all of their watches in Switzerland, and so it’s three really cool watches that I want to talk about, around the same price point.

We’ve got the Vincero automatic that comes in at $299, we’ve got the Tissot that comes in at $349, and L’heure Luxe which comes in at £449. I want to just talk about each of them, my experience with them and what I think about this part of the market. Make sure you subscribe, questions, comments, everything else down the comments below. You can also reach out at The_Kavalier on Twitter and Instagram, and let me know what you think about these watches.

We’ll start off with the upstart of these, which is the Vincero. I get a lot of questions about Vincero, because I think they do a lot of advertising with some influential network. I’ve seen them on Alpha M, Real Men Real Style, and I’ve worn this for the past few weeks. It is a 41 millimeter miyota automatic movement. It is okay. I really like this strap mechanism, I’ve seen these on other higher end watches, where you put your strap into this clasp mechanism here, and then you’re able to get the same perfect fit in the leather strap everyday, which is something that I really like about my stainless steel.

We’re doing wristwatch check, this is my Omega Commander Seamaster right here, there’s a video on it on the channel, but it’s a nice way to get the perfect fit every time you put the watch on and then, the clasp goes in here. I like the strap on here, this watch is $299 so you can feel that it is not that premium of a strap. It does wear fairly large, and it is pretty simple, which I like. Now, Vincero, they position themselves a little bit higher end than the Movement or than the Daniel Wellington, but they are, after all, a fashion watch brand.

That is something that I do want to talk about when it comes to both of these watches here. This is L’heure Luxe, which is a brand new company, and I do like this watch a lot. I like the chronograph movement. I chose the PVD gold-plated version with the white face. They do have the stainless link bracelets, they have black, they have white, and this is a quartz movement, but it’s entirely Swiss made, it is handmade in Switzerland, and they’re very proud of that fact.

You can see on this tag here, Swiss made. You can just see it in their logo which I really like, it’s this Swiss inspired, looks like a little mountain, but it’s in a diamond. Something that sets this company apart from others, especially in more fashion watch space is that, they offer a huge five year warranty. Rolexes come with five year warranties, and even my Seamaster here, this is the coaxial movement, it’s a brand new one, this comes with a three year warranty.

They’re really trying to play into the higher quality, higher part of the market, without having the markup of a traditional luxury brand. I love the way that it wears on the wrist. It doesn’t wear too big and too large. It is a 41 millimeter, so it’s the same size as my Seamaster, just a little bit thinner, but the Vincero just wears so large, compared to another watch at a similar size. But to me, there’s no good reason for the thickness, because it is an automatic movement, but the movement isn’t that big.

I went with the white on the rose gold with a brown bracelet here. They obviously make a few others in this automatic line. The more that I’ve worn these two watches, I never feel anything when I wear the Vincero watch. I never feel great about wearing it. I never feel like it’s stylish. I never feel like it is heritage, and when it comes to these fashion watches, to me, what makes a company or brand have that heritage, or have that stature, when you’re talking about watches is, do they push the market forward or do they push technology forward?

When you think about the Rolex Explorer or the Rolex Oyster, or you think about the Speedmaster or you think about the Rolex Daytona, all of those watches have done or pushed the market forward in a certain way. If you’re Vincero, and you’re taking a Citizen Miyota Movement, and you’re putting it in a higher quality stainless steel than you would with the movement watches, what are you really pushing forward?

Now, I’m really interested to see what L’heure Luxe does going forward. I know that they’re working on a diver at some point. They’ve talked about doing an automatic watch, which I would be hugely interested in. I’m way more preferable to automatics than quartz, but at $449, for a completely Swiss made high quality watch, I think this is a good value, and I think it looks really nice.

To me, it has much better loom on these hands than some of my other watches at similar price points. The movement is extremely snappy. You can see, as I start the chronograph here, it snaps back into place extremely quick. I really like this movement, and the fact that it is quartz means that it is one of the watches that I can just put on. I don’t have to reset whenever I pick it up in the morning, because almost all my watches are automatics. I think this is really interesting company to take look at. This is really the first look for them.

Now, I want to talk about the Tissot Swissmatic. This is a brand new watch from Tissot. Tissot, they won’t let you forget that they are from 1853. They’re one of the older watchmakers, and while there’s a few luxury brands that are from the 1700s and earlier on, but Tissot is one of the classics. Now, they are a swatch company, so they’re part of the swatch conglomerate, and the movement is a swatch automatic movement, but it is Swiss made, as you can see in the part here.

There is some conjecture over Swiss made. There’s only a certain amount of the movement and it needs to be made in Switzerland, but if you’re looking for a Swiss made automatic watch, you’re not going to find one for less than $400, which is what this watch is trying to accommodate for. Tissot is also a heritage brand and they make much higher end pieces in their line.

