Today we are gonna take a look at something familiar to me. Because I have owned two watches from this company and they both were very nice timepieces. It’s the Lars Larsen. I had the LW22 in stainless steel with the grey dial which almost looked like Laurent Ferrier and the other one was a flashy LW43 in yellow gold colour with the pearl dial which also was a quite interesting piece. But sadly I sold them both before I got to review them.

Lars Larsen Watches is a watch brand, which sells watches at an affordable price but with good quality. Strangely the watches I had before it said on the dial Swiss Made and they had Swiss movements, but now they have Made in Denmark on the dial and Japanese Miyota movements which is quite strange because prices haven’t changed a lot. The Lars Larsen is a brand based in Denmark. The production takes place in Svendborg in the south of Fynen, Denmark. I don’t know how long have they been around, but about 5 years ago I noticed their watches when I was in Denmark.

The model that we are taking a look today is LW33 which is a pretty nice and sporty chronograph. I liked it because almost 90% of their watches are dress watches or very close to something like that, and this was the one that stood out from the whole range (there are also some divers, but I wasn’t interested in those).

The watch came from Denmark probably in two days with the courier. When I opened the package I was surprised that the packaging was so small (the same case with the Minus8 Diver watch I reviewed 6 months ago). Because the box that came with the older Lars Larsen watches were bigger and also made from leather. But this was something I get for a watch at $50 and not $359. But ok, we are here for the watch. The LW33 surprised me with how good it looked. Lars Larsen watches always look and feel very good. As soon as you take the watch out of the box you can feel how well it is made and good the materials feel.

So the case is made from 316L stainless steel. The diameter is 44mm, the thickness is 11,8mm, from lug tip to lug tip it measures at 54mm and lug width is 22mm. The case is finished with an amazing brushed finish. The watch wears actually smaller than 44mm, more like a 42mm. I really like how the watch is proportioned and how the case is made. I like the lines where the edge of the bezel goes by the lug. Many watch brand would use three piece cases, the bezel, main case and case back. But Lars Larsen chose to do it their way. And I like it! Also, a nice touch is that between the lugs where is the main case, the finishing goes vertical, but the sides of the case are brushed horizontally. Also, I have to mention that the case, dial and everything except movement, was made in Denmark and that is pretty amazing. You don’t see many brands doing something like this at this price point. I guess they wanted authenticity/in-house and switched their production from Switzerland to Denmark. On the right side, we have a nice signed push-pull crown. The crown is sized good and is easy to grip. The pushers are one of the main accents of the watch. I usually don’t like watches with colourful pushers or any part of the case, but this time it looked really good. The pushers are coated with a red coating. I don’t know if they are anodized or PVD coated, but the coating feels very rugged. The crown action is also good. The screw in case back has a nice deep etching with the Lars Larsen logo which is three lions. On the case back you will find also some specifications etched in. Also, I have to point out that they really are proud about the Made in Denmark thing. You can find writings that it is Made in Denmark and designed in Denmark on the case back twice. The crystal is probably the nicest I’ve seen. It is a slightly domed sapphire with AR coating. The coating gives it a blue reflection in the light which looks really good! The watch is rated at 100m (10ATM) which is quite deep considering it doesn’t feature a screw down crown and screw down pushers.

The dial of LW33 is also made very nicely, just as the case. Around the case goes the Tachymeter scale chapter ring with nice red accents. The dial is in black colour with white minute marking going around the dial, which kind of gives it that 70s racing watch vibe. The applied batons are made polished stainless steel with lume applied in the middle. You have also three subdials at 12, 9 and 6 o’clock and a date window at 4 o’clock. The upper sundial is a 24-hour dial, the one on left is a 30min dial for the chrono which features a nice red hand and the last subdial is for the chronograph for seconds. It is quite strange why they chose to put the chrono function in that small subdial rather than putting it on the main dial seconds hand. The polished hour and minute hands are rectangular with lume applied on them. Seconds hand has a basic line shape and is polished with a red accent on the end. On 6 o’clock you again get the Made in Denmark writing. And on 3 o’clock you have the logo. I think the layout of the dial is pretty good. Many people would argue why it isn’t symmetrical, but I think it looks even better this way. The dial is easy to read at any time of the day. At night you have a great lume that lasts about 4-5 hours and lets you read the time easily.

Movement inside the LW33 is a Miyota//Citizen JS15 quartz chronograph movement. Which I encounter for the first time. But from what I was reading on the forums it is again a widely used movement in watches at this price. Of course, I better would prefer the Seiko meca-quartz movement. The battery life is about 2-3 years. The strap is something that disappointed me this time. The strap itself is really good and the leather feels as good as the watches I had in past from Lars Larsen, but the problem is that it is too thick and it really hard to fit the strap in the loopholes when you close the buckle. I don’t mean really hard, I mean REALLY HARD. And getting it out is also a long process. But other than that the strap is nice. Stitching is good and the strap is finished nicely. The buckle is made from brushed stainless steel and is signed. If you want to buy this watch I would better take it with nato or mesh bracelet.

Overall the watch is really good. And I was surprised to discover that everything except movement was made in Denmark. It looks amazing. I really like how they shaped the case and how comfortable it is despite its 44mm size. I have been wearing the LW33 for about 3 weeks now and I can’t take it out of my rotation. If you are in the market for something interesting that isn’t the usual Seiko, Timex or something like that, I would highly consider this as an option!

Price: $359.00 @ larslarsenwatches.com

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