At the risk of once again sounding like a broken record—actually I know I will sound like one—it is now a sure fact that the most important element which distinguishes microbrands from established ones (whether the latter have been around for a couple of decades or a century, and sell 10,000 or 1,000,0000 watches each year,) is the personalized vision of horology they make available to us enthusiasts and collectors. (More so than any other element including design, specifications, and the quality of manufacturing and finishing.) Because in my own experience, most microbrands remain governed by their founder(s) and managed by him/her or tiny teams of devout employees who also share the same vision for watchmaking. Which is why, according to yours truly and once again based on my own experience of this side of the industry, we buy into microbrands with so much fervor—whether they have a few years or a few months under their belt—because of the singular story they tell us through their unique collections.  

And “unique” can be interpreted in many ways, as everything can in today’s world, but here it means a combination of a few things: where the brand heralds from and its sources of inspiration; how the culture and environment within which its founders were born and live impact the design of the timepieces; what is considered to be key specifications their watches should have; where they are made; and for how much they are being sold. Even though all successful and/or interesting microbrands share the same core philosophy—of bringing a unique vision for horology to the global community as it ought to be repeated—each of them formulates what makes them stand out in singular ways. And that is something that will quickly become apparent studying the Lonard Infinity Obsidian, the brand’s fifth and most daring collection to date, and the one which most likely best encapsulates where it draws its inspiration from. But this is our first time checking out Lonard and a bit of storytelling we must embark on first. 

Specifications 

On Mainspring we review a bunch of microbrands’ offerings and what ties them all together is, as you probably have guessed already, the fact that they are the three-dimensional and analogical representations of the brands’ personal vision for watchmaking. We look at many military and tool watches because that is a genre of watches we have strong feelings for, but we also study dressier and sportier watches, and timekeeping devices which are endowed with zero or many complications, and time-measuring instruments which retail for a couple of hundred dollars to several thousands. Even though we do tend to prefer highly spec’ed out watches, sometimes we review examples that won’t beat any world record for robustness or their capacity to withstand being tumbled inside an EF-5 tornado. Where the Lonard Infinity Obsidian stands out already then is how its specifications, which do not define it entirely, are linked to the source material, as well as how its design, which doesn’t define it entirely either, was inspired by that source. 

To put all of the preceding philosophical and horological meanderings into perspective let us then talk about the brand. Lonard is an Italian microbrand founded by Mauro Gilardi and Antonio Scanu whose identity is tightly knitted with the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, located 110 nautical miles west of the Italian Peninsula. Sardinia is an island rich in history that goes back to the Bronze age and which displays a spectacular variety of landscapes, from white-sand beaches and tropical coves to cliffs, mountain peaks, and arid plains. (Its landscapes and climate are similar to the French island of Corsica located a few miles north of Sardinia.) I have actually visited Sardinia a couple of times and I remember the gorgeous yet unforgiving nature of its natural formations, which command a certain resilience to navigate and live in. It is therefore its roughness and beauty which drove the design and technical specifications of the Infinity, akin to how Santurce’s models are influenced by Puerto Rico’s nature and culture. 

Therefore, if you were to sport the Lonard Infinity Obsidian you would be wearing a piece of Sardinia on your wrist, not literally of course but metaphorically. From a technical standpoint, the brand’s source of inspiration transpires through the good overall robustness the Infinity is endowed with so that you could easily and confidently switch from a dip in the Mediterranean or a hike of Punta La Marmora (Sardinia’s tallest mountain range) to a business meeting in Cagliari (its capital) to a weekend outing to Alghero (a historic town on its west coast.) Or you could do similar activities and live an equally busy life wherever it is you live on our blue planet. Thus, the Infinity was conceived to be a do-it-all sports watch and is spec’ed out as such, starting with a mid-sized integrated-bracelet style case which measures 39mm in diameter, 47mm lug-to-lug, 10.8mm thick (including the crystal,) and comes with a bracelet that measures 14mm at the case but shoots out at 22.7mm outside the lugs and tapers down to 17mm at the clasp. 

The bracelet is in and of itself rather interesting to study: the links are held together with screws tightly nestled inside them, the end-links have quick-release spring-bars that feature a built-in safety mechanism, it has two half-links, and the clasp is equipped with a double-pusher deployant mechanism. The whole shows a fine alternation of satin-brushed and mirror-polished touches which perfectly blends in within the case. And the aforementioned safety mechanism consists of having to press down on the spring-bars “teeth” to unlock them and remove the bracelet, an operation which has to be reversed to install the bracelet back on. It is really neat and something I’ve never seen before. But the Infinity is more than an awesome bracelet: a sapphire sandwich construction complemented with inner anti-reflective treatments, a Sellita SW200-1 caliber (4Hz/38 hours of power reserve) which comes with a date complication, 100 meters by way of a screw-down crown and case-back, and generous applications of BGW9 on the hands and markers.

