For the past three weeks I have been wearing the Stefan Johansson Vaxjo chronograph timepiece with date indication and alluringly colorful dial. This watch went to the America’s Cup World Series races, did a few laps at a local racetrack, and some hiking. It withstood everything with valor, timed the races wonderfully with the 5/10 second counter, and made some good impressions along the way with colleagues and bystanders.
The brand, founded by Swedish race car driver Stefan Johansson, is designed to capture the essence of racing with its design and technology. The model I wore is a bold and powerful Mark VIII automatic chronograph with white dial and racing flags as the markers. It has a super cool raised-scales bony crocodile strap on it – this alone 
garnered a lot of attention.
The chronograph was easy to use and – in daylight — easy to read thanks to a convex anti-glare sapphire crystal. While large – at 47mm – it did not overpower my wrist at all, but rather drew attention to it thanks to the great strap and colorful dial. The watch I wore was crafted of steel, but they also offer black PVD coated pieces. It is water resistant to 3ATM and has an exhibition caseback for viewing the Valjoux 7750 caliber – which is absolutely beautifully finished. In fact, this watch would look great wearing it with the back side out 
– the movement is that nicely finished. Because Stefan Johansson watches are created in limited editions of 250 pieces or fewer, you are part of an elite group of those in the know when wearing one – especially when you learn that every watch is worn by Johansson himself or by fellow professional drivers during real racing events to test it.
The only downfall to the watch that I was wearing was a simple issue: with white hands (albeit they are outlined in black) against a white dial, it wasn’t always easy to tell the time. Additionally, it did not have SuperLuminova markers so night-time reading was fairly unobtainable.
Other than those slight flaws, the watch – with 45 hours of power reserve – worked like a charm – even when I wasn’t wearing it thanks to the easy-to-use 4-setting programmable watch winder it is sold in. Every watch comes with its own watch winder. My opinion- don’t buy white on white, but do take a close look at this much focused statement-making watch. It retails for $7,500.
(For background on the Stefan Johansson brand, see our previous post here.)