Overview of the UBIQ DUAL Series 01

Every aspect of the DUAL (bar the movement) is designed in-house at UBIQ headquarters in Singapore. At the time of launch five colour options are available, all injected with colour and personality. Each colour is limited to just 100 pieces and has been assigned a suitably fun name. My review watch is the Applesour, with a dual-tone green bezel over a warm grey dial. You can also choose from Beetred (purple and silver bezel with red accents over a Purple dial), Bumble (black and yellow bezel over a Black dial), Navysilver – (silver and navy bezel over an off-white dial with yellow highlights, Seaset (teal and orange bezel over a teal dial). Aside from colour, the design is the same across all five. UBIQ’s Kickstarter campaign is already underway and the DUAL series 1 is price at $519 USD. This figure will increase to $649 after the Kickstarter campaign ends on 8 March 2024. The warranty is two years, and each watch comes with a stainless steel bracelet and additional FKM strap inside a custom-crafted coloured pouch. 

The Case and Wearing Experience

The 316L stainless steel case is a crowd-pleasing 39mm diameter, with a lug-to-lug measurement of 47mm and an overall thickness of 11.8mm on my prototype watch. UBIQ has since managed to slim down the case even more and all production models will be just 11.5mm thick, including sapphire!

A mix of finishes is used for the case and bracelet. When viewed from top down, the case is visually nearly all lugs. The slim lugs and caseback feature circular brushing, whilst the case sides are sandblasted and recessed, flanked top and bottom by two lovely, wide, polished chamfers. These give the watch a lovely side profile and provide some distinction. What’s not immediately apparent is that the lugs have a lovely additional design flourish; small sculptured, sandblasted cut-outs where they meet the case, kind of like a reduced take on the Omega twisted lugs. Now that’s attention to detail with your finishing! Finally, the case is vertically brushed between the lugs, which you only see when the strap is removed. The end links are an extremely good fit to the watch and when you run your fingers over the join, it’s almost imperceivable.

The flat link bracelet is longitudinally brushed with polished sides and wide chamfers on the upper clasp. Although it has the appearance of a three-link design, each link is one solid piece. However, the bracelet is good quality and tapers down from 20mm to 16mm, so it’s comfy too. Thankfully, it’s also quick-release so even those new to watches can easily swap the bracelet out for the excellent, and very pliable, supplied colour-matched FKM rubber strap to give the watch a completely different look. No tools required! Another plus in my book, is that the bracelet links are secured by single-sided screws. Finally, the clasp is signed and has five micro-adjustment holes to help achieve the perfect fit.

The dual time bi-directional bezel with matt aluminium insert is where the colour pop begins. The bezel inset is split into two. The outer segment is a dark green and printed with a 12-hour scale for help tracking a second time zone, whilst the inner segment is a lighter green and printed with Arabic numerals at every 10, in the manner of a traditional dive watch countdown bezel. Alternate hour markers on the bezel have lines leading to the main dial indices for easy reference. An oversized 12 o’clock triangle in golden yellow completes the picture and aids orientation at night. All bezel markings have a green C1 luminescent compound applied. The bezel itself has a polished u-shaped coin edge (a nod to the U of UBIQ) for easy grip, and I’d describe the rotating bezel as solid. Being a 60-click bezel there is nowhere to hide with alignment, but I’m glad to say that the bezel on my review watch lined up perfectly.

The flat sapphire which has a rounded edge and sits slightly proud of the case, and has an effective anti-reflective coating applied to the inside. The polished 6mm crown bears the UBIQ ‘U’ logo within a contrasting bead-blasted relief. It’s well-proportioned, engages positively and is easy to turn thanks to the u-shaped knurling which mimics the bezel. Being screw-down it also helps the DUAL achieve its 200m water resistance rating.

The stainless steel screwdown caseback simply features engraved typography which lists the essential info (brand, model name, automatic, designed in Singapore, and xxx/100). This info sits within a squared circle border, which carries over the design language used throughout the DUAL.

