Chronoswiss Open Gear Resec

Swiss luxury watch brand Chronoswiss presents Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec Aurora, a mechanical wristwatch inspired by the captivating Northern Lights. The latest Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec watch from Chronoswiss comes with a color-changing, handmade Guilloché dial. Enhanced with Chemical Vapor Deposition, the dial comes to life depending on the incidence of light.
To create the color change reminiscent of the the aurora borealis, the dial was hand-cut on a century old Guilloché machine. In addition to the color change and hand Guilloché, this new timepiece features the 3-dimensional regulator construction with a retrograde second and exposed mechanics. The Aurora combines progressive design with the brand’s classic style elements, such as the fluted bezel, onion crown and straight lugs. The massive Super-LumiNova ceramic blocks shine bright and bring light to the darkness of icy polar nights. The Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec Aurora watch is a limited edition of only 50 watches worldwide.
Chronoswiss has cooked up a storm with its newly released timepiece, aptly named the Open Gear ReSec Hurricane.

Capturing a tempestuous scenery, the three-dimensional dial is dressed in high-frequency guilloché and doused in a sleek black. The elaborate design features a two-leveled, 42-part construction — from the galvanic black lower level to the screwed-on skeletonized train wheel bridges on the upper. Adorning the display are slightly off-centered hour markers, an open-gear design, and “Trigono” lacquered hands that are highlighted with Super-LumiNova inlays and tips

Housed inside the 44mm DLC-coated stainless steel case, the calibre C.301 automatic movement runs on a power reserve of up to 42 hours. Its intricate centerpiece had been handcrafted at the horologer’s Lucerne atelier, using a century-old rose-engine turning machine. To finish, the timepiece is complete with a hand-sewn tonal strap made of neoprene and calf leather for dark and mysterious appeal.

Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear Lucerne Edition

In the year 2000 Chronoswiss unveiled the world’s first serially produced regulator tourbillon. Now the Lucerne based brand presents the Open Gear Tourbillon, a modern mechanical timekeeper with a unique regulator set-up, electric blue case and a hypnotising handmade guilloche decoration. Its half-skeletonised flying tourbillon is completely designed in-house, and it is exclusive to Chronoswiss watches.

The tourbillon Chronoswiss manufactured more than 20 years ago – Régulateur à Tourbillon – also had a guilloché dial. Now Chronoswiss unveils the C.303 – its own half-skeletonised tourbillon movement, and the guilloché is added by hand in its atelier in Lucerne.
With the Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear Lucerne Edition the ‘blue hour’ gets a whole new meaning. Using 10 different shades of the colour historically symbolising loyalty, strength, wisdom and trust, the calm display of the watch is contrasted especially by the energetic, almost aggressively electric blue CVD coating on the 17-part, stainless steel case.

The Trigono-shaped hands are blue lacquered, with Super-LumiNova inlays and tips. For the hour and five-minute indexes, generous amounts of blue-hued lume are combined with zirconium oxide into solid bricks and pillars that shine through the night.
The tourbillon may have roots stretching back to the end of the 18th century, but the Chronoswiss Open Gear Tourbillon has everything you should expect from a modern mechanical timepiece.
The watch dial is an elaborate 42-part construction on two levels: the bottom level is hand-guilloched, whereas the upper level features skeletonised train wheel bridges and a funnel-like construction for the hour display. Other design details include all particular signifiers of a Chronoswiss watch: knurled bezel, onion crown and the hornback crocodile strap held in place with the patented Autobloc system.
There is also a hidden special engraving on the reverse side of the dial – for a unique melding of modern mechanical watchmaking and heritage, since the idea of a secret signature was in vogue around two centuries ago when the tourbillon was invented.
Chronoswiss was originally established in 1983, in the German city of München, despite what the name suggests. Four years into its watchmaking endeavours, the first Regulator watch would be presented. The company was moved to Lucerne following a change in ownership in 2012 but kept its original style and the regulator as its signature complication.