Design 

We can most certainly agree that the Lonard Infinity has what it takes to be a good everyday/all-scenarios sports watch which can indeed be taken for a swim, a hike, a business meeting, and a weekend gateway. But, as mentioned earlier, its specifications, however good they are, do not define the Infinity in its entirety as we must now turn to its design which contributes an equal part of what should make it worthy of a deeper study on your part. And what follows can be seen from two distinct perspectives: what the brand tells us about its source of inspiration and what we already know it is inspired by. In the first case, Lonard drew inspiration from the Pozzo Sacro di Santa Cristina, a Bronze age complex comprising the ruins of a Nuraghe (a tower-shaped stone building) and a sacred well and its surroundings whose layout include a keyhole-shaped central section and an oval-shaped outer one. This might be a little far-fetched for some which is why in the second case, the Infinity’s general link to Sardinia could make more sense. 

In other words, the ways in which Lonard designed the dial and case are visually as unique as is Sardinia’s history and landscapes, whether this resonates with your or not, but it bared being mentioned in great depths as it is what inspired the brand to design and spec out the Infinity which is visually spectacular and definitely unique in many aspects. To put things more simply, and based on my recollection of my two distant visits to the island, I see in the bezel and case construction the complex nature of Sardinia’s landscapes and the dramatic drop of its cliffs: the way the first piece of the bezel, shaped akin to an hexagon and endowed with a juxtaposition of brushed and polished surfaces, sits atop the second piece of the bezel shaped like an octagon and entirely polished, somehow makes me thing I’m looking at a piece of cliff-like land dipping into the Mediterranean Sea at a sharp angle. This visual effect, however poorly I am describing it, is intensified by the clean dust and fingerprint-catching flat polished surfaces. 

To reinforce the idea of how unique this model is, Lonard flanked the right side of the case with a 5.2mm screw-down crown composed of two rows of intense knurling so that it is easy to operate and visually quite unusual to find on what is otherwise an elegant—yet robust—integrated-bracelet style sports watch. Now, when it comes to the dial, the brand went big otherwise it would have had to go home, as the saying goes: it is bold, multi-layered, and extremely legible, which is something that pleases my tool watch-expert eye. At its base, the black dial is composed of deep horizontal grooves and small white dots for the minutes which brings in my mind the image of the Vacheron Constantin Nautilus, while the slanted and curved polished applied hour markers, combined with the bespoke numerical markers, give the Infinity a singular and sportive edge. I particularly appreciate how the brand squeezed in hour markers next to the numerals and framed date aperture, as well as the use of massive polished sword-style hour and minute hands. 

As it is clear by now, Lonard achieved something quite special with the Infinity Obsidian and it is the type of timekeeping device whose identity and design make the more sense the more you wear the watch, as there are as many facets to its aesthetics as they are layers to what inspired it, and thus one has to spend a lot of time wearing the watch to understand it all. 

The Heart of the Matter

The Infinity is Lonard’s fifth collection which means there are four collections that precede it—duh—but four others which are not endowed with the same package of singularity which is perhaps why you have never heard of the brand before. I came across Lonard last year through the Terraluxe, a model that attracted my enthusiast’s eye because it is a sports watch with a legible dial, but one that is clearly inspired by another popular timepiece from that Swiss brand we all know too well—Rolex’s Explorer II. I ended up not reviewing the Terraluxe but I was prompted to look at the brand’s additional collections: the Dressy whose name says it all, the Sonar which oozes Tudor Black Bay vibes, and the LAP01 Coffee which is the first of Lonard’s model to say something special about the brand. Then the Infinity popped and that is when, I believe, Lonard figured out to hone its core Sardinian identity by coming up with a lot of visual singularity—the superbly finished dual-constructed bezel and bold dial stood out to me—which it paired with a stainless steel chassis that feels familiar for this genre of timepiece—which is a good thing.

In other words, the Infinity exemplifies what could happen to any microbrand that had to go through a few design exercises in order to understand how it could best materialize its personal vision for horology, testing the waters so-to-speak to get its operations running and perhaps find the right manufacturing partners to bring its first unique collection to life. All of this is to say that the Lonard Infinity Obsidian is quite something from a classical horological point of view—sporty, robust, and legible—and highly singular from a design perspective— the bezel of course but also the dial and even the quick-release spring-bars safety mechanism which is a first for me. 

Conclusion

All good things must come to an end, right? Objectively speaking, all of what had to be said about the Lonard Infinity Obsidian’s specifications and design have been said, but there are two additional pieces of information that I must share with you. First, the price at which this model retails for, €1,499/$1,397 USD. Second, the fact that it comes in two other dial variations should you not be charmed by the black one: White Pearl and Clear Water (a sort of vibrant Tiffany Blue.) Oh, by the way, the Infinity in all three color variants is readily available for purchase with immediate shipping at the time of publishing this review.

Thanks for reading.