Better than MoonSwatch: Dan Henry 1962 Racing Chronograph
26 March 2022 will be a day that the watch industry remembers forever. Queues and chaos played out near Swatch boutiques all around the world. People from all backgrounds fought for a watch: The Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch. I wanted one too but was not ready to queue overnight and physically fight for it. It wasn’t the Omega Speedmaster going for S$ 372, it is one of the most expensive Swatch in the shape of the legendary Moonwatch. Over the next few months, I would pop by Swatch boutiques whenever I’m nearby. After countless visits to boutiques in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, I still do not own one. Getting the MoonSwatch was supposed to be fun but leaving empty-handed all the time was not. In the end, I placed an order for the watch that I shared on social media as a better alternative the night I gave up on my plan to queue: the Dan Henry 1962 Racing Chronograph.
The brand of Dan Henry, founded by collector Dan Henry to make vintage designs accessible, is not new to me. Their 1964 Gran Turismo Chronograph was one of the first watches that I bought and has been the watch that elicits the most questions whenever I wear it. While the 1962 has many common elements with the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, the inspiration actually came from the Universal Geneve Compax popularised by model Nina Rindt, wife of F1 driver Jochen Rindt, the only driver to ever win the F1 World Driver’s Championship posthumously. While she wore the panda/tropical variant, the color option is no longer available from Dan Henry as they only produce a finite number for each model. The version I got was the Evil Panda version with a black dial and silver sub-dials.
At a glance, the Dan Henry 1962 sure looked similar to the MoonSwatch. Both have twisted lugs, tachymeter bezel, pump pushers, and knurled crown. That’s where the similarities end and the advantages of the DH 1962 start. While the MoonSwatch is made of bioceramic (part ceramic, part castor oil), the DH 1962 is made of 316L stainless steel. While the MoonSwatch has a battery cover with a printed celestial body on the back, the DH has a 3D-engraved Masserati Tipo 60 Birdcage race car. The DH 1962 also has a swim-friendly water resistance of 50 m over the MoonSwatch’s 30 m although none of them are meant for swimming given their leather and velcro strap respectively. The longer lugs and sharper transition from case to lugs also made the DH 1962 look more elegant than the MoonSwatch. Although I’m usually not a fan of long lugs as they often make watches too long for my small wrist, the smaller case size of the Dan Henry (39 mm vs 42 mm) allowed it to achieve a shorter lug-to-lug length (45.9 mm vs 47.2 mm) even with the slightly longer lugs. On top of that, the Dan Henry is covered in domed mineral glass with anti-reflective coating while the MoonSwatch is covered with scratch-prone though Apollo missions-authentic acrylic.
Looking closer at the dial, you’ll see the divergence between the Dan Henry and MoonSwatch’s inspiration. While the MoonSwatch’s hour, minute, and chronograph second hands are exact replicas of the Moonwatch, the DH 1962’s wide, concave dauphine hands with clipped ends mimic the Universal Geneve Compax’s hands closely. The red stick central chronograph second hand also shows its UG lineage instead of the Moonwatch’s pointed hand. The DH 1962’s sub-dial layout is also significantly different from the MoonSwatch. In a way, the DH 1962’s 3, 6, and 9 o’clock sub-dial layout is closer to the original Moonwatch than the MoonSwatch’s 2, 6, and 10 o’clock layout. The DH 1962 has a 24-hour indicator at 3 o’clock position, running seconds at 6, and 60-minute chronograph totalizer at 9. In comparison, the MoonSwatch has a 1/10-second chronograph counter at 2, running seconds at 6, and 60-minute chronograph totalizer at 10 o’clock. In my opinion, neither the DH 1962’s 24-hour indicator nor the MoonSwatch’s 1/10-second sub-dials are particularly useful. However, given that I opted for the DH 1962 with date, the 24-hour sub-dial helps in ensuring that the time and date are set correctly, avoiding instances when the date advances at noon instead of midnight.