Chronoswiss Regulator Manufacture

In the early 2000s, one of the most interesting watch companies to keep your eye on is one that’s fallen somewhat out of sight in recent years. Chronoswiss Regulator Manufacture was an early leader in the post-quartz mechanical renaissance – the company was founded in 1983 by Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, who began as a watchmaker at Heuer, and who left before the company was purchased by Techniques d’Avant-Garde and became TAG Heuer. Chronoswiss, which was originally headquartered in Munich, had as its stock in trade the use of new-old-stock movements from Marvin, and also Enicar, both once very well-known makers of midrange watches. Enicar produced the famous “Sherpa” series of timepieces as well, but both companies are long gone, victims of the Quartz Crisis, and successive rounds of consolidation of the Swiss watchmaking industry. Enicar SA, like Marvin, was also a movement maker, and the Chronoswiss Regulator Manufacture caliber 122 is derived from the Enicar 165 automatic movement.

The company was a big hit among enthusiasts in its time, but as the watch industry continued to grow, and to be dominated by conglomerates like LVMH, the Richemont Group, and the Swatch Group, Chronoswiss struggled to be heard, and in 2012, the company was purchased by a Swiss couple, Oliver and Eva Ebstein, who moved the company’s headquarters to Switzerland, and who hope in some measure to return the company to its glory days, by reviving old favorites as well as creating new, more modern designs.
One of the most historically resonant of all the current C Chronoswiss Regulator Manufacture is the Regulator Manufacture. In addition to his fascination with chronographs – Lang’s personal collection of chronographs number close to a thousand, and he’s the author, along with Reinhard Meis (the author of Das Tourbillon) of the must-have Chronograph Wristwatches: To Stop Time – Lang was also interested in the regulator-style display of the time, in which a large central minute hand dominates the dial, with the hours and running seconds in smaller sub-registers. In 1988, Chronoswiss introduced their Régulateur, with a modified Enicar 165 movement dubbed the caliber 122, and it was when it launched the very first wristwatch with a regulator style dial to be produced in series . Since then, hundreds of watches with such dials have been introduced by other brands, but if you were there in the late ’90s when Chronoswiss was becoming a household word among watch enthusiasts, the association of Chronoswiss with a regulator dial is inescapable.
The design has changed very little over the years. The signature onion-shaped crown is still there, along with the straight-sided case with coin-edge knurling (the original version had a coin-edge bezel) and the shape of the lugs is the same as well. The finely formed, very elegant blued-steel hands are today as they were in 1988, and the dial typography hasn’t changed in thirty years.
The dial is quite lovely – solid sterling silver, decorated with engine turning, which is a rarity to put it mildly for a watch at this price point. The overall effect is old-fashioned bordering on quaint, but there is a quiet dignity about the overall design of the Regulator Manufacture, and a sense of security in its own identity. It’s not hard to understand, when you see it in person (I haven’t seen a Chronoswiss Regulator in person in I don’t know how long) why it’s managed to persist in the company’s collections for so long.
The movement is an interesting piece of Swiss watchmaking history in its own right. Enicar and Marvin are both long gone, but in their heyday, they represented the kind of watchmaking that at one time was a staple for the industry as a whole. The designs were not especially remarkable (although many of the Sherpa models are an exception to that rule) but basic mechanical quality was kept, if not high, then squarely in the realm of solidly reliable, on the understanding that in the years following World War II, a mechanical watch was something of a necessity and as a matter of competitive edge, you tried to offer the best reliability you could at a given price point. The movement runs in 30 jewels, with a 40 hour power reserve, at 21,600 vph; through the caseback, you get the impression of something solidly built, intended less for show than for reliable day-to-day operation
The Chronoswiss Regulator Manufacture is a sort of living museum of Swiss watchmaking. Its design, construction, and the selection of an out-of-production, new-old-stock movement were, when the watch debuted, a genuine rallying cry for the pleasure of mechanical horology over battery powered quartz technology, and an argument for the inherent interest of the mechanical watch. It’s hard to imagine nowadays, when collectible watches sell in the millions of dollars, the internet is awash in horological discourse, and new luxury watches are a multibillion dollar business annually, what the watch world looked like in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The continued existence of mechanical watchmaking, Rolex notwithstanding, still seemed by no means assured and if you were a lover of mechanical watches, you felt as if you were part of a beleaguered but noble cause – you know, sort of like Jon Snow’s outnumbered but game army in A Game Of Thrones, right before the Battle of the Bastards.
And yet, despite its air of coming a bit from a bygone era, there’s something genuinely timeless about the design. While it may have been an exciting novelty when it first came out, the Chronoswiss Regulator Manufacture has stood the test of time remarkably well, and its combination of almost muscular machine-ness with touches of unexpected elegance, like the dial and hands, makes it a watch that can be enjoyed not just for historical interest, but for what it says about how to play a long and lasting game in mechanical horology.

Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec Big Wave

One of the first names that come to mind when thinking of Regulator-style watches is Chronoswiss. Having produced the world’s first serially manufactured wristwatch with a Regulator style display in the 1980s, Chronoswiss, as of today, boasts an exhaustive catalog of Regulator watches to suit almost everyone’s taste and style. Recently, I got an opportunity to go hands-on with the Chronoswiss Open Gear Resec Wave, a new watch that represents the modern and artistic implementation of the Regulator concept. And here are my impressions.
I have relatively large wrists and enjoy wearing watches such as Panerai that offer some wrist presence. So, when I strapped the Chronoswiss Big Wave to my wrist, it immediately felt at home. Measuring 44mm wide and 13.35mm thick, the case on this watch is crafted from stainless steel and wears true to its dimensions. And while the lugs curve downwards and hug the wrist well, they extend out quite a bit from the case, making this watch more suitable for people with medium to large wrists. The case is beautifully finished and displays a nice mix of finely brushed and polished surfaces. The case also exhibits some signature Chronoswiss design details such as the knurled bezels both on top and bottom and the large onion-shaped crown. The case is water-resistant to 100 meters, which means that you can perform some light swimming with the watch tied to your wrist.
The watch comes attached to a hand-sewn blue Hornback crocodile leather strap. The strap certainly looks and feels high quality; however, I do feel that is a little on the thicker side. I also found the strap to a little too stiff out of the box, and it also remained that way during the limited time I had the watch. That said, I will not say that this is a deal-breaker, as I feel this strap would become more pliant with regular usage.
It is no clandestine that the dial is the most important aspect of a wristwatch. Funnily though, one glance at the dial of a new watch is all it takes for our brain to decide whether a watch is going to be a part of our Horological dreams or not. “Stunning” was the word that came to my mind when I first saw the pictures of the Open Gear Resec Big Wave. But pictures can be deceptive, so I controlled my excitement till the time I got my hands on the watch. Thankfully, nothing changed when I finally got the opportunity to handle this beauty, and rather it looks much more beautiful in person. Depth, texture, color, you name it, and this dial delivers. One of the first things that grabbed my attention on this watch is its rich Royal blue color. And, while the color is a gorgeous shade of blue, there are a couple of details that make this dial a visual delight. Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec

