A dial as beautiful as a vintage car dashboard: The Instrument de Vitesse from Angelus, which will be first on display at Watches and Wonders 2024, exudes an elegant yet instantly readable design that appeals to classic car and chronograph aficionados. With three hands in the center, it is not immediately recognizable as a stopwatch.
However, this monopusher chronograph measures elapsed time up to 60 seconds via the central stop-second hand by pressing the pusher integrated into the crown. The peripheral indications surrounding the finely graduated minutes circle on the slightly domed dial are dedicated to the tachymeter scale, graduated from 60 to 500, with a base metric of 1,000 (typically one kilometer).
The applied Arabic numerals, luminescent like the hour and minute hands thanks to a Superluminova coating, add depth to the beautifully clean appearance. The dial is available in two tasteful colors that evoke a fine retro aesthetic: ivory white and ebony black and protected by a box-style sapphire crystal.
The Instrument de Vitesse is powered by a hand-wound manufacture movement. Thanks to the absence of totalizers, the caliber A5000 has a thickness of only 4.2mm. Equipped with a column-wheel mechanism which can be admired through the sapphire case back and a horizontal clutch, it beats at a frequency of 3Hz and comes with a power reserve of 42 hours. The movement features a beautiful palladium finish on the main-plate and bridges, as well as circular graining, perlage and Geneva Waves.
This high-end movement ticks in a stainless steel case that has a diameter of 39mm and a svelte height of 9.27mm. Part of the La Fabrique collection, the Angelus Instrument de Vitesse is limited to 50 pieces and has a sticker price of approximately $19,000 when converted to USD.
To learn more, visit Angelus, here.