Nitron Skelette:
- 48mm 316L Stainless Steel
- 40 hour power reserve
- Sapphire crystal watch glass
- Skeletonized dial with superluminova
- Limited number engraved on backcase
- Complimentary extra leather watch strap
5ATM, 50 meter
Exclusively Limited to 28 pieces
Nitron presents their collection for Year 2020 as
“You Only Live Once”.
“See through the frame of time, light up with superluminova, be that classic soul with that extra personality, made with uniqueness and that exquisite you in mind.”
I talk about it often, that magical moment when I first got to wind my grandfather’s pocket watch. Holding the watch up to my ear, listening to each click as my 5 year old fingers slowly wound up his watch. One day this experience was made even more special, when the back of the watch was opened and I got to experience the movement in full working order. There wasn’t anything more magical to that 5 year old me at that time than watching all those tiny parts working together in perfect horological harmony. That Christmas I received a plastic, see through Woody Woodpecker watch, my first watch. I was hooked. Fast forward to “adulthood” seeing my first skeleton dial watch, the Chronoswiss Opus, instantly transported me back to those magical childhood moments. Skeleton dials might not be I first choice when buying a watch, but they will always have the power to magically transport me to my childhood. For that they will always hold a special place in my horological beating heart. That’s why I was excited to spend some time with the Nitron Skelette watch.
The Skelette is a sleek looking watch that has the styling cues of what I would call “urban dress”. The Skelette is the type of watch that you throw on with your jeans and t-shirt for weekend play or to the office on casual Friday. You can certainly dress it up with a suit if you so desire, after all it’s your watch right? The Skelette is a 48mm watch, with a layered case consisting of black, and turquoise finished with a 316l stainless steel case back. The four cut outs on the black dial side of the case allows for some of the turquoise to peak through adding some topside detail to the Skelette. Decorating the sides of the case is metallic turquoise, which in fact can be found throughout the Skelette. An example of how Nitron was committed to carrying through the detail on this watch. A small detail example of this can be found on the push/pull style crown with it’s turquoise ring that surrounds the circumference. The crown detail is taken further by Nitron because instead of leaving the crown plain, the design team added a raised ‘N’ to add that extra amount of detail. They may be small details but the certainly add up giving a watch an overall polish finish look with uniform details carried throughout the watch. The crown itself functions smoothly when manually winding the watch and when setting the time. It’s a decent size for gripping and the edges allows for no slip operation.
The main focal detail of the Nitron Skelette is of course the dial. You either love skeleton dials or you don’t, I completely understand that they aren’t for everyone. I think Nitron did a good job with the design of the Skelette’s dial. They didn’t just strip away the dial, slap the hands on and left the movement completely exposed. The left the outer most portion of the dial which includes the hour and minute markers. Nitron uses circular applied hour markers that are coated with superluminova allowing for legibility in lowlight/dark environments. The same treatment is applied to the semi-skeletonized hour/minute hands and to the second hand. I would definitely say that the dial on the Skelette is busy and yes that’s basically what skeleton dial watches have. These are style of watches that you buy if you are relying on your watch for easy to read dials for being in precise situations that reading the dial needs to be accomplished in split second detail. A skeleton dial watch is purchased because the tick of every second wants to be admired slowly, appreciating all the parts working together in harmony to achieve the tick of every second, the slow movement of the minute hand around the dial every hour, and the 12 hour journey of the hour hand.
The text on the dial is pretty much bare bones limited to only include ‘Nitron’ which is located at the 3 o’clock position. Nitron did a nice job of detailing the main focal points of the exposed movement by using turquoise to border those points. Not only does this draw the eye to the “oscillating heart” but it also ties the watch together in full circle. The uniformity that is created throughout this watch is done simply by the use of turquoise on the case, crown, bezel, dial, and even to the stitching on the strap. The dedication to consistency of detail is apparent throughout this watch.
The watch is comfortable to wear despite what the 48mm case measurement implies due in part to the unique lug design. Nitron went with an unconventional solid lug design with under mount quick release strap/lug bars. The short lugs, the under mount style and oval shape of the case allows the Skelette to wear much more like a 44mm case rather than 48mm. Now that doesn’t mean this watch doesn’t have a presence on the wrist because the dial and the colorful case certainly gives this piece some wrist presence.
The stainless steel case back on the Skelette is simple yet does have a small detail that leaves a larger impact. There is a small sapphire window on the case back that allows you to see the movement but a more note worthy detail is the rotor. The fleur de lis design of the rotor is quite beautiful from what you get to see. Typically I prefer a solid case back with a nice engraved picture but this time I want to actually see more of this movement, more importantly I want to see more of this rotor.
The newest offering from Nitron is a well thought out designed watch that offers something unique and not just another dive watch clone. Who exactly is this watch designed for? It’s for anyone looking for something a bit different, something unique that isn’t completely over the top. Like I mentioned earlier, it can be paired well with a t-shirt and jeans or dressed up to whatever the wearer so desires. The Skelette kind of has this modern day James Bond vibe going on for it. I really like the matte gun metal dial that surrounds the skeletonized portion of the dial. It creates a nice contrast between the solid and the open freeness of the dial. The watch was keeping + 8 seconds per day time during the review period via the Hangzhou 7500 automatic movement. The Nitron Skelette is priced at $590 USD and is available via their website https://www.nitronwatches.com/collections/skelette/products/nitron-skelette-tiffany-blue
Thank you all for reading. Please stay well and be safe.
Thank you Nitron.
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