Karl Leimon Kickstarter 

 

The watch that we are taking a look today comes from a very new company called Karl Leimon. Which launched its Kickstarter campaign today (13.09.2017). So the watch is a classic take on a dress piece with moon phase, month, date, day complication. When I was searching for something to review this watch really caught my eye because the brand had a good looking design and I wanted to take a look at the moon phase complication for ages. As not many watches these days feature moon phase at such affordable prices. So I contacted the brand and they sent me one of the first watches before campaign and release. So I was pumped to get the watch early to write a review and take a look at it.

So the watch arrived in this nice leather box with cardboard outer box. Inside the box you will get a guarantee, instructions and a tool with which you use the hidden pusher to set the month. First impressions were good. I like that the size of the case is 38mm with so many complications. The watch also has some weight which is a good sign because many brands have light watches and they seem very cheap when you take them in hands. But this fet good in hands, something valuable.

The case is made from 316L stainless steel. The diameter is 38mm, the thickness is 10mm, lug tip to lug tip is 46,5mm. Watch wears nice on the wrist, you would think that 38mm is too small, but this piece wears more like 40mm. I like when brands return to these sizes. These days watches are 42mm and up to 55mm. These days 42mm is even small, in the 90s it would be huge. And after testing the Ginaut Ocean Rover I fell in love with smaller size watches. And this is another great example. One thing that kind of surprised me is that the lug width is 21mm. It is very strange why they went with it. Maybe the proportions looked wrong with 20mm lug width or something else. But yeah, this was a downer for me, because many strap brands don’t offer 21mm straps and 20mm straps look wrong on this watch. So this watch won’t be something that you will have on many straps. The finishing on the case is polished. On this version that is basically a prototype we have a different case back than on the finished version. The finished version will feature polished case back. On this, we have a brushed case back. The crown is on 3 o’clock and is signed with Karl Leimon logo. On 2 o’clock we have a hidden crown which is for the month function. The Classic Pioneer is rated at 5ATM or 50m of water resistance. So it won’t be your swimming watch 😀 not that anyone goes swimming with a dress watch.

The dial is in white colour with applied hour markers in polished silver finishing. So the dial has much going on. On 12 o’clock we have a date, on 3 months, on 6 moon phase and on 9 we have day function. The dial is really nice, but in my opinion, the outer part of the dial has too much free space and everything is tucked in the middle. It kind of looks unfinished in my opinion. If you look at high luxury watches with the same dial layout, they look a lot better, the space on the dial is used evenly. Not that this dial is bad, but in my opinion, there is too much free space on it. The hour and minute hands have leaf shape and they are in silver colour with polished finishing. The watch doesn’t have a seconds hand. That is because dress watches don’t have a seconds hand because they are meant for a more dressy situation where you don’t count how much time you have been spending there. On top of the dial sits a sapphire glass with double AR coating which is pretty good, I have tested many watches with double AR coating and I can assure you, this time it really works for the reflections! So that was a surprise!

The Classic Pioneer features a quartz Japan Miyota 6P00 movement. This is the first time I encountered this movement, but from what I have been reading on the internet it is a pretty good and reliable movement that you can trust. Basically, every quartz movement from Miyota or Seiko will be good movements that will work fine. Battery life on these usually is 3 years. So on this movement, you get the moon phase complication. I still am trying to understand how to set it up and how to use it. The strap is Italian leather in black colour. The strap has crocodile texture on it. I don’t like the crocodile texture on the straps unless it is a real crocodile or alligator strap. It just looks cheap to me. Although Karl-Leimon version of this strap looks better than most of these type of straps. The butterfly deployant buckle is pretty nice actually. It is pretty solid, made from stainless steel and doesn’t rattle at all.

Overall the watch is pretty nice. You get a lot of watch for the price. You get many complications in one watch, sapphire glass and nice design. It also is unisex due to small 38mm size. If you need a nice dress watch, that isn’t the classic time only watch but is interesting with some complications to show off to your friend, then this is it!

The Karl Leimon Classic Pioneer also comes with black dial, which to me doesn’t look as good as the white one. Classic Pioneer also comes with Limited Edition case back of 500 watches. But you can also get the regular ones. The prices on Kickstarter starts at $179 to $189 for one watch, but you can also get two watches for $358, three for $537 or four for $716. The retail price for one watch will be $285, so go check them out on Kickstarter and grab yourself one before the prices have risen. 

Karl Leimon Kickstarter