Earlier this year we told you about Swiss brand Delma’s 100th anniversary celebration, which kicked off with the release of a limited edition tourbillon. Of course, plenty of brands release tourbillons and they are a natural for a celebratory watch, but very few come in at under $10,000, which the Delma did during its pre-order period (the full retail price is $13,900, which is still quite affordable for a Swiss tourbillon). Their latest effort, announced last month, has also been released to coincide with the brand’s centenary, but it’s a bit more modest in its focus. The new Heritage Chronograph 100 Years Limited Edition pays tribute to Delma’s long history of making chronographs in a handsome package that’s a bit more under the radar (and more affordable) than their release from earlier in the year.
Delma traces their history of making chronographs to the mid 1940s when the brand’s focus began to shift to sport oriented watches. Over the years, they’ve made watches for just about every sporting discipline that a well rounded watch brand would ever attempt, including dive watches, timepieces meant for racing of all kinds, as well as travel watches. The new Heritage Chronograph has several clear vintage cues meant to tie this watch to the brand’s earliest sports watches.
Like many WWII era and later mid century chronographs, the Heritage Chronograph features both tachymeter and telemeter scales at the dial’s outer perimeter. Red accents within the telemeter scale help the eye distinguish between the two, which is a small detail but honestly quite helpful on a dial with so much information. The Arabic numerals are oversized and lumed, which also aids in legibility. The dial layout will be familiar to anyone who has owned a Valjoux 7750 powered chrono, with a day-date indicator at 3:00, running seconds at 9:00, and minute and hour totalizers at 12:00 and 6:00, respectively.
The case is stainless steel and measures 43mm across and 15.7mm tall. The lug to lug measurement comes in at 51mm. For a vintage inspired watch, those measurements are decidedly modern, and perhaps even a bit off trend at the moment given the current climate that seems to favor small and medium sized watches. The benefit, though, of a watch like this at that size, is legibility. More dial real estate usually equals easier to decipher subdials and aforementioned tachymeter and telemeter readings. Using the watch for those purposes might seem antiquated, but there’s something nice about knowing there’s some genuine practicality built in.
The Delma Heritage Chronograph is limited to 100 pieces. The retail price is $3,100. Delma
