deLaCour S3 Bichrono Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Oct 10th 2009 at 12:01PM

I thought this rare S3 Bichrono timepiece interesting as it employs two distinct chronograph movements in one watch. While I have seen watches with more than one movement, I have never seen one with two mechanical chronograph movements in it. I am not surprised at all though - especially with this combo coming from deLaCour. You can easily see what they have done to make it work. What looks to be two ETA 2894 automatic movements are placed side by side. The movement on the left seems to be "upside" done, so that the pushers can be placed on the left side of the case. This allows for minimal modifications to the movement, explaining why the chronograph subdials are placed in the upside down position. Of course deLaCour altered the starting places for the chronograph hands so that they act in a natural manner for the two 12 hour chronograph complications available to the wearer.

The size of the watch is about as big as you would imagine given the space needed for two movemenst - that being 55mm wide and 53mm tall. Not terrible at 14mm thick. The case is done in 18k pink gold against titanium. Notice the textures surfaces on the chronograph pushers. The dial is really straight forward with deLaCour's typical spark of color and relatively easy to read dials. The chronograph subdials are partially skeletonized, which is an interesting touch. The date complication is retained on only one of the movements of course, to avoid confusion. The front and rear of the watch have sapphire crystals and the strap is a sporty rubber. An interesting watch from the watch maker who enjoys defying conventions. Expense is on par with the materials and the fact that it is an "individually crafted" timepiece.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 3s, bichrono, chronograph, delacour, timepiece, watch