MODEL No.2 CHRONOGRAPH

Besides a desire to create something new and beautiful, it is hard to find a rational explanation for what compels one to design a manual wound chronograph in the 21st century. The most natural line of reasoning would, of course, invoke nostalgia. Watch enthusiasts, including myself, have been admiring astronauts and race car drivers donning these intricate and beautiful objects since childhood: tools so earnestly designed and perfectly executed that they left little, if any, room for re-imagination. 

Though nostalgia, warm and revered, is also elusive and fleeting. A new design with roots firmly planted in the past must exude something new to be taken as earnest. Perhaps, most simply, an honesty to the present. Bearing in mind that while digital clocks have taken over the world’s most crucial timekeeping duties, the romantic enthusiast can still find use for gears and pushers—find solace in the soft crackle of a mainspring winding—particularly when the rituals invoking these are not without purpose. 

The Model No.2’s identity was born of that spirit. Three registers to time long activities: a car ride to a distant, beloved destination, a flight to visit a family member, the time elapsed since the holiday roast was placed in the oven. It is not necessary to time these events on a mechanical wristwatch, but we do so because it deepens the experience, because it imbues it with a sense of poetry. 

This sense of romantic utility is carried through in the watch’s design, perhaps most notably in the Guilloché bezel, one of its most beguiling features. Doing away with the more traditional tachymeter in favor of a 12 hour scale, the bezel rotates bi-directionally to the low, precise click of a ball bearing mechanism. While we no longer derive average lap speeds from our wrists, we do often wish to know the time in another place, tracking a loved one far away, or of home while traveling. 

The bezel’s design, with numerals that protrude directly from the Guilloché without the use of base plates, represents a feat of machining, one whose challenges were not easily overcome. The result of this perseverance is an object of ornate beauty, one that incorporates the technical need for numerals without interrupting the mesmerizing pattern of its fluting. 

Three dial variations are available, each bearing their own, distinct character: Satin Black, Silver Sun-ray and Golden Gray, with contrasting sub-dials. The latter offers the legibility of a reverse-panda, with a warmer, more jeweled quality. The subtle sunray appears anthracite in flat light, only to reveal shimmering gold highlights in direct sunlight. All 3 dials (& bezels) feature our new, proprietary font, inspired by mid-century typography and modernized to maximize legibility. The polished, sharp and beveled indexes reflect light prismatically and emit the blue glow of their BGW9 Super-LumiNova® fill after dark. The beveled, bold, dauphine handset receives a matching treatment and exists in dialog with the 12h index’s arrowhead shape. 

The case of the Model No.2 integrates the design language and ethos of its predecessor, the Model No.1 GMT, while upsizing slightly and further refining the finish. 

Diameter is a still restrained 37 mm (38 mm at the bezel) with a slightly taller posture of 46 mm lug to lug and broader-shouldered 20 mm lug spacing. Thickness is a mere 11.6 mm without the crystal—the absolute minimum achievable—with every possible micromillimeter having been shaved off during technical development. A beautiful, high double-domed sapphire crystal sits atop the gentle slope of the bezel, bringing total thickness to a still-slender 14.1 mm. 

Water resistance—one of Lorca’s high priorities—is rated at 100 m, thanks to a screw in, solid case-back which has again been left uncluttered to provide a clean palette for personalized engravings. 

The Swiss Sellita SW510 M soigné, élaboré was chosen to power the watch, a sturdy cam and lever chronograph providing +/-5 sec. per day of accuracy and 63 hrs of power reserve. The Côtes de Genève finished bridge-plate, while hidden behind the solid caseback, is gold-engraved with Lorca’s logo and specifications. 

Last but not least, the watch’s bracelet is an object of elegant refinement: low in profile and sturdy & slinky, owing to its numerous small, solid links. These are each independently brushed before assembly and generously spaced apart to yield a wearing experience that feels next to none. The thin, signed clasp features a ratcheting, push button micro-adjust system, rendering fine adjustments on hot or cool days an effortless, quick task. 

Compact, elegant, and manufactured to standards that defy its price, the Model No.2 stands as our proud contribution to the great lineage of 3 register manual- wound chronographs—both past and present—one we imagine will continue to inspire future generations no less profoundly than it has our own. 

— Jesse Marchant, Owner & Designer | Lorca Watches