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Introducing Angelus and Massena Lab's New Chronographe Médical

The two brands dug deep in the archives to revive an incredibly rare, fascinating, and specialized watch. It's just what the doctor ordered.

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What We Know

Angelus is launching a brand-new collection – La Fabrique – created specifically for tributes to vintage models and, with help from Massena Lab, is starting with a bang by announcing the Chronographe Médical, a 99-piece limited edition uber-specialized monopusher chronograph. This isn't just a reissue, not just an oddball dial, and not even just one of William Massena's vintage-inspired creations – it's all that and a lot more underneath the hood.

The new Angelus x Massena Lab Chronograph laying above medical documents

Back in the 1960s, Angelus launched a "doctor's watch" with a unique dial meant to be a purpose-built tool. The 30-minute counter was removed, leaving on the running seconds at nine o'clock. But more importantly, the watch had two scales for reading patients' vitals, a pulsometer to measure heart rate and an asthmometer a (much rarer scale) to measure respiratory rate. That combination is unique, and so is the way they're displayed. 

The Vintage Angelus Chronograph

The vintage Angelus doctor's chronograph

While using a pulsometer in "Base 10," a doctor would start the chronograph and when they've counted 10 beats of the patient's pulse, they'd stop the chronograph and read the associated heart rate on the outside scale. That pulsometer scale uses various colors, green (good), black (fine) or red (dangerous) to indicate the reading's potential severity. Meanwhile, to understand the patient's breath rate, start the chronograph, count five breaths (theirs, not yours) and stop. Then you can read the inner scale (where the arrow is pointing).

Red on the pulsometer scale of the Chronographe Medical

Red the pulsometer scale? Not so great.

Green the pulsometer scale of the Chronographe Medical

Green? You're in pretty good shape, literally.

The case has been remade in a very slightly more modern size, up two millimeters to 39mm from the original 37. But for all the interesting features of the dial, the movement is what will really catch enthusiasts' attention.

The movement of the new Angelus x Massena Lab Chronograph

The watch is powered by the A5000 monopusher movement, but better known as THE monopusher chronograph from the CPCP Cartier Tortue Monopussoir, a movement created by Techniques Horlogères Appliquées, a company founded in 1989 by legends François‐Paul Journe and Denis Flageollet. Vianney Halter would join the company later and while Flageollet doesn't recall Halter being involved in the monopusher movement, it doesn't make it any less incredible. This manual-winding, fully-integrated, column-wheel movement with horizontal clutch is finished with a mix of circular graining with palladium-finish and Côtes de Genève with palladium finish and chamfering, but that's somewhat beside the point. It's just an incredible movement made by incredible watchmakers.

The watch is available now for $19,900 through the network of Angelus retailers and at the Massena Lab website and, dare I venture a guess, may already be sold out by the time you read this far. It's just that good.

What We Think

I wish I had this watch to check my pulse because, man, when I first saw it my heart was racing to unhealthy levels.

Wrist shot of the new Angelus x Massena Lab Chronograph

The Cartier Tortue Monopussoir is high on my list of "if I were a rich man" watches, in no small part because of the movement and the men behind it. But I'm a vintage guy deep down and – far better than the modified Valoux 22 movements of the original – this is the kind of deep-cut vintage reissue we vintage people dream of: the reissue of a watch with unique features, made for unique reasons, that is very hard to find. The reliability of buying a watch with a new movement and durable case

If we're being honest, the Angelus catalog today bears little resemblance to vintage watches like this reissue. Back in the day, the brand was making really cool black and gilt dial chronographs that went head-to-head with (or were often nearly indistinguishable from) brands like Heuer, Eberhard, and even lesser-known brands like Cyma and Vetta. In fact, when I just searched "Gilt Chronograph" on a large watch retail site, the first result was Angelus. But unlike TAG Heuer which tries very hard to keep a foot in each world of modern and vintage-inspired, Angelus has stuck to the present. Until today, that is.

Dial detail of the new Angelus x Massena Lab Chronograph

This first release makes me hopeful for Angelus' La Fabrique. The case shape of the new Chronographe Médical seems to be a nearly 1:1 recreation of the vintage inspiration (based on the pictures I can find online). The dial is spot-on as well, only missing the jewel number and "Incabloc" at six o'clock, the latter which wouldn't really make sense here and the former which can be seen under the balance wheel through the flat sapphire caseback (something you definitely didn't get on the original, nor would you have wanted to with its utilitarian finishing).

A macro view of the watch movement.

The only fault I can find in the watch is the lack of one of the other very unique and oddball detail of the vintage Angelus Medical chronograph: the cyclops. On those vintage models, the plastic crystal had a magnifying prism of sorts over the 12 o'clock to three o'clock portion of the dial to allow the doctor to more easily read the pulsations scale. Here, Angelus has chosen a domed sapphire crystal which I believe would have made such a cyclops nigh impossible. Massena told me the larger size makes legibility better and removes the need for the cyclops, which he considered unnecessary and obtrusive to the look and wearability. I can't argue with that, per se, but I do love that quirk on the original.

The cylcops on the vintage Angelus Medical

The cyclops on the vintage Angelus Medical.

Either way, there'll soon be 99 new Angelus owners that are bound to be plenty happy.

A wrist shot of the Angelus Chrongraphe Médical

The Basics

Brand: Angelus x Massena Lab
Model: Chronographe Médical
Reference Number: 0CHAS.A01A.V010S

Diameter: 39mm
Thickness: 9.22mm
Case Material: Staineless steel
Dial Color: Domed ilver opaline
Indexes: Medical decals in black, green and red, black minute circles, Rhodium-finish appliqué indexes and Arabic numerals
Lume: Hour markers in green-emitting Super-LumiNova
Water Resistance: 30m
Strap/Bracelet: Golden brown Novonappa® calfskin, ecru stitching, hand-stitched, with pin buckle in stainless steel

The side profile of the new Angelus x Massena Lab Chronograph

The Movement

Caliber: A5000
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds at 9 o'clock, one-minute monopusher chronograph
Diameter: 29.4mm
Thickness: 4.2mm
Power Reserve: 42 hours
Winding: Hand-wound
Frequency: 21,600 vph
Jewels: 23
Additional Details: Pulsometer and asthmometer scales. Box sapphire front crystal anti-reflective coating on both sides. Flat sapphire, anti-reflective coating.


Pricing & Availability

Price: $19,900
Availability: Immediately
Limited Edition: Yes, 99 pieces.

For more information, visit the Angelus or Massena Lab websites.

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The Hodinkee Shop is an Authorized Retailer of Massena LAB watches; you can explore our collection here.

For more information about Massena LAB, you can visit the company's website.