Albert Villa's modern take on Art Deco inspired vintage dress watches from the 1920s immediately reminds us of Jaeger-LeCoultre's Reverso, a well-known classic dress watch design, that first retailed in 1931 as a watch that could withstand the rigors of a polo game. All very apt as the general shape of the case here puts us in mind of the Reverso, (while thankfully not being a close homage,) but in a more modern size, with one of the most reliable of all mechanical movements, scratch resistant sapphire crystal, and 50 meters of water resistance. Very handy for those unexpected rain-showers while playing polo, or should you fall off your horse and land in a puddle!
We absolutely love the strong sunburst red gradient dial on this design, matched with understated elegance which is nicely balanced to carefully avoid too much "bling". Instead we have a finely polished case, dauphine hands, (with a nice smooth high beat second hand sweep,) and applied major indices, with a decorative signature at the bottom of the dial and no logo beneath 12 o'clock to detract from the outstanding sunburst. Thanks to the movement choice here, the case is very thin and comes in at under 9mm, exactly what we want to see in an automatic mechanical dress watch, so that it can fit under a formal sleeve cuff for the grandest of occasions.
Not only is Albert Villa Timepieces the only watch microbrand we know of hailing from Romania, but the small limited edition size here of just 100 timepieces makes this design fairly rare and adds to the interest, making this watch quite the conversation piece, since it is sure to be noticed when worn.
1920s' Broadway
The name of this watch, "1920s' Broadway" is very fitting since it is part of the 1920s' Jazz Age series of watches from Albert Villa, all themed around some colorful aspect of the 1920s. In this case, it is Broadway in New York, famous for live performances such as the Zeigfeld Follies, which reached their zenith during this period. The age was also a time of flappers and more relaxed attitudes after the First World War, compared to the preceding straight-laced Edwardian and Victorian eras, and this may have helped develop popular music with freer structures such as jazz. Possibly we can see a subtle tie-in here too between the dial color choice and red light districts, which throughout history have served as hubs for the performing arts.
