Méraud Antigua – a new chronograph watch, inspired by regatta racing with the vintage touch of the Belgian watch manufacturer, caught our attention while searching the web for new microbrands watches, and you know what? it’s such a beautiful watch that could’ve been easily linked to “much bigger” manufactureres in the luxury watch world. Join us to learn more about Méraud and of course, the new model.
Méraud – Introduction
Méraud is a microbrand magnet watch manufacturer from Belgium. The company’s name is a combination of the words “mer” – sea in French and “émeraude” – emerald, a phrase that should reflect the connection between the sea and precious things.
The company’s founder, Stijn Busschaert, says on the company’s website – “At Méraud, we aim to fill the void in the wristwatch market, of high quality watches, but at a reasonable price. Vintage inspired watches, but those that meet modern standards. As a watch enthusiast at the head of the company, every detail is taken into account during the research, design, assembly and packaging of our watches. We believe there is beauty built into simplicity and functionality, with each watch carefully designed in Belgium and meticulously manufactured and assembled in Switzerland.
The Antigua
Méraud is introducing 2 watches in the Antigua collection. The first model is “Miho Black” and the second one is “Soft Sand”. Both watches comes in a 40mm 316L stainless steel case, with a thickness of 13.5mm (glasses included).
Both watches comes with a unidirectional sapphire bezel in black, with vintage-beige vintage-Arabic numerals and indexes.
The Black Miho model comes with a black dial, while the Soft Sand model comes with a white-soft beige dial. On the dial of the watches, at 3 O’clock we find a “big-eye” black sub-dial with a radial pattern, with a 45 minute counter. At 9 O’clock we find a compass-shaped small seconds dial, surrounded with an orange circle.
At the edge of the dial we find a tachymeter scale, with small super-luminova dots as indexes for improved reading of the time in dark environments.
The Vintage-Modern touches are all over the watch – from the vintage colors and fonts to the big-eye chronograph counter on the vintage side to the sapphire bezel on the modern side.
But with all the respect to the beautiful dials of these watches, the highlight of these watches is the movement inside them. Méraud went to a 2 years search in Switzerland, looking for new old stock (NOS) hand wound chronograph calibers, and she found the amazing Landeron 248 calibers, beating at 18,000 beats per hour (2.5Hz) while providing a 41 hours power reserve.
The Landeron 248 Calibers are part of the Landeron 48 Caliber family, the first cam-operated chronograph produced. More than 3.5 million units from those calibers were made between 1937-1970 and they were used by famous brands such as Nevada, Heuer and Leonidas.
The watches are sold with a Molequin leather strap with an additional free rubber tropic strap.
Méraud launched these watches as a limited edition of 200 units in Total, 100 of each color, priced at $1,947 USD.
If you’re thinking about getting one of these watches, we hope we won’t disappoint you too much when you’ll hear that the Soft Sand model is already sold out and there are only few last units available from the Miho Black model, so you better not hesitate too much.
Méraud Antigua – Final Thoughts
On Méraud website you can find the slogan – Inspired by yesterday’s finest watches,
but crafted for today’s watch enthusiasts. The Antigua watches are an excellent example to this slogan, as the watches feature a beautiful vintage style, together with a legendary NOS hand-wound calibers, yet in a modern look chronograph with beautiful color scheme.
Méraud websites shows 2 series of watches – the new Antigua watches and the Bonaire, which is all sold out. We can’t wait to see the company upcoming models.
