Karl Ickler founded Ickler GmbH in 1924 and began manufacturing watch cases. After WWII, Karl's sons, Kurt and Heinz rebuilt the company. In the late 90s, a third generation of Icklers, Thomas, made a strategic decision to begin manufacturing entire watches and not just watch cases - today, the Limes brand has become synonymous with high quality moderately priced watches that are both timeless and unique in their design.
The Limes Pharo Full Calendar Moonphase Chronograph is the flagship of the Limes line. It's also a well designed and terrifically complicated watch. Besides being a full featured chronograph, the Pharo Full Calendar Moonphase Chrono displays the day of the week and current month in windows within the top subdial and the date via a center mount hand tipped with a red arrow that moves around the bezel rail. True to its name, there's a moonphase display within the skeletonized field of the subdial at 6 o'clock.
Powering the Limes Pharo Full Calendar Moon Chronos long list of horological displays is an ETA 7751 automatic movement that's been adorned with perlage and Geneva stripes and can be viewed through the sapphire crystal display back.
The case of the Pharo Full Calendar Moonphase Chronograph is 40mm across and 14mm deep. The pushers and crown are nicely detailed and along with the case design are unique to the Limes - you won't see them anywhere else - quite unusual for any watch today.... yet alone one with a reasonable price point.
The Limes Pharo Full Calendar Moonphase Chronograph is a great choice if you're looking for a high quality complicated mechanical watch that's a nice departure from the cookie cutter offerings that seem to dominate the market... especially in the sub $5K category.
