We’ve seen a few of the Angelus diving tourbillon watches over the past few years – this is the new U53 and it could be – scratch that – is the best one yet. For reference here are: U50, U51 and U52.
The Angelus diving tourbillons never fail to impress with their breathtaking open-work flying tourbillon complication which is elegantly combined with a diver’s watch to create something quite rare in the world horology.
Diving tourbillons really are a bit of rarity these days; almost 15 years ago now I wrote something about them – at that point there were just a handful; today only Angelus is creating these types of watches.
Years ago, Blancpain put one into a Fifty Fathoms and Girard-Perregaux even shoved one into their 3’000m Sea Hawk II Pro.
Housing your most high-end, complex movement within your toughest watch case kinda’ makes sense but in reality these watches are just an exercise in absurdity; they don’t resonate with us like regular watches do but they’re interesting to look at.
However in the case of the Angelus Diving Tourbillon, which is the last of these aquatic dinosaurs – when some khaki is thrown into the mix - finally you have a real attention grabber that you can almost see yourself wearing.
Btw, the particular shade of khaki used was carefully chosen from a vast palette of greens. It has a strong military look which has been used to great effect for the U53’s inner rotating bezel, strap and hands.
Despite its lavish complication, the U53 meets all the criteria for a diver’s watch. Its case has been made from Grade 5 Titanium and measures 46mm in diameter. It is water-resistant to 300 meters.
Its 60 minute-graduated inner rotating diver’s bezel only turns anticlockwise, and its hands and indices are highly luminescent.
But what is quite remarkable is that the watch has its screw-down crown offset in the popular 4 o’clock position. And should the U53 ever find itself in a decompression chamber, it even comes with an automatic Helium Escape Valve – found at 9 o’clock on its left lateral side.
Power comes from an Angelus A-300, a skeleton caliber characterized by its large bridges, its openwork center and by its one-minute flying tourbillon, with its ever so slightly asymmetric placement of all its key components.
This U53 has been issued in a Limited Edition of just 25 pieces and is presented on a khaki green rubber diver’s strap, and comes with an additional hand-stitched NATO-style strap, also in khaki.
MSRP in Switzerland is 39’400CHF.
Thoughts? Like I said what a difference a bit of khaki makes – watchmakers take note; if you want to endear us to these sorts over the top high-end horological creations or indeed any of your less inspiring offerings; try doing them in khaki. It works like magic!
But what do you think; is khki the answer? And if you had to choose something at this price-point; would it be this or the Submersible S BRABUS or something else?
Astonishing!Better than Panerai
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