The Globetrotting German
I’ve been lucky enough to travel a fair bit in my life. It’s always amazed me that no matter where you go, you’ll run in to a Brit, Aussie or Kiwi, Canadian, a Scandinavian and inevitably a German. For a country that, at least back in the day, struggled with English as the universal language of travel, they sure do not hesitate when it comes to getting out and about.
So it’s nice to see a company like Laco, primarily known for their pilot watches, branch out to dive watches and now, a really cool GMT watch. If you’re new to GMT watches, it’s basically an additional hand that rotates once every 24 hours and you simply point it to the 24 hour time in the location you want to track. More on this later. Point is, this is another German that’s quite keen to get out in the world and help us be more effective! Laco is a very interesting brand. They were established in 1925 and are known for their ‘Flieger’ (Aviator in German) watches, so pilot watches in short. |
A pilot watch is all about clear, black & white legibility. Obviously, the watches were in high demand during World War II for the pilots of the Luftwaffe. Laco supplied watches, along with 4 other German manufacturers. Over the decades after the war, business was up and down, sold and bought etc. until 2010 when Laco was back in business with a small team, making great watches once again. Whilst pilot watches were an easy 'go to' with so much history, it’s great to see a large variety of new designs being released by Laco, even some incredibly special editions such as this one.
I’m really getting in to German watches of late, the return on investment is second to none overall and this GMT popped in to my field of vision due to the Red Dot Design award they received just recently. Laco is a brand I was super keen to check out, having come across them in watch reviews online. The design, felt to me a little like a mix of the Braun brand’s watches and clocks, combined with some Scandinavian design influences. I slowly worked up to a purchase. |
My impressions, owning & wearing the watch.
As per usual with anything out of the ordinary, there is no distributor in Australia so you have to take your chances that the watch will fit the wrist and order online. The service I received was personalised and incredibly professional. I was super impressed with the team’s efforts. After a few days wait, the Fedex man showed up at my door and it was time to unbox.
This is one of the best unboxing experiences ever. A beautiful aluminium box with and an extra wrist band, a cool key ring, manual, warranty card and even a Laco branded tool to assist with strap changes. I also appreciated not being subjected to a million stickers, only the one on the face of the watch…since why bother? It’s so well protected in the custom formed foam in the box! |
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Unpacking the watch (whilst hiding away from my beloved wife….’nothing to see here’), first thing I did was change to the grey and orange strap since the black one doesn’t fit this grey model at all in my humble opinion.
The grey/orange combination really fits the style of the watch perfectly. And that’s one to be aware of, this is not a watch that looks great with just any strap. The colours are so unique and I find it hard to imagine colours or materials that will work with this watch, other than grey / orange / black. If you want or own a strap with orange details, it really must be the same shade of orange. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, is up to you. The grey/orange strap looks great, is nicely made but stiff with sharp edges, not overly comfortable initially but I suspect over time that will change and it’ll soften up a bit. |
Stylistically, I wondered how exactly the watch would fit me. It’s fairly large, even on my wrist and stature, and that colour combination is very unusual indeed. What drew me to the watch also puzzled me. It’s such a unique looking piece and I can’t personally see it with a suit or lounging around the house. I think smart casual is the ideal scenario and muted earthy colours would need to be worn for it to fit. I don’t normally go into this sort of detail but it’s worth thinking about wearing scenarios if you’re looking at a potential purchase.
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On to that dial then, the watch comes in grey and black. The black one is really just dark grey so I figured the grey is a better choice overall. I think it was the right choice. The lume is applied very well to the printed numbers, markers, and hands. Meaning, you get a slight green tint to all of those elements. This looks quite nice on the grey dial. I’m sure it would on a dark dial also.
