Hands-OnThe Albishorn Type 10 Classic – An Imaginary Vintage Pilot's Watch That Finally Exists

We handle a lot of watches at Hodinkee. Often, when a watch comes into the office, we pass it around to give everyone a chance to give their thoughts, feedback, or gather a bit of experience so folks can see what's out there. Not everyone agrees; rarely do they, in fact. TanTan, for instance, didn't like the aged lume on this watch—and I get it, to be fair—but rarely do I see a watch where the entire product, from top to bottom, seems both well-considered and well-executed. Often, you can tell what someone is going for and whether they hit the mark or miss it. The Albishorn Type 10 Classic seems to be firing all cylinders. 

The inspiration seems quite obvious to vintage lovers: a pilot's chronograph with a large black, textured dial that soaks up light while maintaining visibility in the cockpit. While we know the Type XX chronographs that Breguet recently reintroduced (yet again), what would a watch before it look like (at least, if it were rendered with modern technology)? Well, maybe something like this.

It's an interesting design, with a 39mm diameter and a thickness of 11.6mm (12mm with the slightly domed crystal rising above the bezel), which wears much larger due to the flared and concave bezel that reaches 41.7mm in width and a lug-to-lug length of 47.7mm. That curious measurement results in a slightly smaller dial than expected for the measurements, and the inverse: a slightly larger case than the dial would suggest. The dial features a distinct texture with beige Super-LumiNova numerals and indices.

The chronograph hand, when running, moves the lollipop hand from covering the dial aperture that displays a red dot when the chronograph is in operation, somewhat similar to a vintage Breitling slow-counting chronograph. When stopped, the chronograph dot turns white. This white accent also matches the white-painted hour, minute, and second hands, which remind you of the vintage hands on similar watches. However, that feature might be hard to notice at first, as the placement of the large, "big eye"-reminiscent 30-minute chronograph counter and running seconds subdials, each with snailing and beige Super-LumiNova, may be a bit off.

The case is interesting, with the kind of steeper drop-off to the lugs that you'd find on some great old vintage chronographs, and a mix of brushing and polishing. Cases are something that vintage lovers really love to discuss, and this looks clean. It's not as angular as a Spillman case, for instance, in some ways, but has a top profile that kind of reminds me of the Patek 3448 in others. But that's missing the obvious other tweak: the "destro" crown, and very industrial and bold red monopusher. 

That red pusher, with ribbing along the elongated shape, pairs well with the ribbed bezel, which is not equipped with any kind of click function but rather feels like a vintage tension-fit dive watch bezel. When wearing the watch on my left wrist (as I do), the pusher is easily operated by my right-hand thumb, which is stronger and more stable than my pointer fingers, and I can easily find the large pusher without glancing at the watch. That's key if you're actually a pilot and needing to time anything for navigating purposes while still manning the controls and keeping an eye on instruments or the sky. Meanwhile, the bezel is tight enough not to be bumped, but easy to operate (though you can tell in some photos I didn't realign it properly, which is more a "me" issue than a watch issue).

Inside, under the very vintage-inspired caseback that (along with the other features) gives 100m of water-resistance, the Albishorn is powered by a really interesting movement. The proprietary chronograph caliber ALB02 M is a manually wound COSC-certified movement, measuring 30mm in diameter by 5.70mm thick, and running at 4Hz with a 65-hour power reserve. The architecture is based on a heavily modified Valjoux 7750, which makes sense if you imagine rotating the crown in the case to its normal 3 o'clock position, the pusher above it, and the subdials into the vertical alignment of the 7750. By keeping the movement thinner, it allows a more vintage-inspired thickness.

The bezel, handset, and dial feature beige-toned Super-LumiNova that glows a matching green after some UV exposure. Unsurprisingly modern in this respect, there's no fast falloff like you'd find on radium. This just adds to the overall practicality of the watch, making it the kind of thing you can wear day in and out and get plenty of practical use out of. I held onto the watch for a little over a week and had a hard time letting it go. In addition to being fun and comfortable to wear, it got my mind spinning about other imagined vintage options you could create. Chaulmontet did a great job of considering all the features you'd want, crafting a watch that's a blend of the stylings from Heuer, Breitling, Angelus, and others, yet remains its own unique thing.

That creates a problem for the imagination. If this is the kind of watch for you and you have someone with such good design chops creating a design this well-considered, there's not much else to imagine. People often ask me what I would create if I could start my own brand, and I have to admit, I'm not great at generating ideas from scratch. True, this isn't entirely from scratch, but it hits many of the high points and comes at an affordable price. For CHF 3,950, there's not much more I could imagine on my own.

For more on Albishorn and the Type 10 Classic, visit the brand's website.