The huge, defiant chronograph Stuhrling 392.01 is definitely not for snobs and minimalists. You are unlikely to wear it with a suit and definitely will not come to a watch club meeting in it. But there is something that pulls you to put on this watch again and admire the azure glitter and marks hovering above the movement.
Who are you, Mr. Stürling?
Many sites talk about the Swiss roots of the brand: as if the watchmaker Max Stürling worked with Louis Audemars (father of the founder of Audemars Piguet) in the first half of the 19th century. And in the 2000s, a descendant of Stürling, together with entrepreneur Chaim Fischer, created a watch company named after the ancestor. However, among watch brands it is fashionable to find Swiss origins, especially if the production is located much east of Switzerland.
There are no such stories on the official Stuhrling website. They say that the company was founded in 2002 by Chaim Fischer, and she started with inexpensive Chinese tourbillons. However, about China is not spoken directly. Like, Mr. Fischer was told that normal tourbillons are made only in one place on Earth (apparently, in Switzerland). But he found something else - the place where all the cool companies, for example, Apple, make their products.
The place of registration of the company is New York. At specialized forums they say that the capacities are located in Hong Kong and Switzerland. Calibers, apparently, are Japanese in quartz watches and Chinese Seagull in mechanics. Well, good. Seiko and Miyota have good mass-produced quartz calibers, and Seagull is a company with a 70-year history, the world's largest manufacturer of mechanical calibers, up to multi-axis tourbillons.
Stuhrling is also known for a large number of hommages - both for iconic Rolex models and niche Cartier Ballon Bleu or Hamilton Ventura.
Hommage on Ballon Bleu de Cartier (left) and Rolex Datejust (right)
Stuhrling 392.01: not a watch for a snob
Skeleton watch and a decorative bridge on quartz, an onion crown, a large date, a chronograph with “doctoral” markings for measuring the pulse, a huge case with shining polish on all surfaces, a fierce blue glow of the hands and markers, a blue stuffed leather strap - I suspect that for a man who appreciates the aesthetics of a classic watch under a business suit, Stuhrling 392.01 will cause persistent misunderstanding.
H. Moser & Cie Swiss Icons Watch. The watches are made up of the most recognizable parts of Rolex, IWC, Panerai, Audemars Piguet, Breguet and other legendary brands. For them, Moser instantly received many publications and accusations of plagiarism. The next day, the company refused to promote the model: the accusations became irrelevant, but the PR remained.
Strictly speaking, Stuhrling 392.01 is really more bright than elegant or stylish.
The design is catchy
In the watch catalog Stuhrling 392.01 attracted attention at first sight. The color scheme of 392.01 is bright and varied, especially the color of the hands and markers - a bright blue that shines in the light and pours into a rich dark in the shadows. You want to admire this juicy color again and again, but the same black watch does not cause absolutely no emotions. Nevertheless, there are clearly successful details.
The hour and minute hands are three-dimensional, with a rib along the entire length (the edges catch the light beautifully - one half of the hand is dark, the other is bright blue). The inscriptions - the brand, the markings for measuring the pulse, the numbers on the chronograph arenas - are saturated and convex. But best of all are overhead volumetric marks. 90% of their length is fixed on the opaque white part of the dial, the rest is on a translucent plate through which the mechanism is visible. It turns out that the tip of the label seems to be floating above the mechanism.
Clock face skeleton watch is a rare guest in quartz watches, because quartz calibers themselves are not particularly interesting: nothing moves, there are no small complex details. But the Stuhrling 392.01 has double-date discs and gears—large enough to see some action under the dial. True, admiring the raw metal parts and white plastic gears is a dubious pleasure.
But the translucent dial - where it does not shine through - is a good solution. A small wavy guilloche is applied to it. It does not catch the eye, but it gracefully blurs the outlines of the details under it and in general it looks very nice (and making a plastic disk with a pattern is clearly easier than guilloche metal parts).
The double date switches clearly and evenly, the numbers stand in the center of the apertures, and the apertures themselves are covered with a neat thin polished frame. It harmonizes with the polished contours of the subdials. In our opinion, exemplary performance.
The case is not decorated with anything other than the crown-bulb. As the only decoration, it looks very good. And it is large and grippy - it is convenient to use.
The Stuhrling 392.01 are huge: 47mm in diameter, almost 55mm lug to lug, almost 15mm thick. The size makes sense. A bright watch with large elements and visible gears is made to be a noticeable accessory. It's even more noticeable when it's large. In addition, a multi-layered dial and a little “air” above it fit into the thick case. In combination with a convex glass lens at an angle, distortions are obtained that can be admired.
