It's ABOUT Time

By Vuc Radic

I very much like Elka watches. And I’m not exactly talking about the old Dutch-based brand that I don’t really know much about and that went out of business years ago. I’m talking about the new Elka watches, revived by Hakim El Kadiri. I had their collaboration with Ace Jewelers, the D-Series Essence, in for review and fell in love a bit. Their watches are uniquely minimalist, unlike pretty much anything else on the market. Especially at this price point. When I saw on Instagram they were pairing up with a whiskey brand, I thought it to be just another collaboration that made sense. But it’s actually a bit more, as Loch Lat is a Le Locle-based whiskey brand launched by Hakim El Kadiri, Elka’s owner. That’s kind of a cool crossover. And the watch is very pretty.On the outside, this is the same Elka S Series we’ve seen before, with a very elegant case that sounds large at 40.8mm wide and 10.85mm thick, but thanks to nifty lug placement it measures just 46.5mm from lug-to-lug and sits very nicely on wrist. On top is the now signature domed sapphire crystal and almost invisible bezel.The dial is just as minimalist as the D-Series Essence I had in for review. It is devoid of nearly all markings, with just the Elka Watch Co and Automatic text above the handset and a tiny Swiss made at the bottom. But the color… oh the color. I have seen what Elka can do with a blue dial, one of the best looking dials I have ever seen, and I can only imagine what this one looks like. It takes on the color of whiskey, a deep amber in the centre that gets darker towards the edges. Awesome.Inside is the La Joux-Perret G100, which has proven to be somewhat loud, mostly due to its fast-turning rotor, but is a really nice alternative to the ETA 2824 clones. It has the same 4Hz beat rate as the clones, but offers a much, much better power reserve of 68 hours. The watch can be had on either a brown leather strap or a beads-of-rice steel bracelet.The new Elka Loch Lat is available now, but limited to just 25 pieces. Each one comes with a bottle of Loch Lat whiskey. However, this offer seems to be available only within Switzerland, most likely due to international law. Price is set at CHF 1,625 on leather and CHF 1,662 on steel, including the whiskey. See more on the Elka website.