HAMBURG Chrono silver-satined silver / SuperSlim metal strap 20 silver

Press the chronograph pusher and the elapsed-seconds hand does not tick. It sweeps, in five small steps per second, then snaps back to zero on command. That behavior is the whole argument for the Sternglas HAMBURG Chrono.

HAMBURG is the line Sternglas named after the city it works in. Its dials borrow from the measuring instruments of seafaring: full Arabic numerals rather than baton markers, a fine minute scale printed around the outer edge, luminous hands. The screwed caseback is engraved with a map of Hamburg, the Alster and the Speicherstadt and the Landungsbrücken rendered in fine line work.

This one is silver on silver. A silvery satin dial, lightly domed and sandblast-finished so it shades gently toward the rim, sits in a 42 mm steel case under double-domed sapphire with anti-reflective coating on both surfaces. The movement is a Seiko/TMI VK64 meca-quartz: quartz timekeeping governing a mechanically driven chronograph, with the date at six and a 24-hour register. The SuperSlim bracelet is what its name says, 2.2 mm of 316L stainless steel with a brushed steel clasp. Water resistance is 5 bar.

A chronograph that reads as an instrument rather than a sports watch, on a bracelet thin enough to disappear under a shirt cuff.

Perfect for: meca-quartz chronograph buyers, 42 mm watches on steel bracelets, Bauhaus-inspired chronograph design.