Black, Blue, and See-Through: Chronoswiss Introduces New SkelTec Azur and Pitch Black Editions

Lucerne-based Chronoswiss has become well known for not only its distinctive regulator-style designs but also recently for its forays into skeletonization. At Watches & Wonders, Chronoswiss doubled down on the latter, expanding its SkelTec series (introduced in 2020) with two new colorways, SkelTec Azur (blue-and-black) and SkelTec Pitch Black (monochrome black). Both models continue the SkelTec ethos of reducing a watch’s dial and movement to an absolute bare minimum..

Both SkelTec models have a large, 45-mm case, 15.15-mm thick and made of DLC-coated steel with a matte sandblasted finish. The unusually shaped case features rounded, skeletonized lugs, an onion-style crown, and a sporty fluted bezel. The major difference between the two versions is, of course, their colors. The Azur takes its inspiration from azurit stones — a callback to the childhood of Chronoswiss Head of Design Maik Panziera — and the Pitch Black draws its own cues from science fiction and interstellar black holes. Both watches are secured to the wrist via an avant-garde calfskin-and-textile strap.

Exposed beneath the sapphire crystal is the watch’s extremely reduced skeletonized dial and visible movement. The dial itself is held in place via four bridges in the shape of perimeter triangles at the 1, 5, 7, and 11 o’clock positions. Timekeeping elements start with a floating, thin minute ring that rests upon the bridges, which is broken up by a floating balance wheel at 6 o’clock and a small Chronoswiss script in parallel near 12 o’clock. A pair of matching skeletonized hands point to the minute ring, one for the hours and the other for the minutes, their chrome color particularly striking on the Pitch Black edition. Outside of these elements, the dial is sparse, with various components of the movement, like the balance and spring barrel, fully or partially visible, but also lots of transparent space.

The much-talked about skeletonized movement is Chronoswiss’s Caliber C.304, a hand-wound mechanism optimized for extreme reduction in its visible parts. As for its specs, the caliber is pretty standard, with Incabloc shock protection, a 28,800 vph frequency, and a 48-hour power reserve, but its unique transparent look, engineered specifically for use in the Chronoswiss SkelTec family, gives it visual panache front and back.

Both the SkelTec Pitch Black and SkelTec Azur will be limited to 50 total editions, with the Pitch Black to retail for $21,300 and the Azur marked a bit higher, at $22,400.

To learn more, visit Chronoswiss, here.