The DH 1962’s sub-dials are finished with concentric circle patterns and are distinguished from the rest of the dial with a different color while the MoonSwatch uses a combination of recessed dials, concentric circles, different colors, and prints, depending on the model or “mission” as Swatch calls it. In addition to that, the DH 1962 also uses applied hour markers with vertical-patterned tops instead of the printed markers in the MoonSwatch. I also love the matte-blackened sub-dial hands which give them a stealthy look. I do wish that the DH 1962’s lume is more effective as the small blocks at the outer end of the hour markers and the thin strips on the central hands are not easily visible in the dark. Maybe night races weren't a thing back in the 1960s.
The movement is also another aspect where the Dan Henry is far ahead of the MoonSwatch in terms of quality and value. The DH 1962 is powered by a mecha-quartz Seiko VK63 movement. While the movement is quartz, the mechanical chronograph components allow the DH 1962 to have a crisp actuation, instant reset, and sweeping chronograph second hand just like a mechanical chronograph movement without the complication, thickness, and cost. The MoonSwatch on the other hand is powered by an ETA quartz chronograph movement. There have been some comments surfacing online about misaligned hands in the MoonSwatch but it’s not exactly uncommon in quartz watches, even those many times more expensive. The advantage of a full quartz movement like the MoonSwatch’s is that it can be realigned by the user with a combination of crown and button actions. You’ll just need to find the right manual for it. A mechanical or meca-quartz will likely need a watchmaker for that.
While the MoonSwatch comes with only the velcro strap in a paper box, the Dan Henry 1962 offers much more. It comes with a watch roll and a second leather strap whose color depends on the model you choose. For my Evil Panda option, the primary strap is black with beige stitch while the second strap is what Dan Henry calls natural leather which looks light tan. Both straps are high-quality French leather with neat stitchings and DH-signed polished buckles. The best part of Dan Henry’s straps is always the quick-release spring bar which is especially useful for the DH 1962 given its common 20mm lug width and monochrome color scheme. The number of strap options is practically limitless. I often wear mine on a black Nato strap that I got for my Longines VHP GMT.
All in all, the Dan Henry 1962 Racing Chronograph is better in almost every aspect than the Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch while costing almost the same. The only thing that the Dan Henry does not have is the combined branding of Omega and Swatch and being almost the same shape as the watch that went to the moon. If you are someone looking to get a high-quality, value-for-money, practical and versatile first watch, I would no doubt recommend the Dan Henry 1962. If you are a collector who wants a fun piece of history in your collection, the MoonSwatch would be my recommendation, that is if you can get hold of one. Or you can have both since both of them will still cost less than a tenth of an actual Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional. Do I still look forward to getting a MoonSwatch? Definitely, when I can simply walk into a boutique and get myself one. Before the craze materialized, the MoonSwatch symbolized how Swatch saved Omega and a large part of the Swiss watch industry: cheap, plastic, quartz-powered second watches to fight the Japanese while keeping their high-end mechanical-focused luxury brands afloat until a day when they regain their footing. After the craze materialized, the MoonSwatch symbolized the biggest marketing coup of the watch industry, generating interest well beyond the watch collector community and driving the real Omega Moonwatch’s sales up by 50%. While I wait for the day of unlimited availability MoonSwatch to come, I’ll enjoy my Dan Henry 1962.
Specifications
Model: Dan Henry 1962 Racing Chronograph
Movement: Seiko VK63 meca-quartz
Size: 39 mm diameter, 45.9 mm lug-to-lug, 20 mm lug width, 13.5 mm thickness
Case Material: 316L stainless steel
Crystal: Double-domed mineral glass with anti-reflective coating
Complications: Chronograph, date (optional), tachymeter bezel
Water resistance: 5 bar/50 m
Strap: 2 x French leather with signed buckle and quick release spring bar
RRP: 270 USD (~376 SGD)
Gallery
