What We Know
We’ve featured a lot of Albishorn on Hodinkee recently, and for good reason. It’s a fan-favorite brand, and, as our former head of limited editions said, it’s hard to find someone who knows how to handle the technical side of watches, the design side, and pricing, all so well. The new Type X-Graph is no exception. If you want more info on the design inspiration behind the brand, you can read one of my previous stories here. But while other launches trend more vintage, this one feels a bit more modern.
The Rolex “Zerograph” inspiration is obvious, with the slightly smaller dial and oversized bezel (that overhangs the case). This time, the dial pushes the look into modernity, with a semi-translucent fumé grey dial that lets you catch small glimpses of the skeletonized ALB04 M movement. But at the same time, Alibshorn was able to maintain the pebbled texture of some of their other dials. It’s not a fully smoked sapphire like a Patek 5316 or a Lange Lumen, but at the price, it strikes a balance between creativity and affordability. Add the green-emission Super-LumiNova on the PVD-coated bi-directionally rotating steel bezel, and it’s a cool monochrome finish.
You’ll notice that the watch is a chronograph with a 30-minute counter at the lower left and running seconds at the right, but right above the logo is the chronograph running indicator. It switches from red while running to white when stopped. The design of this is patented as part of the brand’s modifications to the Valjoux 7750 architecture, which turns it into the manually wound movement in this watch.
The watch is technically a “destro” model, with a crown at 10:30 and a large red pusher just below at 9:30. I’ve long since started to believe that this is actually the best for a chronograph if you’re right-handed. Your thumb is stronger for using a pusher, so grabbing the case with your hand and using your thumb makes sense. The crown doesn’t get in the way when wearing it.
The 316L stainless steel case measures 39mm by 12mm and has 100m of water resistance. The movement inside has a 65-hour power reserve and runs at 4 Hz. It’s also COSC-certified.
We didn’t cover it at launch, but one of the other new additions is a bracelet option. The watch comes with both a black and a taupe strap as standard at CHF 4,250, but for an extra CHF 450, you can get the “bamboo”-inspired bracelet with a deployant and two small hidden micro-adjustments. Albishorn is limiting production to 99 unnumbered pieces over the next three years, but it’s not so much a true limited edition—the brand is small enough that they may never do 99 pieces of any one version anyway. It’s more of a promise never to do more.
What We Think
There’s no doubt that Albishorn’s chronographs take someone with a particular sense of style and maybe creativity to appreciate and wear. With the vintage inspiration, it helps to be a bit educated on watchmaking history to get the references. As a standalone, they still work. But I like this version for being much more modern than past releases. The other thing I’ll say is that I’m excited about the brand’s future, with some new models in the works that I got to see as prototypes. They’ll scratch a different itch than the chronographs, so if those are your deal, it’s still worth picking them up.
The Basics
Brand: Albishorn
Model: Type X-Graph
Diameter: 39mm
Thickness: 12mm
Case Material: 316L stainless steel
Dial Color: Translucent polycarbonate dial with fumé finish and pebbled texture
Indexes: Printed
Lume: Super-LumiNova
Water Resistance: 100m
Strap/Bracelet: Black and taupe leather straps; optional metal bracelet
The Movement
Caliber: Proprietary caliber ALB04 M
Functions: Hours, minutes, chronograph, running seconds, running indicator, stop seconds
Diameter: 30mm
Thickness: 5.7mm
Power Reserve: 65 hours
Winding: Manual
Frequency: 4 Hz
Jewels: 21
Chronometer Certified: Yes, COSC-certified
Additional Details: Skeletonized dial side; Box sapphire crystal with antireflective coating; Bidirectional rotating bezel in gunmetal PVD-coated stainless steel with engraved and lacquered figures and Super-LumiNova® indexes
Pricing & Availability
Price: CHF 4,250 (on strap) or CHF 4,700 (on bracelet)
Availability: On the brand’s website, Friday, May 29, at 9 am EDT
Limited Edition: Limited to 99 pieces (unnumbered), produced over a period of three years
For more, click here.