I’d say the watch wears ever so slightly bigger than the 39mm diameter and 47mm lug-to-ug would suggest. Why? Although the case sits close to the wrist due to its very slim caseback, the profile of the case and lugs is almost completely flat, with just the tinniest hint of curvature (almost imperceivable), so can’t say it hugs the wrist.

UBIQ has said it will smoothen the case profile chamfers for production models. I can only assume this means that the very bottom edge of the case sides will be smoothed off slightly so the case feels smoother against the skin, as I couldn’t see any other need for improving the chamfers. Other improvements that will be made to production watches include polished finishing to the crown edge, improved QC on the bezel printing and shortening the female end link to decrease gap. Again, I couldn’t see any major issues with any of these things, so the fact that UBIQ are making these improvements is testament to their high standards.

Dial and Hands That Pop!

The Applesour sits somewhere between the vibrancy of the Seaset and the comparatively subdued Navysilver colourway.

The dial is deliciously simple on the face of it, but like everything on this watch, it’s clearly been thought about. The dial itself is a lovely warm grey colour, which reminds me a lot of the ‘taupe’ dial found on the Tudor Black Bay 58 925. On the outer edge of the dial is a minute track printed white on black, with no fractions of seconds, keeping with the ethos of clean design. The hash marks at the five minute/hour markers are extended and lead the eye to meet the oversized polished ‘inflated square’ applied hour markers, with blue BGW9 lume.

Rounded rectangles are used for the 3, 9, and 12, and at six sits one of the best executions of a date window I’ve ever seen. At first glance it just looks like another index as it features the same frame design as the other indices, and it doesn’t break the radial alignment. What’s more, because the main indices are pure white in colour, the black on white doesn’t break the colour continuity either. Very clever. Even the date-haters will struggle to complain about this one!

The custom hour hand has a surround that’s colour-matched to inner bezel and filled with C1 lume. The arrow-tipped minute hand has a polished silver-coloured surround, and the lollipop-style seconds hand has a green tip and framed lume pip which glides directly over the hour markers.

I love the dial execution. The applied indices are tall and help bring considerable depth to the face of the watch and the AR sapphire copes well with reflections. Add in crisp, clear bright-white lume and it all comes together to bring great legibility and freshness to the face of the watch.

The lume design is also appealing, but whilst initially the brightness is good, it does fade quite quickly. However, UBIQ will be upgrading all lume to Grade A set for production models. UBIQ will also be improving the quality of the date printing on production models.

Finally dial text is kept simple, with just the brand name, model name and water resistance rating being printed in white.

The Movement

The UBIQ DUAL Series 1 is fitted with the Miyota 9015 movement, which is probably my favourite of all the affordable movements typically fitted to microbrand watches. It’s nothing exceptional but is extremely reliable and reasonably accurate (within =/-). This movement beats at 28,800bph so the sweep is smooth and the power reserve is 42 hours. UBIQ have fitted a customised date wheel, and the seconds also hack, so you can stop the movement and precisely set the time to a reference time.

Final Thoughts

The UBIQ DUAL Series 01 is a breath of fresh air, with a very appealing design and a perfect suite of colour palettes. The whole package is so well conceptualised and executed even down to the packaging and it puts a lot of big names brands to shame.

I’ve been so impressed with the DUAL that I’m going to break with tradition here and get the negatives out the way first. Try as I might, the truth it’s proved difficult to come up with much of any significance especially when you consider the £400 asking price and the list of improvements that UBIQ has already promised for the production models. So it boils down to just two things for me. No case curvature, and no on-the-fly toolless bracelet adjustment. That’s it! By the time you read this an on-the-fly micro adjustment might even be included, as it’s a stretch goal. I’m sure some people may have preferred a ceramic bezel for extra durability, but you need to remember the DUAL isn’t really marketed as a full on ‘ready for battle’ watch, or even a dive watch, despite it’s 200m water resistance and rotating bezel. Plus, it would be a huge technical challenge to achieve a dual-coloured ceramic bezel.

