By Brent Robillard
Pilot’s chronograph
Benrus, originally founded in New York City in 1921 by three Romanian brothers—Oscar, Benjamin, and Ralph Lazrus—was a pioneer in many domains. It was not only the first watch brand to make a woman CEO (Alice Christian who managed the brand from Switzerland for nearly three decades) but also one to support early debonair adventurers and explorers such as Charles Lindbergh (who was gifted a Benrus watch by Ms. Christian upon arriving in Paris after solo-flying from New York City in 1927) and to dabble in new genre of timekeeping devices—pilot, field, and chronographs—before that many other brands did. It discreetly answered the U.S. Government’s request for a new field watch in the 1960s before Hamilton famously did so, and whilst Swiss and American watchmakers diverted all of their production to support the war in the 1940s, Benrus, who also partook in this effort, found time to create the first mechanical chronograph solely destined to commercial airline pilots.
This is where the Sky Chief comes in. These petite (by modern standards) triple-register chronographs were not what many of us associate to be the go-to timepiece for airline pilots, as Rolex’s marketing machine has been so efficient at brainswashing us that we are all under the impression that pilots wore, wear, and will continue to wear GMT Masters. However, chronographs were perhaps more useful for pilots to calculate all sorts of things they didn’t have computers for in the 1940s—air speed, trajectory, flight time, fuel consumption, etc.—which is why Benrus thought to create the Sky Chief in 1940. Throughout the years, this collection evolved into multiple versions, with rotating bezels, day/date complications, various dial colors and case sizes, however the first generation of Sky Chiefs were profoundly clean, to the point, and dressier than we might imagine them to be today. And earlier this year, Benrus re-released this collection in the most faithful of ways.
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Key features of the Benrus Sky Chief
36mm Case
What we do not expect to see being made new in 2026 are 36mm triple-register chronographs. Dimensions which were normal many decades ago and for many decades to follow, now even considered to be too small for a simple three-hand field watch, let alone a full-fledged automatic chronograph. 36mm is the type of dimension watch enthusiasts and collectors happily attribute to vintage timepieces, and almost feel the need to justify that it is alright to wear smaller watches because they are vintage, but who wouldn’t feel confident enough to sport such a small new chronograph in our beautiful zeitgeist. Moreover, as you are most likely aware of already, when historical brands re-release their iconic models they tend to enlarge them to…drumroll…fit the mostly subjective preferences for larger timepieces. With the DTU-2A/P, Benrus had made a bold move by re-issuing their iconic field watch in its original 34mm case diameter, and bold they are again making the 36mm Sky Chief.
Indeed, this little gem of civilian utilitarian horology measures a meager 36mm in diameter, 42.50mm lug-to-lug, 12.30mm thick, and comes with an 18mm lug width. These measurements are considered small in 2026 across all genres of timepieces and they make the Sky Chief the nimblest brand new triple-register automatic chronograph on the market I humbly know of today. Despite having vintage dimensions, the Benrus Sky Chief packs a bunch of incredible specifications I didn’t expect to see squished into such a small watch—neither did you I would assume. For instance, the case is paired with a screw-down case-back and screw-down crown for a healthy 100 meters of water resistance, despite having two press-down chronograph pushers. The crown further measures 6.8mm and is endowed with tight rows of deeply machined knurling for easy operation, and the pushers have a solid and crisp action with little travel, making their usage too satisfying to only use them once in a while.
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Dial, crystal, calibre
In order to be able to read the time and use the chronograph functionality without any barrier, the Sky Chief boasts a double-domed sapphire crystal with dual-sided clear anti-reflective coating, and nighttime legibility is insured by more-than-decent applications of BGW9 SuperLuminova on the hour and minute hands, as well as the Arabic numerals marking the hours. I was actually a little surprised by how good the lume is on this smaller chronograph. But there is more and something perhaps even more important to find inside a 36 x 42.50 x 12.30mm case: a COSC-certified ETA 2894 automatic chronograph which beats at 4Hz and comes with 42 hours of power reserve. The 2894 is based on the iconic 2892 from the 1970s to which was added a chronograph module—a lesser type of chronograph caliber according to watch snobs—which features a running seconds sub-register at the three, a 12-hour totalizer at the six, and a 30-minute totalizer at the nine o’clock. The 2894 is great.
