Heitis Watch Company Chronograph Review

By: Kaz Mirza

Most of you know by now I have a serious #horologicalhardon for quartz chronographs. There’s just something extremely reassuring and fun about the reliability of quartz with the specific time measurement function of the chronograph complication. So needless to say when I learned about a new quartz chronograph being offered by a great microbrand, my interest was piqued. Let me introduce you to the Heitis Watch Company Chronograph, a red and black accented racing inspired quartz chronograph for under $200.

The Case:

My favorite part about the case are these sharp angled, clean lugs. As you can see there aren’t really any gradual slope for curves; instead there tend to be sharp drops and angles. These sharp angles and aggressive lugs give the watch its racing (almost tool inspired) flavor. However what counterbalances that and brings a really nice refreshing note to these aggressive features is the fact that the entire watch case features a high gleaming polish. This polish even extends to the screw down case back, which features the Heitis logo, model designation, and other features like water resistance readout, etc.

The Heitis chronograph sports square pushers that are extremely pleasing to push. You’d think that with a quartz chronograph you wouldn’t get the same sense of satisfaction as you would pushing the buttons on a mechanical chronograph. But with this Heitis piece you still get that tactile, fun feel on your fingertips (with just enough resistance) when you activate the quartz chronograph. In addition to the quartz chronograph complication, the watch case features a fixed tachymeter bezel. Now I’m not gonna lie to you and tell you I know exactly how to use the tachymeter, but knowing that it’s there really helps this watch feel like a classic, tool chronograph. The crown is also pretty standard and carries the high, gleaming polish of the rest of the case, except for some features where the crown displays the Heitis Watch company “H.”

The Dial:

The Heitis chronograph stands out from other chronographs in that (in my opinion) what stands out first is not necessarily the subdials; it’s the applied indices. Sporting a bold polished Arabic numeral “12” at the 12 o’clock position, the chronograph features polished, applied bar markers. Now the reason these bars tend to stand out is because the Heitis chronograph keeps its subdials very centered. This means that none of the bar indices are actually cut off, which is a feature you commonly see in a lot of other chronos where markers will be cut off in addition to other dial elements. But here the bars stand out boldly in front of a solid black background.

Speaking of the subdials, the Heitis chronograph is powered by the Miyota OS20, which features a 24 hour subdial at 3 o’clock, a continuous seconds subdial at 6 o’clock, and a 60 minute chronograph counter at 9 o’clock. Interesting detail here is that with the black subdials and the red accents of the hands, the Heitis Chronograph has almost an automobile speedometer flavor, which only further reinforces its racing inspired chronograph style. The dial also has a bit of depth to it since the center region where the subdials and logo are housed is slightly sunken in, creating two visual tiers for the entire watch base: (1) the outermost tier where the indices live and (2) the innermost tier where the subdials and hands live.

The Strap

The Heitis chronograph is actually being offered with three strap options: black leather, brown leather, and steel mesh. We’ll be focusing on the black and brown leather here since that’s what this chronograph was included with. The 24mm leather strap is a classic pin buckle style featuring red stitching, which ties into the entire red detailing theme of the entire peace. The leather material is appropriately thick and seems like it will wear its age really well. That being said, since this is a racing chronograph I’d get the sense (visually and in my gut) that this thing would be killer on and NATO. What’s also supercool is that, like most Heitis watch company pieces, the leather strap here is a quick change strap. This means you don’t need a springboard tool to remove the strap from the lugs. All you need to do is simply pull down on the little lever behind the strap to release it from the watch case.

Final Thoughts:

The watch is fun – plain and simple. It’s a really well executed grab-and-go quartz that feels great on the wrist and has a really solid wrist presence. At $199 USD, the Heitis chronograph is a really great option for someone looking for that TBWS favorite: the grab-and-go quartz chronograph. The only reason I can see someone potentially not enjoying the Heitis chronograph is if they were in the market specifically for something mechanical, which is totally fine. But if you’re like me and you’ve caught the quartz chrono love-bug, the Heitis chronograph is certainly an incredible contender, especially if you’re looking to support a microbrand.

The Heitis Watch Company Chronograph can be purchased directly from the Heitis Watch Company site!

Also, check out our reveiw of another Heitis Watch Company piece, the Aviator in Black PVD.

Kaz Mirza

Co-Founder and Senior Editor

Kaz has been collecting watches since 2015, but he’s been fascinated by product design, the Collector’s psychology, and brand marketing his whole life. While sharing the same strong fondness for all things horologically-affordable as Mike (his TBWS partner in crime), Kaz’s collection niche is also focused on vintage Soviet watches as well as watches that feature a unique, but well-designed quirk or visual hook.