Outside of the nerdiest watch collecting circles, the name of Synchron may be relatively or entirely unknown.
The Swiss organization was created in 1968 as a sort of cooperative that helped smaller manufacturers to pool their procurement power, design skills and watchmaking capabilities in order to increase their competitiveness.
Cyma, Doxa and Ernest Borel were all assisted by the organization, which was owned by Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG.
ASUAG was supported by the Swiss government and banking industry for most of the 20th century, but ultimately had to be rescued under what became Swatch Group as its operation was decimated by the quartz crisis.
The Synchron name fell into disuse, but was revived at the turn of the century by Rick Marei, a Doxa veteran, who used it to launch a group that resurrected historic Aquadive and OSOfrane watch brands and planned a line of watches using the Synchron name.
Synchron’s first watch collection, the Military, was launched in 2020 and has an obvious visual nod to the Doxa Sub watches of the 1970s that came to market with the help of Synchron, although the USA-based company states categorically that it is not affiliated or associated with Montres Doxa SA.
A sand, white and black dial gives the Synchron Military watch a camouflaged look, which links it back to Synchron’s history of making timekeepers for armed forces on land and sea.
This Fall, Synchron has added to that collection with the Poseidon, named after a Swedish diving equipment manufacturer, which has its logo on the dial.
The Poseidon is a limited edition of 1,000 numbered pieces, which are on pre-sale now for $990 ahead of a full launch in October when the price will increase to $1,290.
That is around half the price of a Doxa Army.
Poseidon’s design is almost identical to the 2020 Synchron Military, except for the appearance of Poseidon’s logo on the dial.
It is a 42mm tonneau-shaped steel watch, water resistant to 300 metres, and housing a three-hand with date La Joux-Perret G100 automatic movement.
Its glossy black enamel dial has high-density “Old Radium” style SuperLuminova used for hands, hour markers and on the uni-directional bezel.
An alternative model has a pale centre to its dial.
It is sold on a yellow or black rubber strap.
