Classic Chronograph
(ref. 25005.20.11.1171)

This watch company is named for one of the founding fathers of watch making. Founded as a sister company to Girard Perregaeux, DJR makes a more affordable line of watches, with much of the styling that is obviously borrowed from GP.

Initial Thoughts

First, let's have a look at the logo. At first glance it might appear as a simple text application. Closer examination proves this wrong. It is a typeface stylized to appear hand-cut or drawn. Back in the days of Mr. JeanRichard, there were no computers, no "perfect" typefaces. Letters were cut from wood, or forged in lead, then used to transfer ink to paper. This logo, with its misshapen R and non-uniform character weight is perfectly reminiscent of that era. Above the text stands Daniel JeanRichard himself, with a simple hours chapter ring behind him.

The outer box is a simple cream cardboard. The inner box a nice padded dark green leatherette. Both with the Daniel JeanRichard logo. Inside the green box is the watch wrapped around a cream pillow. This served nicely as the watch strap was already formed to the wrist. A single manual covers a brief history and instructions for the entire watch line in French, German, English, Italian, Spanish and Japanese (I think!). The warranty is for one year against manufacturer defects. List price is $1150.

The Dial

The dial is a wonderful silver. It reflects the light incredibly, alternately appearing warm and classical, then cold and modern. It is 30mm in diameter. The printing is a very strong point. Every character, from the logo to the minute track to the red five minute markers to the registers is raised. Every other dial I've seen shows no difference from printed line or character to the surface of the dial. This dial is very well printed, and the dial shows extra character for it. The numerals are applied Breguet in gold color, and are simply beautiful! Rounded, they reflect the light and cast marvelous shadows giving the dial incredible depth.

The registers are slightly sunken and have concentric circles embossed in them, giving texture and depth again. Here we see the seconds chapter at 3 o'clock. The chronograph seconds accumulator is central, the 30 minutes accumulator is at 9 o'clock and the hours accumulator is at 6 o'clock.

The hours and minutes hands are gold dauphine and all other hands are blued steel. A beautiful combination of colors. The minutes track numbers are printed in red, as is the 12 in the hours chapter, the 60 in the seconds chapter and the 30 in the minutes chapter. This is all housed beneath a domed acrylic crystal.

The Case

The case is elegant. Each horizontal surface is brushed and each vertical surface is polished. At any angle light is reflected in many ways, again giving the watch great personality. It is uniformly brushed and well polished, even well done under and between the lugs, where many watches appear very rough. The measurements are 38mm in diameter, 41mm including crown, 45mm lug to lug, 13.5mm in height and 20mm lug width. The 6mm diameter winding crown is signed with a simple "JR" and is offset from the chronograph pushers, no doubt a result of using an standard movement with a chronograph module. The crown screws down and the pushers work with a secure click and no stickiness. The raised bezel nicely steps the case up to the domed crystal. The watch doesn't look or feel too thick (but I like bigger watches).

Note the beveled edge of the lugs. From above, they look delicate and graceful. From the side they appear strong and sturdy.

The caseback is screwed down and solid. Marked with the standard STAINLESS STEEL, WATERRESISTANT 5 ATM. SWISS MADE and the serial and reference numbers. The Daniel JeanRichard logo stands in a sandblasted field. This logo looks great here, in its seemingly purposefully worn down appearance. This is another touch giving the watch more vintage feel. It wears well on the wrist.

The Movement

The movement is the Daniel JeanRichard calibre 25. This is actually an ETA calibre 2824-2A with a standard finish. To make this a chronograph a Dupraz-Dubois Chronograph Module is mounted to the ETA movement. Each being individually jeweled, the DJR Classic Chronograph has 51 total jewels! The rotor is marked: DJR and FIFTY ONE JEWELS ADJUSTED SWISS. A technician from Swiss Prime-Time, Inc. (The US DJR representative) has told me the watch is adjusted for "rate and position". Specifically Dial Up and Stem Down. The movement is held in place with a metal spacer.
Special thanks to Roland Murphy for the photographs of the movement.

The Strap & Buckle

The strap is padded crocodile pattern leather in a rich brown. The standard tang buckle is marked with DJR. Surprisingly it is only 16mm. The lug width is 20mm, making this a very tapered band. This is a very good vintage look on this watch.

Final Thoughts

The Daniel JeanRichard Classic Chronograph retails for $1150. This is a fair retail price, based on the quality and features in this watch. They named it the "Classic" and did a very good job of giving it a very vintage feel. Elegant and beautiful. I bought it based on a very few basic scans and descriptions. The price was the final push to buy it and hope for the best. What I got was better than what I had hoped for.

The background for the photographs is a German hymnal printed in Hamburg in 1830, along with personal inscriptions on the back page.

All photographs and scans by Brandon Sparks except where noted.
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Copyright Brandon Sparks 2000.