Armogan 40mm Regalia Chronograph – $199 ($220)
Armogan has made a nice little business for themselves by taking their original, well loved “Spirit of St. Louis” design, and tweaking it just so. The first follow up was the 42mm Le Mans. And now? They’ve released the “Regalia” collection. Here’s what Armogan had to say on their site about it:
The Regalia collection, inspired by the British caf© racers of the 1950’s, pays homage to their love of speed, motorbikes and rock ‘n’ roll. Evocative of leather jackets, metal pistons and cleverly tuned street bikes, the Regalia collection celebrates the fearlessness of members of the legendary ‘Ton Up Club’ and the ’59 Club’ who were able to reach the elusive ‘ton’ – 100 miles per hour
Sure. Or… they recognized that there’s a demand for watches that are smaller/more classically sized, so they slimmed down the Le Mans, flipped the sub dials from 3/9 to 12/6, and slid the date back to 3 o’clock where most watches have it. That, and there’s no rally inspired perforations to the straps.
A little color goes a long way. Nice texture to the subdials too.
Now, that (gentle) shot at their waterfall of words is not a knock on the looks. Because the Regalia looks great. Especially with their subtle use of color. And hey, why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.
Comparison with the larger, 44mm Spirit of St. Louis
That color depends on the model, with an attractive (and not overly shy) cobalt blue being used on the model in this post. That blue is limited to the main hands and sub dial hands, and that’s a good thing. Gives it a real classy, not over done look. Speaking of those subdials, there’s a nice bit of texture to them. Crystal is still domed, and the whole thing is powered by a Miyota Quartz movement.
Domed glass. Well balanced, silvery dial. Nothing too flashy.
Lug/Strap width drops to a more appropriate/balanced 20mm for this new, smaller 40mm case. Strap is sueded and feels good and comfortable out of the box. Water resistance is just 50m, but, that’s not too surprising. Packaging is nice, and they’re not afraid to say “designed in Belgium, assembled in China” on the box.
Is it a huge design change? Of course not. But it’s still a mighty fine looking watch, that oddly doesn’t look like much else on the market. Especially this Huckberry exclusive blue hands option. It’s subtle, it’s classy, and it’ll look real good on many a wrist.
Enter here to win the Huckberry exclusive Armogan Regalia watch shown in the post above. One entry per person. Deadline for entry is 11:59 pm ET 12/6/17.
UPDATE: Congrats to P. Lee who won the drawing for the Armogan Regalia!
