Micro-brands entering the luxury watch game have a hell of an up-hill battle. They need to fight, tooth and nail, to stand out from the crowd, but they can't be seeing trying to reinvent the wheel. There have been many watchmakers that have come and gone in this super competitive market space, but a luxury micro-brand that you may be familiar with already has just introduced their second watch. Following the huge success of the Aviateur VQ, Lesablier Watches have just announced the Sports Classic, a casual approach to some very high quality, affordable luxury watchmaking.
The intuitive Aviateur VQ was one of our favourite micro-brand releases at the time and so, when Lesablier approached us exclusively and made it known that they would be releasing a new, sportier watch soon, we were definitely excited, to say the least.
Lesablier’s Sports Classic is a unique approach to the ever-popular stainless-steel sports watch market. The Sports Classic is available in five distinctive variations, all of which are limited to only 100 pieces, with each piece being individually numbered. The Ivory has a clean white enamel dial, black hands and red accents in a stainless-steel case. The Cobalt features a beautiful blue sunburst dial with a satin sub-dial with a stainless-steel case. The Moonlight features Lesablier's trademark "Ghost" fume dial, which is actually a translucent dial that has been semi-skeletonised and again with a stainless-steel case. The Eclipse has an yellow-gold coloured case, a sunburst black dial and a satin sub-dial. And the fifth model, the Nightfall, has an ion-plated black coloured case and a ghost dial, similar to that of the Moonlight.
All five Sports Classic models share the same case dimensions and structure. The case measures 40mm wide and13mm thick features a very unique structure, with lots of angles and sharp points contrasted by smooth corners and rounded off edges. The case design reminds me of Hublot's Big Bang Unico Sang Bleu or Linde Werdelin's Oktopus, with the slightly askew octagonal bezel sitting flush on top of the main case body, both of which feature angular finishes, brushings and the like.
The Lesablier Sports Classic is powered by the Miyota 8N40 automatic movement. Fairly no frills, the 8N40 does feature an off-centred sub-dial, hour and minute hands in the centre stack and a hand-winding option. Good for just under two-days' worth of timekeeping when fully wound, the 8N40 was chosen in-keeping with the Sports Classic's simplistic approach to horology, along with ensuring costs are kept in check.
From the perspective of differentiation and individuality, the Lesbalier Sports Classic is definitely up there with the best of them in this super congested micro-brand watch market. It has been soundly put together, and like a breath of fresh air it’s as exclusive as it is welcomed. The Sports Classic is not a ground breaking watch by any stretch of the imagination, but it is indeed a thing of interest, of intrigue and of desirability.