Featuring an extremely elegant design of its dial and animated by a robust and reliable chronograph movement, this new “full calendar” Louis Erard Excellence Moon Phase 24 Hour could be an accessory of choice for an office worker who can’t afford an IWC Portuguese yet.

I must admit that I am totally in love with this watch in particular and with the whole Excellence collection in general.

Louis Erard’s classic “1931”, “Heritage” and “Sportive” collections still fail to strike the proverbial chord with me. However, show me any member of the Excellence line and I’ll start throwing (sometimes imaginary, tbh) money at my screen.

The only thing that helps me fight off this terrible urge is the credit limit on my Visa.

WWR’s Verdict

Originality 4/5
Build Quality: 5/5
Versatility: 4/5
Usability: 4.5/5
Overall Legibility: 4.5/5
Nighttime Legibility: 1/5
Value for Money: 4.5/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5

The Overall Impression:

What makes this collection different from the others is an almost perfectly balanced combination of legibility and overall elegance.

Just like the Excellence Regulateur Reserve de Marche that arrived at the same time, the Moon Phase GMT sports a relatively compact (albeit slightly larger) case and a highly readable dial.

It looks like the brand deliberately decided not to go over the top with embellishments or non-standard time representation. Which is great, by the way, because sometimes we need just a classic dress watch. We want something that would look acceptable in an office, at a wedding or at a funeral.

What I like the most about it, is that, sporting a full calendar, a chronograph, and the moon-phase indicator, the Louis Erard Excellence Moon Phase 24 Hour somehow manages to present all the information without overwhelming your eyes or hurting your sense of beauty.

The busy dial is not just elegant: it is clean! It is refined and crisp like the winter sky when an Arctic anticyclone blows away the heavy, leaden clouds and allows the cold winter sun to illuminate the heavy banks of snow and the thin layers of ice on the trees and streetlights.

Sorry for being poetic. Must be something in the air.

The Stainless Steel Case:

We have seen an influx of oversized timekeepers recently that were specifically designed to be seen, not for being comfortable to wear.

This one, thankfully, uses a more standard diameter of just 42 millimeters. The overall thickness is also standard at 13 millimeters, but the watch actually looks thinner because of the shape of the solid case back cover. The relatively long curved lugs also make the piece sit better on an average wrist.

The usual chronograph push-pieces at roughly 2 and 4 o’clock are wide enough to comfortably operate the watch. This comes from a guy who tends to press these buttons with the side of the index finger while holding the watch with a thumb. There are a lot of watches that make it actually painful, but not this one.

The winding/setting crown is big enough for most fingers and the big, deep notches certainly make it even more pleasant to use.

Frankly, I tried, but I just can’t find any serious flaw with the general ergonomics of this device.

The Excellent Dial:

The case sports a thin bezel that saves precious real estate for the flood of information flowing from the white (seemingly sandblasted or maybe just powder-coated?) dial.

30-minute chronograph, day and month counter at 12 o’clock;
12-hour and moon phase counter at 6 o’clock;
Small seconds and 24-hour indicator at 9 o’clock; and
A date display on the inner bezel ring.

While most full-calendar watches usually look busy to the point of being useless, the Moon Phase 24 Hour is unusually tidy. The tidiness mostly comes courtesy of a carefully chosen ultra-thin typeface and the streeeeetched-out Roman numerals that sort of also work as hour markers. The ultra-thin hands also help a lot with the overall feeling of lightness.

Yes, like may “office watches”, this one doesn’t have a single drop of Superluminova on the dial, but that’s something to be expected.

If this is going to be your first full-calendar watch, reading off all this information will certainly require some time getting used to. However, if you already have some experience with this type of timepiece you will have no problem at all. Once again, the sub-dials, the hands, all of the displays are absolutely standard and you won’t have to waste time searching for that “days of week” aperture among a multitude of indicators.

Some may lament the lack of engine turning or engraving on the dial, but, for me, it just makes the watch especially easy on the eyes.

The Swiss-Made ETA 7751:

Well, the ETA 7751 that powers this beauty is also standard. It’s not even visible because of the solid back cover, so it probably doesn’t feature anything more interesting than the usual factory finish and, maybe, some branding on the oscillating weight.

However, it is also the case where boring is good. It’s a reliable, easy to repair workhorse movement that, if properly taken care of, will serve long enough for you to pass it to your less favorite grand-kid (the favorite one will probably get that IWC Portugueser that you are still dreaming about, but will get someday in the future.)

Photos: Louis Erard

Louis Erard Excellence Moon Phase 24 Hour (Ref. 80 231 AA 01) specification

Price: CHF 3500
Movement: Automatic, Caliber ETA 7751, 25 jewels, 28,800 vph, 31 mm in diameter, 5.05 mm in height, Swiss Made
Movement decoration: Branded oscillating weight
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date, moon phase, full calendar, second time-zone (GMT)
Power reserve: 42 hours
Case: Stainless steel
Shape: Round
Size: 42.00 mm
Dial: White
Numerals: Roman
Hands: Leaf-shaped, blue
Water resistance: 50 meters
Strap: Black leather with steel folding clasp
Crystal: Sapphire, antireflective on both sides
Back: Decorated with Louis Errard logo