Currently the Cerberus costs $525 / £345. So what do you get for your money? Let’s take a closer look. 

The case

The weight of the Cerberus is 180g. So straight away you get a feeling of quality, thanks to the sheer heft of the thing.

It’s also reasonably large for what seems to be a cross over of a dress and divers watch. Measuring in with a 42mm diameter, 50mm lug to lug length, and a height of 12.5mm, it’s not on the slim and slender end of the spectrum. The specs say that it is large, but truthfully, it doesn’t wear as such. This is probably mainly due to the thin bezel allowing most of the diameter to be the dial, plus the blue rehaut does an impressive job of creating a slight optical illusion. The size may be a turn off for some; but for me, I’m happy with a decent sized case – especially when it manages to appear less than it actually is.

The case is 316L stainless steel, and is finished alternatively in a variety of places. The bezel and top are polished; as is the caseback. The sides and underneath are brushed, as well as a lovely little touch being the inside angle of the lugs (creating a great contrast in finish). Where the opposing finishes meet, the join is clean and accurate. The finishing in general is very good, with no signs of any poor machinery. I really like the polished bezel – with its mirror-like finish it really sets the watch off in how it reflects the light.

The Cerberus boasts a sapphire crystal with an excellent layer of anti-reflective coating. This works splendidly with the light coloured dial, providing brilliant clarity.

The caseback is screw-in and fully polished, with a motif of Cerberus the three-headed dog. It’s fairly light etching, but enough to get good definition on it. Surrounding this are details of the watch, such as the name, water resistance rating and the date it was built.

The crown is push-pull, and features Sparky the dog deeply engraved on the end. I think from a design viewpoint it could have been a little thinner, but this may have resulted in it being hard to use. The grip is fairly deep, without being too excessively chunky and aggressive looking, matching the watch well. It allows you to set the time and date perfectly well with no issues at all.

The Cerberus has a 100m rating of water resistance. It possibly could have been higher if it had a screw-in crown, but to be honest it’s not a diver, so this is plenty. It does mean that you can immerse it fully under shallow water, which is perfectly suitable. 

One final thing to note (more on it later) is that the lugs are drilled-through, so you can access the spring bars form the outside, making changing the bracelet easy and reducing any damage that may happen from doing so.

The case as a whole is very well made, and has good fit and finish to boot. 

The dial

The lovely linear guilloche pattern within the centre section is the main star of the Cerberus. It’s all constructed with precision, and reflects the light alternatively depending on the angle, which is visually very pleasant. 

The logo is situated in the top half, and the words Cerberus and automatic are in the bottom half. These are all printed on a slight raised platform which is good to see, and are printed precisely too. As one of the people who aren’t too fussed about the logo, I’m pleased to see it take on a more understated approach, being the same silver colour as the dial itself.

The central section is flanked by two chaper rings, both made of stainless steel with a circular brushed finish and at different heights. I think these provide an excellent subtle framing to the centre. Both have the minute track printed on, so they do serve a purpose rather than just being a design feature.

I always enjoy applied hour markers, and the Cerberus does not disappoint. I especially like how they’re all sunken into the first chapter ring. A lot of time and effort would have gone into getting this just right, and that is what it certainly is. They are all 3D batons with beveled edges and lumed centres, precisely made and applied. 

The date window is located at 6, which is good to see rather than the more common position at 3. It has an engaging polished steel border around it, contributing to the reflective arrangement of the entire dial.

The lume on the Cerberus is very good; above average as tends to be the case for Lew and Huey: the Acciona had outstanding lume. The lume on the Cerberus does indeed perform better than others in this price range.

The hour and minute hands are a delicious shape, being a type of dauphine where they have a steady increase of width. They have rounded pointed tips, and a curved bottom, with lumed centres. The seconds hand is thin, sporting a red tip, and a nice little plane as a counter balance. All of the hands are flawlessly made.

The rehaut has a gorgeous deep blue colouring to it, so deep it’s almost purple. This is an impressive design feature as it doesn’t spill onto the dial at all, but when the light catches it just right, there’s an attractive bluish tinge that flashes across the underneath of the crystal. This mimics a much more expensive watch with that lovely top side anti-reflective hue (think Omega Plant Ocean), but without the added cost and the possibility of scratching it. I think this is a great addition and has transformed the watch from a standard watch to a fantastic looking watch in the flesh.

