On the right side of the watch you’ll find two cylindrical pushers for the chronograph—no surprises there—and a big crown. The crown is 7.5mm x 4mm. It has angled coining, which nicely adds to the grip, and it screws down, nestling slightly within the case side. Flipping the watch over, you’ll find an ornate case back with a lot of etching. The center is heavily textured and designed to look like a speedometer with various watch details around its edge. It’s fun, and I always like to see a well-designed solid case back, but there is perhaps a bit too much texture, making the design a little busy and hard to read.

Dial

Moving on to the dial, the Speciale manages to balance a lot of elements in a small and oddly shaped space. The hour index consists of applied markers with lume strips down their centers, and large orange half-spheres on their tips. This latter detail I really like. They look almost like hand painted elements, but are cleanly executed and add a nice pop of color. Around the edge of the dial you’ll then find a minute/chronograph seconds index with staggered lines, giving it that distinct racing chronograph look.

Outside of this, you’ll find a wide and steeply angled chapter ring with a tachymeter printed on it. I quite like how the tachymeter looks, adapted to the strange shape of the case. Moving back in, at 12, six and nine you’ll find sub-dials for the chrono and active seconds functions. Rather than the oft used sunken sub-dial, Straton went for applied square frames. This works nicely with the overall shape of the watch, and helps to break up the dial surface. At three you’ll then find a day/date with Straton’s “S” logo and some text on the 7750 version, and on the VK67 version just the logo and flavor text.

While it’s a dense dial with a lot going on, it somehow works out. The various elements are separate enough from each other to maintain legibility. The different colorways of the Speciale treat some elements of the dial differently. The black dial is all black, save the orange elements. The other dials have contrasting sub-dial frames and tachymeters, adding another layer to the design. On the blue version I got to try, the creamy accents worked very nicely with the blue and orange elements. It makes it a touch busier, but it’s not going overboard.