Mondaine Stop2Go : Swiss Railway Clock Now On One's Wrist

Selamat Hari Raya Haji  and happy holidays to all my fellow readers! I wrote about an impending Mondaine Stop2Go piece @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.my/2016/07/the-next-addition-mondaine-stop2go.html; and just as how accurate Swiss railways were on the dot, the overseas shipment arrived at my doorstep in time for my blog entry during this long weekend.

There were 3 main models in the Stop2Go line-up as per the following :

a) Silver case/White dial with leather strap and signed buckle;

b) DLC case/Black dial with rubber strap and signed clasp.

I decided to go for the classic design with the modern twist i.e. DLC version, as I do not currently have a DLC watch in my collection. The last DLC watch that I had was also for the railway industry i.e. Ball DLC Night Train, which I had since flipped.

For a medium-cost Swiss quartz watch that cost some RM3,500 inclusive of GST and delivery cost to Malaysia, the watch was rather well-made. The packaging was acceptable for its class with inner and outer boxes, and it further came with the standard 2-year warranty atypical of Swiss watches. 

For around the same cost i.e. circa RM3,500, one could have gotten a mechanical watch from other entry-level brands e.g. Mido, Certina, Glycine, etc BUT the special part about this Stop2Go was in its unique caliber.

Travellers whom had utilised Swiss railways would have seen Mondaine clocks peppered all over its railway stations, and the second hand typically complete the 60 second round in 58 seconds, with the additional 2 seconds used for syncing all the clocks to exact time vide an electronic pulse. Therefore, the second hand would looked as though it had stopped for 2 seconds before the minute hand moved. And due to the quicken second hand revolution, it looked as though it was an automatic movement rather than the typical tick-tock-tick-tock quartz movement. For the Stop2Go watches, Mondaine created a one-of-a-kind caliber in order to emulate the Stop2Go clocks that it was famed for. You won't find any other watches with such an interesting function elsewhere.

I matched the Stop2Go DLC with a carbon fibre strap with white threads, that seemed to match the watch to a tee and brought out its simple beauty even further. The watch wore nicely on my wrist, and the 58+2 second mechanism was very engaging and I often found myself looking intently for the second hand to reach its full round. It was truly a fun watch in every sense, with a cheeky disposition 

And in place of a regular crown, the watch utilised an electric switch that was a norm for railway controls, which required special turning as detailed in its manual. This was such an interesting watch that I would say that it would make a great addition in my watch collection.