About a year ago, I reviewed the Lesablier Travelgraph and announced that it had raised the bar for sub-$1,000 GMTs. It was an elegant sports watch that incorporated fabulously clever touches, such as an automatic 24-hour disk and a city index that indicated daylight saving time. While it’s an outstanding watch, perhaps you’re looking for something more. Maybe you held out on the original, hoping the brand could make it just a bit extra. Well, wait no more. I have the Lesablier Travelgraph Universalis in my hands, and let me tell you, this watch is a knockout.
To be honest, I had the watch in my hands when it debuted at the District Time show in March, and knew it was a winner then. It’s just that I had to put it down again while the first batch sold out. Now that the initial orders have been fulfilled and the second batch is ready for shipment, I was able to get some quality time with a review sample.
The Universalis is a variant of the standard LS-04 Travelgraph; therefore, its dimensions and specifications are the same. Its stainless steel case measures 40mm in width, 44mm in length, and 12.8mm in thickness. While it is not overly large, it cuts a muscular figure. A broad, knurled, crown adds to the watch’s athletic bearing, and screws down nearly flush so as not to inturrupt the lines of the case. Polishing on the case chamfers and the facets of the dodecagonal bezel lends a welcome dash of shimmer to the otherwise brushed surfaces.
I found it to be a perfect fit on my 6.75″ wrist, deftly balancing tool watch presence with dress watch style. With a 100m water resistance rating, you can take the Travelgraph on your next diving expedition, but I think it would look far better with a navy Brooks Brothers suit than a Navy wetsuit.
The crystal is double-domed and coated with six layers of anti-reflective coating on the inside, offering an unhindered view of the truly engaging dial beneath.
Of course, the Universalis incorporates the Travelgraph’s signature feature, a 24-hour day/night disk driven by the modified Miyota 9075 automatic’s fourth hand. This is where the two variants part ways. Where the standard Travelgraph offered a choice of three solid dials, the Universalis’s is transparent acrylic, printed with a dark blue world map. Underneath, the 24-hour disk has been fully bisected into flat black and yellow lume sections, which (when read along with the city index) show what parts of the world are in daylight or darkness. It’s a great effect that doesn’t hamper your ability to read the time. Those BGW9 Super-LuminNova hands and delicate hour pips remain perfectly clear.
I love the map. I must note that it is a North Pole projection with oceans in blue and the land masses represented by negative space. You will find that it aligns with the city index, with Lesablier’s D.C. home base as the primary point. I’m afraid my friends in the southern hemisphere will have to use some imagination. After all, the Earth is a globe, watch dials are two-dimensional, and while Lesablier does some nifty stuff, they cannot bend the laws of physics. Still, I love the design, particularly at night when the lume disc sweeps under to show the continents and latitude lines.
The Lesablier name is on a metal plate that matches the dial’s ring and other elements. I believe it bisects Eurasia. Keen-eyed lovers of typography will notice that the logo is now rendered in a leaner, more refined typeface.
Flip the watch over, and you can view the 9075 in all its glory, by which I mean the glorious gold-plated and fan-engraved rotor. The rest of the movement is nice enough, but not decorated.
The Travelgraph Universalis comes equipped with the same excellent bracelet as its stablemate, featuring brushed H-links and polished oblong hexagons in between. It looks gorgeous, flows nicely, and tapers from 20mm quick-release end links to 16mm at its adjustable extension clasp.
I don’t generally discuss packaging, yet I am compelled to mention Lesablier’s tidy little box, complete with a signed buckle and strap tail fastener. It makes for a lovely presentation.
Lesablier is a Washington, D.C.-based company, and its watches are assembled just north of the city in Maryland. For as much as I liked the first Travelgraph, I like the Lesablier Travelgraph Universalis even more because it offers a look you are simply not going to find in many other watches and certainly not for $1,050. Yes, this model broke the $1,000 barrier, surpassing the standard dial by nearly $200, but the impact is well worth the modest increase in price. Lesablier continues to impress.
For more information or to order your own, visit lesablier.com.
