I have reviewed two of their watches in the past, the Heritage 40 and the regular Heritage Chronograph. I was very impressed by those watches and I was waiting for them to release something new and they delivered! It wasn’t what I was expecting as I was waiting for an automatic/mechanical watch, but they surely delivered something really cool. Today we are gonna take a look at Corniche Heritage “L’Éte Sans Fin” Chronograph. Which means Endless summer in French. When I first saw the watches, I thought “damn those are some very sexy colours” haha. Usually microbrands aren’t so brave to use bright colours on classic looking timepieces, but I like that Corniche brought a fresh breath into their very successful classic chronograph design. I already have talked that the Heritage chrono looks similar to Patek Philippe reference 5170P and A.Lange & Sohne 1815 Flyback Chronograph there. I don’t know if those were the influences or anything, but they sure nailed the design and when they added the “L’Éte Sans Fin” collection they also made something that can be weared casually with shorts and polo shirt, not only formal wear which I like. Well I didn’t receive the watch actually in the summer and it is set to deliver in the end of September, but I still think that it is the best Summer watch of the 2021!
The Corniche is based in Sweden, but finds its roots in the famous coastal roads, between Nice and Menton, at the French Riviera. The company offers three different watch lines today. The 40 mm Men’s- and 36 mm Women’s Heritage, both with Miyota 2025 quartz movements. Then there’s the Men’s Historique in 37,5 mm, available with either a Miyota 2025 quartz or a Miyota 9015 automatic movement. The 39 mm Heritage Chronograph with a Seiko VK64 meca-quartz movement and now the Heritage Chronograph line joins the blue and orange colourways “L’Été Sans Fin”. In the last years, this brand has gotten a lot of respect from watch guys as their watches have a very nice and wearable sized watches that aren’t over 40mm. And I also think they have one of the best marketing campaigns in the business. Yes they are still considered a fashion watch brand, but in my eyes they are a real watch company, their designs, quality and everything can easily be compared to higher end spectrum of affordable watches.
In the Heritage Chronograph “L’Éte Sans Fin” line, we have only two versions in stainless steel with baby blue and bright orange coloured dials and matching colour textile straps. The one we have today is the orange dial version as it looked the best, in my opinion + it suits my other orange dialed watches I have (Werenbach and Seiko.).
The Heritage “L’Éte Sans Fin” Chronograph came in a very nice clamshell box with a black piano finish and nicely signed with Corniche logo. As always their packaging is super well done! One of the best unboxing experiences and I like that they don’t change the style of their packaging as it is already very good. Inside the box, we have the watch, instructions and certificate of authenticity. The first impression was just wow! It looks so good! I haven’t seen an affordable chronograph that looks so good and fun. The size, the bright orange dial, the case, everything just works so well together. I immediately put it on my second wrist as I already had watch on my main wrist, I actually rarely do this as I think it looks douchy wearing two watches at the same time, but when something this cool arrives I do that from time to time.
The case of the Heritage L’Été Sans Fin Chronograph is made of 316L stainless steel. The machine work is very precise and every line is very sharp. The watch has a round case with nice lugs that go down so it wears more comfortably on your wrist. There are two finishing on the watch: polished and satin-brushed. The finishing is one also to the highest quality. The case diameter is 39mm, the thickness is 11mm and from lug to lug it measures at 48mm. At 3 o’clock we have a signed push-pull crown which is rather easy to grip and manipulate. At 2 and 4 o’clock we have the rectangular pushers to manipulate the chronograph function. On the previous Heritage Chronograph I reviewed the pushers were too loose in the case and it looks like this one features the same problem and also the cuts in the case aren’t well finished and machined, the look sloppy and kind of done in a hurry. The pushers have polished top and satin brushed sides. I really like how the polished crown and pushers play with the satin brushed sides of the case. The solid case back is held on with six small screws. The case back featured the “L’Été Sans Fin” text and what looks like a tangerine tree engraved on the caseback. The water resistance is 5ATM (50m) and I wouldn’t recommend going with it in the water, as the pushers can be accidentally pushed and you will flood the watch. On the top sits a flat sapphire crystal.
The dial on the regular Heritage chronograph was already really good, but now with the bright orange colour it looks even more stunning! The dial is an orange coloured ceramic dial. That is pretty rare you see a ceramic dial on a watch that costs only 385 euros, usually, we see dials like that in watches for much bigger prices. Around the dial, we have the Base mile and minute track printed in white. The applied polished hour markers are great adding to the overall look of the dial. We have to subdials in total at 9 and 3 o’clock. The one at 9 is a 60 minute counter and the one at 3 is 24-hour subdial (AM-PM). The leaf-shaped polished hour and minute hands are taken from the Heritage 40 and suits this version too in my opinion. The white chronograph second’s hand has a nice counterweight and extends to the edge of the dial nicely. At 12 we have the Corniche logo and under that in a smaller font: “Heritage”. The dial is very classy, yet modern and with the added orange colour it now is also fun and hip. You look at this watch and you already can Image Spain, drinking cocktails or behind the wheel of on old Alfa Romeo Giulia and driving on the French Riviera roads. It is all “summer” about this watch
The movement that is inside the watch is the Seiko VK64. The VK64 movement has a fly-back feature and a non-running second hand to make the tachymeter more effective. This movement I think is one of the best affordable quartz movements in the market. I have it in a couple of my watches and it works perfectly. The battery life on these is somewhere between 2-3 years, but some of my other examples are 4 years old and still are running with the same battery that they came with.
The strap that Corniche provides you with is the orange textile strap. The strap at first is pretty stiff, but after some wear in time it gets more supple. The strap is very nicely made, you can see that with each detail they try to deliver it with the best quality. The underside is underlined with beige coloured leather and is signed with Corniche logo. The buckle that came with the watch is a fold over one. It is made of stainless steel and has a polished finishing. The top is signed with Corniche logo. The buckle is very nice and feels very sturdy and well made. This is actually one of the rare times where I like the original strap on the watch and wouldn’t change anything, it is nice that they went with this style of strap rather than the alligator print strap in orange, that would look ridicoulos.
Overall the watch was a lot more than I hoped for it to be. As I said previous time when reviewing the original Heritage Chronograph version, this is a really well made and cool looking watch. The price of this watch I think is pretty good! Almost all people who I showed it, said it looks like it costs 3-5 times more, but not 385 euros. For that price, you get a really great and thought out design, sapphire crystal, reliable meca-quartz movement from Seiko and a great unboxing experience. This one will definitely be on my wrist till winter!
Price: 385€ @ cornichewatches.com
- Case Size: 39 mm x 11.5 mm.
- Dial: Ceramic with hand-applied polished markers
- Crystal Sapphire Glass
- Strap: Genuine black leather with quick-release function
- Lug Width: 20 mm
- Movement: Seiko VK64 Hybrid (sweeping second hand)
- Clasp: Folding mechanism for ultimate comfort and ease-of-use
- Water Resistance: Waterproof up to 5ATM
- Packaging: Piano lacquered presentation box
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