It?s always a great experience when you first see a watch in person that you previously had only seen images of, and the reality of it is far better than you expected. That was the case with the Brellum Duobox, a chronometer-rated chronograph from a new independent Swiss brand. After coming across their site a few times, I knew I had to get one in for review. There was just something about them; some level of balance or finish depicted in their images that said these were high quality watches. That, and the fact that you don?t run into chronometer-rated chronographs very often.
Impressive straight out of the box.
Before getting to the watch, Brellum was founded by Sebastien Muller, a fourth-generation watchmaker based in the Jura region of Switzerland. With 25 years of experience under his belt, Sebastien decided it was time to set out on his own. The resulting first line of watches, the Duobox chronographs, speak to this with fit and finish rarely found in a brand?s first lineup.
Upon opening the luxurious wooden box that accompanies the Duobox for the first time, I was met with a watch that looked and felt like one from a long-established brand. The watch just glistened, and once in hand and then on my wrist it was immediately entrancing. It?s not a revolutionary design; it?s actually quite conservative. But it has the right cues to be a handsome, classic sport watch. And with a price tag of about $2,200 on leather and $2,275 on mesh, the Duobox chronometer chronogra...