Angelus watches continue to reestablish themselves after being purchased by La Joux-Perrex in 2011, setting their foundation in a manner that can tap into historic inspiration, while also establishing a new, more modern design DNA. This week, they are doing a bit of the former with the release of a new monopusher chronograph called the Instrument de Vitesse, which nails a mid-century aesthetic within a modern execution. The new watch recalls “the golden age of timed races” and they’ve chosen an interesting manner in which to represent this theme, forgoing the need for minute and hour totalizers altogether.
The Instrument de Vitesse is a monopusher chronograph with the pusher located in the crown, and without any sub dials this watch very much presents as a time-only affair. The tachymeter scale around the perimeter offers the only clue around the dial that there’s something else going on here. The timing seconds hand parked at 12, as well as the button protruding from the crown give up the game. This is a chronograph capable of timing up to 60 seconds, with a single timing hand mounted at the center hand stack.
That’s right, this is a hyper focused watch that is capable of giving you the speed of an object over a known distance with the use of a tachymeter scale, but won’t be much help for anything beyond that, such as timing laps. Given the impractical use cases for even a regular chronograph at a modern race track, I applaud Angelus for fully committing to their vision and presenting this watch for what it is, a visual exercise as much as it is a mechanical powerhouse that challenges our conceptions about the real-world practicality of these complications.
This is a vision brought to life beautifully here, offered in either ivory or ebony colored dials in a steel 39mm case that measures under 10mm in thickness. Inside resides the Angelus caliber A5000, built with La Joux-Perrex, and modified to remove the minute totalizer function. We last saw this caliber at use in the monopusher Chronographe Medical X Massena Lab collaboration last year. The movement is a hand winding, and beautifully finished as viewed through the exhibition caseback.
The overall approach and design here is beautifully handled, and I appreciate that Angelus have practiced some restraint with the details, from the syringe hands to the applied Arabic numerals that line the dial, whose design ties back to the overall brand aesthetic seen across their portfolio. This also flexes the watchmaking chops of La Joux-Perrex in a slightly more conceptual manner.
The Angelus Instrument de Vitesse will be limited to just 25 examples in both colorways, each individually numbered. The price is set at CHF17,100 including VAT, which comes out to ~$15,700 excluding VAT. More from Angelus.