First is the layered architecture of the dial and second is the intricate guilloche pattern. Like in a typical regulator watch, the hours, minutes, and seconds have been segregated for accurate tracking of time. However, what makes this reference stand out is the implementation. For instance, look at how the hour and seconds subdials instead of being recessed on the main dial, have been placed above the dial, enhancing its three-dimensional nature. Underneath the elevated hour disc, you can see some exposed gears and bridges that lend the dial some visual complexity. But the real joy as far as timekeeping is concerned lies in the retrograde second’s function. Instead of completing a full circle of 60 seconds, the second’s hand travels from 0 to 30 and then jumps back to the start position. As for the minutes, you get a nice tapering hand, that travels across the minute track printed on the tall flange. Interestingly, the flange features grooves at intervals of five to house white cylindrical tubes of superluminova, which in conjunction with lume filled hands makes sure that visibility in low light situations is never an issue. Overall, in terms of legibility, I did not face any difficulty in reading the time.
Coming back to that hypnotic and intricate Guilloche base. As the name of the watch suggests, the base dial features a wave pattern that has been engraved using the traditional Guilloche technique. Now, when I say traditional, I mean that the pattern has been executed by hand, by a skilled artisan, using a Rose engine lathe, and has not just been stamped. The outcome is truly stunning and pictures on the internet don’t do it justice. And, just in case you feel I am exaggerating the beauty of this dial, I would like to mention that I wore this watch one day at a dinner party with my friends and I had almost every friend of mine ask which watch was I wearing.
Powering this watch is the automatic caliber C.301. This movement is based on the reliable ETA 2895 and features an in-house retrograde running seconds module. It operates at a frequency of 4Hz, comprises 33 jewels, and provides an autonomy of around 42 hours. In terms of decoration, you get to see some nice perlage, Geneva striping, blued screws, and a skeletonized blue rotor. While not the prettiest movement out there, it is always good to look at a decently decorated mechanical movement.

Chronoswiss Open Gear Tourbillon

Chronoswiss Open Gear Tourbillon is a company rather dear to my heart – the company, which was originally founded in 1983, was one of the first new watch brands to emerge from the Quartz Crisis in response to not only a nascent demand, but also a growing faith in the fascination to be found in mechanical horology. The company has, since the late 1990s and early 2000s, had some ups and downs in terms of visibility and direction, but in the last couple of years, it has been introducing a range of new watches which are intended to draw on its historical strengths while, at the same time, attracting new customers as well (Chronoswiss actually accepts payment in bitcoin, speaking of inhabiting the contemporary world).
The classic old-school Chronoswiss watch was a large, mechanism-forward timepiece with a large, easy-to-grasp and easy-to-manipulate onion crown and a coin-edge case, often (as a matter of fact, I think almost invariably) with straight lugs and screwed-in strap bars. The company was known for its regulator-style watches, and one of its better known was the Régulateur à Tourbillon, which featured a flying tourbillon in an open, guilloché decorated dial. Chronoswiss has just announced a new version of the watch, but with a complex multi-part case and semi-skeletonized movement and dial (which has 42 separate parts) in an extremely striking shade of electric blue (courtesy of a CVD plating process). The movement is the caliber C.303, and the watch is being released in a (very) limited series of 15 pieces, at $39,000 per watch.
As with the original regulator tourbillons, it’s a large (44mm x 13.10mm) timepiece, and the vivid blue color’s underscored by the application of Super-LumiNova to the indexes and hands, giving it a rather dramatic presence once it’s lights-out.
I loved the vibe of the original Chronoswiss replica watches, which had all the staid, old-fashioned appeal of a pre-WWII open-wheel sports car. The newer designs are apt to be polarizing for anyone who loves the slightly fuddy-duddy, pocket-watch-on-a-strap feel of the earlier designs, but at the same time, you certainly can’t fault the company for recognizing that its designs, after all, have to continue to evolve.
This is all by way of saying, to paraphrase that old car commercial, that this is not your father’s (uncle’s? older cousin’s?) Chronoswiss. The extremely vivid coloration reminds me of the iridescent wing of a Blue Morpho butterfly, and I bet this is an extremely eye-catching watch in person, day or night. It really begs to be seen and evaluated in person – much as I have a general fondness for rather more conservative, minimalist watch designs than not, it never hurts to see a design trying to have a little fun for a change. After all, it would be a funny old world if we were all the same. At just 15 pieces worldwide (and, hey, travel restrictions), this is another one of those watches which, alas, I am not apt to be able to see in the metal for some time if at all, but I’d love to try.

