Straton Watch Co. has unveiled five new colour combinations in its best-selling Speciale watch.
Straton was formed in 2015 and every retro-styled sports chronograph shows that the founder’s inspiration lies directly with classic sports cars.
The Speciale is no exception, with the caseback bearing an etching of the founder’s automotive love, a 1977 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT – a car that gets almost as much screen time on the Straton website as the watches.
The company slogan is “style created through passion”.
The Speciale features a DLC-scratch-protected 42mm stainless-steel case that is water-resistant to 100m and houses either an ETA 7750 automatic movement – with date – or a no-date mecaquartz.
The new colour combinations are: green and gold; black and gold; blue and orange; plum and off white; and finally sky blue with brown.
Kyle Schut set up Straton Watch Company after moving to Switzerland from his home country of South Africa.
The brand began with a very successful Kickstarter campaign in which Schut raised more than ten times the funding goal for his original watch, the Vintage Driver Chrono.
“This was an incredible feeling as I never expected things to go as well as they did,” Schut said. “This was only just the start, since within hours of my campaign ending I was getting email after email from people who still wanted to buy a watch.”
Driven by his twin love of watches and classic cars, he set about building a range of vintage styled chronos, adding watches like the Daily Driver and the Classic Driver to the collection.
The choice to offer either mechanical or mecaquartz movements reflects a desire to make the watches as accessible as possible, while keeping his horological credentials strong.
The Speciale has a 22mm leather strap and a retro domed sapphire crystal and all watches come with a 24-month warranty. Each colour is limited to 20 pieces on the first production run and prices start at £399 ($499).
