Rosneathian
1471
Hi, and thanks for the review
May 02, 2021,05:49 AM
I'm a fan of William's. He's insightful, and that makes his outspoken ways worth paying attention to. His lecture at HSNY in 2018 was excellent, for instance.
I haven't paid too much attention to his watchmaking project, but I do appreciate that he is investing his knowledge in producing decently priced renditions of classics. The watch above is one example and I look forward to more.
At a purely superficial level, however, I would have to say that the Dan Henry 1937 cleaves more closely to the style that this Massena LAB watch draws on. That is to say, in terms of case size, lug design, the thickness (indeed thinness) of the gilt, the size of the sub-dials, the Art Deco font, the chronograph function, the brushed and polished case, and so on. It even manages to deliver subtle variations in dial colour, which help to differentiate sectors (not apparent in the saturated photos below). All of this is quite an achievement for a watch of its price. It only disappoints outright in the poor quality of the strap that it comes with, but this is barely of consequence.
So if we put discussions of movement, materials and production methods aside, what we're left with is a simple visual and tactile comparison. I have the Dan Henry and not the Massena LAB watch, so can't say how they wear compared to one another. But in terms of design and appearance, for me the 1937 does the better job of evoking time and place.
(Stock photos below from the Dan Henry website).