The Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Asturias Pequeños Segundos

Watch brand Cuervo y Sobrinos is a bit of an oddity in the watch world and is the only Swiss watch brand with Cuban roots. Established in Havana by a Spanish immigrant in 1882, the brand has carved a niche with models that lean heavily on vintage design cues. Its Historiador collection is a cornerstone of the brand, combining retro design cues with contemporary sized cases and Swiss automatic movements. Two elegant time-only models with a dash of Cuban flamboyance and small seconds join the Historiador collection. Meet the Historiador Asturias Pequeños Segundos. 

Background

The Historiador Asturias collection is named after the birthplace of Don Ramón Fernández Cuervo in the northern province of Asturias, Spain. After emigrating to Cuba in 1862, he set up a successful jewellery and watch repair shop in Havana and took on his nephews (sobrinos) to found Cuervo y Sobrinos in 1882. As the most luxurious establishment on the island and the premier Cuban luxury brand, Cuervo y Sobrinos specialised in the sale of imported timepieces and even established its own manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1928 to keep up with demand. By the 1950s, Havana had established itself as a luxurious playground for the rich and famous. The Cuervo y Sobrinos boutique enjoyed the patronage of illustrious visitors like Caruso, Gary Cooper, Hemingway, Einstein and Neruda. Following the Cuban Revolution and the Cuervo family’s flight from Cuba, the brand languished for decades. It was eventually resuscitated in the late 1990s before it was bought by a team of investors in 2018 and relocated to Switzerland.

HIstoriador Case

The different sub-families in the Historiador collection share the distinctive case construction with its prominent horn-shaped lugs that are ergonomically shaped to follow the contours of the wrist. Reminiscent of the extravagant tailfins of American cars cruising Havana’s Malecón in the 1950s, the lugs give the watch a touch of flamboyant Cuban personality.

Last year, Cuervo y Sobrinos launched the Historiador Asturias, an attractive time-and-date model with colourful fumé dials. This year, the HIstoriador Asturias Pequeños Segundos comes with a small seconds counter at 6 o’clock. The case – 40mm x 11.5mm – is made of stainless steel and polished throughout for a more elegant dress watch look.

elegant dials

Displaying the hours, minutes and small seconds, the latest Historiador Asturias models are available with ivory or blue dials that are decorated with a sunray motif that gives them an attractive silky sheen. Slim baton rhodium-treated indices are applied to the dial with slightly thicker indices at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock and the Cuervo y Sobrinos family crest at noon. The elegant lozenge-style hour and minute hands are blue on the ivory dial and silver on the blue dial, and the small seconds counter at 6 o’clock features a snailed background and black markings. A double-curved sapphire crystal protects the dial and allows light to enter from all angles.

Automatic movement

The watch is powered by the CyS 5158 calibre based on an automatic Sellita SW-260-1 with a power reserve of 38 hours (itself a small seconds version of the tried-and-tested SW 200-1). A sapphire crystal caseback reveals the movement with an engraved rotor with the CyS monogram.

Availability & Price

The blue and ivory dial versions of the Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Asturias Pequeños Segundos come with matte blue Cordovan leather straps and an engraved stainless steel folding buckle with an openworked CyS logo on the clasp. The models are not limited and retail for CHF 3,200.

More information at Cuervo y Sobrinos.com.