December is usually a quiet month for watch releases as brands turn their efforts to retail for the holidays and all those merry gift hunters. For Chronoswiss, however, the Lucerne watchmaker wanted to give us one last horological gem before the end of the year, and what a gem it is!
Chronoswiss Delphis Firestarter
The Chronoswiss Delphis Firestarter is aptly named with its fiery colourway that introduces a brand-new case material for the brand. The shiny red effect is not a surface treatment or a coating, but a titanium core nanoshell that has been bonded to a high-performance red composite on the molecular level. How it works – without getting into the physics of it – is that the titanium core permanently merges with a 0.4 mm ultra-lightweight and resilient composite red shell, fixing the fiery colour to the titanium case.
In addition to the colour, the 42 mm case is also a sophisticated construction of over 17 pieces. Like many Chronoswiss watches, it comes with elegant fluted rings at the top and bottom of the case band and a large onion crown, bringing traditional horological touches to a timepiece that is anything but traditional!
The Delphis Dial
This bold red design continues onto the three-dimensional dial with a curved upper dial that comes in 18-karat white gold and has been hand guilloched and decorated with five layers of red grand feu enamel. In terms of the indications, there is a jumping digital hour display, sweeping retrograde minutes, and a small seconds indication at six o’clock. The seconds’ display has also been decorated with a guilloché pattern around the outside, this time in galvanic black, and features a red and aluminium emblem which some may see as an umbrella, where others may see a warning sign – either way, it is an eye-catching touch.
All the Details
The Chronoswiss Delphis Firestarter is powered by the automatic Calibre C.6004 Manufacture movement that offers a 55-hour power reserve and features a skeletonized rotor made of tungsten that has been ruthenium plated. A keen eye will also notice that the movement has been decorated with radiating Geneva stripes. The watch is water resistant to 100 metres and comes on a red rubber strap.
It is limited to 50 pieces only and models have already started to arrive in stores, for those who haven’t finished their festive season shopping yet. But given the bright red colour scheme, there is a good chance that Santa Claus is going to snap them up all for himself and his elves. After all, he will need a precision watch for his mission to visit the world’s 2.2 billion children on the evening of the 24th December, and I personally can’t think of a better watch to style with his red and white velvet suit!
