By Jovan Krstevski
Not long ago I covered the pre-launch of Richard LeGrand Watches and if you missed the promotional offer they did, well what can I say, early bird’s price always sounds great. Anyways, I’d like to point out that their campaign was very successful in fact they got 105% funded within 23 hours. This is kinda crazy for a Kickstarter project meaning there are so many people out there betting on Richard LeGrand Watches. Truth be told, how could you dismiss such offer which was a 40% off when the Kickstarter campaign starts, and it started so fine by the way. Okay, so what do we really have here… a flagship timepiece inspired by vintage dive watches. Now did I just say dive watches, darn right I did. The Odyssea is one of a kind in a sense that it is a diver watch with all the bells and whistles of the watches in the higher end. It sports a sincere design, infusing top quality with honest to goodness prices which of course ends up as its main selling point.
Let’s check the case of the Odyssea which is a stunning 42mm duo-finish 316L brushed stainless steel. This is a tough material choice and I’m sure we’ll all agree. At 42mm it’s big enough for me and if you’re worried about its design well, don’t just don’t. The creators are thoughtful enough to throw in a sapphire crystal bezel overlay on top of the dial window. This is great since the effect is utmost clarity and of course its toughness simply can’t be ignored. Sapphire crystals have the highest scratch resistance in this craft so yeah, I’m kinda thrilled. The sapphire bezel overlay also enables the luminous marking to last for a very long time thanks to its brilliant protective properties. The case design is top to beat, everything is in harmony from the lugs, the uni-directional bezel to the beautiful screw down crown with RL branding on its side at the 3 o’clock. Being vintage inspired, it really looks classy.
Going to the double domed dial sporting an AR undercoating, it’s simply stunning and very clean. The ivory stick and numeral indices look so neat and being Superluminova C3 coated by hand, by the way, they are impressively easy on the eyes. Plus the matte black dial adds some prestige to the design, it darn looks so classy and deep. For those leaning on the pro-side of diving, the Odyssea is certainly going to steal your attention. It’s clean design makes it a tough contender not to mention its movement which I’m going to talk about next.
Being crowdfunded, you probably expect some Japanese movement not that there’s something wrong with them but they’re pretty much common on most KS projects. The Odyssea on the other hand sports a Swiss-made caliber ETA 2824–2 automatic movement. Now this is a deal catcher since this movement pretty much powers lots of Swiss luxury watches. It excels on its performance and reliability and of course for a dive watch, this is what we really need. Housed in the robustness of 316L stainless steel case with careful design, this movement is capable of accurate performance up to 200 meters underwater.
The Odyssea comes on either the classy stainless steel bracelet or the sporty padded sailcloth strap. Finally, Richard LeGrand Watches is fully funded and ready to go.