I really appreciate great design and thoughtful details, and this watch hits all criteria on that front. You can absolutely tell that founder Drayson is a Creative Director! This versatile watch has great specifications, is a crowd-pleasing size and puts fun front-and-centre with its fresh, unique design. All-in-all it’s one of the most ‘complete’ debut watches I’ve reviewed to date, and it most certainly will not leave a sour taste in your mouth!

If you like what you see, I wouldn’t hang around as I think these will prove to be very popular. And remember there is just 100 of each colour available!

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Overview – Helicon Master 62 Dive Watch

The Master 62 range is inspired by a 1962 prototype Diver’s Watch found in the archives of a long-lost Swiss Watchmaker (Helicon don’t say which brand, and nothing obvious springs to mind for me here, sorry readers). Pitched by Helicon as a dive watch built for modern adventures the range comprises five unique variants, all priced at £560. Visually the main selling point of the Master 62 range is the unique dials, both in terms of colour and finish. Up for review here is the Blue Hour dial, but you can choose from Lichen Green, Iridium (a kind of burnt orange), Claret, or for those less attracted to colour, Granite. Whichever option you choose, each is special in its own right. What’s more, each variant is truly limited to just 50 pieces, never to be repeated. You can even let Helicon know which serial number you’d like and if it’s still available, it’s yours!

The Case and Wearing Experience

The 316L stainless steel case of the Master 62 has a compact diameter of 38.5mm, and a lug-to-lug measurement of 48mm. The overall thickness is proportionally a little chunky at 13.9mm, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary for a 200m dive watch. The website photos show the watches with male end-links, but I’m pleased that Helicon has now switched to female end-links, so whilst the watch has more wrist presence than your average 38.5mm watch, it still wears very comfortably and should work well on a wide variety of wrist sizes.

The thick mid-case is slab-sided and there is only the slightest of downturns at the lugs. However, thanks to the shallow caseback the watch still sits very close to the wrist which is a good thing. So, whilst it’s not a wrist hugger, it’s certainly a wrist-nestler!

A brushed finish is used for much of the case and three-link oyster-style bracelet, but the case-sides and edges of the bracelet links are high polished. Whilst the case and bracelet are simple in terms of geometry with no additional chamfers, crown guards or unusual finishes, they are very well executed and reminiscent of the original Tudor Black Bay, both in terms of look, feel and heft. Incidentally, the 38.5mm Master 62 sized for my 7 ¼ inch wrist weighs in at 161g, as opposed to 164g for the 41mm Tudor Black Bay (ETA version).

The 20mm bracelet tapers down to 18mm and is adjusted using push pins. The diver’s style clasp features a single action fold-over with three holes of micro-adjustment, and a twin-trigger push-button release with additional security fold-over. Unfortunately, there’s room for improvement with the bracelet clasp and it’s a bit of a let-down compared to the rest of the watch. The milled inner section is fine, but the outer sections are poor. The diver’s extension (and connection point between the bracelet and the clasp) is made of thin ‘unfinished’ metal, the outer security fold-over had a slight ‘lift’ and tolerances on the main pressed-metal fold-over could be tightened up to reduce the gap between it and the bracelet. For me it’s always a disappointment when clasps are overlooked, as it’s probably the part of the watch that you physically interact most with on a daily basis. I also think it’d be nice if Helicon offered other strap options, even if it came with an added cost.

