Automatic Chronograph Review

I couldn’t find a lot of information on this watch when I was researching it and thought it might be worth leaving a review here. I’ve always liked chronographs and have been trying to find the right one for a while. I’ve got a Seiko Speedtimer and a Mido Multifort Chronograph and I like them both but I wanted an automatic chronograph with: 100m of water resistance, a smaller size than the Mido, preferably with a display caseback and all for around €1000. That’s a tall order and one that I’d just s as about given up on, but then I checked with my favourite AD and they had this Le Jour on sale.

The specs on the Le Jour Rally Monte-Carlo are:

• Diameter 40mm

• Lug to lug 48mm

• Thickness 14.5mm

• Lug width 22mm

• Flyback chronograph

• A day/date complication

• 100m WR with screw down crown and pushers

• And a a sapphire crystal.

The thickness at 14.5mm sounds large but with the protruding caseback a lot of that disappears and the watch actually feels and looks a lot slimmer on wrist.

My AD advertises this watch at €1500 but thanks to an exchange I made I was able to get the price of this to believe my budget and I’m very happy with it.

Of course the watch isn’t perfect no watch is, I’m not a fan of butterfly clasps on bracelets, I like to have a bit of microadjust as my wrists do expand in the heat and I like to wear my watches quite tight, which would mean having to add and take away links often or do away with the watch in summer. Also the bracelet rattles and squeaks quite a bit, which you don’t expect with a watch of this MSRP. Also it would be nice to see some kind of signature on the clasp, but this one is bare.

Other than the issues with the bracelet the unusual shape of this watch does take a bit of getting used to and despite what I said earlier about the caseback if this watch it does still stick up a bit more than many will fill comfortable with. However, I’ve gotten used to and quite like the shape now, and as someone who can and does dress quite casually for work the size is not a problem for me.

The watch comes in a range of different colourways including a panda and reverse panda dial, a dark blue with white sub-dials and a green with white sub-dials. And the caseback on all of them is pretty nice to.