I never paid much attention to the Swiss Military Hanowa brand. Their watches occasionally popped up during my online browsing, but I always dismissed them as fashion watches with quartz movements. Sure, they carry the "Swiss made" label, but that alone wasn’t enough to catch my interest. On top of that, I was always confused by the flood of similarly named brands featuring the Swiss cross, such as: Swiss Military Hanowa, Hanowa, Swiss Alpine Military, Swiss Military by Chrono, Victorinox… Until last week.
As I do every Friday, I received the weekly newsletter from SeriousWatches.com. I don’t know why, but after checking their new arrivals, I continued browsing other models as well—this time filtering for mechanical watches only—and two Swiss Military Hanowa pieces caught my eye: the “Les Patrouille des Glaciers” and the “Les Patrouille des Glaciers Chrono.” What intrigued me was the beautiful combination of black and light blue dials paired with very nicely designed rubber straps with stitching. The chronograph version comes with a light blue strap with dark blue stitching, while the non-chronograph version is the opposite.
I had to check immediately what movements these two watches use. The chronograph model features the interesting Landeron 77 movement (probably produced by Depa), and the non-chronograph version uses the STP1-11—another Swiss-made clone of the ETA 2824-2 with 26 jewels, similar to the Sellita SW200.
As you can see, after a short consideration and a few emails to SeriousWatches, I decided to go for the non-chronograph version.
For those of you who have also overlooked this brand before, I did a bit of homework and looked up some basic information about it.
The Hanowa brand was established in 1963 by Mr. and Mrs. Noll, and the brand name comes from the husband’s name: HAns NOll WAtches. All their watches carry the “Swiss Made” label. In 1990, they launched a second brand, Swiss Military Hanowa, which uses the “Swiss Military” label with the permission of the label’s owner—the Swiss government. Both brands use an octagonal Swiss cross as their trademark symbol.
OK, now let me start with the watch itself. As said at the beginning, the main reason I bought the watch was the very nice combination of a light blue inner ring and the black tile-like texturing of the dial. And the wonderful rubber strap, which gives the impression of being leather.
But that’s not all. I also have to mention the very unusual choice of color for the date, which matches the company’s octagonal hallmark. The hands are also crafted with great care and detail. So, all in all, I really like the dial. The only thing I would change is the quite prominent “Les Patrouille des Glaciers” insignia. This race, to which the watch is dedicated, has no meaning for me—and I believe for the majority of other buyers as well. So this insignia could easily be placed somewhere less noticeable. BTW, the chrono version doesn’t have this insignia on the dial—there’s no room for it.
The bezel is fixed and without any function, but the “cut-off” segments make the watch more dynamic and attractive. Definitely better than a plain black bezel. I just wonder what the watch would look like if the bezel were replaced with a “true” rotating bezel with numbers or markers. Maybe it would look worse, but a real bezel would certainly add to the functionality of the watch.
The hour markers and hands have lume in the center. The lume itself is not among the best I’ve seen. In the evening, when you turn off the light, you can’t see the watch at all. Only after a few minutes, when your eyes adjust to the darkness, do the lumed parts start to become visible. However, I have to praise the fact that the lume remains visible for a long time—basically for the whole night.
I’ve already mentioned that the movement is a Swiss STP1-11 automatic movement with a hacking function. I believe it’s the most affordable version of all the ETA clones, but still a good one. No surprises there. If you’re familiar with the ETA 2824 or Sellita SW200, this is essentially the same. I haven’t noticed any issues so far. The watch runs within the expected daily tolerance, the rotor is fairly quiet, and the winding works as it should.
The watch was obviously set by SeriousWatches before sending it to me—it arrived still running and with the correct time. I didn’t manually wind it, just put it on my wrist, and it has remained there ever since. After a few days of continuous wear, there’s still no need to adjust the time. But I must admit I’m not a control freak about a few seconds, so I might be a bit more tolerant than you are.
As seen in the picture, the watch features sapphire crystal on both sides.
The declared water resistance is 10 ATM. It’s a limited edition of 1,943 pieces. I have no idea where this number comes from—my guess is it has something to do with the "Les Patrouille..." race.
The case is made of stainless steel with a black IP coating, as is the bezel. As with all Hanowa Group watches, the crown is stamped with the Hanowa hallmark. Surprisingly, the crown is not screw-down, which one would normally expect on a watch of this type.
Let's move on to the "user experience" of wearing the watch.
The watch is a large one—it has a 45 mm diameter, and those of you who have read my previous reviews know that I like bigger watches. So maybe I’m a bit biased here! That said, the watch fits my wrist very well. It actually looks much smaller than it is. When I first saw the watch online, I couldn’t believe it was 45 mm; when I saw it in person, I even measured it because it still looked smaller. But the fact is—the diameter is 45 mm, and the thickness is 11.5 mm. The lug width is 22 mm, and the lug-to-lug (L2L) distance is 48 mm.
I don’t know what causes this optical shrinkage—maybe the fact that the dial features a defined internal blue ring followed by a rather wide black edge (the bezel), or perhaps it's the relatively short L2L distance. But the fact remains: the watch doesn’t shout from the wrist at all. Even though it’s clearly designed as a sports watch, it could easily be worn as a dress watch too.
But what I really have to point out again is the strap. Even though it’s a true rubber strap, it looks like leather. It’s not very thick, which makes it very soft. It features a plain and simple black pin buckle—of course, marked with the company’s hallmark. It’s very easy to take the watch on and off. I can honestly say it's one of the best rubber straps I’ve ever had the chance to wear.
I must warn you—the strap is intended for larger wrists. My wrist is 19 cm, and I use the third hole out of nine. So if your wrist is smaller than 18.5 cm, this strap might not be suitable for you. On the other hand, it will comfortably fit wrists over 22 cm.
Swiss Military Hanowa didn’t put much effort into the packaging. The watch comes in a very simple and small metal box. So, no extravagance here—even though this is a limited edition watch from the highest end of their collection. I have to say I was a bit unpleasantly surprised by that. From what I’ve seen in pictures, the chronograph version comes in slightly more luxurious packaging, but still far from what one would expect from a top-tier limited edition watch.
For the final verdict, I also have to reveal the price. The base price in Europe for the non-chronograph version is €649, and for the chronograph version, €1,699. My first impression was—quite a lot for “just another Swiss-branded company.” But... the watch is really well built, it’s fully Swiss-made, and if I compare it to the prices of Russian watches or the vast majority of microbrand watches with low-end Seiko, Miyota, or even Chinese movements, then the price—at least for the non-chrono model—seems reasonable. (For the chronograph with the Landeron 77 movement, I still think it's too much.)
With a bit of luck, I’m sure you can find it cheaper (I actually did, but all the listings were out of stock at the time) or use a discount. In that case—grab it. I can wholeheartedly recommend buying it. You won’t be disappointed. With this watch, Swiss Military Hanowa has definitely stepped into the higher class of watchmaking and deserves your attention.
At the end, I must also once again mention the company Seriouswatches.com, as their service is always outstanding. I’m a regular customer, but they still impress me every time with their professionalism.
P.S.: After wearing the watch regularly for almost a week, day and night, I took it off and placed it on my desk. One important detail—I took it off in the morning. It continued running for another 24 hours...
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