Nezumi Loews Reference LQ1.501 Will Brighten Up Your Wrist
I’m still not sure how comfortable I feel with Meca-quartz, but, ostensibly, that uncertainty odes nothing to inhibit me wearing Nezumi chronograph at least once a week. I’ve talked about my love for other models in the past. Those pieces are easier to digest. This model, however, is something rather special. The Nezumi Loews Reference LQ1.501 is far more vibrant than my usual fare. Let’s see how we got on…
I like color. My obsession with sports (especially those of the American persuasion) means my wardrobe is jam-packed with vivid jerseys celebrating teams from coast-to-coast. As such, I don’t mind sporting a sizzling shade. Oddly, however, this proclivity for color rarely translates to watches. My collection is full of mostly black dials, with the silver-plated dials of NOMOS Glashütte and the bright green of Laventures notable (and arresting) exceptions.
Until relatively recently, I didn’t have a single blue-dialed watch in my collection. Now, I have a handful, but its a trend that’s yet to grab me entirely. The most recent addition to the stable is this incredibly blue Loews chronograph. I must admit it shocked me out of the box, but not half as much as it did when I strapped it to my wrist for the first time.
Surprisingly versatile
Broken record time… Yes, believe it or not, this Nezumi, with it’s (I-don’t-know-what-to-call-it-so-let’s-say-“Beach-Boys”-blue), looks pretty damn good with a suit as well as board shorts. The blue/orange color combo is perhaps so extreme that it renders the watch a statement piece that could either coordinate or contrast with whatever else you’re wearing.
…the colors hang together very, very well.
For those of you that don’t give two hoots about matching your watch to your outfit (especially for those of you who would never refer to the ensemble you’re wearing as an “outfit” to begin with), the colors hang together very, very well. Blue and orange sit across from one another on the color wheel so this is perhaps unsurprising. However, it is nice to see such a bold color choice work where, very often, they fail.
Functionality
The Loews is powered by a Seiko-built meca-quartz chronograph module. Interestingly, this model drops out the going seconds indicator you’d expect to find on a Voiture or Corbeau model from the brand and doesn’t bother with the movement’s optional date function. That does a couple of things. Firstly, it removes any visual reminder this is actually a quartz chronograph. Without the stepping seconds hand, you could almost kid yourself into believing it has a mechanical heart. And with the rapid-stepping chronograph seconds hand (that advances five times per second) it’s not an illusion that is entirely dispelled by actuating the stopwatch function.
The sub-dials display elapsed minutes (at 9 o’clock) and a 24hr indicator at 3 o’clock. Highly polished hour and minute hands are sufficiently lumed to provide excellent legibility, day or night. Tiny lume dots for the hour markers do their job without being overly obtrusive during daylight hours.
How it fits in the range
The Loews family is the cleanest set-up in the current Nezumi catalog. The automatic Baleine diver, which isn’t currently featured on the site, had a time-only display, but as we’re left with only chronographs in the core, competition for the “cleanest face” award is much reduced. The white dial is really handsome, but the pick of the bunch, for me, has to be the limited edition gold-cased model with a midnight blue dial (LQ1S.622). That is a seriously classy looking watch, and one of the few PVD-coated cases I would consider adding to my collection.
…the Loews is all polished which makes it appear much chunkier on the wrist…
The strap of this model is well-suited to the watch head in style, but I that the tan brown racing strap featured on my blue-dialed Voiture (VQ2.601) would look more at home here long term (that’s an option when you come to purchase the watch). The Loews is 40mm wide, but 11.75mm tall excluding the sapphire. That’s 0.25mm taller than the Voiture and it really shows. Additionally, the Loews is all polished which makes it appear much chunkier on the wrist than the other options. That’s not a problem at all, but I do prefer the lower profile of the Voiture. And while the Corbeau has the same dimensions, the rotating bezel makes it seem much smaller.
One for summer
I don’t consciously change watches to match the seasons. However, it is kind of inevitable that my tastes change throughout the year. It comes down to activities more than the weather itself, but I suppose the two go hand-in-hand. I’ve waxed lyrical (extensively) about my fondness for these chronographs before. They fill an important gap in my watch box. This is exactly the kind of thing I go for when I’m doing something more active. Cycling, go-karting, hanging out by the lake (with no intention of actually swimming). That’s where I see watches like this making their hay.
I can’t wait to see what’s next.
It’s fun. I think with a dial of this color you can’t pretend that wasn’t intended. But beyond that, it is well-designed. With such an affordable price ($399 including EU tax) I find it, as I did with the other Nezumi Studios products I’ve reviewed, to be a satisfying purchase. With the team up in Stockholm constantly working on new designs (and reworking those existing) I can’t wait to see what’s next. Learn more about this model and the brand in general here.
