I've been wanting to check out this watch in person for months now, and Stowa was kind enough to loan me this watch to review.
Video Review
CASE
This case is 36mm in diameter, 45mm from lug-to-lug and an incredible 8.5mm in height. The case is entirely polished, and the finishing is excellent. The lugs gently curve down towards the wrist, and show off some of that excellent mirror polishing. The lugs do extend beyond the perfectly flat case-back, and I've found watches that do this to always be comfortable. There is a narrow bezel that seats the slightly domed sapphire crystal. The onion styled push-pull crown is polished, and is almost as tall as the case itself, so is very easy to grip and operate. The crown design suits the watch perfectly. Flipping it over, you have a screw-down case-back with a large exhibition window. The window is very welcome here, as it shows off the top grade ETA/Peseux 7001 movement. This watch is rated for up to 50m of water resistance.
DIAL
The dial is best aspect of this watch, and the vintage pocket watch inspired deck watch design is perfectly executed here. The base of the dial is listed as an enamel finish, but isn't made of enamel. I think this finishing is pretty convincing, and the entire dial has the warmth that you get from enamel and ceramic.
The entire dial is printed; you have a printed railroad style minute track with a triangle marker for the 12 o'clock, and filled rectangular markers for each increment of five. You then have printed Arabic numerals, in a font almost identical to their vintage Marine observation pocket watches.
The seconds sub-dial is at the 6 o'clock and instead of an Arabic numeral for 6, you have a short rectangular marker instead to balance out the empty space. The sub-dial is beautifully recessed, and has a printed seconds track. The seconds track is accented by Arabic numerals for every 10 second increment, and well proportioned ticks for every 5 seconds.
The quality of printing on all the elements is excellent, and beyond anything you'd expect from a $1000 watch. If the impeccable printing doesn't make you a believer, then you have to look at the hands. The hands are temperature blued steel, and are finished to perfection. These hands are incredible, and unfortunately my photographs cannot do them justice.
The center stack is very neat, and also finished in the same brilliant manner as the rest of the hands. I'm speechless at the level of finishing offered on this dial.
MOVEMENT
This watch uses the very slim Peseux/ETA 7001 and measures an impressive 2.5mm in thickness. I believe this is the top grade variant, and has wonderful decoration that is on full display thanks to the exhibition case-back. The impressive clean room standards of the dial extends to the movement as well, and there's not a visible particle of dust or dirt to be seen here.
ON THE WRIST (6.25")
I have a 6.25″ wrist and I intentionally requested the 36mm version of this watch. I think I could've pulled off the 41mm option too, but I thought the slightly smaller case would suit this design better, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. The 45mm lug-to-lug width sits comfortably on my wrist, and the 8.5mm height gives it a beautiful sense of elegance. The case-back is perfectly flat, and allows the slightly curved lugs to gently wrap around the wrists. Overall this watch gets a 10/10 for comfort and there's nothing they could have done better.
If you can't tell from all the superlatives above - I loved this watch, and I'd like to add a Stowa to my own collection soon.
Even Bella loved it...
Thanks for reading/watching!
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