Last Thursday morning, an email popped up in my inbox from Massena LAB announcing the release of a 99-piece limited edition, 1970’s-inspired three-hander: the Massena LAB Dato-Racer. Similar to the email only release of the Geometer back in February, the email said there would be no watch media and no social media promoting this piece, which is intended for “friends and family” of Massena LAB.

Massena LAB’s usually-vintage-inspired offerings are right in the wheelhouse of my neo-vintage collection focus, but their price point usually isn’t, so it only took me a couple of minutes to jump on the opportunity to grab one of their more affordable offerings. It helped that I had been eyeing racing-inspired three-handers for a while but hadn’t yet found just the right one (a chrono with the right design would be much easier to find, but so far no chrono has stuck in my collection for more than a couple of months). Could the Massena LAB DatoRacer be it? Thanks to the two-weekday shipping, I’d find out soon enough.

The watch arrived packaged simply but attractively in a Massena LAB-branded cardboard box with instruction cards and an RFID card that can be used to register and verify ownership. As for the watch itself, the design certainly popped out of the box. The red crosshair, 5-minute indicators, date wheel printing, and oversized second hand pop against the sunray black dial, complemented by the white printing and silver case, hands, and quarter-hour indices.

The wide bezel and case and lug sides are polished, while the tops of the lugs are brushed. The case tapers down from 40 mm at the side of the bezel to about 35 mm at the caseback, which gives a nice silhouette when viewing from the side. I measured the lug-to-lug at about 47 mm, and, interestingly to me, the way the lugs and sides are tapered and polished most resembles the Kurono Toki in my collection, helping to refine the overall design. The caseback is solid brushed steel, but the Sellita SW400-1 inside probably isn’t worth displaying, anyway.

One design decision that’s already generating talk is the decision to style the “2” so that it looks like a “Z.” In looking at the font used for the numbers, it’s obvious that there were to be no curves, but the choice to go diagonal instead of the blockier “2” you might expect to see (as was done with the “5”) is interesting. Was the idea to achieve a sleeker “racing” look with the diagonal than the block-style would give? More differentiation from the “5”? Whatever the idea, there’s now the potential for this watch to become known as the “Z-Racer,” or similar. I personally think it’s the type of quirk that helps give a watch some unique charm (and I don’t think I’m saying that to defend my purchase).

The watch came with a black pebbled calfskin rally-style strap that’s very soft and comfortable (and has a cheeky red lining), but I soon switched it out for my preferred shell cordovan strap in the same color and style. On the wrist, the watch wears very comfortably, probably helped by the smaller caseback and the lug shape.

I was interested to see how the Massena LAB Dato-Racer compared to the Christopher Ward and Longines in my collection, which are the closest price/vintage inspired comps I have, with Christopher Ward on the low end and Longines on the high. I would place this closer to the Longines, in fact, aside from the font, you could put the Longines logo on here and it would look right in place in their Heritage line.

All told, I’m glad I was able to add the Massena LAB DatoRacer to my collection. I’m looking forward to wearing it behind the wheel — and in the office. And I’ll definitely be watching for future opportunities to add Massena LAB offerings to my collection.

Update: After this review was published, I learned on Instagram from @watchesandwords and @the_wristorian that the likely inspiration for the font (including the funky 2), red crosshair, and quarter-hour indices was a vintage Certina DS diver, perhaps the ref 5801-113. Thanks to those folks for the additional info!