In for review today, the latest release (still available for pre-order) is the Lesablier Chronosport. Lesablier borrowed its name from the French word for hourglass, “Le Sablier,” and was started in D.C in 2018. The Chronosport is the brand’s first chronograph and builds off their multifaceted case with a dodecagon (12-sided) bezel. This is a mecha quartz chronograph and will retail for $349 after the Kickstarter closes but as low as $249 for those lucky enough to be one of the first backers. The dial variants are this Panda, Sunrise, Evo, Indigo, Masar Emerald, and my favorite, Starfield. You can see these variants in full on the Kickstarter page.
On the Wrist
The 41mm Chronosport wears comfortably on the semi-integrated bracelet; the lugs on this watch are hooded. One positive of the hooded lugs (which, admittedly, I am not a massive fan of in general) is that it substantially shortens the lug-to-lug length of the watch. On this watch, I measured the lug to lug to be 46.1mm, which allows this larger watch to be worn comfortably on smaller wrists. Although I found the bracelet to be comfortable and well made, it does feature a butterfly clasp, meaning no micro-adjustments. I could not get a perfect fit, so between the bracelet and strap, my preference was to wear this on the strap. Due to the hooded lug construction, most aftermarket straps will not fit and be able to squeeze in. To Lesablier’s credit, though, they are supplying 20mm adapters with their watches to accommodate any 20mm strap you would like.
With these adapters, the new lug to lug length is measured to be 48.56mm. The inclusion of these adapters shows their ability to problem solve an issue that presented itself during production. I have reviewed other watches with hooded lugs that had this same problem, and no adapter was supplied. The minor issue with the adapters is that they introduce two additional failure points to your watch because of the added spring bars.
Yes, yes, I know. Spring bar failures are rare and unlikely to affect you. I am hypersensitive to this as an avid diver and someone that recently had their Explorer II fall off their wrist and shatter from a spring bar failure.
I do not anticipate this being a problem for most; it is just a point of contention for me with the industry. I do not understand why we tolerate spring bars. They are a failure-prone, fatal weak point that virtually all watches priced from $50 to $100,000 rely upon.
On the wrist, with the leather Lesablier strap, the watch was worn comfortably, and I was a big fan of the leather’s taper and color matching of the strap to this dial variant.
Lesablier Chronosport Specs | |
Case Width 41mm | Lug-to-Lug 46mm |
Case Thickness 12.55mm | Lug Width 20mm |
Water Resistance 100m | Strap Integrated Bracelet |
Crystal Sapphire | Lume Super-LumiNova BGW9 |
Movement Seiko VK64A | Price $410 (MSRP) |
Dial Details
Despite this being a pre-production piece and a $350 watch, there is plenty of finishing detail. When viewed with a macro lens, the indices are well polished, and the sub-dial hands appear delightfully glossy against the textured black beneath. The chronograph hand catches my eye with the matching accent color.
The date application at 6 pm matches the black of the sub-dials and is a nice touch. Thoughtful date complications across many micro brands have spoiled us but don’t be fooled; this is not the norm. More prominent brands continuously put a lack of thought and effort into their date applications, and Lesablier has made a point to consider the overall design and how the date plays into it.
The lume is a blue BGW9 Swiss Superluminova applied to the indices and hands, including the chronograph hand.
Lume is never the most important part of a chronograph and what is done here is more than sufficient.
Case, Movement, Misc
The quartz movement in the watch is the Seiko VK64A Mechaquartz movement. We have reviewed many watches on the site featuring this movement, and they are quickly becoming a mainstay for quartz chronos in the sub $500 range. The main benefit of these movements is the aesthetic of a mechanically moving chronograph hand versus the tick of older quartz chronographs.
The pushers on the case are labeled “START STOP” and “RESET,” clearing up any confusion on what button to press and when. Adding text here is a bit of a bold move because it can be challenging to control the tolerances, so the chances of the text appearing slightly crooked or not centered is high. Additionally, because the text on one pusher is two lines versus one line on the other pusher, you need to decide whether to shrink the text size for the “START STOP” or keep both texts the same and leave additional blank space on the “RESET” pusher. Lesablier opted for using the same text size and leaving extra space. This may have been the right choice, but it increases the odds that the “RESET” text will not be perfectly centered. I don’t think the risk-to-reward ratio works out with the pusher text, and I prefer it to be omitted entirely. This may seem very nitty gritty in the weeds, but your boi is an engineer, and this is the stuff I think about.
The crown has the hourglass logo and is tucked between guards on both sides. The crown is a push pull; however, the watch still features 100m of water resistance. I am here for not using a screwdown crown. Too many watches use a screwdown crown when they aren’t needed.
Final Thoughts
Watches are more saturated than ever with redundant, derivative, and uninspired designs. This can be seen through the continual release of divers that, at times, look like AI could have generated them. The Chronosport is not that. The design language is all their own, and when viewing their catalog, regardless of which watch, it is obvious you are looking at a Lesablier. Perhaps all the edges on the bezel and the funky case are not your cup of tea, and that’s fine, but if you are looking for an original design (or as original as you can be with watches), the Chronosport may be a gem pickup at $349. The few complaints are with the requirement of an adapter for aftermarket straps, but that is much better than me complaining that no aftermarket straps are possible AND there was no adapter offered.
Check out more chronograph reviews at The Watch Clicker here
Check out the Lesablier website here and their Kickstarter page here