The dial on the Cerberus is great. I love the design, and the execution is great to match. 

The movement

The movement within the Cerberus is the Miyota 9015 – a movement we’re becoming incredibly well acquainted with. It’s found in a huge amount of high quality affordable watches, due to it being a cheaper equivalent to the popular Swiss autos by ETA and Sellita. It offers the same specs as they do; namely, a high beat of 28.8k bph (8 ticks a second), over 40 hours power reserve, and hand winding ability and a hacking seconds. It’s fairly accurate straight out the box too, and I’ve jet to hear of one break. They’re rugged (not the best looking mind you), dependable, and will look after you for many years to come. 

The strap

The bracelet, much like the one on the Orthos (it seems to be the same bracelet) is superbly chunky and built to last.

It measures 22mm at the lugs, reducing to 20mm within first two links. So it’s certainly thick – and not only in its width. The links are also very hefty and Lew & Huey haven’t skimped on the steel here – there’s a plentiful used in each and every link. I personally love a decent heavy, chunky bracelet, so I’m pretty impressed by it.

The entire bracelet is fully brushed stainless steel, which not only is suitable from a design perspective but also practical. I always find polished bracelets gather hairline scratches instantaneously without even wearing it. The bracelet also boasts solid end links, which of course is always a good plus, especially when they fit the case well, as is the case with the Cerberus. 

The links all have standard pins, so you’ll need a pin removal tool to resize the bracelet, but this is simple enough. One positive that I always like to see is drilled-through lugs on the case. This means the lugs have holes drilled through on the sides, so it’s easy to remove the bracelet – you just push a thin tool through which releases the spring pin in the end lugs. The reason why this is a plus is that you don’t scratch or damage the case in any way when trying to remove the bracelet, which can at times be a real pain. 

Another design positive that I really like is the “H” links used on the bracelet. It’s a style not used often enough, and it results in a comfortable wear. This is because the H links and mid section links work well together to create more angles, and therefore a much smoother underneath for the wrist.

The buckle is also fully brushed, and is very secure thanks to the fact that it’s double locking. The two locks are firstly the flap, which has a deep engraving of “Lew & Huey”, followed by the main clasp section which has to be opened up by depressing the pushers on either side. So it’s definitely dependable – there’s very little chance that this will pop open by itself.

One final thing to notice regarding the bracelet is how much larger than normal it is. I have a 7.5″ wrist, and to get the bracelet to fit I’ve had to take out all but one link. So I fear that if you have a wrist smaller than 7″ I’m not too sure if it’ll fit you. 

That one small issue aside, it is a great bracelet, with attractive design and impressive build quality to back it up. 

The competition

The competition that first came to mind for me is the Steinhart Ocean 1. It’s similar in that it can be classed as a bit of a smart / diver crossover watch. It’ll cost you £300, and is Swiss Made and excellently put together. The only problem is getting one (they can be hard to obtain), plus they’re not exactly unique – it’s just like any other Submariner homage currently available. 

For a slightly smarter watch, but from a company made from the same stock as Lew & Huey, there’s the Melbourne Watch Co Flinders. It’s slightly more elegant and smart, and has a similar vertical linear guilloche on the dial. It’ll cost around £280, but isn’t built quite as tank-like as the Cerberus.

Final comments

I think the Cerberus is the best Lew & Huey yet. It combines great build quality with outstanding, classy design. I love the dial, especially the way it plays with the coloured rehaut. £345 is a pretty standard price for a decent watch by a boutique brand, so you’re definitely getting your money’s worth with the Cerberus.

The post Lew & Huey Cerberus Watch Review appeared first on 12&60.

Orthos is a two-headed dog in Greek Mythology who is a doublet (“brother”) of Cerberus. And believe it or not, these are the names of Lew & Huey’s latest releases. Chris must really love dogs (in case you haven’t noticed, the L&H logo is a dog called Sparky). Maybe he’ll eventually release a watch named Einstein after the dog in Back to the Future. 

Anyway, the Orthos is what we’re looking at in this review today. Costing £312 / $470, we’ll see if it’s a good enough watch to warrant his “affordable” legendary status. 

The case

The case is very chunky, which is a word we’ll use quite often in our review. The whole watch as a whole is heavy, industrial, and feels solid and well-made.

