As we get further into watch writing here at New England Watches, I’m incredibly excited to start diving into reviews and time-on-wrist based letters to you all. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been fortunate to have one heck of a piece here on loan from my friends over at The Sacred Crafts: the “Bronze Legend” out of their maiden voyage collection, “La Grande Mer.” As a brand, TSC has positioned itself to offer something entirely fresh to the watch collecting community; dive watches made from reclaimed bronze, old ship parts, and seaglass. Yes, you read that right – seaglass. I grew up on the Southern end of the Jersey Shore – and before you ask, no, I did not know anyone from The Jersey Shore TV series – and remember finding bits of seaglass every now and then on the beach. For anyone who isn’t familiar, seaglass is a piece of glass that has rumbled and tumbled around in the sand until smooth, losing all of its edge and danger and instead becoming somewhat of a beachgoer’s collecting item. Never would I have imagined that I would see this piece of my childhood as a functioning part of a watch, and so when I saw the first couple of posts from TSC showing how this material has even made it into their watch cases and bracelet links, I had to get one on the wrist. I absolutely encourage everyone to check out the link at the bottom of this story and read a bit more into the origin story of TSC, and in the meantime, let’s jump into the review.
My first thought when unboxing this watch was that I’d finally “made it” by the definition of my seven year-old self; I could finally retire and call myself a pirate. No more university life for me! I’ll be setting sail in six months, perhaps never to return, singing sea shanties and drinking rum on every horizon…yo ho…yo ho…
…okay so that was a fun daydream, but sadly I think I would have a pretty difficult time convincing my fiancée that this would be a sound career move (and yes, she would be correct on that one). Enter again: the feeling of unboxing this watch. Untying the worn-in cloth, lifting each layer of this wooden box; I was having so much fun just moving the parts around that I almost forgot I’d received a watch in the first place. Once I was able to get over that feeling – and it did take a while, mind you – I set out to get as much time on the wrist with this watch as I could within the few weeks I’d have with it…
…but not before I was entirely distracted again, this time by the see-through caseback and truly one-of-a-kind rotor. I mean, can you believe the detail and texturing here?
Now that I’d managed to corral my attention span, I took inventory of my impressions of the watch.
Quick specs:
Case diameter – 44mm
Case thickness – 13mm
Crystal – Sapphire
Lug width – 22mm
Movement – ETA 2824 (automatic, hacking)
Water resistance – 300m
Initial thoughts were akin to, wow, this is a big chunker. That’s the professional term, I believe: “big chunker.” At 44mm, this diver isn’t pulling anything over on anyone when it comes to what it is and what it isn’t.
What it is: a big, bold, beautiful bronze diver.
What it isn’t: a slim dress watch in stainless steel.
What I may appreciate the most about this watch – and really the entire La Grand Mer collection – is that the identity of the piece is so intentionally pursued that there is really no mistaking it for anything else. I’m not wearing this watch to be an under-the-cuff, subtle extension of my personality. I’m wearing it because I want to wear it specifically, I want the “Bronze Legend” on my wrist, and I appreciate that putting on this piece requires a little bit of that same intentionality that TSC itself is pouring into the brand.
For a 44mm watch, it’s incredibly well-balanced. I’ve worn 43, 42, even 41mm pieces that have felt bigger and more top-heavy, which is a testament to the overall design and construction here. Consider the Rolex Sea-Dweller 126600 at 43mm; though 1mm smaller in terms of case size, at 15mm thick, it’s a whole 2mm thicker than the Bronze Legend, which comes in at 13mm thick. Now, you know you’re digging deep when you start tit-for-tatting a millimeter or two when it comes to a watch, but I do find that having a slightly thinner than expected case makes this big bronzo a manageable – and enjoyable – wear.
Exactly how the watch wears is very much dependent on which bracelet option is chosen. TSC includes a rubber, leather, and bronze/seaglass bracelet option with the watch, and I found that each gives the watch a very different feel. On the bracelet, as may be expected, the watch feels largest and heaviest; there’s no getting around the heft of it, and I didn’t for a minute lose track of its wrist presence.
On the leather, the watch wears with an interesting level of familiarity, as if it were something I’ve owned for a long time and had come to expect. There is a warmth to the wear that I came to enjoy rather quickly.
And last, but not to be outdone, the rubber; this brings the Bronze Legend into full sport mode, providing more shape around the wrist and making the wear much closer to that of, say, a Seiko Turtle.
There aren’t too many cuffs that this watch will comfortably slide under, but that’s not so much the point here; in my time wearing the watch, every glance down being able to see the bronze, the textured bezel, the colors, etc., brought me a quick smile. In a collecting world where so many watches lack that ability to simply make the wearer happy, it was not lost on me for a second that this could be one of this watch’s “it” factors.
One final thought before we wrap things up: bronze. That’s it, that’s the thought. This watch pulls no punches when it comes to its deployment of bronze as a core material, and this needs to be something that, as the wearer, you really dig. To me, bronze is an incredible way to have a watch that wears with you, taking on its own character with different smatterings of patina and giving off a warm glow from the wrist. If bronze tugs at the collecting heartstrings for you, and you want a piece that makes no mistake at all about what it is and why, then this Bronze Legend is well worth your consideration.
In the end, I’ve grown quite attached to this piece over a pretty short amount of time and appreciate the opportunity to wear and review it. Have a look below if you want to learn more about this watch, the story behind the brand, and the rest of the work from TSC.
As always, wherever you are, and wherever you’re going, many thanks for stopping by.
https://thesacredcrafts.com/collections/la-grande-mer-watch