Hands-On: the Lorier Olympia Chronograph

No Windup Watch Fair would be complete without Lorier. Since the brand’s introduction six years ago, they have become a fixture of the show and a consistent hit among attendees. Seriously, anyone who dropped by Center 415 this past weekend will know just how hard it was to even get to the Lorier booth. The big draw for the brand this week was their latest release; a new chronograph they’re calling the Olympia. In the lead-up to the show, I got to spend some time with the new watch, and with Windup behind us and the Olympia now available to everyone, it seemed like the right time to share my thoughts.

Before we get into the specifics of the watch itself, it’s worth taking a moment to consider where this new model will sit in the Lorier catalog, and what it’s doing there. The short answer is that the Lorier Olympia is taking the place of the immensely popular Lorier Gemini. That watch, which was first unveiled at Windup Watch Fair in New York City a full five years ago, was a mid-century inspired bi-compax chronograph powered by the Seagull ST19 hand-wound movement.