Weighing in at 210g, it certainly doesn’t mess around in the heft department. You definitely know it’s there whilst wearing it. For some, this can be a put off, but for others like me, I love a massive, heavy watch on my wrist. It tells me that it’s great quality and is made well. The case measures in with a diameter of 42mm, 50mm lug to lug, and a height of 13mm.

The case is made of 316L stainless steel and has a variety of finishes. The top and bottom corners are polished, with the rest of the main case being a gentle brushed finish. You can tell it’s a well made case by how well the different finishes line up next to each other. In the instance of the top polished corners, the join where it meets the brushed sides is very definite and impressive.

The shape of the case is a definite flat slab, which ever so slightly arcs around the wrist, with downward tips where the lugs end.

The sapphire crystal is slightly domed, resulting in slight distortion at the sharpest angles. It does have a decent anti-reflective layer on the underside, keeping any of those nasty reflections at bay. I’m not too sure on how thick the crystal is, but I’d be happy in saying that it’s thicker than usual – all because of the noise it makes when you tap it. It gives off a very satisfying thump, sounding very much like the crystal on the Christopher Ward Trident, which is over 3mm thick.

This thick sapphire crystal is most probably to do with the watches 30ATM / 300m water resistance rating, which is very good – it’s a full-on no-nonsense divers watch, and it’s specced to be too.

Of course, in addition to the crystal, the crown and caseback are both screw-in too, which is paramount for a depth rating like this.

The crown has a nice deep engraving of Sparky, the Lew & Huey dog, and the grip is effective, but not too sharp. It’s polished, providing a contrast in finish down the right flank of the watch.

The 120 click bezel is very well made and has a smooth action to it. I know that Chris Vail is a real stickler for decent bezel action so to be honest it was expected that the Orthos would perform well in this regard. The orange insert is the main provider of the likeness to the Omega Plant Ocean, which I thoroughly love (it’s my grail watch, after all). The printing on the insert is all crisp and clean, as it the triangle at 12 holding the lume blob. The edging and grip of the bezel is smooth, and is again impressive how it has a brushed outer edge and a polished top. The grooves are a positive design feature too, providing a variety of edges and reflections when the light hits it.

The caseback is fully polished, although the majority of it is etched in to create an image of Orthos, with the watch specifics circling around him. This is surprisingly detailed and clear.

In general, the case is clearly made to be dived with. It’s a beast and is pleasantly well made.

The dial

The one main characteristic of the dial in my mind is the eye-catching sunburst effect it produces. Fading in from a light blue in the centre, to a dark blue around the outside of the dial, it also has an outwards brushed finish to it accentuating this pleasing visual effect.

Another subtle, yet pleasant characteristic is the fine crosshair. The white printed lines are fine and precise, so they’re not overbearing on the design, yet provide simple lines splitting the dial up, keeping it interesting. 

All the printed elements are printed in white ink. This means that the white logo located in the top half, the and writing “Othos, Automatic, 300m / 1000ft” in bottom half can be little hard to read at times if the sunburst effect covers them. 

If there’s one good thing I like to see on a watch, that’s decent applied hour markers. I’m pleased to say that the Orthos definitely has them. They’re all very nicely made, being pitched rectangles with a lumed centre. There is a double rectangle at 12, with the rest being single and in two lengths: longer for 6 and 9, and shorter for the rest (there isn’t one at 3 due to the date window). These are all very neat and tidy in their construction, and a little industrial in their appearance. 

The hands are of a similar chunky design. They’re slightly pitched, with a thick outer polished steel border and lumped centre. Both are pointed, but with a flat tip. The minute hand has a longer point, and the hour hand has a very stubby point – all adding to the burly aesthetics of the watch. The second hand has a nice “V” counter weight, another cool little design feature.

The minute track is printed white, and serves as a border between the main blue sunburst inner section of the dial and the grey outer ring. Every minute mark is a white dash protruding both sides of the border, into both the blue and grey areas.

This grey outer ring is a welcome aspect of the dial; it splits it up well without being too brash. I think this is a case of clever design as if the entire dial was the blue sunburst, it would have looked too much and would have been too bright and loud.

The lume is of acceptable strength, you notice it’s charged well when you are outside in the daylight and come inside into a darker room. It glows a strong green, although doesn’t last a crazy amount of time, albeit a lot better than other watches at this price point.

