Today we are gonna talk about a small German brand called Kronhauser. The brand actually launched through a Kickstarter project just about 4 months ago. They managed to get 38 backers who pledged €12,793 to help bring this project to life. The man behind the brand is Thomas Bosse who with his four men team made these watches a reality. Kronhauser is based in the Münsterland region of Germany.

I actually discovered the brand through Instagram and fell in love with the blue sunburst dial version that they have. The watches they make are simple, conservative and yet stylish! The watch has this field/dress watch aesthetic and can be used both ways in my opinion. After some talk with them through Instagram, they sent me out two of their watches to try out. The Blue sunburst dial and the Silver dialed one. The watches arrived pretty fast from Germany, just in a couple of days. The watches come in blue rectangular cardboard boxes, nothing special, but simple and elegant. First impressions were good. Both of the watches look even better in real life than on the photos. The one thing than I actually noticed that wasn’t good was the cyclops over the date window wasn’t centred, but a bit off on both of them.

Both of the watches are basically the same, the only difference is the dial colours. The case of the Kronhauser Automatic is made of 316L stainless steel. The case is very well machined with nice angles and lines. Finishing all over watch is high polished. The finishing is also done pretty good. The case has very good proportions and kudos to Kronhauser keeping it 40mm big. Seems like German microbrand watch companies are usually keeping watch sizes-small, Sternglas for example. And I like that, the 40mm diameter is just perfect for my 6-inch wrist. The thickness is 11,5mm and from lenghtwise, it measures at 48mm. At 3 o’clock we have a push-pull crown which is nicely signed with the Kronhauser logo. The crown is very easy to grip and use. The exhibition case back features a flat mineral crystal. The Miyota movement isn’t the prettiest to look at, but I like when watch companies put the crystal over the movement too. When I was a small child I always would take my fathers Franck Muller and look at the movement from the back, it was like a small city that moves. Around the case back we have some specifications etched in and the German traditions the case back is held with 6 small screws. On top of the watch sits a flat sapphire crystal with cyclops at 3 o’clock. The water resistance is 5ATM (50M).

The dial of the Kronhauser Automatic comes in silver (Silver-Opaline) and my favourite the blue sunburst (Dark Blue Sunburst). As Kronhauser sent me both dial version, w have a chance to look at them both. The only difference between the dials is that the silver dialed one has all blue printing and hands, but the blue sunburst dialed one has this “patina” creamy white colour printing and hands and the hour numerals and hands are lumed. Both feature the same style Arabic numerals and minute track. All the hands are stick-shaped. The small problem that I have with this watch is why they put the black date wheel on the silver dial and the white date wheel on the blue dialed version? I just don’t like when the date wheel doesn’t match the dial colour. But ok, I could live with that, but the thing that I don’t like is the misaligned cyclops, I don’t know if these are prototypes or if they are production models, but this isn’t good for a new watch. The cyclops isn’t straight and is slightly off the date window. The lume on the Blue sunburst dial is pretty good, it lasts around 3-4 hours. Anycase the dials are pretty legible and very easy to read at a glance, which is all you need in a watch!

The movement that is inside the Kronhauser is Miyota Caliber 821A. It has 21 jewels, it beats at 21,600 BPH and the power reserve is 42hours. The movement is automatic, but you can also wind it with the crown. It also features hacking second’s so you all time freaks will be happy to know this so you can time all your watches to a second, ha ha! The movement is pretty good, these are very widely used, also in the previously mentioned Sternglas watches and scattering of others as the movement had proven to be very reliable. My example runs at +13 to +14 seconds a day which is pretty good.

The Kronhauser watches sent me 3 variants of their strap: suede, vintage stitching and crocodile pattern leather strap. All the straps are very well made. Even the crocodile imitation strap looks and feels really good. All the straps are very comfortable and supple so they will wrap your wrist nicely right out of the box. The straps are signed with Kronhauser logo on the underside. The tang style buckle on each strap is made of 316L stainless steel. The straps are 20mm wide at lugs and have a nice taper to 18mm at the buckle. Each strap also features the quick release spring bars which I’m very happy to see on these ones, as it makes strap change really fast!

Overall I really like the look of the watches, I like how well the case is built and finished, the dials are nice too, but I suggest to get rid of the cyclops and leave them as they are. I think they would look better without the cyclops + I know that many people in microbrand watch community don’t like them that much. Each version that we have here costs 398€ which is a bit too much in my opinion, especially when you compare it to Sternglas which basically has the same specifications. If you consider buying this watch I suggest you look for promo codes or sales, as the watch isn’t bad!

Price: 398€ @ kronhauser.com