Chronoswiss FLYING REGULATOR JUMPING HOUR

Chronoswiss Sirius Flying Regulator Jumping Hour IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” IWC’s Pallweber revives a legendary historical pocketwatch developed by Salzburg-based watchmaker Josef Pallweber, who pioneered a digital timekeeping system with hours and minutes displayed by large numerals on rotating disks rather than by hands.
The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator and Flying Regulator Jumping Hour are the cream of the crop when it comes to the regulator models. Super Size Just like super sizing your Big Mac menu at McDonalds, your meal is still small.
The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator and Flying Regulator Jumping Hour are the cream of the crop when it comes to the regulator models. Super Size Just like super sizing your Big Mac menu at McDonalds, your meal is still small.
Flying Regulator Jumping Hour Collections Sirius Regulator A Regulator is not a watch like any other. The special display stands for centuries-old tradition and for something special and unique. 48 Variants → to the collection Sirius The classic …
Chronoswiss Sirius Sirius Flying Regulator Jumping Hour Ajouter aux favoris La marque Chronoswiss est fière d’être une compagnie indépendante et familiale, détentrice de traditions centenaires comme l’émaillage et le guillochage.
The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator and Flying Regulator Jumping Hour are the cream of the crop when it comes to the regulator models. Super Size Just like super sizing your Big Mac menu at McDonalds, your meal is still small.
Hier springt die Stunde! Jedenfalls ist die Flying Regulator Jumping Hour der Schweizer Uhrenmanufaktur Chronoswiss mit einer Komplikation gleichen Namens ausgestattet – und tatsächlich: Die Stunden werden über eine digitale Stundenanzeige auf zwölf Uhr dargestellt, die mit jeder Stunde eine Ziffer weiterspringt.
Découvrez la montre Sirius Flying Regulator Jumping Hour de Chronoswiss – Mouvement : Mécanique à remontage automatique – Boîtier : Acier Jaune, orange, rouge, rose, violet, bleu nuit, bleu ciel, vert, marron et multicolore… Voici une sélection de montres pour

Chronoswiss FLYING REGULATOR MANUFACTURE

Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Manufacture Red Gold Classic and yet completely different: the new Sirius Flying Regulator features a flying minute dial and sub-dials for hours and seconds, which stand out from the guilloche base.
Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Manufacture | Versandkostenfrei 5% Skonto 1. Wartung inklusive 1 Jahr Garantieverlängerung Ihre Vorteile 28 Tage verlängertes Widerrufsrecht Versand kostenfrei Erste hausinterne Wartung beim Kauf einer Automatikuhr inklusive
The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Manufacture was awarded the prestigious Red Dot Design Award in 2017, while a year before GQ honored it with its Time Awards. They represent the recognition that a brand can get when they have been able to take their icons into the …
Chronoswiss is best known for its regulator watches, such as the Classic Regulator Manufacture or radical Flying Grand Regulator Open Gear ReSec, but the brand is also well-known for skeletonisation. In the mid-1990s, the Opus became the first skeletonised automatic chronograph produced in series and watches like the Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton Limited Edition continue to push the …

As a brand, having an icon in your collection can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. While icons will generate interest and revenues, there will always be a point in which you need to move into the future, preferably with your icon, but changing it is still a very sensitive task. This was also a challenge that Chronoswiss faced with their Regulator.
While this dial layout was already used in clocks for centuries, it was Chronoswiss that brought it to the wrist. With great success, because in no-time the watch became a true icon in the world of watches. While still a thing of beauty, that original design is now over three decades old, so Chronoswiss thought it was time to let it transcend to the 21st century.
The brand did this in the most ingenious way, by letting the dials and the hands ‘fly’ above the dial. The transformation that takes place is quite sensational. Yes, it is still that same regulator that became so famous, yet at the same time, it is not at all. By creating two levels, Chronoswiss also made more room to play with. The outlines of the elevated dials are secured by struts that are screwed on, forming a technical element on the dial, while the dial itself features a stunning guilloche motif.
The three-dimensional display that is the result of this is nothing short of captivating, while the legibility of the watch remains fully intact. This is important as watchmakers used to use the regulator clocks so that they could easily see as precisely as possible what time it was as they set the watches that they were making.
Precise is also the Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Manufacture, as it is fitted with a manufacture movement as its name already indicated. Automatic caliber C.122 that powers this watch is running at 3Hz and has a power reserve of 45 hours. Finished to perfection, it forms the perfect balance with the beauty of the outside of this watch.
Its exceptional design also hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Manufacture was awarded the prestigious Red Dot Design Award in 2017, while a year before GQ honored it with its Time Awards. They represent the recognition that a brand can get when they have been able to take their icons into the future, adding to the legend that they already were.