Tissot does carry as a brand a certain cachet, and they have a legacy to the watchmaking world. They have pushed the watchmaking world forward. They have developed new movements and they are one of these watch brands where if you wear it, you will have some credibility in the watch world, because they are one these brands. Now, this is a 40 millimeter watch. It is a sapphire crystal, and they offer it in white and they offer it on a stainless steel link bracelet.

One thing that does drive me crazy about the Tissot is that the sapphire crystal, it has no anti-reflective coating, I never realized that would be a big deal for me, but as it turns out, having the anti-reflective sapphire crystal is very important, because it does give off quite a bit of reflection. I have really enjoyed wearing this watch. Now, the reptile bracelet here, it leaves a little bit to be desired, and I guess you’d expect that at a $400 price point. If you go upmarket a little bit, you obviously get something a little bit more high quality.

As far as wearing it on the wrist, it feels really good, however, I have had to adjust it to the smallest setting and it’s still just a little– It’s basically where it needs to be. so if you have any smaller wrist, I believe mine measure to be about six and a quarter, or six and a half, I’ve pretty small wrist, I’m a tall lanky guy. You can see how it wears here, it looks nice sitting on the wrist. It’s not too thick and bulky. It’s a few millimeters thinner than the Vincero watch, and it does have a see through case back on this one.

Now, the hands leave a little bit to be desired, I also read that in the Hodinkee review and it was one of the first things that I noticed as I was going here. They’re extremely thin, paper thin on the watch and if you’re getting a Swiss made automatic watch at this price point, you’re not going to have the most luxurious of materials, but I just like the design, it’s about how it’s designed.

What really got me into this world was the design of the Daniel Wellington watches, something clean, straightforward, and just very minimal. I like that it has the date window, that’s something that’s become a requirement for the watches that I wear. It does have a 75 hour power reserve, which is more than most automatics especially at this price point.

When you talk about accuracy, so with automatic watches, there is a variance on the accuracy they have. This L’heure Luxe, it has been highly accurate.

It’s been running at 0.05 seconds per day, as you’d expect with a quartz watch. It going to be even more accurate than the most expensive Rolex out there. Now, the Vincero watch has been running at an average of +80 seconds per day, which is huge. That is not good. My Seamaster is an official chronometer, the specs for those, I believe, are under five seconds of variance per day something like that, and my Seamaster totally runs at +2 seconds per day, which is very strong.

The Vincero has been running at +80, that is not good, guys. My Tissot has been running around +30 seconds per day, which isn’t great. But I don’t think when you’re buying these automatic watches you’re not really buying them to tell the time, you’re buying them because you like the mechanical aspect of the watch, you like to have a piece of art on your wrist, which is also why I think I’m not so into the Vincero, but the Tissot just have that Swiss watch-making aspect to it.

Yes, there are see-through case packs on both of them, but the movements aren’t as pretty as you’d expect from a luxury brand, but you’re still getting to see some of the artistry behind these watches today, Swiss-made, probably Chinese or Japanese-made, on the Vincero. You have it, gents, three watches in this mid-tier price point, $299, $349, and $449, each of them with their own unique aspects. You’ve got a lot of Swiss heritage, and a lot of legacy behind the Tissot brand.

You’ve got a lot of marketing and hype around Vincero, and you’ve got this micro-brand trying to make a name for itself. So far, I really like this one. Out of the three, I would pick the L’heure Luxe, personally. It is a little bit more expensive than the others, but I’ve just been really impressed with the build quality of L’heure Luxe. I am a little bit more preferable to the chronograph. It would be a really tough pick between these two, the Tissot and L’heure Luxe, because they do serve different purposes.

This is a lot more functional of a piece, and this is a tool watch, versus the Tissot being more of dress watch. It’s a really close toss-up between these two. Vincero, it’s been great, Vincero, but I’m going to have– I’m probably going to send this one back. I’m not really crazy about it, in any regard. With our quartz pieces, I think they’re $150 or so. Just, Vincero is not doing much for me.

I guess you could say they are a little bit better than Movement, but if you’re looking for a watch that’s in the price point of this $200, you’re way better served with a Seiko, or an Orient, or a Citizen. There’s a lot better stuff in this price point that will have a little more heritage, and a little bit more craftsmanship and quality to them, in my opinion. There you go, gents. I hope I did a little bit of urban gentry plus the Kavalier. I hope this turned out okay. I will be putting back on my lovely Seamaster.

I basically never take this off. I’d switch– I wear the watches so that I can get the experience so I can talk about them, but at the end of the day, I come home, and I put this guy on, because it’s the best. The other thing too, with Vincero, the loom on this basically doesn’t even exist. I was never able to see this in the dark. However, the loom on the L’heure Luxe here was incredible and it worked really well, super-readable, super-bright in the dark. No loom on this guy, which is okay, but anyways. That’s it, today. Comments below. Till next time, gents, ciao.