What is British designed, Swiss powered and steeped in Italian automotive history? The Duetto by MAALS, of course!!
The brothers from Warwickshire, England are back, with their long awaited (and potentially most striking) creation to date. After 2 years in planning, the Duetto collection is a range of monopusher chronographs, inspired by the curvaceous silhouette of the 1966 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider, famously nicknamed “Duetto.”
The Duetto not only has a fairly unique design, specifically with the layout of the chronograph sup dials, but it also features a unique spring-activated half-hunter case back, which is pretty much unheard of in a watch at this price point.
Co-founder and designer from the MAALS duo, Andy Sealey, explains the inspiration behind creating the Duetto:
Duetto has been a labour of love and design. We really wanted to make something unique, something that’d really stand out in the market and I think we achieved that. Plus as big Alfa Romeo fans, it’s been really cool letting our geeky side run riot – there’s at least 4 Alfa related ‘easter eggs’ in Duetto’s design, which we had fun getting in there. I hope that every owner will enjoy the pure theatre of clicking a button to show off Duetto’s party trick!
Face & case
Before I get into it, I should point out that this Duetto is one of 3 colour versions in the collection. The other colours are Rosso (red) and Verde (green), which together make up the colours of the Italian flag. There are other significances to the specific colour choices, which I’ll go into more in the Other Stuff section, below.
Inspired by the flowing lines of the classic Italian Alfa Spider, a 41 mm stainless steel case is finished with brushed sides and polished lugs and bezel. Most interestingly about the case (and what truly sets it apart) is the custom built spring loaded half-hunter case back, with release button on the side of the case, below the crown at 4 o’clock..
A cambered (box) sapphire crystal with anti reflective coating on both sides, sits above a smooth, white laminated dial with blue Arabic numerals inside a quarter second scale in blue. Moving outwards towards the edge of the dial, we have a full circle around the dial in thin blue, a thin red circle close to it and black individual second markings on the very edge, going from 1 to 45 around the dial and then the number 50 and 55 for the last 15 seconds of the dial markings. There is a round date window circled in blue at 3 o’clock, with blue text on a white wheel, with the word “duetto” just to the left of it; lastly, the MAALS 2 heads logo sits in place of the number 6.
The sub dials are arranged in an off balanced appearance to the top left of the dial. They are actually like knobs sitting above the dial in white, with blue markings around them, with blue teardrop shaped markings as indicators. The constant small seconds is at 9 o’clock, 30 minute counter at 12 o’clock and a date window at 6 o’clock, using a matching white disc that blends into the dial seamlessly.Â
Hour and minute hands are pointy and in a polished steel finish with Super-LumiNova® on the tips; whilst the chronograph seconds hand is in a red clearly inspired by Alfa’s red and having a skeletonised balance in the shape of an Alfa grille.
One other thing to note is that the blue Arabic numerals also actually have Super-LumiNova® on them.
From the side, the crown is of a flat, onion style design. It is actually quite small in relative terms, dwarfed by the length of the single rectangular chronograph pusher, whose height is about the same as the crown. I mentioned the back “open” pusher button previously, which is smaller and round.Â
Turning the watch over, you will see a faint spirograph going from the centre out and taking up most of the dial; this is actually the head silhouette from their logo, stretched out and the pattern repeated. Centrally, just above the spirograph are the words “maals duetto”.
Pushing the button to open the spring loaded case back, reveals a circle of perlage on the underside and the automatic movement under a sapphire crystal. The screw down case back is held down with four screws in each corner, there is no other markings or engravings on the case.
The movement itself is actually quite tasteful for one at this price point; with Côtes de Genève striping on the rotor and underneath the rotor, polished parts, tiny circular graining on the main plate and heat blued screws throughout.
There doesn’t seem to be much mention of it anywhere, but the case has been tested to 10ATM (100m) water resistance!!