Of Interest
Despite all of the aforementioned technical goodness, the renewed Benrus Sky Chief is visually quite astonishing, if I may say so myself. Besides being bold in making a 36mm chronograph, Benrus was further bold in preserving the original’s design to an almost T, which was modern in 1940 and distinctively vintage in 2026, with a couple of minute updates. A 36mm diameter was actually not a size the Sky Chief came in when it first came out, as Benrus made a fixed-bezel version in 34mm and a rotating-bezel one in 38mm. So 36 is splitting the matter in the middle and remains small by today’s standards and normal by yesterday’s. Pictured on my 6.50”/16.5cm wrist, the modern Sky Chief wears pretty much perfect, as its smaller diameter is offset by its thickness—itself reasonable—and for its case is endowed with a tall profile, as many older timepieces had. Therefore, this model strikes the unusual perfect balance of being visually anchored in the 1940s while being technically contemporary.
More specifically, the 2026 Benrus Sky Chief presents a tall polished fixed bezel which accounts for as much of the total thickness of the watch as does the horizontally brushed mid-case, itself equipped with short lugs pointing their nose down towards the wrist. Some of the vintage Sky Chief’s, as pictured above, had more of a twisted-lug design which showcased a more rounded profile, while others had straighter, more rustic lugs as today’s model does have. This is where Benrus’ shows us its ability to mix-and-match small details of multiple versions of previous Sky Chief’s to create a more comprehensive version of it today, akin to selecting the best songs of a brand’s 40-year career to create the perfect compilation. And thanks to today’s manufacturing techniques, the brushed and polished surfaces of the case and bezel are well executed and the transitions between the two seamless. And we go get a bonus: a see-through sapphire case-back to glance at the better-than-said ETA.
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And lastly, and at last, there is the dial. You know the saying: why fix something that ain’t broken? Well, exactly. Re-introducing a 1940 automatic chronograph did not mean Benrus had to revamp its dial layout, for if he worked for commercial airline pilots during World War II and beyond, it certainly should work for us regular folks and adventures in 2026. And this is where the magic of the Sky Chief truly lies: it is perhaps the most vintage-looking timepiece I know of when combining its case design and dimensions to its dial design and layout. And shoot me, I am charmed, that I am. Not only for the fully polished syringe-style hour and minute hands, or the fully polished chronograph hand, but also for the glossy lacquered sunburst dial and the grooved concentric circles tapestring the sub-registers and their small, fully-polished hands. Reading the time or the time being measured is surprisingly easy to do, which further indicates that the design was just perfect 80 years ago.
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Specs
| Case | 316L Stainless Steel 36mm Diameter 42.5mm Lug to Lug 12.3mm Thickness 18mm Lug Width Screw-down Display Caseback 100m Water Resistance |
| Dial & Crystal | Domed Sapphire Crystal Black Dial Three Sub-registers Pencil Hands Super-LumiNova |
| Movement | COSC-certified ETA 2894 37 Jewels 28,800vph 42-Hour Power Reserve |
| Strap | Leather Strap /w Stainless Steel Pin Buckle |
Benrus Sky Chief
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Final thoughts
Benrus has made a big comeback in the past two/three years. It has been around since 1921 and shut down and actually reopened under different leaderships, and those who run the brand today did so a decade ago, but had yet to find that formula to transport this historical house of watchmaking to its prime once again. The DTU-2A/P was a rather remarkable re-issue of a 1960s 34mm field watch, and the new Sky Chief is equally remarkable for it too preserved what made the original standout—legible, robust, and functional. The new versions are evidently better made albeit as legible and equally charming as the original ones. And making this kind of niche horology happen today commands a certain price: 3,469CHF or $5,989 CAD. You will be the judge whether this makes sense to you, I think it does when all things are considered.
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About the author
Vincent Deschamps is a museum professional, originally from France, with more than 10 years experience as a researcher, producing visitor experiences for national and international organizations. He is also the founder of mainspring.watch. You can follow Vincent on Instagram.
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