Lebois & Co Heritage Small Seconds

The Lebois & Co Heritage Small Seconds costs $2,950 including VAT, and comes in three dial versions: Baton, Script and Numeral. All three share one stainless steel case and one movement, so the decision is really about which dial you want to look at, not which watch you are buying.

The case is 37.8mm across, with a double-domed sapphire crystal that brings total height to 10.5mm over an 8mm case. That is a small, old-fashioned footprint by current standards, and the domed crystal is doing real work: it distorts the dial at an angle in a way flat sapphire does not, which is the one detail here that cannot be faked with CAD.

Inside is the LC-350, Lebois's name for a Sellita SW360-1, the small-seconds variant of the SW300 and a relative of the ETA 2892. It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour, carries 31 jewels, and gives 56 hours of power reserve. Every example is COSC-certified, meaning it has been tested in five positions and three temperatures by the Swiss chronometer institute. That certification is unusual at this price and is the actual argument for the watch, more than the dial.

The three dials differ in how traditional they want to be. Baton is a sunray-brushed blue with mixed markers, Script runs applied Breguet-style numerals on a matte white dial, and Numeral is a matte black, railroad-track instrument face. All three keep a recessed small-seconds subdial at 6 o'clock with concentric finishing. Orders are open for the production run, and each watch ships with both a leather strap and a Fixoflex steel stretch bracelet.