Movement
The automatic Swiss made Sellita Calibre SW500 MP b powers the Duetto; it’s a monopusher chronograph movement with hours, minutes, quick set date, constant small seconds, central chronograph seconds and 30 minute chronograph counter.
It has 25 jewels, beats at 28,800 features hacking seconds during setting. Â
Expect around 62 hours power reserve once fully wound.
Strap
The Duetto Bianco comes fitted with a 20 mm wide Italian leather strap in blue, with white contrast stitching to mirror the dial colours. The underside of the strap is in beige, with duetto stamped into one side and it comes fitted with a brushed steel buckle engraved with the duetto logo offset to one side.
The other 2 versions of the duetto come with complimenting strap colours, the red dial has red and white stitching, whilst the green one is green and with white stitching.
Other stuff
For a tiny microbrand to take big risks like this is quite unusual. MAALS didn’t “borrow” the hunter case just to be clever, the spring loaded mechanism was engineered from scratch, inspired by the silhouette of a 1966 Alfa Spider’s open roofline and it took 2 years to make it happen to their expected quality. In fact, they were so fixated on the hunter case happening, that they almost gave up. Â
If you are a long term subscriber, you may recall the Sligo, which was a unique piece made for a collector based in the US, so they are used to dealing with challenges and not giving up until the required result is achieved.
With the brothers being Alfa Mad, the inspiration is quite apparent when looking closer. There are subtle hints and geeky nods to the Italian car brand, such as both the sweeping seconds hand counter weight and sub dial disc markers are in the shape of Alfa Romeo shield grilles, the seconds hand is inspired by Alfa Red and the whole watch was inspired by the 1966 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider and it’s more rounded styling (plus it was a convertible and they wanted it to be a “convertible” watch, hence the half hunter case).
In addition to the seconds hand colour inspiration, the 3 versions were also inspired by actual Alfa Romeo cars – Duetto Rossa (red): The Spirit of the Alfa 8C Supercar, Duetto Verde (green): The Freshness of the Alfa Giulia GTAm and Duetto Bianco (White): The Chronograph Hand: A Touch of Red Alfa Heritage.
The precision and passion for detail in the design and the connection with Alfa Romeo are quite obvious here..
Our verdict
When it comes to microbrands, I’m never sure what to expect when I receive a new watch for reviewing, but with my experience from the last MAALS watch I had my hands on (Sligo), I was pretty sure the quality would be decent.
On opening the MAALS Duetto, it was immediately obvious that I was correct, in that the watch is a sturdy piece and the design is quite different to any other chronograph I’ve seen (monopusher or not). From the custom case back, to the offset dial and ultimately the story-rich inspiration behind it, the Duetto collection is a clear signal that MAALS takes their watchmaking seriously..
Whilst the Duetto isn’t initially particularly large looking, when inspecting closer, the thickness is actually around 17mm, of which 3mm or so is actually the hinged case back. It has a decent weight to it too, almost fooled it could be a precious metal case and on the wrist it feels comfortably seated, but you know it’s there.Â
It is definitely a conversation starter, mainly due to the very different dial layout – the design has grown on me, as I really wasn’t too sure about the almost “top heavy” layout, which on reflection is actually quite clean looking, balanced by the open space opposite and unmistakably sporty.
My favourite out of the options of red, green and white dials is definitely the white and if I had to pick hairs for an issue, I would possible say the date window is either too small, or unnecessary, but I’m not a massive fan of date windows anyways.
MAALS will only make a total of 100 pieces in total across all 3 colourways, so if limited edition pieces are your thing, then it could be one for you. The presale price is £1,495 (inc UK VAT), which will last a month and our VIP community members also got an early window of opportunity, with a further discount to £1,400 (inc UK VAT) for just 24 hours. The price after presale will be £1,795, which still seems like fair value for money based on what I see.
Whether you’re an automotive enthusiast, a collector of microbrands, or just someone who appreciates story driven design, the Duetto delivers on multiple fronts and it will be interesting to see what comes from MAALS after this one.
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