Chronoswiss Gives the Small Second a Stone Dial Character

Chronoswiss has never been shy about making classical watchmaking look a little more vivid.

The new Small Second Stone Collection continues that direction, but it does so through natural material rather than colour alone. With jasper and serpentine dials, the Lucerne watchmaker gives its most straightforward modern layout a more tactile and individual character.

At a glance

Stone dials with a two-country story

Chronoswiss was founded in Munich in 1983 by Gerd Lang and is now headquartered in Lucerne under Oliver Ebstein.

That two-country identity gives this pair its neat conceptual hook.

The Small Second Jasper uses a German jasper dial with warm beige, brown, yellow and ivory tones that can look almost landscape-like beneath the crystal.

The Small Second Serpentine turns to a green stone associated with the Matterhorn and Zermatt region, giving the watch a stronger link to the brand’s current Swiss home.

Both stones bring natural variation, so the patterning on each dial will differ from the next.

That matters on a watch with a relatively open dial layout, because the stone is not just a background texture. It becomes the main visual event.

The time display is deliberately cleaner than the off-centre regulator arrangements that made Chronoswiss famous.

Here, central leaf-shaped hour and minute hands sit above the stone dial, while the small seconds indication is placed at 9 o’clock.

The sub-dial has a hand-guilloché interior and a surrounding scale that picks up the dot-and-numeral rhythm of the outer minutes flange.

Applied Breguet-style Arabic numerals add a formal note, while Super-LumiNova on the hour and minute hands gives the design a practical edge after dark.

A slimmer case that still looks like Chronoswiss

The Small Second is more restrained than many current Chronoswiss pieces, but it doesn’t abandon the brand’s familiar architecture.

The case measures 40mm across, 11.5mm thick and 50mm lug-to-lug, making it the slimmest case in the present collection.

Its 17-part construction retains the house signatures that collectors associate with Lang’s design language, including fluting below the bezel and caseback.

The onion crown remains, though it has been pared back to suit the lower case profile.

Most surfaces are polished, while the recessed area of the lugs is sandblasted for contrast.

The Jasper model comes in stainless steel, a sensible frame for the desert-toned dial.

The Serpentine is more ornate, using a two-tone case in stainless steel and 18k red gold to sit against the mottled green stone.

Both watches use domed anti-reflective sapphire crystals on the front and back.

Water resistance is rated to 30 metres, partly because the redesigned crown is not a screw-down construction.

Calibre C.6000 and limited production

Inside is the automatic calibre C.6000, a movement developed with La Joux-Perret and connected to the Delphis line introduced in 2003.

It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offers a 55-hour power reserve.

The visible finishing is contemporary rather than nostalgic, with dark ruthenium-plated bridges and plates, radiating Côtes de Genève and an openworked tungsten rotor.

Chronoswiss is making 50 pieces of each stone variant.

The Small Second Jasper is fitted to a brown calfskin strap and is priced at CHF 11,500 or EUR 12,700.

The Small Second Serpentine comes on a green calfskin strap and is priced at CHF 16,900 or EUR 18,500.

Details & Specifications

The appeal here is less about complication and more about personality, proportion and material presence.

For collectors who like Chronoswiss’ sculptural casework but want a cleaner daily-wear layout, these stone-dial Small Seconds make a persuasive argument.