Glycine Incursore II Watch Review

Glycine’s first Incursore hit the market twelve years ago. In that relatively short span of time, the watch’s popularity has increased dramatically. It was immediately popular in Italy upon its release, and has gained a foothold in a number of other markets.
The “Intruder” is simple enough. It isn’t a pretentious piece, doesn’t look to the future. Instead, it attempts to capture the simplicity and efficiency of military watches from the 1930s. The need then was for millions of timepieces to accompany the massive rise in the number of military personnel. 

Today the need is different. Glycine seeks to capture what made those watches so functional. Moreover, they feel the need to go back and improve upon the original Incursore launched in 1998. As such, they’ve domed the glass and refined the hands. Below these cosmetic improvements, the engine of the line has been modified. 

The Incursore II is available in manual and automatic form. This is fitting, as the first Incursore was a manual winder. It’s available in the very unusual Lux dial, which features Roman numerals on the top half of the piece and Arabic ones on the bottom. At its heart, the UT movement 6498 is now utilised. 

This is the centrepiece of the Incursore II line. The new UT movement means that one important change will occur with regard to the manual one; the second hand is now at the 6 o’clock position. Its automatic cousin features the ETA movement 2824-2, and comes with a date display at the four o’clock position. 

Both pieces come with price tags of less than CHF 1,000. They’re water resistant to 100 metres, and each can be fitted with the very interesting Lux Dial. Both are large watches, with diameters of 44mm, a feature that may have helped catalyse the big-watch craze of the last decade.