The quality of the
I will say right away: flaws are not visible to the naked eye. If you look closely, they are. But when the watch is on your wrist, it is unlikely that anyone will notice it - and you will not notice if you do not set a goal.
It's impossible to find fault with the blue text and numbers, everything is even (except for a few fuzzy dots above the U in the name Stuhrling). The large date digits look normal from a distance, but when you zoom in, you can see that the borders of some digits “float”. The blue markers are beautiful and voluminous, the only flaw is that the markers at 15 and 45 are at different distances from the edge of the polished round arenas. This is a feature of the model, and not a defect of a particular instance - the photo of other Stuhrling 392 shows the same unevenness.
In watches of this price segment, it would be strange to expect thermal blueing of the hands and marks. I think they are painted and then hewn out of metal. The side part of the hands is difficult to see, because at the right angle for this, the convex dial creates strong distortions. And yet it seems that the sidewalls are not painted over. The cutting is quite accurate. There are no plugs on the arrow axes, but Stuhrling is not a Rolex either.
Glass - Krysterna. Among watch brands, you can find it at Stuhrling and maybe Akribos (if you've heard of it). According to Stuhrling himself, this glass was originally developed for expensive glasses. It is almost as impact resistant as mineral and nearly as scratch resistant as sapphire. Many watch companies have similar glasses - for example, tempered mineral glass Flame Fusion from Invicta, mineral glasses with sapphire coating from brands from Nika to Seiko. Judging by the reviews, Krysterna is really not bad - watch owners do not complain about scratches on the glasses.
The case shines like something expensive, but it is made simply. There is no alternation of different types of processing, no chamfers, no clear edges on complex surfaces. There are only three details: the bezel without decorations, the case itself and the back cover with fine laser engraving. The ears are made with a claim to decoration, with an influx-elongation in the central part. However, the edges are rounded. And most importantly, the entire body is polished, that is, it will be easy to collect scratches. On the other hand, such treatment theoretically allows you to polish a scratched watch without much risk of ruining the geometry and finish.
Impressions of use
First and foremost is size. 55 mm from ear to ear can hardly fit on a thin wrist. The ears, fortunately, are strongly bent down - only thanks to this, the watch is somehow held on the hand. A one and a half centimeter thickness does not allow the watch to slip out from under the sleeve. A shirt or cardigan also stubbornly refuses to cover the watch that has appeared from under them again, and you suddenly find yourself wearing a defiantly bright Stuhrling defiantly in plain sight.
There is a 60 minute chronograph on board. The subdial "at 9 o'clock" shows minutes, "at 3 o'clock" - tenths of a second. The central second hand stands still at normal times, and counts seconds in chronograph mode. The top button starts and stops the chronograph, the bottom button resets the readings. The buttons are tight, pressed with a pleasant effort and with a click. The markup for measuring the pulse works like this: start the chronograph, count 30 heartbeats (the watch says “Base 30 pulsations”), stop the chronograph.
For the sake of interest, we tested this function: sometimes you don’t have time to press a tight button along with the first heartbeat, the readings are approximate, but in general you can use it.
In most quartz watches, the second hand does not accurately hit the marks. Stuhrling 392.01 does not have this problem. The small second "at 6 o'clock" has no markup. The major second, active only in chronograph mode, has a smooth, almost mechanical movement - 4 steps per second (this corresponds to a frequency of 14400 half oscillations per hour - the level of pocket watches of the last century). Therefore, the issue of inaccurate hits is also removed.
The crown does not screw down. In the first position, it translates the date, in the second - the time (by the way, the small second also stops to make the setting more accurate). Water resistance - 50 meters. It is enough for life, but you will not jump into the pool in such a watch of your own free will.
Readability is not very good. You won’t be able to understand time from the floor of a glance, you will have to look closely where the hour and minute hands are in all this blue splendor. By the way, there is no lume. Blue hands catch the slightest reflections even at dusk, but if it's really dark, consider that you are without a watch.
And a bit of taste: in our opinion, these watches are combined only with casual style, maybe with a sports bias (polo, shirts with rolled up sleeves). Nevertheless, Stuhrling 392.01 has many elements with a claim to rigor (leather crocodile-like strap, onion head, elegant slotted hands, etc.) - therefore, with a T-shirt, for example, it is difficult to imagine them. And also, given the bright blue color, it is desirable that the clothes also have blue elements.
