Depancel has carved out a nice little niche for themselves making highly specific automotive and racing inspired watches. These watches are frequently geared directly at watch collectors who are already steeped in car culture, with colorways inspired by classic racing liverys and case designs that emulate specific vehicle designs. Their square shaped watch, the Série-R, might appear somewhat derivative of another famous square watch connected to the racing world, but it has its own thing happening that sets it apart just enough. And this one, surprisingly, is the first chronograph in the Série-R collection. 

Previous iterations of the Série-R have primarily been the home of a calendar complication with an execution that is chronograph-like, featuring subdials at 3, 6, and 9 for the calendar indicators. The new Série-R, in a “Tangerine” colorway and limited to 300 pieces, could have been easily predicted by Depancel fans. We get effectively the same layout as the calendar, but we’ve entered race mode with a three register chrono. 

The new Tangerine colorway looks great, with a blue base dial with a sunray finish in the interior circular section and vertical ridges outside to fill the square. Orange and white accents figure prominently throughout, with a bold stripe down the dial’s left side, crossing the 9:00 subdial. 

The case might appear like a standard square at a glance, but there’s a little more going on. The shape is meant to evoke a radiator grille, and the size has been cut down from the earlier calendar versions of the watch to a more wearable 40mm x 36mm size. The watch is powered by a new to market caliber, the Chinese-made Peacock SL-4801, an automatic movement with a 60 hour power reserve. 

The new Série-R chronograph will be available for pre-order on June 11 and carries a retail price of CHF 995. Depancel