This Has Become Almost Extinct

The Angelus Instrument de Mesures feels like the sort of watch that shouldn't really exist in 2026.

Most brands that lean into vintage chronographs tend to stop at the obvious bits. A few faux-aged details, a historically inspired case shape, perhaps a tasteful colour palette borrowed from something that sat in a drawer for 70 years. Angelus has gone a step further. The new Instrument de Mesures revives one of the most wonderfully excessive features of early chronographs: the triple-scale dial.

 

Today, it looks almost absurd. Three separate measurement scales crowd the dial, spiralling around one another in a dense arrangement of numerals and markings. Yet once you understand why these scales existed, the watch starts to make perfect sense.

Source: Hodinkee.com

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, a chronograph wasn't a luxury accessory. It was a tool. Doctors used pulsometers to measure heart rates. Engineers and motorists relied on tachymeters to calculate speed. Telemeter scales could estimate the distance of an event based on the time between seeing it and hearing it, whether that was artillery fire, a storm, or anything else producing both light and sound.

Today, nobody is realistically buying an €18,000 watch to check their pulse.

That's not the point.

 

What Angelus has recreated is a very specific chapter of watchmaking history, one where function shaped design in a way that feels almost alien compared to modern luxury sports watches. Every marking on the dial exists for a reason. Nothing is decorative in the traditional sense, even if most owners will never use half the scales.

A Proper Vintage Chronograph Without the Vintage Headaches

The best vintage-inspired watches manage to capture the character of older pieces without inheriting their flaws.

The Instrument de Mesures gets surprisingly close.

The stainless steel case measures 39mm across and just 9.25mm thick, dimensions that feel great in a market where chronographs regularly drift past 42mm and almost like tires on the wrist. The proportions are almost textbook for a classic chronograph. Slim enough to wear comfortably, large enough to feel contemporary.

Angelus has also avoided the temptation to over-modernise the design. There are no oversized pushers, no aggressive case geometry and no unnecessary bogus competing for attention.

Instead, the watch relies on balance.

Source: Hodinkee.com

The black dial delivers a more traditional, instrument-like appearance, while the ivory version leans harder into vintage territory. Personally, the ivory dial is where the magic happens. The layered scales become more visible, the warmth suits the design better, and the overall watch feels closer to the historical references that inspired it.

The Beauty of Controlled Chaos

Triple-scale chronographs occupy a strange corner of collecting.

Objectively speaking, they're busy. Very busy.

A modern product designer would probably have a mild panic attack looking at one.

Yet somehow the layout works.

The telemeter, tachymeter and pulsometer scales create a visual depth that simpler chronographs often lack. Your eye keeps discovering new details. The dial feels alive without becoming cluttered.

Angelus has handled the execution well. The scales are clearly differentiated, the typography remains legible, and the subtle snail-shaped arrangement creates movement even when the chronograph isn't running.

It's the kind of dial you can stare at for several minutes before noticing something new.

That might sound like a small thing, but many modern luxury watches reveal everything they have to offer within ten seconds.

This one doesn't.

The Movement Choice Makes Sense

Inside sits the manually wound A5000 calibre, produced by La Joux-Perret, which happens to share ownership with Angelus.

Purists inevitably love to debate whether a movement is "in-house" enough, but that conversation feels irrelevant here.

What matters is that the movement suits the watch.

The A5000 is a monopusher chronograph operated entirely through the crown. Start, stop and reset all happen through a single pusher integrated into the winding crown, exactly as many historic chronographs were designed.

That architecture gives the watch a cleaner profile while reinforcing the vintage character.

The movement itself runs at 3Hz and delivers 42 hours of power reserve. More importantly, it looks the part through the display caseback. Geneva stripes, polished bevels and gold-toned finishing provide enough visual interest without pretending to compete with six-figure independent chronographs.

Some collectors may recognise similarities to the famous THA monopusher architecture. That's not accidental. La Joux-Perret owns the rights to that historic movement design, and traces of that DNA are visible here.

The result is a movement that feels mechanically appropriate rather than just convenient.

Source: Hodinkee.com

Why Limited Production Actually Helps

Angelus has limited production to 25 pieces per dial colour.

Normally, brands announcing tiny production numbers can feel contrived. Artificial scarcity has become a favourite luxury industry pastime.

Here, it feels more understandable.

The reality is that watches like this occupy a very specific niche.

The average buyer walking into a boutique is probably gravitating towards integrated bracelets, ceramic bezels and sporty daily wearers. A triple-scale monopusher chronograph inspired by 1930s scientific instruments is a considerably more acquired taste.

Angelus knows that.

Rather than attempting to force broad appeal onto a specialist design, they've embraced its eccentricity.

That's often a healthier strategy.

The people who fall for watches like this tend to fall hard.

The Price Conversation

At CHF 18,400, the Instrument de Mesures sits firmly in enthusiast territory.

This is not pocket change.

At the same time, context matters.

Independent and semi-independent chronograph pricing has become increasingly detached from reality over the last few years. We've seen manually wound chronographs climb well beyond €30,000, €40,000 and sometimes considerably higher.

Against that backdrop, Angelus starts to look almost reasonable.

Not cheap.

Reasonable.

Especially when you consider the low production numbers, the monopusher architecture and the overall execution.

Whether that translates into value is ultimately subjective, but it doesn't feel wildly disconnected from the current market.

Which is more than can be said for quite a few watches released recently.

Final Thoughts

The Instrument de Mesures succeeds because it doesn't try to modernise history.

Instead, it trusts that collectors still appreciate old ideas when they're done properly.

The watch embraces complexity without becoming complicated. It celebrates utility despite existing in a world where none of its scales are truly necessary. And it delivers a level of personality that's becoming increasingly rare as brands chase safer commercial formulas.

Will it appeal to everyone?

Absolutely not.

That's part of its charm.

The best watches often aren't the ones designed to please the widest audience. They're the ones that know exactly what they are.

The Angelus Instrument de Mesures does know exactly what it is. A slightly obsessive, wonderfully niche chronograph that feels transported from another era, only now built with the reliability and refinement modern collectors expect.

In a year full of sports watches trying very hard to look important, that feels amazingly refreshing.