BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Angelus is a small and historic brand that’s been making a comeback in recent years. I got hands-on with some of their models at Watches & Wonders Geneva last year such as a few variants of their Chronodate, their Chronographe Medical x Massena Lab and the Angelus x Alain Silberstein U11 Streamline Tourbillon, and I was deeply impressed by what I saw. Especially the Chronographe Medical which I wasn’t too fond of on launch, the chronograph pusher was buttery smooth.
This year, the expectations are high and Angelus’ new watches for 2024 have just dropped. They’re a part of the La Fabrique collection of pieces and they’re called the Instrument de Vitesse, vitesse being a French word for speed. That should immediately clue you in to what these pieces are about, but in case you haven’t picked up on it yet these are two monopusher chronograph dress watches with a tachymeter included.
The dials are quite impressive, they’re clearly inspired by automotive designs from days gone by, there’s an instrument-like quality to these pieces. They’re also very clear by the looks of things, and there’s a choice between reference 0CHBS.I01A.V010S which has an ivory white dial or reference 0CHBS.B01A.V010S which has an ebony black dial, there’s also SuperLumiNova on the hands and markers. You may have noticed that this piece is lacking any subdials. Indeed, this watch can only time up to 60 seconds, or one go around the tachymeter. I’d say it’s a bit brave of Angelus to do that, most people like the functionality a chronograph brings and accept that it comes with added subdials.
Behind the dial is an in-house-made manually-wound calibre A5000. It comes with most of the technical bells and whistles you could need, such as a 3Hz beat rate and a 42-hour power reserve. It also has a column wheel chronograph with a lateral clutch, which is all controlled by the single pusher located within the crown. Because it’s quite simplistic as chronographs go, it’s quite a thin movement measuring just 4.2mm thick. There’s also plenty of palladium in and Côtes de Genève decorations help reassure those that this is a serious movement.
All of that is wrapped in a stainless steel case that measures 39mm x 9.27mm, although water resistance is just 30m which is probably due to that intricate chronograph pusher setup. A hand-stitched calfskin leather strap is also in use here, coloured either caramel or midnight-blue depending on your dial choice.
I like that these pieces strip back on the necessities when it comes to chronographs. There’s no need to have one with loads of subdials and information on display, simplicity is the key here and these new Instrument de Vitesse watches have it in spades. The price of both models is CHF17,100 including VAT and they’re limited to just 25 examples each.