The 120-click unidirectional barrel-shaped rotating diver’s bezel overhangs the case slightly and is polished to its top and bottom chamfers. The bezel lines up perfectly and has a very positive, solid action. The uniform coin edge of the bezel also makes it easy to grip. The bezel insert is made of blue scratch-resistant ceramic which took Helicon a year to perfect. The bezel has a clean, purposeful design with no numerals, only C3 super-LumiNova filled hash-marks and a 12’oclock triangle denoting increments of elapsed time. This no-nonsense look suits the tool watch aesthetic well. Protecting the dial is a scratch-resistant domed sapphire with anti-reflective coating on the inside. A polished stainless steel divider sits between the ceramic bezel insert and the sapphire crystal, which, together with the wide outer polished bevel of the bezel, brings a subtle touch of refinement.

The polished screw-down crown is signed with the Helicon ‘H’, and the stainless steel screw-down caseback features a polished Helicon logo and nicely executed 3d depiction of a pearl diver set against a sand-blasted background. The case has a countersunk recess for the stem of the crown and a cut-out that allows for an easier finger pull. Water resistance is an impressive 200m. Each caseback is also individually numbered in the format ‘xx/50’. On my review watch, the crown didn’t engage very positively, and I found that I had to attempt screw-down more than once. I might just have been unlucky with my watch and of course, being a review watch, it may well have passed through several hands before it reached me, but I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t point it out.

The Dial and Hands

The dial on the Helicon Master 62 Blue Hour is pretty special and each dial is created by hand, the fade or ‘ombre’ effect is unique to each watch, making every single watch truly individual.

Any experienced photographer or artist will be familiar with the term ‘blue hour’, a very special time of the morning just before sunrise, or evening just after sunset. Occurring in fine weather, the blue hour is a spectacular feast for the eyes, which casts a beautiful light as the deep blue sky fades to the warm orange glow of the waxing or waning sun. Helicon has rather magically captured this moment in the dial of the Master 62 Blue Hour by masterfully hand-finishing every dial to create a wonderful polychromatic fade from the blue upper half of the dial to the orange bottom half of the dial. This gives the dial a beautiful three-dimensional shimmer and brings life to the watch face. In the flesh, the dial is certainly a bit of a Chameleon. In strong light the contrast between the two colours is vivid, but in low light the transition looks softer and more subdued. It makes for a great summer watch!

I’m a watch collector with an extensive collection, so I’m at the point where I’m always on the lookout for something a bit unique. The Blue Hour therefore certainly gets my seal of approval, and if anything, it grew on me the more time I spent with it. However, there’s no denying that it’ll probably be a bit of a marmite choice. You may be loving the creativity at play here, or you may be thinking ‘couldn’t they decide what colour to do the dial?!’. Luckily, the other dial colours are still unique but not so outlandish, so you should be able to find the right option to express yourself.

Working from the outside of the dial inwards, a printed minute track in white sits inside of the straight-sided, brushed stainless steel rehaut. Most of the hour markers are square and printed in white, to which Swiss C3 Super-LumiNova is applied. However, unique, polished Art Deco-style applied indices are used for the 6, 9 and 12 o’clock markers and filled with C3.

Simple baton-shaped polished hour and minute hands also have central strips of lume, and a stick seconds hand features a rectangular lume pip.  Whilst the hands are simple and flat, they appear to be perfectly executed, with no rough edges, even under a 5x magnification loupe. Impressive!

A custom-made roulette wheel date window sits at 3 o’clock and alternates between black on white and red on white.This is a nice touch that will undoubtedly please some watch enthusiasts, but I would have loved to have seen an alternating white-on-blue and white-on-orange roulette so that it’s more bespoke to the watch. However, I’m guessing this might not have been possible due to the cost implications of applying the same principle across five dial colours, all made in low numbers. Finally, the top bevel of the date window frame is orange which contrasts against the blue half of the dial, and the bottom bevel is blue to contrast against the orange half – it’s a quirky little ‘easter egg’ that only really revealed itself as I spent more time with the watch.

