Eberhard & Co. « AZ Fine Time Blog

Eberhard & Co. has officially been relaunched here at AZ Fine Time with new distribution, a better supply of inventory, and even more important, new lower retail prices for the consumer. A personal favorite has always been their 8 Jour Grande Taille, not just for its classic and elegant styling, but for incredible mechanics for a much lower price than most of its competitors.

The term jour is french for day, obviously translating this piece to 8 day, which is in reference to the timepieces power reserve. The 8 day power reserve is not a completely unique complication, but the system used by Eberhard & Co. is. Instead of using multiple barrels to achieve its extended power reserve, the 8 Jour utilizes 2 mainsprings overlapping each other. One of the springs is a standard length of 30cm, while the other is an impressive 1.25m (totaling over 5 feet of mainspring). This unique winding system is applied to the manually wound base of a Peseux 7001 (which is a part of ETA) and has a rate of 21,600 bph. The top layer of mainspring is visible through a sapphire crystal porthole, exposing a perlage coated, blue “8” shaped bridge and has the mainspring visible underneath. It is definitely intriguing to see the mainspring tighten as you wind up this piece, but the detail itself is very well done. All this adds up to create the E&Co. 896 movement.

The 41mm case is in stainless steel (but does also come in 18k gold), and has a classy high polish finish all the way around. The crown is fairly large, but not obnoxious. While it does not dig into the wrist when worn, it is still easy to wind which is great because to reach a full 8 day power reserve, does take more than the average amount of winding. The strap is a 19mm black crocodile leather with white accent stitching that only goes about half way down the strap. The clasp is a nicely sculpted tang buckle, but deployment is optional.

The dial design is very well executed and has a pocket watch type look. The roman numerals are painted on a silver embossed ring, while the rest of the dial is a matte white. The hands are a black feuille shape and contrast the dial very well making for great legibility. You will find your power reserve indicator at 9:00-10:00, which measures in days opposed to hours, and your small seconds counter at the sub dial at 6:00.

The details of the dial are subtle. The silver rings embossing is something that cannot be determined from many photos, but add a very nice detail to accent the white. The dial is protected by a slightly curved sapphire crystal and contributes to the 8 Jours soft round design.

The new MSRP of the Eberhard & Co. 8 Jours Grande Taille 21027.2 is $4,950. This is about 12% lower than its previous MSRP, and still substantially less than most others . As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 1-800-486-3996 or submit an inquiry through AZFineTime.com.