The Laco logo in white matches the white date complication and the ‘Made in Germany’ print well. It’s quite interesting seeing how that beautiful, traditional logo fits so well on a design that’s so thoroughly modern, a complete break from vintage pilot watches. That said, the counter weight being a plane is a lovely touch that to me works with both Laco’s heritage and the fact that the dial is marked with GMT, and therefor very travel focused. Finally, the hands have edges with a lovely blue colour which is achieved through heating and cooling the steel in quite a challenging and precise process. Impressive and beautiful. |
So, the GMT function. As per the pictures, you’ll see the dial being marked 1-24 with 18-6 in black (night) and the rest in grey (day). The GMT hand is set independently but moves with the hour hand and it can be set at half or full hours. So at a glance, I can tell what time it is in London where my friend Ben lives and also easily if he’s sleeping or working (or should be). Clearly, having to remember the time difference is way too hard..ahem.
It is definitely a very useful function if you have friends and family in other countries. Confusingly, they internal dial is adjustable with the top crown so you could potentially track a third time zone. Typically, this is more a feature you’d use if there is no GMT hand, sometimes referred to a “poor man’s GMT”, since you simply set the time difference of the dial to the hour hand of the watch. But here, you could track 3 zones. I am however too daft to remember which would be which and I’ll never use this. |
So, I need to mention the one issue I have with the watch here. That internal rotating dial. It ‘slots’ in to half hourly segments upon turning the top crown, but it’s rather loose. In fact, it’s altogether imprecise on my watch so the triangle does not exactly line up with the hour markers. It’s only a tiny bit off but as watch fans know, it can not be unseen when seen.
I tried to turn it full circle to see if that was a fix on a brand new watch and I managed to almost align it, but still a tiny bit off. This was disappointing. However, the Laco team organised a free return immediately and made the whole process so easy that I can not fault anything here, maybe just a slap for the person that did final inspection. If you buy one, perhaps keep an eye on this. If the dial was free flowing with no slots, this issue would be non-existent. A suggestion perhaps. |
Turning the watch over and you’re met with the usual specs. What’s not usual is the beautiful engraved map of Europe and a plane, further to the travel theme. I love this touch and it’s very detailed. I quite enjoyed being able to see the prominent map of my birth country of Sweden.
The back and entire watch is subjected to bead blasting, using some sort of titanium sand. It makes the watch look like titanium with its dark, matte grey, but my wife felt it made it look like plastic. I must admit, it doesn’t have the feel of metal. It’s difficult to predict what a scratch would look like. The screwed down crowns have the same bead blasted treatment and are a pleasure to use, even with my large bratwurst fingers. They are both signed with the Laco L and are both super easy to unscrew thanks to the onion shaped crowns. The top one controls the internal bezel and the bottom one winds the movement (incredibly smooth this movement, barely any resistance), sets the GMT hand, date and time. The are both protected by crown guards, almost flush with the guards, and the placement is symmetrical, very nicely designed and looks great in person. I couldn’t stop placing my thumb exactly between the crowns in the soft curve. I know, I’m weird. |
Movement
Strap & Bracelet
Case
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Charging up the lume and it’s quite the light show. Of course, it fades quickly but the important bits being the hands and markers will glow well into the night.
What I really like is that the GMT hand and orange triangle on the internal dial glows orange in the dark. They do fade quickly (being fairly subtle in their size) but the dial, hands and bezel sure look spectacular when fully charged. |
Final Words
A modern and unique design from a brand with loads of history, is there anything not to like? Yes, it’d be nice to not have had that alignment issue but having worked in customer service for large parts of my life, it’s not the complaint itself that’s the issue, it’s how it’s dealt with. And in this respect, Laco passed with flying colours (Sarah, you’re a legend).
I love the modern design approach and let’s remember that Red Dot Design awards are not given out to just anyone, it was clearly recognised that here is a design that’s well thought through, bold and also, fun! What you’re getting here is a rather good value GMT watch that will look like nothing else on anybody else’s wrist. It’s a conversation starter, it’s comfortable to wear on the right strap and you’re helping a small company to keep innovating and give us even more spectacular designs in future. Put this one on your shortlist, you won’t regret it. Cheers, Esbjorn |
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