The Movement

The Master 62 series uses a standard Seiko NH35 automatic movement, which features hacking and hand-winding. With a 41-hour power reserve a beat rate of 21,600bhp (4Hz) and an accuracy rating of -20-/+40s per day, this isn’t a particularly high specification movement by modern standards. However, it’s reliable and robust, so whilst it would have been nice to see something a little more premium, in many ways it’s perfectly suited to a tool watch such as this. Helicon also designed its own milled IPS plated brass movement holder for increased anti-magnetic qualities and shock protection.

Final Thoughts

Priced at £560, the Master 62 has a lot to commend it. The overall build quality and level of finishing seems to be very good, with the case, bracelet and dial all living up to close scrutiny. The bezel action also deserves a special mention, as do unusual touches such as the roulette wheel date window and the unique applied indices.  

In terms of negatives, I’d like to see the threading on the crown improved significantly, as it doesn’t inspire confidence when using it. Secondly, the fit and finish on the bracelet clasp doesn’t match the level of refinement offered elsewhere on the watch. I also think Helicon missed a trick by not making the bracelet quick-release, which seems to almost be expected now from microbrands at this price. The only other negative is a personal one, in that I’d love to see the overall height reduced by a millimetre or two, as proportionally I find it’s a little tall in relation to the diameter. That said, it’s not unreasonable for a 200m dive watch.

On balance this is a well-specified, solid and tough watch which has everything you could need in a dive watch that stylistically occupies the middle ground somewhere between full-on tool diver and refined daily wear diver. The combo of ceramic bezel, sapphire crystal, good legibility, strong lume and 200m water resistance is more than enough for all but the most extreme divers. But let’s not forget the star of the show, the unique dials, something seldom seen at this price! I applaud Helicon for trying something different here, particularly with the Blue Hour version. It’s not only fun, but takes some of the visual romanticism associated with a moon-phase (symbolic passing of time told through nature), and applies it in a unique way that, to my knowledge, hasn’t been done before at this price. Looking at the dial will evoke memories of looking out of a plane window or sitting on the beach watching the horizon until long after the madding crowds have left. And with each variant limited to just 50, these truly are limited, so you’ll certainly feel special sporting this wrist candy at your next Redbar meetup!

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Golby Watches is owned by Craig Golby, a midlands-based UK watch enthusiast and ETSY watch strap retailer who has taken the brave step of launching the Aquareef, a 41mm dive watch aimed firmly at the budget end of the microbrand spectrum. Craig is very open and transparent about the influences. He is a Christopher Ward fanatic and a regular of the Christopher Ward Enthusiasts Facebook Group, so it’s understandable that the Aquareef’s wave pattern dial is influenced by the earlier Christopher Ward dive watches that he loves. But whilst Christopher Ward has continued to move upmarket, the Aquareef rolls back the clock to where CW began and aims to offer the same affordability and value for money of these early watches.

Six Colourways to Place Your Hands On!

There are six colour variants of the Aquareef Dual Timer to choose from, said to be inspired by the UK coastline. Three feature white outer rotating dive bezels with colour-matched inner 12-hour bezels/chapter rings and hands (orange, teal or navy), and three feature black outer rotating bezels with colour-matched inner bezels and hands (orange, teal or yellow).  My review watch is the black dial with orange chapter ring.  Incidentally, the origins of the name Aquareef isn’t as obvious as you first think (well, only one half is!). It comes from Craig’s love of all things water (the aqua part), but get this, the ‘reef’ part comes from his love of the 90s English rock band, Reef, most famous for their hit ‘Place Your Hands’. ! Bet you didn’t see that one coming!

The Case and Wearing Experience

The Aquareef’s 316L stainless steel case is entirely brushed and measures 41mm in diameter (42mm including the bezel) and has a lug-to-lug of 50.5mm. Overall thickness is 13.1mm, not slim but perfectly reasonable for a dive style watch. The true lug-to-lug measurement on my prototype review watch is slightly longer at 54mm, due to the non-articulating male end links. The male end links also cause the outer sections of the second row of bracelet links to protrude from the lines. However, don’t let this put you off as Golby watches have already taken this feedback onboard and production watches will all come with female end links. This will not only look better but will add to the comfort factor and ensure that more wrist sizes can be accommodated. In all honesty though, I’d still say this watch is still most likely to appeal to those with medium to large wrists.

