Viqueria Tuono
Manufacturer: Viqueria | Price: from €349 EUR (£305 GBP, $415 USD)
Before the cockwombles of the watch geek world start bumping their gums… YES, I KNOW the Viqueria Tuono is a homage to the TAG Heuer Autavia blah, fuckin’ blah… So please, shut the hell up! Sorry, but I had to start with that, as you’d be surprised at some of the private messages I get after posting wrist shots over on my Instagram feed. I swear to god, I’m sure half of these morons are tuned to the fuckin’ moon! Ok, I digress… I’ll move onto the actual watch I’m supposed to be reviewing today, the Tuono from Viqueria Watch Co, a dive / sports watch, coupled with a lot of surprising details. 😲
Specifications
- Dimensions: Case Diameter – 41.1mm, Thickness – 13.7mm, Lug to Lug – 48.5mm, Lug Width – 20mm
- Movement: Miyota 9130, 28,800vph, 4Hz, Hackable, Self Winding, 40hr Power Reserve
- Case Material: Brushed 316L Stainless Steel with Polished Accents
- Bezel: 120 Click Unidirectional, Ceramic Insert, Fully Lumed
- Bracelet: Polished Jubilee 316L Stainless Steel, Push Pins, Butterfly Clasp
- Dial & Hands: Sunray/Full Lume, Power Reserve Indicator, Sword Hands
- Crystal: Flat Sapphire, Underside Anti-Reflective Coatings
- Lume: Swiss Super Luminova® BGW9 / C3
- Water Resistance: 200m / 20ATM / 660ft
- Caseback: Screw Down, Exhibition Display, Sapphire Crystal, Unique Serial Number
- Crown: 6.7mm, Screw Down, Signed
- Weight: 161g (Sized up for my 6¾″ wrist)
- Where to Buy: Viqueria Watch Company
- Warranty: 2 Years International
Viqueria Tuono Dial Options
Viqueria Italian Watch Company
“After two successful Kickstarter campaigns, we are proud to present the Viqueria Tuono. The Tuono is our latest design and is a rare gem in the microbrand watch market, as it has a Miyota 9130 movement, included on all four available dials, featuring a power reserve indicator that looks like a fuel gauge. The Tuono is available with three sunray dials with a degradée finishing, enriched with BGW9, as well as a full lume dial option with Super Luminova® BGW9 & C3. The Viqueria Tuono is created to be a versatile timepiece, thanks to the 41mm case size and the 200m water resistance. Italian leather straps and a Jubilee style bracelet complete the package. All of our timepiece are passionately assembled in Italy.”
Case & Crown
The case of the Viqueria Tuono has a diameter of 41.1mm. The lug to lug is 48.5mm and the overall thickness, including the sapphire crystal, I measured in at 13.7mm. The entire case, caseback surround, bezel, crown and bracelet are all solid 316L stainless steel. The finish of the Tuono is mostly brushed, but with the addition of very nicely executed polished accents that are unusually on the inner sides of the lugs. There are also chamfered edges that taper on the lugs, which do look fantastic, making the whole transition between the watch and bracelet very cohesive.
All colourways of the Tuono have a water resistance rating of 200m, thanks to the superb build quality and inclusion of a screw down caseback & crown. The proportions of the watch are absolutely spot on! As soon as I sized the bracelet to my 6¾″ wrist, I thought, this thing is sweet! It fits and conforms to my wrist perfectly. The crown is also nicely executed, with an absolute shit-ton of grip, zero wobble when in use and the nicely executed Viqueria logo just adds to that high level of attention to detail from Viqueria Watch Co.
Strap / Bracelet
The bracelet that’s fitted to the Viqueria Tuono is of excellent quality and there really isn’t anything that I can find fault with. It has everything you’d want in a bracelet. It’s very nicely manufactured with no major rattles to be found anywhere. It has solid links throughout, although just push pins for adjusting and re-sizing, but that is relatively common practice for this style of bracelet with a butterfly clasp. The end links are of the female variety, so doesn’t extend the effective lug to lug in any way. The bracelet also tapers nicely from 20mm, down to approximately 17.5mm at the butterfly clasp.
The fitment of those end links are outstanding, with zero play to be found on either of them. The polished finishing of the bracelet does match the polished accents of the watch head itself, but I do feel that maybe just polishing the centre links, while keeping the rest brushed, would have been a more suitable design choice. However, I will add, it does look like the bracelet has been made specifically for this actual watch and it’s not just another off-the-shelf pile of 
.
Movement / Accuracy
The chosen movement for the Viqueria Tuono is the 9130 from Japanese company, Miyota. The Cal.9130(20Z) is self-winding, has 26 jewels and the oscillating weight spins up giving a 40hr power reserve. The balance runs at 28,800vph (4Hz) and the movement is also hackable. You’ll also notice that not only does the movement have a date complication at the 6 o’clock position (ref.20Z), it also features a power reserve indicator at 12. Checking the accuracy after running the Tuono for around a week, both on wrist, as well as in my watch winder, I was very pleased with the final results, with the Viqueria Tuono showing an average of just +3.8 seconds per day. That’s a superb result, very happy with that!
Dial & Bezel
As you can see in the images, the sword style hour and minute hands are very nicely done, finished in black, that gives the perfect contrast against the white, fully lumed dial. The lumed arrow-tipped seconds hand is lovely too, finished mostly in black, but with an orange tip, giving a wee pop of colour on the dial. There is also a negative, white on black date complication at the 6 o’clock position. Everyone knows that it’s always my preference for the date position. Viqueria also decided on a chromed border to frame the date, although I’m not keen on it. I would have totally ditched the chrome border and just have small chamfered edges around the date, subsequently reducing the shadows on the date wheel.
Lume
The lume on this version of the Viqueria Tuono features a fully lumed dial. Even before Viqueria sent out this Tuono to me, they did state that the lume on this prototype will be greatly improved on the actual production models. I personally think that the lume is actually pretty good on this sample. So, if it’s going to be even better on the final production models, then all I’ll say is, “Bring it on”! Being the total lume junkie that I am, you can never have enough. 
The lume that’s been applied to this Tuono is Swiss Super Luminova® BGW9, and even just on this press sample prototype, it’s been done showing a great overall effect in low light conditions. Of course, it fades slightly over time, but it’s still extremely legible, thanks to Viqueria’s decision to use all-black hands and arabics on this clean crystal white dial.
Conclusion
So here we are, with a microbrand design that looks similar to the near £3k TAG Heuer Autavia, but will only set you back just a smidge over 300 quid! Is the TAG worth almost 10 times more than this Viqueria Tuono? Let me answer that for you… IS IT BOLLOCKS! Sure, at the end of the day, some might tell you, “oh, you’re paying for the movement, build quality, brand history etc“. TAG lists their movement as a Caliber.5, which you might think is some kind of special in-house movement, well, it isn’t… As far as I’m aware, Sellita make it. As for build quality, the Viqueria Tuono actually punches way above than the price of it might suggest, it’s outstanding! Lastly, brand history? Personally, I’ve don’t give a shit, even if I had £3k to spend on a watch, it certainly wouldn’t be anything from TAG Heuer. I could get a Tudor BB58 for less!
Viqueria are taking preorders for the Tuono on their website now, with delivery expected in late spring / early summer. If I didn’t already have 3 watches on order, I’d be all over this one and preorder it immediately. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick one up later on in the year. My colour choice? This white, fully lumed version as it definitely ticks all my boxes. 
