Egard Watches


Video review of the second watch to come from Boutique watch company Egard. This is a fully Swiss Made affair with thick 20 micron gold plating and a Swiss ETA (Unitas) 6498 movement. This is a numbered limited production of 100 pieces. Its a great looking timepiece and a significant refinement over the first Egard Shade. Read more on the Egard site here: http://www.egardwatches.com

The video review follow-up to the written review posted earlier on the Egard Shade Automatic from new watch company Egard Watches. Very nicely designed, with obvious care put into conceiving this timepiece from Ilan of Egard Watches. Looking forward to the higher end pieces due to come out in the future from Egard.

Shortly after I posted the announcement of the inaugural watch from Egard Watches, Ilan contacted me asking if I was interested in reviewing the Shade when it was ready. I was excited at taking a look at the shade, and so I agreed. Ilan got the watch to me a week or two ago and I have been enjoying it for the past week or two at home, careful not to scratch the sample up. There will be an upcoming video review as well.

Gorgeous multi-layered dial with a peekaboo view of the skeletonized Miyota 8N24 movement. The front crystal is a curved, AR-coated sapphire crystal.. which for me is a very important feature. The roman numerals on the top half combined with the stick indices on the bottom half give the watch a pleasing look without being overly roman.

The hands are a softer, medium blue which reminds me a bit of JLC’s blue used on the Master Compressor Diver watches. A very pleasing color to me. The blue is continued on the upper and lower tracks for the roman numbers at 1 to 3 o’clock which adds a bit of continuity and is a nice touch.

Signed screw-down crown, which was unexpected to me. I thought it would be a pushdown crown due to the style, but screwdown is always a plus to me unless its a handwinder. You can get a sense of the case shape from the side view here – the watch is quite cylindrical. The bezel is rounded and stepped slightly, with angular lugs that are quite tight in to the case. The shorter lugs allow the 43mm case to feel a bit smaller, which is good since this is more of a dress watch.

A shot of the other side, which features an engraved “EGARD” name, which I found quite attractive. The fully polished case is quite well done and I really applaud the attention to design details. They didn’t just take something someone else made and change it a bit – its very unique looking.

Here’s a close up of the textured dial with applied romans, and all the various layers and dial elements applied as well. Its quite an attractive dial, but the vertical lines have sort of a wavey gloss to them that I would have preferred if it was a bit less glossy. More of a matte line would be my preference but still quite nice.

There’s a shot of the whole dial, and as you can see, there isn’t any lume at all on the dial. The hands actually look like they could have been filled with lume but were intentionally left skeletonized. The open heart feature shows the escapement quite nicely.

The back gives you an exhibition view of the Miyota 8N24 movement, which while not especially attractive, isn’t any less attractive than a bone stock ETA 2824 really. The exhibition glass is also sapphire, and the etched writing around the caseback proclaims the 200m water resistance, as well as the sapphire crystal and automatic movement.

Overall a solid first effort from a new watch company which I will be paying close attention to as they release more models. There are other models in the works, which are supposed to be higher end. I am excited to see what they have in store.

Specs:
43MM Case
Aerospace-grade 316L stainless steel
8N24 Skeletonized Automatic
Water Resistant to 660 feet | 20 ATM
Screw Down Crown
Sapphire Crystal Top
Anti Reflective Coating
Sapphire Crystal Bottom
High quality thick leather strap with butterfly buckle
Extra brown tang leather strap

I was contacted by Ilan, the founder and owner of Egard watches with some follow-up information on the Egard Shade and information on release date and pricing information. He told me that pricing for the Shade will be $620US on Leather, and $670US on bracelet and will be available only directly from Egard through their website, which hopefully will be launched soon! Some minor unexpected delays have pushed the release date back a little bit, but it should be out soon.

Current production on the Shade is only 100 pieces, but it is not a limited edition as I understand it. Ilan mentioned that there will be two other models released shortly, one of which will be a limited edition. We should be recieving review copies of this watch to write about so that will be very cool. I look forward to seeing what them!

Company Profile:

“Created as a tribute to designer Ilan Srulovicz’s father , Egard watches have been highly influenced by his father’s work in engineering. The attempt to dig under the surface and find the inner workings of the mechanics of things played a large role in the creation of the watches.

Egard watches are meant to be felt as much as they are meant to be worn. Designer Ilan Srulovicz began his process by visiting various parts of the world and drawing from the architecture and environment. Having a background in the field himself he found that watches today lacked a certain tangibility and identity. The intention was to create a line that allowed true self expression while maintain the highest level of quality.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Egard watches are a statement of self expression while maintaining the components of a luxury watch. Egard watches do not know the term compromise.

“Though we ask not to be bound nor gripped by the hand of time we seek to measure it. Not so that we may control it or defeat it but rather so that we may expose ourselves to it’s infinite scale.” Ilan Srulovicz”