How much vintage racing chronograph can you get for £350? That’s the question that so many brands are trying to answer at the moment. I’ve seen a plethora of these coming to market, from a variety of budget-conscious micro-brands.

Today we’re taking a look at Nezumi, who got in touch with us recently offering to send us their attractive Loews chronograph. I had never heard of this brand before, from their name on the email I assumed they were Japanese or Chinese or something; as that’s what it sounds like. It turns out they’re actually from Sweden, which took me off guard.

Their whole marketing and aesthetic really appeals to me, as someone who loves motor racing; especially back in the day when it was all a bit more maverick. You have a bunch of vintage-inspired designs on there, the one I’m reviewing is the panda-style Loews chronograph; named after the famous, now-renamed, Loews hotel and Casino in Monte Carlo, which sits beside the street circuit hairpin.

Packaging

The watch arrived in this cool, green, retro box. It looks great and sets the tone for what to expect within. Opening it up, you get a glimpse of the watch, with a leaflet informing you of the included two-year warranty. The felt lining on the lid is a nice touch, to ensure the watch doesn’t get damaged in transit.

Size

Pleasingly, this chronograph sits at just 40mm in diameter; making it more wearable than most of the competition, whose offerings typically come in at 42mm or over. It is chunky, at 13.8mm (which we’ll talk about in a moment), though the 47mm lug to lug makes this a particularly versatile choice. The watch even looks good on my small 6.25-inch wrist and I reckon could even suit larger wrists. During usage, the watch feels comfortable and doesn’t rock about too much either.

Watch Design

From above, I think this watch is a real looker. It gives a very familiar aesthetic, with the dark subdials against a pale backdrop. There are plenty of watches floating around that look quite similar to this, though Nezumi has added a couple of touches to try and make theirs stand out from the crowd. The case is constructed of the ever-popular 316L stainless steel and features a lovely curvature to the lugs that suit this watch perfectly. The subdials are deeply inset into the dial, which gives some much-needed depth.

This colourway instantly caught my eye while I was browsing their website. The navy and light cream combine for a truly classy look; I particularly like the dark tachymeter on this model. The dial also features applied indices at every hour, which is nice to see. Outside of the fairly standard syringe handset, you’ll also notice the rather unusual second hand, which is adorned with a skeletonised Nezumi logo. You get some Super-LumiNova on each hand, which does a fairly good job of indicating the time in dark environments, though there’s no coverage on the majority of the dial; which isn’t to be expected with a chronograph like this.

I like the implementation of the unusual logo, at the top-centre, the printing is done to a noticeably high standard. If it were up to me, I’d like to see the Loews text positioned slightly lower, to make the face look more evenly balanced; as the second-hand logo seems to rest awkwardly above it when static. Also, I think it would look better if they just dropped the word ‘Sweden’ from the dial. ‘Nezumi Stockholm’ just flows and sounds better and would sit neater in place on the watch too. Anyone who cares the brand is from Stockholm will already know it’s the Swedish capital anyway, so I feel it doesn’t need to be there. Nevertheless, I’m far from a designer, so what do I know?

check out loews watch on nezumi's website

Case

The rear of the case is also really impressive, it’s heavily embossed with the logo and slogan; the lower portion featuring a moulded dotted texture, which contrasts nicely with the glossy outer. You can expect to get 50m of water resistance thanks to its screw-down nature, I think that’s fine for this type of watch.

While I think it looks great from a birds-eye view, I’m not so keen on the side profile. It features a central brushed section that runs the length of the case, flanked by two shiny sections. I am unsure whether it’s the thickness of the lug area and the way they curve over at the tip or the stepped design as you work your way down the case, but I’m left feeling that it looks a bit blocky. With this current design, I think the watch could do with being thinner overall, to compliment the compact width measurements. Given the shapely look of the lugs from above, I think this watch could look more attractive if those sides were more curved to suit.

Watch Glass

Laterally, you can also see the double-domed sapphire crystal present over the dial. Surprisingly, this one provides very little distortion over the dial, which may please you if you’re after pure legibility, but could be somewhat unexpected if you’re after some creamy blurring. I was outside when writing this post and it struck me just how good the internal anti-reflective coating is on this piece, even in direct sunlight. It’s some of the best I’ve reviewed so far and it made taking pictures of this watch much easier than others I’ve tried. This one is raised out of the case by a few millimetres at the circumference, which can look cool but may expose it to damage further. Nevertheless, the crystal will still give great scratch resistance.

Movement

The pushers and crown work pretty much as expected, with a satisfying clunk to operate the stopwatch functionality and reasonable grip on the crown. It’s not as grippy as first impressions would have you believe though and it’s a tad tricky to pull out from the case as the notched area on the rear is so slim it’s borderline pointless. I’ve slipped plenty of times when adjusting the time.

Nevertheless, you won’t be adjusting it much as the mecha-quartz movement within will provide you with long-term, accurate performance anyway. This is the Seiko VK63, which is a popular choice in this hybrid category. You’ll notice the timer functionality gives a smoother tick than regular quartz watches when activated. The bottom pusher snaps the hand back to the 12-o’clock position instantly, which is awesome.

At first, I thought the second hand wasn’t sitting perfectly on the 12’oclock position when at rest, possibly as a result of a misaligned movement. On closer inspection, it seems it’s the applied marker beneath that’s actually offset, causing somewhat of an optical illusion. To the naked eye though, it’s still barely noticeable; I’ve seen many watches with far worse misalignment. I like these movements and given it’s tricky for microbrands to offer competitively priced mechanical chronographs, they make for a suitable substitute.

Watch strap

Included with this package is a brown rally strap, which visually compliments the style of the watch very well. It features a signed buckle, which is nice and quality-wise it’s wearable, albeit nothing spectacular. It’s made of vegetable-tanned leather and feels ok, but doesn’t feature the useful quick-release tabs that I’ve become accustomed to and also has some glue residue around the white stitching - which is a teeny bit sloppy. Regardless, I think it should last well due to the good materials, but time will tell. It features a large number of holes that should suit various wrist sizes, my 6.25-inch wrist occupies the penultimate slot for reference.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think this makes for a watch that looks the part whether it comes to work or play. Switching the straps could give this a dramatically different aesthetic and the dial manages to pull it off well. For £350, I think it’s far from a bad choice, though a couple of chinks in the armour would have to be ironed out for me to part with that out of my own pocket.

As I’ve heard other bloggers mention, this reminds me of something like a Dan Henry. Though, from the marketing material they provided me with, it appears everything bar the movement is designed and produced in-house in Sweden. If this is indeed the case, then that’s fairly impressive and I think they need to make that clearer on their website; as I was under the impression these were Chinese-made. Despite this, I think a £200-£300 price-tag would still be more appropriate.

check out loews watch on nezumi's website