Finally, the date window is located at a very reasonable position at 3. It’s nice and neatly cut out of the dial, and has a white border printed around it, linked to the crosshairs mentioned previously. Due to the amount of white printing on the dial, I think the colour of the date wheel suits (some people are adamant that the wheel should match the colour of the dial).

To conclude; a solid, well designed dial with splashes of uniqueness mean it’s really eye catching.

The movement

The movement in the Orthos is the Seiko NH35 (4r36). Known as one of Seiko’s workhorse movements, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it lasted for 15 years without needing a service.

It is a reliable and robust movement based on the solid 7s26 calibre, but with the added feature of having a hacking seconds hand and hand winding ability. 

The movement has received an incredibly positive reputation for its accuracy, and is usually regulated to 15 secs a day straight from the factory. 

As was mentioned before, the NH35 is hand windable and is an automatic movement, and runs at 21.6k bph which equates to 6 ticks per second. It has 24 jewels and a power reserve of 41 hours.

The rotor provides bi-directional winding, so no matter which way it spins it winds the movement, which is good. Some of the budget movements are only uni-directional, so they wind at half the speed.

Personally I think it would have been nice to see the high-beat Miyota 9015 movement in the Orthos, but only because of the higher beat rate. I understand the Seiko NH35 is actually a *better* movement. It will most likely last well over 10 years without the need of a service, as most Seikos do.

The strap

The bracelet is another excellent aspect of the Orthos. Much like its big brother, the Cerberus, the fully brushed stainless steel bracelet is excellently manufactured and is very comfortable to wear.

It’s very chunky, which I personally love on a bracelet. It measures 22mm wide at the lugs, quickly reducing down to 20mm (within the first 2 links), so it’s pretty impressive on the wrist. All the links are thick, and it’s very important to see it boast solid end links.

I also like the design of the bracelet, in particular, the decision to use “H” links. I have a soft spot for this style, probably because it’s not as common as other more popular styles. All the H links and the smaller joining links are well oiled and silky smooth.

The buckle is double locking, so reassuringly secure on the wrist. It’s pretty brawny and sturdy, built in an equivalent manner to the case and rest of the bracelet. The first lock is the top flap, which houses a deep engraving of “Lew & Huey”. The second lock is the buttons either side of the buckle, which you have to depress in order to open up the clasp. So no, your Orthos is most definitely not going to pop off your wrist unintentionally.

Whilst the bracelet is meaty and heavily built, there is one thing that I need to mention: that is he fact that the bracelet is sized up for giants. Chris Vail must have super large wrists, as I’ve had to take out ALL the removable links on the bracelet to make it anywhere near a decent fit for me. I’ve also adjusted the micro-adjustments on the buckle to the tightest, and it just about fits me now. So just a note – if you have a wrist smaller than 7.5” like mine, you may struggle to resize the bracelet small enough. To be honest, I’m sure Chris will be able to help you out, but it was worth a mention.

The competition

The affordable divers watch category is a very busy one indeed. At around the same price point, two competitors worth thinking about are the Steinhart Ocean 1 and the G. Gerlach Otago.

The Steinhart Ocean 1 is extremely well known and highly regarded as being a solid Swiss Made watch. But, it’s not very imaginative and is a blatant homage to the Rolex Submariner. 

The G. Gerlach Otago comes in at cheaper than the Orthos, at around £230. You get a similar high quality build quality and movement. It can be a little too out there for some in the looks department though. 

Final comments

I personally think that the Orthos is a great looking and sturdy watch for the price. The Omega Planet Ocean is my Grail watch, so anything that slightly resembles it is a winner in my eyes. But the Orthos isn’t a full-on homage. It definitely has unique and individual elements which make it different to what else is currently available. I’m impressed by the overall quality of the watch, the finishing is great and you can’t complain at the decent spec too. So if you’re looking for a well made, high quality watch that has a splashing of Omega, the Lew & Huey Orthos is the one for you!

The post Lew & Huey Orthos Watch Review appeared first on 12&60.

Acionna was a Gallo-Roman water goddess (just in case you were interested in the name), and the watch was funded via Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lewandhuey/lew-and-huey-watches-the-acionna-and-the-spectre

It comes with a choice of three dial colours: black, white (silver) or blue. We have all three so hopefully you can get a good idea of the colours and which one is for you.

