Straton Watch Co. was created out of a love for ’70s Chronographs, which is a personal passion turned business and established in 2015. The Straton Watch Co. Speciale is my newest introduction, and I wish to share it with you.

The Straton Speciale is my latest ’70s inspired design building on the previous successes with watches such as the Straton Curve Chrono and Syncro models. After delivering more than 4,000 watches worldwide, with positive feedback and support from new and existing customers, I continue to design and create watches inspired by the era which I find most aesthetically pleasing.

With the Speciale’s “TV style” case shape, dial design, retro color schemes, and overall look, the aim for the watch itself was to speak to those who find specific ’70s chronographs appealing, such as the Movado/Zenith El Primero Chrono “TV Screen” and Heuer Silverstone ref. 110.313 to name a few – all of which influenced the design, which was not meant to be a direct copy of any one of those watches.

As with previous Straton Watch Co. designs, they are offered with an array of options in terms of color, size, and movement. The Speciale will be no different, as it will be offered with two case sizes in terms of height, two case finishes, two movement choices, five colorways, leather and canvas strap options, as well as a bracelet option.

One of the two movement choices available for the Straton Speciale is the Swiss Made Valjoux 7750 Day/Date Chronograph movement. This is a movement needing no introduction as it’s widely used and known for its reliability as the go to Swiss Made mechanical Chronograph movement. The 7750 is a self-winding movement with 25 jewels, ball-bearing rotor, unidirectional winding, 1/8 seconds counter, 30 minutes counter, 12 hours counter, 28,800 A/h, and a power reserve of 44 hours. It’s designed to be reliable, which is why many watch brands out there use this particular movement. The 7750 version of the Speciale goes for a very respectable pre-order price of 799 CHF (Approx. $800) for the first 200 buyers with its standard leather strap and 839 CHF (Approx. $840) for the option including a bracelet together with the watch and leather strap.

Since not everyone can justify paying the premium for an automatic watch, the second movement option for the Straton Speciale is the Seiko VK67 meca-quartz, a movement which gives the user the best of both worlds when it comes to affordability and function. The VK67 is a hybrid movement developed by Seiko, which combines the accuracy of a quartz watch (+/- 20 seconds average per month), a mechanical chronograph-feel with a 5-beat-per-second sweep chronograph hand, and a flyback chronograph reset. This movement gives a great user experience that will even appeal to owners of mechanical chronographs. The Straton Speciale meca-quartz pre-order price will start from 319 CHF (Approx. $320) and 359 CHF (Approx. $360) for the option including a bracelet together with the watch and leather strap.

In terms of specifications, the difference between the 7750 Automatic and meca-quartz versions is the case height, as the movement determines the height of the watch. The 7750 Automatic version has a case height of 14.9mm and the meca-quartz version has a case height of 13mm – both very wearable.

The two case finish options for the Speciale will be a polished option or a sandblasted matte case option. Both case finishes are available with both movement choices and all 5 colorways. A first for Straton is the DLC clear coat, applied to the stainless steel cases. DLC, standing for “Diamond like Carbon,” is one the most robust coatings and commonly used to create different case color finishes like black or dark grey. However, in this application all stainless cases will have a clear DLC coating making the polished and matte watch cases scratch-resistant. This is a fantastic upgrade as it will help to keep the case surfaces free of scratches.

With the case width of the Speciale being 42mm, most people will associate a 42mm square-ish watch as wearing larger than normal 42mm round watches. This however, is not the case with the Speciale. While the width is 42mm, the top to bottom measurement or “lug to lug” measurement as it’s known, is only 40.8mm. The factor determining whether a watch suites a wrist or not in terms of size is its top to bottom measurement. If we take one of the most iconic square-ish watches – the Heuer Monaco – it has a 39mm case width (reissue) while the top to bottom measurement is 47mm. This is because the Monaco has actual lugs protruding from its case. The Speciale has no lugs with the strap fitting under its case and therefore can comfortably fit small wrists even below 6 inches and comfortably fit wrists 7 inches and above that are used to wearing normal 42mm watches.

Full specifications are as follows:

• Case Material – 316L Stainless Steel with DLC clear coat (Diamond like Carbon) which makes the case scratch-resistant
• Case width (left to right) – 42mm
• Lug to Lug (top to bottom) – 40.8mm
• Case Thickness – 13mm with domed sapphire for Meca-quartz and 14.9mm for the Automatic
• Movement – Valjoux 7750 (day/date) Automatic or Seiko VK67 meca-quartz hybrid
• Sub-dial description – VK67 meca-quartz no date: TOP (60 minute Chrono timer) LEFT (12 hour Chrono timer), BOTTOM (running seconds)
• Sub-dial description – 7750 Automatic day/date: TOP (30 minute Chrono timer) left (running seconds) BOTTOM (12 hour Chrono timer)
• Crystal – Domed Sapphire Crystal
• Hands – Luminescent Hour Hands, C3 Super-LumiNova
• Crown – Screw down
• Strap – 22mm width
• Water Resistance – 10ATM/100m
• Warranty – 24 Months

For those interested in the Straton Watch Co. Speciale, a Kickstarter campaign is live until January 5th, 2018. You can view the Kickstarter page here. You are also welcome to view other Straton watches via our website. stratonwc.com

Sponsored Posts are a form of advertising that allows sponsors to share useful news, messages, and offers to aBlogtoWatch readers in a way traditional display advertising is often not best suited to. All Sponsored Posts are subject to editorial guidelines with the intent that they offer readers useful news, promotions, or stories. The viewpoints and opinions expressed in Sponsored Posts are those of the advertiser and not necessarily those of aBlogtoWatch or its writers.