I came to be aware of Mr. Pascal Savoy several years ago as a watch industry distributor, consultant, and executive. He helped bring Hublot to the United States and continues today to work with a number of fashion brands. He is one of those knowledgeable European guys that moved to the US to get watches and other luxury goods into the market – and he did it pretty well. So when I learned that he started his own watch brand I was curious to see what it was all about.
The new brand is eponymously called “Savoy” and as of now, features one core design around the “Icon” model – which comes in various styles and sizes. Savoy reached out to aBlogtoWatch wanting us to review their pieces, so I checked with the team to see who was up for it. With a less than conservative design and Swiss quartz movements, this was a fashion versus tool watch so our guys didn’t really jump at the chance to check it out. The Savoy website was (maybe still is) rather wonky and it wasn’t really easy to understand what the pieces were all about. Savoy insisted, so I took it upon myself to get some face time with a duo of Icon watches. The Icon Light was for my lady, and I spent some time with the Icon Extreme.
Before getting the Savoy watches I didn’t have high expectations. Not that anything set off alarms, but when it comes to quartz-based fashion watches from new brands it is often not wise to get your hopes up. So I prepared for the worst, but was surprised a bit when I got the watches. Price for the pieces may be on the optimistic side, but they aren’t half bad if you dig the showy style. Also, I thought it would be interesting to select the male and female version of close to the same watch – so that is what I did. Oh, and since Savoy is based in Miami I had to go with the white men’s model.
The Savoy Icon watch case reminds me a bit of the now long defunct Wyler brand. It is quite large with a massive steel structure and round dial. The lugs seem to extend into the strap and the case is polished, brushed, and set with a few screws to help reduce the visual mass. That goes for the ladies’ model as well. The 45mm wide men’s version was too large for my wrists as the lugs extended off the edges too far. That just means I have small wrists, but for the thick-wristed among us, you’ll find that these look appropriate. The smaller 35mm ladies version likewise was on the larger side for the lady, but being altogether a daintier piece, it fit her wrist a bit better when worn loose like a bracelet.
It is still hard for me to take as being serious modern watches with “Extreme” in their names. The 45mm wide steel Icon Extreme has a diver’s style rotating bezel and textured metal plates on the rubber strap. Those plates are a sort of hallmark of the collection and come in a range of styles and materials on the various pieces. It is an interesting concept nonetheless and it adds welcome personality to the collection. I opted to check out the three-hand models even though some chronographs are available. I was drawn to the bold hands and interesting dial with subsidiary seconds hand. In person, the dial could have gone either way but proved to be actually quite nice. More importantly, it was quite legible as well. Sadly no lume if I recall correctly. Inside the Icon Extreme and Icon Light are Swiss Ronda Quartz movements.
As a sport watch, the Icon Extreme name does technically apply as it has 100 meters of water resistance. The case is certainly beefy and the crystal is sapphire I believe. It might not fit snugly like many dive watches, and I don’t know precisely what activity Savoy had in mind when designing it, but I imagine it would survive a day playing craps at a Casino or driving your Cadillac through traffic. Given the style, those are the types of sports that seem to go with the design. The look of the watches is very Las Vegasy. Meaning that they are meant to look classy, but also modern, and additionally unique. Sort of like the Cheesecake Factory. In fact, this color scheme for the Icon Extreme is pretty conservative given the others – which might be worth looking at on their site if you are shopping for a watch to go with your various Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses.
The ladies Icon Light is a more straightforward proposition as a dressy, yet bold timepiece with a unique character. It fits in the “large watch fad” for females, without overtly looking big. Unlike the Icon Extreme, this model has a metal bracelet with smaller links below the large upper segments. My lady has small wrists but she found the watch to be comfortable. She also commented a number of times on how easy it is to read. I imagine compared to many women’s watches, the bold hands and hour markers on the Icon Light are easy to read. It is difficult to see in these images, but the center of the Icon Light’s dial is mother-of-pearl. While the dial looks very similar to that of the Icon Extreme, there are slight differences that help it look more dainty and feminine. For example there are less markers in the subsidiary seconds dial, and the hands are different.
Around the bezel of the 35mm wide steel watch are diamonds for decoration. They aren’t huge diamonds and there aren’t a ton of them, but they are diamonds. I am not an expert on sub-$2,000 diamond timepieces, but I imagine this is about standard for the amount of diamonds you’d get. The design is unique that not all women can pull off, but then again a fashionable woman can pull off a lot of things (clothing wise) which men might find hard to believe.
It is important to mention that quality and fit and finishing are good on the Savoy watches. These are higher-level fashion watches that won’t be mistaken for luxury products, but are well-made nonetheless. As a lifestyle item, I am still scratching my head to determine exactly what lifestyle these watches are for. They look to be ideally worn (and probably sold) at expensive hotels and resorts where people like to walk around and look un-conservatively “fab.” Whenever someone comes up with something unique and interesting that is hard to categorize, I applaud them. The Savoy Icon watch is certainly that. Some will quickly dismiss these as pointless expensive endeavors while others will cock their head and state “you know, I’d wear that.” Price for the men’s Icon Extreme as seen here is $900 while the ladies Icon Light as seen retails for $1,600. savoycollections.com
Necessary Data
>Brand: Savoy
>Model: Icon Extreme and Icon XL
>Price: $900, $1,600
>Would reviewer personally wear it: As a lady yes.
>Friend we’d recommend it to first: One who lives in Las Vegas style hotels and want a showy pieces that won’t necessarily break the bank.
>Best characteristic of watch: Rather original with the quality of an entry-level high-end Swiss watch.
>Worst characteristic of watch: Perhaps too original for many occasions, and the men’s version will only look proper on very large wrists.
SOURCE:http://www.ablogtowatch.com/savoy-icon-watches-review/
