Sporty and Affordable! Hands-On Depancel Allure Automatic Chronograph Review
When I first saw the young French brand Depancel and went hands-on with the Pista GT Skeleton, I immediately became a fan of the brand. Offering a Swiss Made racing inspired watch with a skeletonized dial that actually looked cohesive, was quite the accomplishment.
So when I was offered the chance to review another of their models, the Allure Chronograph, I jumped at the chance. While the Allure boasts a Swiss automatic movement, it is assembled in French, so doesn’t get the Swiss Made tag. But that doesn’t put me off of the brand, or watch. The brand is growing, and moving assembly to their home of France makes sense, and to me makes the brand more authentic.
Getting into the design. The watch has obvious inspirations. When I look at the Allure and the reverse panda dial, I see a lot of Rolex Daytona in the design. But the Daytona servers as an inspiration for a lot of chronographs these days. And that doesn’t give me too much pause. Longines, Baltic, and many other brands have offered their take on a racing chronograph with panda dial. Plus, I think it is great that people that either can’t get allocated allocated a Daytona or don’t want to spend $14,000-plus can own something with similar design cues.
There are differences to a Daytona. For one, the dial has multiple different finishings. The middle portion of the silver dial has a guilloche-pattern. This is surrounded by a more traditional brushed pattern. Additionally, the dial and aluminum bezel both have orange accents. And the green accents cleverly help you read the chronograph more quickly. The central chronograph seconds hand, as well as the chronograph’s minutes and hours subdials have orange accents. The small seconds for time-keeping does not. It’s a small detail, but it allows you to differentiate quickly between timekeeping and stopwatch functionalities.
The bezel continues the orange theme on the top right. And instead of “Tachymeter” the bezel reads “Motor Racing Instrument”. That maybe a little too on the nose, but it didn’t bother me.
The model I reviewed was on a leather strap (though it is offered on a bracelet). The leather strap is high quality and has a clear racing inspiration. The stitching is orange, continuing the the accents from the dial and bezel. There is also a small “red, white and blue” stitching on the top strap, a nod to the brand’s French roots.
The Allure automatic runs on the Sellita SW510 automatic chronograph movement. It beats at 28,800 bph, or 4Hz and has a very respectable power reserve of 63 years. If you are looking for an off-the-shelf made high quality chronograph movement to put in your watch, it doesn’t get much better than this. You can see the movement through the display caseback. Fortunately, Depancel has opted to go with a custom engraved rotor (a necessity if you are doing a display caseback).
The Allure fits well to my 6.75 inch wrist. But I have to say, it is on the larger side of something I would wear. It is 43mm in diameter, 48.5mm lug-to-lug, and 15mm thick. In the age of brands sizing down every watch, I do appreciate the brands that are offering larger watches. And I think customers appreciate it. And if you want something a little smaller, Depancel’s manual wind variation of the Allure is just 39mm in diameter (by 13mm thick). So clearly Depancel is offering something for everyone.
Over the last couple of years, Depancel is really seeming to mature as a brand. They have been refining their identity, incorporating higher-end movements into their watches, and even starting to assemble their watches in their home country of France. That to me shows that the brand has a clear vision and is intent on executing it.
For someone looking for a sporty and modern steel chronograph, but doesn’t have the budget for a Daytona, I think the Depancel Allure is an intriguing alternative. It has enough callbacks to watches like the Daytona without being a retread. The Allure clearly has its own design aesthetic that allows the watch to clearly stand on its own.
You can pick up the Depancel Allure Automatic Chronograph for $2,4000 USD.
