Horologium endeavours to cover a broad range of replica watches and brands across many price points, and it is with this in mind that today’s post is about a replica watch from a brand that you’ll see widely advertised even if you aren’t totally au fait with its range. Founded in 1976 in Geneva, Raymond Weil remains a family company which has been successfully expanding worldwide over the last few decades with its moderately priced replica watches, both quartz and mechanical.
The brand has a huge range of replica watches of which one collection, Freelancer, is named for Raymond Weil himself, in homage to his desire for independence within the replica watch industry. The Freelancer range is for both men and women and includes this model – the Urban Black.
An automatic (RW Calibre 5000, aka a modified 7750) 42mm sized day-date chronograph, the name is a reference to the case material, which is the popular sporty combination of stainless steel with PVD coating.
The black theme is of course carried through to the dial, which is matte black with nice big (lumed) Arabic numerals, day and date windows at 3 o’clock, a 30-minute register at 12 o’clock, a 12-hour register at 6 o’clock, and seconds at 9 o’clock. It has a power reserve of 46 hours.
There’s something about the popularity of red and black contrast in replica watches; the Urban Black has a thin red centre hand as well as red hands for the sub dials at 12 and 6 o’clock as well as a big red date marker at 3 o’clock.
The dial has good colour contrasts and is easy to read. ‘Stealthy’ but not too much so. It is 13.7mm thick and interestingly, the replica watch comes on a calf leather strap that looks like carbon fibre. I’m not sure why they didn’t simply go with carbon fibre if they wanted that particular ‘look’. To handle the replica watch feels pretty sturdy and comfortable on the wrist.
The Freelancer Urban Black sells for around $4,000 or thereabouts depending on your horological jurisdiction.