L&JR Step One watches

The L&JR Step One is the first collection from L&JR, a Swiss brand named after its three founders, Lionel Ladoire, Jörg Hysek Jr. and Philippe Cros, and shown to the press in March 2018. It splits into two lines, a Day-Date and a Chronograph, and every model has a 45 mm stainless steel case, a domed sapphire crystal and 5 bar of water resistance.

Both lines run on Swiss quartz movements from Ronda, with a battery expected to last about four years. Both also show the day of the week on a retrograde scale, next to a big date.

The Day-Date (S1301, S1302, S1303) puts the retrograde day in the upper left quarter between 9 and 12, the big date at 1 o'clock and a small seconds at 6. The Chronograph (S1501, S1502, S1503) is a two-register layout with round-topped pushers at 2 and 4 and timing to a tenth of a second; to keep the registers clear, the big date drops to 6 o'clock and the retrograde day moves up to 12.

The last digit of the reference gives the colourway, and it matches across both lines. The S1301 and S1501 have a light dial and a distressed grey calf strap, the S1302 and S1502 a black dial and a black calf strap, and the S1303 and S1503 a grey and black dial on a black calf strap. In the Day-Date line, the S1301 has a black PVD-coated steel case, while the S1302 and S1303 are plain steel.