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If you’re a watch geek, you already know about LIV. The company made a huge splash on Kickstarter back in 2014 with its GX1 Swiss Chronograph; the startup gained full backing in a scant 11 hours, raising a stout $191k to bootstrap itself into business. Since then, LIV has riffed on the original GX1 with different colors and styles, and now it has debuted the new GX1-A. How’s that one going? Try $915,000 (and counting) raised against a $40,000 goal.
That’s because the GX1-A is lovely. It’s a less ornate-looking machine that’s nonetheless more complex in some ways, because it’s an automatic, with Sellita SW200 (also called 2824-2) and a 26-jewel movement. That’s a very reliable setup; Sellita is used by Baume & Mercier, Mont Blanc and IWC, among many others. The GX1-A’s open-back design lets you see the works in all their glory. Each timepiece also gets individual engraved numbering.
You’d expect that level of intricacy from a five-figure Swiss wonder, but this baby is going at less than $500. Even when LIV is selling it from their online store this summer, it’ll still be beating TAG and Tissot’s Swatch-umbrella breed on scarcity alone. And the spec ain’t too shabby, either.
The GZ1-A 316L stainless-steel case is rated to 100-meter depth. Both the Sapphire crystal rear bezel is a screwed-down design; the front crystal is also Sapphire, which is far tougher than mineral glass. The multi-dimensional dial is bold but relatively clean, especially with black, white or blue, rather than orange numerals. And even though it looks super chunky, a 42mm case diameter and 11.6mm case depth are both reasonably svelte enough to fit beneath the leading edge of French cuffs without worry.