I am all about collaborations in the watch industry and I applaud when micro brands go the extra mile to deliver watches of high quality at a reasonable price. The Massena LAB creates, designs, and develops timepieces with renowned watchmakers and it was founded by William Massena, who has been a passionate watch collector since an early age. He was a watch dealer with stores in Miami and New York City and then became the COO —Chief Operating Officer— of Antiquorum in Geneva. While I respect him as an important name and figure in the watch industry, I think the Angelus Chronographe Médical x Massena LAB is not worth the money and I will tell you why.
This new mono-pusher chronograph is cased in a 39 mm stainless steel case with a domed silver opaline dial featuring two scales that include a pulsometer —to measure the heart rate— and an asthmometer —to measure the respiratory rate.
To measure heartbeats per minute, the chronograph has to be activated and count to ten heartbeats. After stopping the chronograph, the chronograph hand will then point to the correct reading along the pulsometer scale. The scale is color-coded with green showing a positive reading, black being neutral, and red indicating a negative outcome. Now, to calculate breaths per minute, the asthmometer scale works in much the same way as the pulsometer scale. Activate the chronograph, count to five breaths, and stop the chronograph to locate the reading. This scale is red to distinguish it from the minutes’ track.
While the functionality is there and this watch brings to life a great mechanical tool for doctors, I’d say that the craftsmanship falls short when it comes to the finishing of the movement and the case in all honesty is very simple and lack’s of alternating surfaces or a particular lug shape that would’ve made this watch more interesting considering the almost $20K USD price point.
The Angelus Chronographe x Massena LAB is powered by the manual wound Angelus caliber A5000, developed by THA Ébauche, a collaborative manufacturer of watch movements. While the movement is relatively nice as it can be appreciated through the display case back, the finishes are not in line with a watch of this price. If you look elsewhere, you can have a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Memovox, a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronograph Calendar, or even the entry-level Vacheron Constantin FIftySix Self-winding for the same amount of money or even less money. If we also take into consideration the pedigree and craftsmanship of brands like Jaeger-LeCoultre or Vacheron Constantin, this Angelus Chronographe x Massena LAB falls very short.
The Angelus Chronographe Médical x Massena LAB is delivered on a golden brown Novonappa calfskin, with hand-stitched ecru stitching, and equipped with a stainless steel pin buckle, it is available in a limited edition of 99 pieces and is priced at $19,900 USD. While the watch wears nicely for its size and it has a great look and feel on the wrist with a vintage aura, at this price point, it is definitely not worth the money, at least in my book.
As always, I will continue to call a spade a spade and honor objective journalism. Until next time!