Chronoswiss Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton

Chronoswiss has always occupied a niche space in the watch world, with its regulators always bringing particular attention to the brand. For 2019, it released a handful of versions of the Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton watch, limited to 30 pieces each. The model I was drawn to is this ref. CH-6723S-BKLB with blue and orange accents, though there are also versions with red and yellow accents. Personally, there’s something about the blue that I find a little more fresh, and I’d actually love to see a version with a matching embossed calf-leather strap that Chronoswiss uses on some of its Regulator Classic models.
For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, regulator watches essentially separate the hour, minute, and seconds onto different axes. This allows for highly precise time setting, though nowadays it’s more of an aesthetic signature. This is especially true for Chronoswiss, which is most characterized by the regulator and was the first watch brand to create a Regulator watch collection.
In this Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton watch, you’ll see the central minute hand, with the hour sub-dial at 12 o’clock and seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. The Poire Stuart-style hands are all done in this highly legible orange color that easily contrasts against the skeletonized dial background. The sub-dials are done in a “funnel” style that slopes inward and creates a nice three-dimensionality to the dial.
On the topic of the dial, I am sure I’m not alone in wishing that Chronoswiss had moved the “Limited XX/30” text at 3 o’clock to somewhere on the back of the dial. I understand the desire for symmetry when it comes to the dial text, but I would even put just something like “Regulator” there. It’s a small complaint, as far as they go.
The long, straight lugs are characteristic of Chronoswiss, as is the thin bezel that leaves most of the real estate dedicated to the dial. However, the knurling done on the top and bottom of the 12.48mm-thick case adds the necessary refinement and visual flair. The large onion crown is likely to be a bit divisive, as I’m still not certain where I fall on it, personally. Aesthetics aside, I can attest that it does make getting a grip and setting the time much easier than most “traditional” crowns.
The 44mm-wide case wears larger due to those long lugs, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a precise lug-to-lug measurement. The photos should give you a good impression of how large it wears on my 7.5 inch wrist.
The skeletonized part of the dial is handsome enough, though I’ve found that opinions on skeletonized dials usually are either love or ambivalence, and I certainly fall into the latter category. Regulator-style watches are going to have busy dials that cover up a lof of the exposed movement, but the two “flanks” on the left and right sides of the dial allow for a proper skeletonized aesthetic.
Turning the case around reveals the Caliber C.677S movement, which is a modified Unitas 6498 movement. While this is a modified movement, Chronoswiss makes substantial changes in-house at their facility in Switzerland to make it so the manual-wind caliber tells time as a regulator. Operating at 18,800 vph, the C.677S has a 46-hour power reserve. Overall, it’s a handsome and thoughtfully finished movement that is visible through a large exhibition caseback. That’s worth mentioning because so many movements (even those made fully in-house) are simply too small for their cases and have an awkwardly small-sized exhibition window on the caseback.
Replica Chronoswiss is really doing some interesting things in the sub-$10,000 category. In fact, there was another piece of theirs that was introduced this year (that happens to be an existing model that utilizes blue) that I was really taken with, as well. A new blue variation of the existing Sirius Chronograph Moon Phase watch is the kind of highly complicated, not-at-all-casual, and ultimately curious watch that I can’t help but want to wear around quite a bit. The tradeoff of a modified ETA 7750 movement for exceptional case finishing and quality makes the $7,950 price tag of this piece an ultimately compelling proposition.

