Albishorn Launches the Thundergraph, its Imaginary Chronograph for Exploration

Born less than a year ago, Albishorn is already launching its third watch… But what is Albishorn? It’s a rather cool concept brand that aims at creating vintage-inspired watches. Nothing really different from the crowd, but Albishorn and its founder Chaulmontet had an idea: imaginary vintage. And by that, he designs from scratch, together with his partner in crime Fabien Collioud, vintage watches that never existed but could have been made at the time. Somehow, the missing links in the history of watchmaking. Hypothetical models, retro-styled but modernly built. I know, there’s quite a lot of fancy talk in that, but the results, exemplified by the Maxigraph and the Type 10 Chronograph, are characterful and convincing. And here is the third model, the Albishorn Thundergraph, which is described as the chronograph that could have been made for alpine exploration in the early 1950s, a watch that could have been designed for the Swiss expedition to Mount Everest in 1952. 

Albishorn is a small, indie brand founded by Sebastien Chaulmontet, ex-La Joux-Perret, in charge of the revival of Arnold & Son and Angelus, and now serving as the Head of Innovation and Marketing at Sellita Watch Co SA and Manufacture AMT. And while this position remains his main occupation, Chaulmontet, who has a sheer passion for chronographs and a deep historical knowledge in the field, created Albishorn as a side project. The idea was to be creative and yet vintage, designing retro-inspired watches based on concepts that have never existed but that could have, hypothetically, been made in the past. The first model, released together with Massena LAB, circled around the idea of an imaginary vintage chronograph hypothetically commissioned for the first edition of the esteemed regatta race on Lake Geneva, Le Bol d’Or, in 1939. This regatta chronograph, the Maxigraph, was followed by the Type 10 Chronograph, Chaulmontet’s vision of what could have been the ancestor of the Type 20 from the French Army, and could have been commissioned by it in 1948 as its first official chronograph.

So, now Albishorn treats us with its third creation, the Thundergraph. Of course a chronograph, of course a vintage-inspired watch, of course a watch that comes straight out of the imagination of Sebastien Chaulmontet and Fabien Collioud, of course something that has never existed and is a pure design exercise. And after looking at regatta and pilot watches, the duo now tackles the idea of the exploration watch. With what…? A hypothetical watch that could have been designed to follow the Swiss expedition to Mount Everest in 1952, a chronograph made for alpine exploration. The story of the first men to climb Mount Everest is well known. On May 29, 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest (with Smith and Rolex involved). But the Swiss were the first to set their sights on this goal. In 1952, the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research organized two expeditions to Mount Everest, led by Dr. Edouard Wyss-Dunant. The Spring Expedition was particularly significant. Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay (him again…) reached an altitude of 8,595 meters, the highest ever achieved by humans at the time, just 250 meters short of the summit, but were forced to turn back due to lack of oxygen and exhaustion.

“Albishorn set out to imagine the ultimate tool-watch that could have been conceived specifically for this expedition,” explains the brand. A chronograph designed specifically for Himalayan exploration, a tool to help climbers track time and manage their ascent in unforgiving conditions. Right… Enough sweet talk, let’s look at the watch. So what are we actually encountering here? A retro-style chronograph with a distinctive look, a clear instrument-like focus, a rather unusual display and, overall, a watch with again great character and charm. The Albishorn Thundergraph relies on the same technical base as the Maxigraph and Type 10, using an identical case middle and base movement. This means a central steel case that measures 39mm x 12mm, with a length of 47.7mm. The profile is nicely curved with a large polished chamfer contrasting with the brushed surfaces.

As with the two previous models, there’s a box-shaped sapphire crystal to mimic the look of old plexiglass crystals, and a screwed back offering a comfortable 100m water-resistance. Another design element that’s carried over the previous models is the position of the crown at 10 o’clock (here made in bronze), and the red anodized aluminum monopusher for the chronograph on the left side – explained by the way the movement is positioned inside the case, but also making the use of the pusher quite ergonomic, as you’ll press it with your thumb. The main difference in this Thundergraph regarding the case is the bezel – oversized (42.7mm diameter), bowl-shaped, bidirectional and with an engraved 60-minute scale over a brushed steel surface.

While the dial’s layout looks familiar (identical to the Type 10), the style is new and again rather appealing. The base has a petroleum blue brushed tone and boasts large, legible and luminous Roman numerals and triangular indexes. Unlike a traditional California dial, where one half features Roman numerals and the other half Arabic numerals, the “California ghost dial” (as Albishorn calls it) omits the Arabic numerals entirely. The upper half has oversized, applied gilt Roman numerals, while the lower part only carries a triangular marker and the two chronograph sub-dials. The pencil hands are also gold-toned and brushed, with a fair amount of vintage beige Super-LumiNova.

Now, regarding the position of the sub-dials, you could imagine that the movement is rather special. Well, it comes with its unique features but it’s mostly a clever trick from Chaulmontet. Rotating the 7750-derived calibre by 135 degrees to the left allows not only having the monopusher under the thumb but also having these two sub-counters positioned nicely in the lower half of the dial. The display here consists of central hours and minutes, a small seconds at 4:30 and a chronograph with central seconds and a 30-minute counter at 7:30.

Under the caseback decorated with a Swiss cross and a rope, inspired by the emblem of the Foundation for Alpine Research at the time, is the calibre ALB03 M. This proprietary hand-wound, monopusher chronograph is built on a modified 7750 architecture, and to be precise relies on the base of a Sellita SW510M Mp. Certified chronometer by the COSC, it has also been reworked to be thinner, as the work done on the plates and the length of the pivots makes it 5.70mm in thickness versus 7mm for the classic Sellita base. This cam-lever chronograph runs at 4Hz and benefits from a generous power reserve of 65 hours.

Delivered with a petroleum blue grained leather strap and a matte beige leather strap, the Albishorn Thundergraph is available exclusively online at albishorn-watches.ch. It is a limited edition of 99 pieces (unnumbered), produced over a period of three years, and is priced at CHF 3,650 (excl. taxes).