The Acionna has an RRP of $600 or around £353. There’s no doubt that this is a lot of money, so let’s go into the specifics to see if this recent release of the new and exciting brand is as good as it’s all hyped up to be.

The case

Looking at the pictures, I thought the Acionna would be massive. But it’s actually a very reasonable 40mm in diameter, 12mm thick, with a lug to lug length of 48mm.

The watch in general has quite a heftiness about it, weighing in at 147g with the bracelet, and 99g on the leather strap.

Due to the squared off corners of the case, the lug to lug length is quite long for a 40mm watch. But the lugs themselves are quite short, which makes up for it. The lugs have a width of 20mm, a fairly standard strap width.

From the side profile, the case is very angular, with a flat main body followed by a small downturn at the lugs, where angles also feature prominently. The lugs are drilled through – which means that you can get access to the pin holding the strap from the outside, rather than having to take a tool to the inside of the lug, usually resulting in damage. With the Acionna, it’s a simple screw you undo on the outside, which releases the pin so you can pull it out. Much easier, and it also means your watch will keep free from tool marks during strap changes. The cool thing about this is that you actually get a tool purpose made just for this, a micro screwdriver which fits the lugs screws perfectly. A really nice touch.

The good thing about the case is that although it does have a number of angular edges it’s machined and manufactured in a way so that there’s no sharpness anywhere. All of these edges are very soft and have a tiny amount of rounding off to them, which reduces the harshness of the case. It’s very well done that’s for sure.

Looking at the finishing of the Acionna’s case, the top and sides are brushed stainless steel, whilst the whole of the back is polished, as well as the entire bezel. This mixture of finishing is not only a nice design feature (the polished bezel on top of the brushed case makes it really stand out and draws attention to the dial) but it also shows the quality workmanship. The finishing is absolutely spotless and very well done – the polished aspects are as reflective as a mirror, and the brushed finishing is subtle, uniform, and immaculate.

The Acionna has a sapphire crystal on top with excellent anti-reflective coating, offering exceptional clarity. This is especially apparent on the white dial, as it pretty much looks like there isn’t a crystal fitted. The crystal gives you a full-on clear view of the dial, with absolutely no distortion whatsoever.

You most likely have noticed the dual crowns on the Acionna, which is something I really like. The top crown is for the internal bezel, which has a plain polished end, and the bottom screw-in crown is for the time, with the Lew & Huey dog deeply etched in the end. This logo is a very small feature, but it is very surprisingly accurate and precise. I really like the design of the crowns, they’re very angular to match the rest of the case, but also perfectly sized, as they could have easily taken over. The angle does mean that it can be a little tricky to use them, especially if you have fat fingers, as you can’t get a particularly good pinch on them. I really like the grip, almost like a knurled effect. Not only does it look great, it is very valuable having such a good grip due to the angle and size of the crowns, making the usage of them much easier.

The overall shape of the case definitely gives off retro vibes, which is proving to be very popular in the watch world. Many retro and classic designs are getting re-released.

Moving to the screw-in caseback, it features a sapphire crystal for the exhibition window. As you’d expect, sapphire crystal has been used to ensure the most rugged and well-made watch for your money. It gives a perfect and clear view of the movement, a Miyota 9015, which is an excellent work-horse, if a bit plain looking. More on that later. Surrounding the exhibition window is the watch specifics, such as the name, water resistance, serial number etc. All of the writing is polished and raised on a lower, brushed surface, which is very impressive and would have taken a lot of time to get right. This is a nice feature which shows the workmanship of the Acionna. It would have been much easier and cheaper to have a polished surface and etch the text into it, but I’m glad they didn’t.

The Acionna has a depth rating of 200m / 20atm, mainly thanks to its screw-in crown and caseback. This rating means it’s suitable to wear swimming or snorkelling.

Giving the case a good close inspection, the general machining is flawless and extremely high quality. Obviously this is what you’d be hoping for after spending a reasonable amount on a watch. But with the Acionna, you definitely get the feeling that you’re getting what you’re paying for.

The dial

You have the choice of three dial colours with the Acionna: white (silver), black or blue. The white is more of a silver, which is very pleasing to the eye and looks expensive. The black is exactly that, a classic colour which always looks great, and the blue is a surprisingly bright, stunning and vivid colour.

