Pulling off a brightly colored aluminum tide bezel and replacing it with a plain sapphire bidirectional bezel—that's the surgery Albishorn has performed on its own signature design this time around. The Swiss brand, which bills itself as "imaginary vintage," is now launching the Marinagraph Classic, housing the yacht racing chronograph movement it's known for in a considerably quieter case than before.
According to Hodinkee, this yacht racing chronograph's lineage traces back two years to Albishorn's debut collaboration with Massena LAB, the Maxigraph. Since then, this movement has carried on in the brand's "Water" collection—the Marinagraph, featuring a tide-display bezel. This new Classic version, compared to the earlier Marinagraph Classic Racing, differs most notably in its bezel: swapping the colored aluminum ring for a traditional sapphire bezel with luminous markings.
There are new dial options too. The original black sunburst dial remains, joined by a new white fumé dial featuring a gradient dark tone around the edges—the report notes that what appears to be a shadow effect in the brand's photos is actually this gradient itself. The black dial pairs with silver hands and markers, while the white dial switches to black hands for contrast. Both dial colors feature a blue-and-red ten-minute yacht racing countdown retrograde scale at the 7 o'clock position, with the chronograph seconds hand and yacht racing seconds hand rendered in red or blue depending on the dial color. The running seconds indicator at 3 o'clock has been the most notable detail of this design since the original Maxigraph.
The case measures 39mm in diameter, with a lug-to-lug of 47.7mm and a thickness of 13mm, water-resistant to 100 meters. The crown sits at the 10 o'clock position, while the 9 o'clock position houses a red anodized aluminum single-pusher chronograph button: press it, and the chronograph seconds hand starts while the ten-minute countdown retrograde hand moves in sync; once the countdown hand hits zero it stops automatically while the chronograph seconds hand keeps running; press the button again to stop the entire chronograph; a third press resets everything to zero.
The movement is the brand's proprietary in-house chronograph caliber ALB01, based on the Valjoux 7750 architecture but modified with a single-pusher mechanism, extended power reserve, and a patented retrograde yacht racing countdown function. Thickness has been reduced from 7.9mm to 6.6mm, with a 64-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph frequency, 25 jewels, and no chronometer certification.
Each dial color is limited to 99 unnumbered pieces, to be completed gradually over three years. The standard version comes with two rubber straps, priced at CHF 3,950; a steel bracelet option is also available for CHF 4,400 (also including two rubber straps). Sales launch Friday, August 14 at 9am EDT (3pm CET), available directly through Albishorn's official channels.
