Graham Silverstone Vintage 30 Chronograph Beige Dial Brown Leather Men's Watch 2BLFSW06A

WORLDTEMPUS - 27 March 2012

Graham loves to boast its "Britishness" and moved from the official Baselworld premises in order to receive guests in a proper British setting a couple of kilometers away: an adapted restaurant in front of the Badischer Banhof, the makeshift decoration of which has been mainly inspired by rugby and motorsports in previous years. This year the scenario was quite different, with a symbolic corner seemingly transplanted from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and a dark room filled with tree trunks. Not to mention the typical London cab parked outside to shuttle guests to and from Baselworld's halls.
The first impression this gave off was that Graham wanted to delve into its roots. The result was not completely off the mark: the most unexpected new product of the 2012 collection is a throw-back reinterpretation of the brand's flagship model, the Chronofighter. In fact, if the Chronofighter has been dubbed "The Grenade" in Italy due to its powerful features and instantly recognizable chronograph lever, the new addition to the collection sort of dismantles that explosive grenade and transforms it into a streamlined bow and arrow. Ladies and gentleman, meet the Chronofighter 1695.

The most difficult project
Clad in his Union Jack jacket, Eric Loth is proud of his new creation - christened 1695 in homage to the year British master watchmaker George Graham started his own business. "We wanted to develop a classic watch that would still be a Graham, but it wasn't easy at all," explains the brand's CEO. "Actually, it's been the most difficult project - not technically, but design-wise. I worked four years on it, I went back in history and looked up levers they used in sports cars in the 1930s when the center of gravity was too high and the drivers would lose the line very quickly, so when they wanted to chronograph time they used a small lever with a hook at the end. I came up with a very fundamental and clean Chronofighter - but it is still a Graham."
With its 42 mm case, the stylish Chronofighter 1695 is quite graceful as compared to the boldness of most other Graham timepieces - but it never loses touch with that typical "Britishness," albeit in a vintage 1930s kind of way. The dial is inhabited by just one counter (for minutes) placed at 6 o'clock, and the date window alongside clean numerals and indexes. The streamlined lever provides that unmistakable touch of the Chronofighter lineage. The pedigree is enhanced in the case back, with the engraved image of the Greenwich Royal Observatory - where George Graham was official watchmaker back in the day - and a sapphire crystal aperture over the balance wheel and escapement of the automatic chronograph movement.

All the historical references and even the name of the Chronofighter 1695 might reflect a change in Eric Loth's mindset. Not really: for him, it's all about a change in the consumer's mentality. "Around 2007, people didn't give a damn about the date of a brand's foundation, they had no interest. Suddenly now there is an interest; people want to know what is behind Graham-London, what's the history, who was George Graham," he says. "For some, our 'Britishness' is important, for others it's the history that's important and there are also those for whom the motorsport connection is important. People look for values; they don't buy a watch just because it's a nice brand with a nice design. People want to have a valuable function, they want to have good value for money and they want to have good food for thought - products they can relate to, they care about." Meaning products that capture the imagination, just like several timepieces in Graham's current collection.
From sea to land
If the 1695 is the most distinctive timepiece in the Chronofighter lineage, the new Oversize Prodiver is the most technical ever. "I gave no price constraint to my engineers. I told them I wanted a real diver's watch that could go down to 2,000 feet. We have a device that proves that the chronograph actually works. It's been tested; one thing is saying it, another is proving it: show me how many in the industry can do it and then prove it, " Loth says. "We had a brilliant idea from our engineers and we took a patent that we filed just before the Basel fair. We also solved the problem of visibility."
The watch is perfectly readable from a distance of 25 cm in murky conditions and equipped with an automatic helium valve; the famous Graham lever was completely rethought to become the only control pusher of the chronograph (start/stop, reset), thus easy for divers to activate the functions with thick gloves.

Even if the Oversize Prodiver allows more depth than the existing Oversize Diver, there's a new Oversize model in the Chronofighter range that exudes a more rugged personality than the more urban and sporty series in the catalogue. A redesigned case and lever combination are complemented with fabric straps. "We have reengineered the Chronofighter with a lever made of plain carbon through a very specific machining process; we also changed the movement, the bezel and the case to reach a retail price of just 5,900 Swiss francs. We worked like engineers and not like designers."
Another different feature is the telemeter, as opposed to the tachymeter, which was the scale used in the racing-oriented Chronofighter models.

Graham follows motorsports not only because of its British heritage, but also because it is one of Loth's biggest passions. The brand will continue being the legendary Isle of Man Tourist Trophy official timekeeper and have a few drivers as ambassadors, but has dropped the Mercedes GP sponsorship. "We have more and more watch brands coming into Formula 1, there's too much buzz and it has become unclear. Our strategy is moving a little bit: when we started out in Formula 1 back in 2008-2009 with Brawn GP we were lucky because we were world champions before the team was purchased by Mercedes. Graham has to focus more and more locally rather than globally. Times have changed, the interest of the consumer is focusing more on brand values - you cannot defend a brand value globally if you're not a global brand. And we are a niche brand that follows passion in regional events such as the rugby Six Nations championship and the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man. In Formula 1, I was not feeling that passion anymore."
Back in the driver's seat
Loth proudly states that Graham is a niche brand. "We make 6,000 to 7,000 timepieces a year, that's not much. We cannot run like those that make a million watches. We are in another league, so we must locally find the twist for the buyer - it's a local twist, not a global twist." Which regional markets are strategic? "Middle East, Greater China and Asia are strategic. The next strategic markets are the U.S.A. and Latin America with the Mexico connection."