The main thing I notice is how the internal bezel creates a wonderful sense of depth, especially with the excellent AR coating on the crystal. It has a lume pip within a triangle at 60 and a very easy to read minute track, with every 5 minutes written out in bold font. Due to the fact it’s so easy to read and can be used as a 60 minute timer, I’ve been using this a lot. You simply rotate the internal bezel until the 60 minute marker is pointing at the minute hand at the time you want to start the timer. Then, as time progresses you can keep track of the time as it progresses. Simply refer to the minute marking on the bezel that the hand is now pointing to. Usually bezels aren’t as well laid out or clear, so it’s refreshing to see it designed so well on the Lew & Huey Acionna.

Moving to the dial itself, the thing which catches my eye most is the applied numerals and hour markers, all of which are flawless and perfectly applied. I love the baton hour markers, they’re very 3-dimensional and pop out of the dial due to the intricate machining.

The numerals at 12, 6 and 9 are all very well made too, with lumed centres. All of the applied items are polished stainless steel, which look great when the light catches it just right.

The outer circle of the dial has a subtle concentric circle pattern on it, which reflects the light in its own unique metallic-style way. When this couples with the reflection of the hands and applied hour markers, the dial really calls out. The inner circle has a thin border around it, breaking the two sections apart. On the black and white dials, this border is red, and on the blue, it’s white.

The printing is all flawless, good quality and very precise.

The logo is raised and located in the top half of the dial. It doesn’t look applied, but rather stamped on the underside of the dial. Personally I’m not a massive fan of the design of it, but I like the way they have calmed it down to match the smart design of the Acionna.

The date window at 3 has a stainless steel frame and is a delightful addition to the dial. It is machined perfectly and is polished, catching the light along with the hands and applied hour markers.

The date wheel is white with black text, which obviously looks best on the white dial. It also looks gold on the blue dial too, and stands out the most on the black dial, as you’d expect. The font and numerals fit the window perfectly, and the style matches the general appearance of the Acionna.

The hands are elegant, not too brash or bold. They’re a thin sword with a lumed centre, and are polished stainless steel to match the rest of the features on the dial, which again reflect the light nicely. The width and length of them are perfect – I like how the hour hand reaches the border between the two sections in the dial, and how the minute hand reaches the minute track. Clean design really pleases me, and this is a good example of that. The minute hand is a thin point, again polished steel. It has a shapely arrow with a lumed centre just past the length of the hour hand, and a red / orange tip. All of the hands are flawless, with no tool marks or bad machining present at all.

On each dial there are is a small additional splash of colour. This the tip of the second hand, and the 5 minute markers on the minute track around the outside edge if the dial. On the white and black dialled Acionnas this is red, and on the blue, it’s orange. It’s a very small usage of colour indeed, but one that is pleasant to see and brings a little extra to the design.

The lume used on all the hands and hour markers is very strong and charges quickly. It glows brightly, even of you’ve just been outside for a while and step inside, and is a bright green colour. Decent quality lume is always important if you aim to make a watch look impressive, and this is indeed the case with the Lew & Huey Acionna. It is excellent to see.

The dial as a whole is excellently executed. When you inspect it closely, it is plain to see that you are getting a very high quality watch for the money.

The strap

Firstly, it’s worth mentioning that you get both a leather strap and a stainless steel bracelet when you buy an Acionna, which is great.

The leather strap is beautiful brown leather with an alligator pattern. It looks and feels high quality, and you just get that feeling that it’s a lovely strap when you wear it.

The colour is a light brown and looks very smart, matching all three dial colour variations perfectly. It has white stitching running along the outer edging, which is thick and accurately stitched, and gives the impression the strap will last a long time. The feel of the leather is very pleasant, you can tell that it is decent quality. It is luxuriously soft on the underside, resulting it being very comfortable on the wrist.

The leather strap comes with a well made butterfly deployant clasp. It is all polished stainless steel, which matches the smart and dressy feel of the Acionna. The underside of the clasp is thicker than normal, which means it’s pretty comfortable on the wrist, and shows the high quality of manufacturing.

On the top side, it has the Lew & Huey very lightly etched. Unfortunately this isn’t that deep – I would have preferred it to be engraved a little better. It is a nice shape though, with a bulge on the top rather than a straight bar. It’s obvious that it’s a high quality clasp, it feels great, looks extremely sturdy and is very secure.

