What We Know
If you don’t know the Benrus Sky Chief, let me get you up to speed on one of the coolest vintage watches that you can still find for relatively affordable prices. The watch was a bit of a paradox—it was a smaller pilot’s chronograph (unlike some of the massive, oversized watches from some brands of the era) released in the 1940s by New York City-based Benrus. The Sky Chief eventually became the official watch of pilots for some of the world’s top airlines. They became beloved by collectors because of their striking three-register dial design, and now they’re back and look quite good.
These vintage chronographs, as mentioned, were on the smaller side for modern buyers—35mm—but they’ve only been slightly upsized to 36mm, staying within the vintage range. So you can see from the photos here that it does wear on the smaller side. But you’ll also see that the dial takes up a lot of the front real estate, not crunched in by a big bezel and magnified to some degree by a double-domed box sapphire crystal.
The originals were quite chunky, though, so the wearing experience is now much better balanced at only 11.9mm, including a sapphire caseback. If you look at the side profile of a vintage Sky Chief, the new model’s brushed-and-polished stainless steel case will look somewhat similar in proportions. The super-steep bezel and sapphire take up much of the space (as they do on the original), with a vertical ring where the bezel attaches to the case (shrunken to reduce thickness), the midcase, and a now-flatter caseback ring. The crown looks pretty big and chunky, just what you want on a vintage-inspired watch. All this, plus 100m of water resistance, and you’ve got a nice case design. Inside is a COSC-certified ETA 2894 automatic movement with a 42-hour power reserve.
There are two dials that emulate commonly found options on vintage Sky Chiefs. There’s Stratus Grey (glossy lacquered black with snailed subdials) and Cirrus White (light grey sunburst with snailed subdials). Both have vintage-hued Super-LumiNova on the indices but, curiously, not tinted on the hands. I asked a friend who is actually high up at Benrus, and he said that after carefully studying vintage examples, they found that the lume in both hands and dials rarely matched in tone. Not wanting to over-fauxtina the watch, they decided that playing the two colors off of each other would work well.
The new (or revived) Benrus Sky Chief comes on a grey leather strap with a polished pin buckle, with a secondary black leather strap available as an additional option. The price is $3,950, which puts it at (or under) the price of a decent vintage example.
What We Think
Let’s start with the price and work our way back. There’s no doubt that creeping up on $4,000 is not where I thought I’d see modern Benrus, as it feels a bit high. I like the aesthetics, and it’s tempting, but a bit aggressive. The Sky Chief scratches the same itch as a Nivada Grenchen CASD (which I suddenly have an urge to wear as I write about this release), though at nearly twice the price. There are pluses and minuses, and maybe I’ll compare them hands-on. But the more important thing, as I said, is that Benrus got in under the vintage price for a very clean version (something brands screw up more often than they should). In all, it’s one of the more expensive ETA 2894 offerings, a movement that most brands have pretty much phased out.
I really like the darker dial, though I do disagree with the hand vs. lume color decision. I’m also very impressed with Benrus’s turnaround, which, just over 10 years ago, was putting out a $300 version of the Sky Chief that didn’t pass for anything resembling the original and, frankly, looked pretty atrocious. Now that we’ve got the brand paying attention to the details, I’ll try to get my hands on one soon, as I have a lot more to say about the Sky Chief.
The Basics
Brand: Benrus
Model: Sky Chief
Diameter: 36mm
Thickness: 11.9mm
Case Material: 316L Stainless Steel
Dial Color: Stratus Grey (glossy lacquered black with snailed subdials) or Cirrus White (light grey sunburst with snailed subdials)
Indexes: Printed
Lume: BG W9 Super-LumiNova
Water Resistance: 100m
Strap/Bracelet: Grey leather strap with a secondary black leather strap available as an additional option; polished pin buckle
The Movement
Caliber: ETA 2894
Functions: Hours, minutes, running seconds, chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour counter
Power Reserve: 42 hours
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 4Hz
Jewels: 37
Chronometer Certified: COSC-certified chronometer
Additional Details: See-through caseback; double-domed box sapphire crystal with dual anti-reflective coating
Pricing & Availability
Price: $3,950
Availability: Now, on the Benrus website
Limited Edition: No
For more, click here.
