Latest Review
One of the most interesting new watches (and new brands) to surface at Geneva Watch Days this year was the Albishorn Maxigraph, made in collaboration with Massena LAB. Now, just a few months after their debut, Albishorn is back with their second effort, the Type 10. This might seem like a rapid pace for a brand to be moving at, but once you understand Albishorn’s backstory, it begins to make a little more sense. The brand is the brainchild of Sébastien Chaulmontet, a watch industry veteran who is currently Director of Innovation and Marketing at Sellita. There are probably few individuals in the watch space better positioned to make a quick start than Sébastien, and after chatting with him briefly about his brand and his plans for it at Geneva Watch Days, it’s no surprise to see the Type 10 surface now, and it will be even less of a surprise to know that Sébastien has a an even longer term release roadmap planned out well in advance.
The conceit of Albishorn, you’ll likely remember, is that of a brand that creates “vintage watches that never existed.” These are not vintage reissues, or even inspired, necessarily, by actual vintage watches. Rather, the watches that will make up the Albishorn collection will exist as thought experiments, imagining parallel histories in which a watch like the Type 10 or the Maxigraph could have been designed, but weren’t. It’s a subtle but important twist on the notion of a vintage inspired watch, and one that, I think, should appeal to watch nerds with a particular interest in watchmaking history.
The prompt for the Type 10 is relatively straightforward: what would a predecessor to the well known Type 20 chronograph have looked like? As a hypothetical, Sébastien decided that this imaginary Type 10 would have been made in 1948.
The Type 10, according to Albishorn, has been designed under the guiding principle that it should be period correct to the late 1940s, while also meeting all requirements for pilots of the time. To that end, this hypothetical Type 20 predecessor is executed as a monopusher chronograph with a dial and case design that would have been completely at home in the era immediately following World War II. It also has some novel mechanical features (Chaulmontet is, after all, Director of Innovation at a movement making firm).
The Type 10’s movement allows for a unique dial layout that features running seconds and elaposed minutes at 4:30 and 7:30, respectively. The crown is located at 10:30 and is crafted from bronze (a nod to the “prototype” nature of this imaginary vintage watch), with a large red chronograph pusher at the 9:30 position. According to Albishorn, the pusher placement was decided upon so that it could be easily activated by thumb. The movement also features an indicator at 12:00 on the dial that describes the mode the chronograph is in at any given moment: reset is black, start is red, stop is white. I had a chance to test this feature out briefly at Geneva Watch Days, and it’s surprising how intuitive and useful it is to see, at a glance, what the chronograph is doing. Another nice detail: the chronograph seconds hand covers the indicator when the chronograph is not engaged (“reset” mode).
The Type 10’s case measures 39mm and is kept thin at just 12mm tall, including the sapphire crystal. The movement is COSC certified and manually wound with 65 hours of power reserve on a full wind. It will be available in two dial variations, Classic (black with tan accents) and Sihlwald (a green fume dial with tan accents and red chronograph hands).
The retail price is set at CHF 3,950. Sales open on Monday, October 21. The Type 10 is not a limited edition, but only 25 examples of each variant will be available initially. Albishorn
