About Vintage has a unique story behind their watches. Currently, each one of the watches has unique dates with meanings. The one will review now is the 1815 rose gold chronograph. The reason they 1815 is so important to About Vintage is because that was the year the chronograph technique was invented and first designed.

To make these watches even more unique, each one of these timepieces has its individual number engraved on the case back (mines number  119, just in case you were dying to know). Something that’s small like this can make a watch seem a lot more important to watch collectors.

Usually from Sweden comes very minimalistic (DW kind of watches). But this caught my eye because it was looking like a proper watch, not a Chinese wholesale product. It really had good quality as I heard from people in forums. I liked the simple take on a chronograph watch. When you first think of chronograph wristwatch, you think about Omega Speedmaster or Rolex Daytona. They have busy dials. But this one was simple, elegant, something more dressy than sporty.

So today we are looking at About Vintage 1815 in rose gold color. The watch arrived in this cardboard outer box, which revealed another box, which is a nice wooden box, with “About Vintage” logo engraved on the top lid. You open the box, and there it is, the watch, in all it’s shiny glory. I took it out of the box and already felt the quality of it. It was on the heavy side, but not too heavy. It was just right.

So the case is made from 316L stainless steel with rose gold plating. In the first weeks, I accidentally banged the watch couple of times at my house doors, but it didn’t got a scratch. So the plating is durable and won’t take scratches so easily. The sides and lugs of the case are brushed. The bezel is polished and screw down case back is also polished. With engravings. On the right side of the watch, you will see two pushers and a crown also in rose gold plating, polished.

The dial is simple, it’s in this eggshell white, but sometimes the dial reflects light in such a way that it seems a bit rose gold too. And it makes the dial really pop out. The numerals are in rose gold, the hour and minutes hands also. Subdials hands and the chronograph seconds hand is in blue. The hands are actually very similar to pocket watch hands or any of the early chronograph wristwatches, I like those small details. The are two subdials on the top and bottom. The top is chronograph minutes and the bottom is just seconds for the general time. On 3 o’clock you will find a date window. The date numbers are very crisp and are applied with quality. On 9 o’clock you will find the watch name and also the designer’s name: “Skov Andersen”. On top of that all is domed sapphire crystal without AR coating, which actually sucks because when you want to see the time, you have to wiggle your hand to get the angle where the crystal doesn’t reflect as much light.  And also you can’t take you daily wrist shots on Instagram 😀

The movement is Miyota 6S11 Chronograph. Which is quartz. Many companies use this or mecha-q movement from Seiko. This is very reliable movement and keeps time perfectly. Never had problems with it.

The strap is light’ish brown genuine leather. The quality here is great. It is soft and buttery, with a really great smell of real leather. The buckle is stainless steel with rose gold plating, which is also polished. The strap will definitely get a better look with 1-2 year wear.

Overall the watch has great quality. I couldn’t find any big problem with it. The assembly quality is very good. From presentation to wearing the watch, you get that luxury feel, although it is kind of on the edge of fashion watches. Would I buy this? I think I would, but before I would like to see it in life. Because the pictures don’t give the feeling of quality. On the pictures, they don’t look so good as in life.

Price: 436.25$ @ about-vintage.com

Dial   Pearl white with rose gold plated dots and hands, royal blue small hands
Glass   Sapphire Crystal, domed
Case   316 High Precision rose gold plated, individually numbered
Size   41 mm wide, 11 mm thick
Strap   Genuine leather and Pin buckle, 20mm width
Movement   Miyota 6S11 Chronograph (Quartz)
Water res.   5 ATM tested (Avoid use when diving)
Box   Custom made in beautiful walnut wood with engraved logo
Guarantee   2 years against defects