Replica Chronoswiss Open Gear Resec

The Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec is limited to 50 pieces and presents traditional watchmaking with a modern twist. As Chronoswiss’s CEO Oliver Ebstein puts it, “A mix of new materials, old techniques and contemporary design – this is what it takes to be a modern mechanical brand.”
Chronoswiss presents its latest modern mechanical timepiece: the Open Gear ReSec, where the large minute hand meets a grand competitor taking over centre stage. On the Open Gear ReSec, the retrograde second hand is the leading actor in the chronological play of time.
Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec The Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec is a limited-edition watch with a regulator display and retrograde seconds indication. It is presented in an eye-catching blue CVD coated case. Chronoswiss broke on to the watchmaking scene in 1983 and immediately unveiled the ‘world’s first mechanical chronograph with moon phase indication and clear crystal case back’.
Chronoswiss’ Limited Edition Open Gear ReSec In Blue And Gold is a bold take on a design rooted in classic watchmaking. This regulator timepiece evokes styling cues from past models, but now, it boasts a multi-dimensional blue dial with a variety of finishes
Chronoswiss Open Gear ReSec Chocolate Based on the original Open Gear ReSec watch which comes in a plethora of color options – this one looks different. The watch has a striking chilli-red varnished 44mm dial which doubles as the mainplate of the C.301 automatic regulator movement visible through the sapphire caseback.
Chronoswiss powers the Open Gear ReSec Chocolate with the in-house C.301 automatic regulator movement. Visible through the sapphire display caseback, the powerplant is partially skeletonized and decorated with a mix of Côtes de Genève and perlage across the movement plates and bridges.
This is exactly the market into which the new Chronoswiss Flying Grand Regulator Open Gear ReSec fits. When I first received the press release for this watch around its Baselworld 2019 unveiling, I was intrigued by the ambiguity of combining a complication as functional as the regulator dial with the purposelessly delightful addition of retrograde seconds.

Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear

Regulator-style watches are something of a Chronoswiss specialty. For those new to the hobby, these are watches where the hours, minutes, and seconds are read off separate dials. The minutes are often given priority and are displayed prominently on the main dial, while the hours and seconds are shown on subsidiary dials at 12 and 6 o’clock respectively. In any case, Chronoswiss has released a couple of interesting regulator watches over the past few years. In 2016, they did the Sirius Flying Regulator watch. And last year, they followed up with a skeletonized version called the Sirius Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton watch. For 2018, they have an all-new design called the Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear.

The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear will be available in four variants. There’s an 18k red gold version that comes with a silver dial and three stainless steel models that come with black, blue, and silver dials. The case is made up of 16 components and measures 41mm in diameter and 13.85mm in height. It features prominent straight lugs and has various finishings. What’s interesting about the case is the knurled bezel and large onion crown. Water resistance is 100m, which is nice to have since that means you can even take it swimming.
Like most other regulator watches, the minutes take center stage while the hours and seconds are displayed using subsidiary dials at 12 and 6 o’clock. As its name suggests, the hours and seconds sub-dials are floated above the main dial, which is where the “Flying” part of the name comes from. This also gives the dial a remarkable sense of depth.
The “Open Gear” part of the name is in reference to the exposed gears and train wheel bridges. Look closely at the seconds subsidiary dial and you can see the second wheel in action just behind. Likewise, you can see the train wheels that drive the hours at 12 o’clock. The Flying Regulator Open Gear watch also has leaf-shaped hands that are heat-treated or rhodium-plated, depending on your choice of dial. The hour and minute hands are filled with Super-LumiNova to ensure legibility in the dark.

The Flying Regulator Open Gear is powered by the self-winding Chronoswiss Caliber C.299, which is likely based on an ETA 2892 or its equivalent. It is visible through a sapphire display caseback. It beats at 4Hz and has a power reserve of about 42 hours when fully wound. According to Chronoswiss, the movement has been extensively modified and features a specially designed dial module consisting of 37 components. The movement also features a skeletonized rotor and perlage on the bridges and plates.