Horological Meandering

mkt33
[PuristS]
5252

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Glycine Incursore Big Date On the Wrist Review

I haven’t purchased a new watch now for over a year.This self imposed ban started out as a financial necessity but recently I was fortunate enough to end the draught.  A few months ago I fell prey to some sort of directed online advertising and soon found myself at an E-commerce site selling watches.  There were several interesting models but the Glycine Incursore immediately caught my attention.

Glycine, under the guidance of its current owner, is an “entry” level brand with a reputation of building large but robust watches.  If memory serves me correct, it was one of the first companies to introduce 48mm cases when pre-Vendome Panerai models were still considered avant garde with their 44mm designs.

This Incursore model (Ref. 3885) was initially released at Basel 2011.  Its simple dial design reminded me of Panerai but more importantly this model had my favorite complication: the big date.  A few mouse clicks and 48 hours later, the watch was on my wrist. I’ve been wearing the Incursore almost daily for about four months and without a doubt it is quite a value considering that the purchase price was heavily discounted from the MSRP.

The Dial

I chose the blue dialed version of the Incursore Big Date.  The color is more of a midnight blue and it matches a pair of denim jeans perfectly. The layout of the dial is simple and functional.  Everything is designed to facilitate time reading. Large white roman numerals utilizing Helvetica font can be found at the 6, 9, and 12 o clock positions.

The remaining hours are indicated with stick markers including the 3 o clock position.  One quick glance and anyone will understand that using a stick marker next to the date window, instead of the expected roman numeral, keeps the dial uncluttered. The printing is sharp and the white markers contrast well against the blue background. The hands are thin white batons. The ends of these hands are “hidden”.  They are painted black at the center pinion to minimize any optical distraction.

Although the indicies and hands are painted with Superluminova, the intensity of the glow is disappointing. The duration of the lume after a 30 minute charge in sunlight averages about 2 hours before the dial becomes unreadable.

The Case

Although the Incursore model line includes watches up to 46mm in diameter, the Big Date is “only” 44mm. Yet the watch wears much larger due to the thin downward sloping bezel and sharply curved lugs.  As a result when you look directly at the watch, all you see is the dial.

When I first received the watch, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the case work.  The case is constructed out of stainless steel in 3 pieces: the bezel, the body, and the bottom plate.  The bezel protects the slightly domed and AR coated sapphire crystal.

The body of the case is shaped like a pie dish gently flaring out at the lugs.  Although the watch is 11.6mm thick, these sloping sides deceive the eyes into believing that the watch is flat. The surfaces of the entire case have a brushed finish.  However the finely polished edge around the circumference of the bezel and back plate gives a nice visual contrast on side view.

The back plate is threaded and a sapphire crystal displays the ETA 2896 movement powering the watch.

There is generous sized crown which is capped by the Glycine logo.  It is easily manipulated because the sloped sides of the case provide the needed space for finger clearance.  The crown however does not screw down, hence the measly 50M water resistance.

Strap and Buckle

The blue dialed Incursore was fitted with a 23mm non tapering blue leather strap which I immediately replaced.  I think this slightly modified Europelli bomber jacket is more appropriate.  The stainless steel tang buckle is labeled Glycine…nothing fancy, just functional.

Movement

The Glycine Incursore Big Date is powered by the ubiquitous ETA 2896.  When it was introduced over a decade ago, the ability to display the date digits side by side on the same plane was a nice technical improvement.  Also, because the movement was produced by ETA, the mechanical big date complication finally became affordable and available to the masses.

The 2896 is a 22 jeweled hacking movement oscillating at a rate of 28,800 vph with a power reserve of 42 hours. It’s “Big Date” complication is achieved with two nested date disks and its aperture is almost three times larger than that of the standard ETA 2892 movement. The date changeover is instant and uses very little energy. There is also a mechanism which locks the date disks to prevent any inadvertent movement if the watch is accidentally dropped or bumped.

Actually this “Quantième à Grand Guichet” complication is patent protected. Some research will show that patent number EP 1220057A1 is assigned to the ETA 2896 movement.  Its inventor is Jean-Philippe Rochat who most recently was responsible for Breguet’s Type XXII Flyback 10HZ.  As expected, the complication is built on the ETA 2892 movement.

From the ETA technical communication bulletin, here are the components specific for the big date mechanism.  

The finishing is cosmetic and consistent with an elabore grade movement.  The bridges are rhodium plated, there is perlage decoration, and visible blued screws.  Glycine ordered the 2896 date wheels with the black background. One customization is the Glycine stamped oscillating weight with Geneva stripes. 

Otherwise the movement is “stock” from ETA and simply cased by Glycine. For the “heart” of the watch, the Incursore has a balance wheel of guilt nickel, an Etachron regulator, Nivarox 2 hairspring, and an Incabloc shock system.

Performance

Since the ETA 2896 is based on its sister movement the ETA 2892A2, the documentation states that an elabore movement is adjusted in 4 positions (CH, 9H, 6H, 3H) at the manufacture and its daily rate should be +/- 5 sec/day.

With a lift angle of 51 degrees, the daily rate on my timing machine shows a variance of +7 s/d.  On the wrist, the Glycine Incursore seemed to perform better than the timing machine would suggest but obviously measuring down to the second is impossible given the simple dial markings.

The power reserve was also noted to average approximately 43.2+/-0 .6 hours.

Conclusion

This Glycine is a keeper and the fact that I’ve worn it exclusively for almost 4 months tells me that the Incursore fits all my personal needs.Even though the engine is “just an ETA”, I appreciate the ability of the largest Swiss movement manufacture to create complications at accessible price points.

+Advantages:

Clean simple dial

Grande date complication

Interesting case work

-Disadvantages:

50m Water resistance

Insufficient lume