All you fans of racing chronographs need to head over to Kickstarter on Monday, September 14, because that is the day Nezumi Studios launches their Voiture Chronograph campaign. With a mid-size case, MechaQuartz movement, and pre-order price under $300, this watch looks like a clear winner.
In 2011 David Campo Cárdenes founded
Nezumi in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a designer by trade with a passion
for automobiles. Along the way, he developed a line of men's clothing
and accessories, and founded the Roughneck Brigade vintage Porsche club.
These experiences laid the groundwork for the Voiture, a retro
chronograph that adopts the best styling elements from legends like the
Heuer Carrera, Universal Geneve Compax, Rolex Daytona, and Tudor
Montecarlo.
The case is 316L stainless steel
with a polished top and brushed sides. I'm pleased to see that David
resisted the trend towards oversized sport watches and kept the
dimensions modest. At 40mm
across, 47mm long, and 11.5mm thick, the Voiture's proportions are
close to the watches that inspired it – even more so than Tudor's own
Montecarlo reissue, the 42mm Heritage Chronograph. Like the Carrera and
Compax, the lugs are twisted inward, bombè style. It features a fixed
tachymeter bezel and a domed sapphire crystal with an internal
anti-reflective coating.
The crown and case back are both
nicely decorated with the Nezumi logo but the crown is a push-pull and
the back snaps on, which limits water resistance to 5 ATM/50m. It should
prove perfectly adequate for land-based motorsports, but you may not
care to time your speedboat with it.
The dial has a matte finish and is layered over three
glossy sub-dials that David describes as having a "CD pattern." I've
described this texture as being like that of a vinyl record album but
clearly, I'm old. Contrasting
color blocks surround the two lateral dials and pinch together at the
center. The hands and hour markers are applied, polished, and treated
with tan "Old Radium" SuperLuminova as is the orange second hand. Three
color combinations are offered: black on white, white on black, and
light blue on dark blue. They all look great and the panda/reverse panda
combinations are both solid choices, but the blue dial promises to be a
real stunner.
Like many micro brand chronographs
I've covered lately, the Voiture runs a Seiko VK63 MechaQuartz modified
to remove the date wheel. This quartz hybrid unit employs a mechanical
module for a smooth sweep and crisp snap back on reset. The VK63 is a
three-eye chrono: small seconds, 60-minute, and 24-hour. Three registers
do not leave much room for dial text or decoration, so the Voiture
keeps it simple with the logo, brand and model in the clear space up
top, and "MechaQuartz" around the lower sub-dial (à la Daytona)
printed in orange to match the second hand. That second hand is the only
element that makes me pause. It has the Nezumi "N" on its tail, which
might be just one step too far given that the logo is already printed on
the dial. It looks fine in the photos, but I'm reserving judgment until
I see the real thing.
The samples pictured are prototypes
and are subject to change. Several improvements are already in the works
for the final production models including toning down the white dial to
an off-white, and completely changing the strap to a high-quality
Italian leather.
The Voiture will list for around $500 USD and early Kickstarter backers can get it for just under $300. All in all, Nezumi appears to have nailed the key aspects of a vintage racing chronograph. This is certainly one to watch.
All photos courtesy of Nezumi Studios.
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