An added bonus is that the strap is very easy to change, thanks to the through-lugs on the case. Just unscrew the main pins from the outside edge of the lugs and away you go. So you can change the strap and the bracelet around in under 5 minutes easily, without worrying about damaging the lugs, to match your mood or even your outfit (if you like to do that).

The bracelet

The first thing to note with the steel bracelet is the impressive solid end links. They’re fairly large to start with, but they fit the case and lugs extremely well. It’s usually no surprise when a bracelet doesn’t quite meet up perfectly with the case on an affordable watch, but there is no sign of that with the Acionna. It just goes to show how precisely made everything is.

Another positive, as mentioned with the leather strap, is the drilled through lugs, which makes changing the straps very easy and means you are less likely to damage or scratch anything whilst changing them around.

The links themselves are well made, although personally I would have preferred them to be ever so slightly thicker. I understand that they couldn’t be made larger though, as it would just make the watch too heavy (I’m just a sucker for big thick steel bracelets).

Just like the rest of the watch, the machining and finishing is spot on. The whole of each link is brushed stainless steel, bar two polished strips running down either side of the centre section.

The bracelet is extremely comfortable, thanks to the soft underside from the excellent brushed finishing. No trapped hairs here. There is plenty of free smooth movement between the links too.

The pins used for the links are standard pins, so you’ll need a pin removal tool to resize the bracelet.

The clasp is well made, and feels ultra-secure. It’s double locking, so you have two buttons either side to open the inside clasp, followed by another lock by means of flipping it over the top of the clasp. Like the leather strap, I think the “Lew & Huey” etched into the top could have been a little deeper, but that’s just a minor point. The buckle is completely brushed, matching the rest of the bracelet, and is clearly well made. The elbow section is solid and chunky, and nothing is loose – it’s very well put together. The whole buckle reminds me of the Seiko Monster buckle. Now that’s saying something.

At the case ends of the bracelet, it widens out gradually to join the lugs impeccably. This smooths out the unique size and shape of the lugs and case shoulders very well. The bracelet balances out the weight of the case perfectly, so there’s no sliding around or spinning on your wrist, the watch stays where it’s supposed to.

The bracelet and strap supplied will definitely make you feel confident that you have a well made timepiece on your wrist.

The movement

The movement within the Acionna is the Miyota 9015, which is proving to be extremely popular amongst the affordable boutique brands. For example, the 9015 can be found in the Melbourne Flinders, Helson Sharkmaster, and Obris Morgan Explorer. All of these watches have proved to be effective timekeepers so the movement has certainly proved it’s point. It’s as rugged and has the same specs as any of the Swiss Made automatic movements, all for a fraction of the price. It has a high beat count of 28.8k bph (8 ticks a second), hacking seconds, and hand wind functionality. The seconds hand is very smooth too, with no signs of shuddering or stuttering.

As discussed earlier, the Acionna features a display / exhibition caseback, so the Miyota 9015 can be seen from the rear. As always, it’s fairly rugged and industrial in appearance – nothing too fancy about it. But in this instance I think that suits the watch just fine. Timekeeping has been excellent.

The packaging

I thought the packaging was worth a final mention. Usually, a watch comes in a pretty boring leather box, which I immediately throw in the attic and never see again until the day I sell the watch comes around. With the Acionna though, you get a smaller box – much more like a travel case. This has already proved to be extremely useful, as I’ve used it countless times since receiving the Acionna.

It’s a flat cuboid shape, and one end slides into the other. Within that side, there is a distinct watch shape, where you place your treasured timepiece. The watch fits snugly, so you know it’s not going to get damaged, but within the area where the strap sits there’s also enough room to fit extra straps and tools too.

It’s not too big either – measuring in at 20cm long, 8.5cm wide, and 4.5cm tall, fitting comfortably in a backpack, travel case, or even a handbag.

Final comments

My personal favourite combination for the Lew & Huey Acionna is the white dial on the brown leather strap. But then I think the blue dial on the bracelet is so vivid it’s just beautiful. And then there’s something about a black dialled watch that makes it look so cool.

But no matter which Acionna you choose, it feels comfortable, oozes coolness and quality, and looks great on the wrist – plus it’s excellently made. All of the dials are lovely colours, and fit well with the bracelet or the leather strap. Yes, it is on the slightly higher end of the affordables price window, but you do get an exquisitely made timepiece for what you’re paying. It definitely feels worth the money, plus it has a unique design which allows it to stand out.

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