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Well, it wouldn’t be Geneva Watch Days without some wild new release from Massena LAB. Last year, the well-known design house partnered with Sylvain Pinaud to offer up a take on Pinaud’s modern marvel of a chronograph. This year, they’re looking back, joining with a brand new independent watchmaker making their debut at Geneva Watch Days, Albishorn, to give us something a little different.
Albishorn, as I said, is a brand new indie brand with a unique focus — creating what they call “imaginary vintage” watches that bend watchmaking history to create something a little different. Their inaugural release, produced in partnership with Massena LAB, imagines a hypothetical late 1930s regatta chronograph (or regatta timer if you prefer), inspired by Le Bol d’Or Mirabaud — the world’s largest inland lake regatta, first run in 1939 on Lac Léman.
A quick glance at the new Albishorn x Massena LAB Maxigraph will leave vintage heads with a clear sense of origin. The new watch clearly pulls design language from Rolex’s iconic Zerographe chronographs, the early predecessor to now iconic watches like the Daytona. The watch’s dial layout is also reminiscent of World War II multi-scale chronographs, and the mono-pusher layout certainly invokes a vintage charm.
Obviously, this is not a genuine vintage watch, and certain details of the Maxigraph betray that. The execution feels quite modern, with sharply machined elements like the stark red pusher on the case flank, multi-colored lume — watches of the late 1930s would have been limited to the green glow of decaying radioactive paints — and a more contemporary size than one might have seen in 1939 (by way of comparison, the reference 3346 Zerographe was only 32mm in diameter).
The Maxigraph case comes in at 39mm in diameter and 13mm thick, though the 41mm bezel will increase the overall visual footprint of the watch. The watch is powered by an unspecified “proprietary” automatic chronograph movement with some interesting functionality. The mono-pusher chronograph is tied to a ten-minute regatta timer, reset by stopping and resetting the chronograph, but where a typical regatta timer would continually run through its countdown sequence until stopped, the Maxigraph’s regatta timer will run only once, though the chronograph hand will continue on after the ten minutes have elapsed. The watch also features a fun multi-colored running indicator at 4 o’clock.
Overall, the Maxigraph is a promising debut for Albishorn. It’s colorful, excited, and seems poised to grab the attention of vintage lovers and modern collectors alike. I know I’ll be excited to get hands-on with this one, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Of course, that won’t be terribly easy. While the production of the Maxigraph is open-ended, it will be somewhat limited, with production batches estimated to come in around 25 watches apiece.
Orders for the Albishorn x Massena LAB Maxigraph open on Massena LAB’s website September 12 at 10 am EDT, with the watch priced at $4,995 and the first deliveries expected later in September. Massena LAB
