Raymond Weil turns 50 this year, having been founded in 1976. In order to celebrate, the Swiss brand is producing a 50-piece limited edition chronograph called The Fifty that pays tribute to watchmaking from 1976 as well as the brand’s most recent successes. In order to achieve that, the design is based on the popular Millesime collection while housing a restored Valjoux manual chronograph movement from 1976.
Starting with the case, it measures 37mm in diameter by 10.75mm thickness and is produced from steel with a white gold bezel. That bezel adds an element of luxury to the design that’s befitting a jubilee model without pushing the model into a five-figure price tag (though you can’t treat it like a normal RW daily beater). The slim dimensions reflect the fact it houses a vintage, manual-winding movement.
The dial uses a bicompax chronograph layout paired with a sector style layout, furthering the retro feel of the design. Raymond Weil have used this as an opportunity to experiment with finishes, with different styles across the four main parts of the display. The peripheral rehaut with tachymeter scale is snailed, the hour scale chapter ring is grained, the chronograph subdials are also snailed, and then the central disk is stamped into quarters with horizontal or vertical gadroons. It looks great, building on the standard Millesime display to make it feel special.
Beneath the dial is the vintage 1976 calibre Valjoux 23-6, restored by hand with new finishing and fresh fittings. It looks stunning with hand bevelled edges and Côtes de Genève on the chronograph bridges and balance cock coated in black ruthenium. It’s one of the prettiest movements Raymond Weil have used in their watches. It operates with a 40-hour power reserve and a 3 Hz frequency, which are a little low by today’s standards but perfectly reasonable for a vintage calibre.
For pricing, I mentioned that it avoids being five figures, but not by a huge margin. It’s £9,250, which is just under triple the price of a standard Millesime chronograph. However, I also think it’s totally justified thanks to the gold bezel, hand-finished and restored vintage movement (depending where they are sourced from, a vintage Valjoux 23 series can be between £1,500 – £4,000), and multiple finishes across the dial. It’s also very exclusive in a 50-piece limited edition. They’ve taken one of their most popular modern watches and pushed it to the next level in all the right ways and the result is fabulous.
Price and Specs:
More details at Raymond Weil.