The case shape is simple, with no bevelling or polished elements, but the mid-case is vertically brushed, which is a nice touch. The case is curved between the lugs and the lugs are brushed longitudinally and have a slight downturn. Unlike most watches there are two crowns. The main screw-down crown used for adjusting and setting the time sits at 3 o’clock and is signed with the Golby ‘G’, whilst the 2 o’clock crown adjusts the colourful internal bezel.

The uni-directional outer diving bezel overhangs the case slightly allowing for easy grip when setting the countdown. On my prototype watch the bezel has 90 clicks, which is a bit puzzling. However, production watches will have a more conventional and useful 120 clicks, for precise operation and alignment. The bezel features a uniform coin edge and a tough ceramic insert with gloss finish, another great addition at this price point and something that will help the watch look good for longer. A conventional mix of numbers and hash marks are engraved into the ceramic insert. Bezel action is good but should be improved further with the addition of the new, more refined, 120-click bezel. 

Being a compressor-style dive watch, the Aquareef is a sort of hybrid between a dive watch and a GMT. One of the most noticeable differences of the Aquareef when compared to a true compressor dive watch is that the typical countdown scale found on the coloured rotating chapter ring is replaced with a 12-hour scale. The second crown, positioned at the 2 o’clock position is used for turning this ‘clickless’ inner bezel, which is used to help track a second time zone. This second crown doesn’t screw down, but the watch does still provide a reasonable 100m of water resistance, so it’ll be fine for swimming and skin diving, which let’s face it is all that most dive watch owners will ever do.

The three-link oyster style bracelet has fitted end links to perfectly match the contour of the case between the lugs. Links are secured by push pins and the strap can be quickly removed and changed thanks to the quick-release spring bars. A nice surprise, and something that’s not expected at this price is the inclusion of a rapid-adjust clasp. The clasp has several micro-adjustments slots, allowing ample range for making on-the-fly adjustments to ensure the perfect fit for your wrist. No tools required! Whilst on-the-fly adjustment is not uncommon now, at this price this is a wonderful addition. The clasp is also impressive in its design, being low profile, especially at the safety-lock clasp end. The adjustment mechanism works very well indeed. And run your finger over the safety clasp and you’ll quickly realise that it sits completely flush with the main body of the clasp, so much so that it’s virtually imperceivable, lovely! The only slight negative here is that the edges on the top part of the clasp would benefit from being smoothed off a bit more. However, again, Craig at Golby Watches has confirmed that this is being improved for the production models.

Case and bracelet finishing is generally excellent though, with consistent fine brushing and good tolerances. Dive watch purists might make an argument to forgo the exhibition caseback for a solid stainless steel one (which may also help reduce the case’s overall thickness), but then others will appreciate seeing the movement, so this is purely down to personal preference.

The Dial

The dial is an interesting mix of styles, some successful and some less so. As mentioned in my introduction, the main dial features an oil pressed wave pattern. This is paired with a wide and deep, slanted chapter ring which rotates and is printed in black with a 12-hour scale, comprising Arabic numerals for the hours and simple hash marks for the increments between. This inner rotating bezel is used to help track a second time zone. It has a metallic sheen and is operated by the crown at the 2 o’clock position. I think legibility here could be improved by using a larger font (Golby Watches has since confirmed that the Arabic numbers will be made ever so slightly larger on production models). However, in addition to this I’d also consider printing in white for more contrast and doing away with the incremental hash markers altogether.

The only applied dial furniture is the main hour indices, which are simple gun metal grey batons with strips of RT9 luminescent compound to help aid legibility in low light. Minute markers and micro-markers on the main dial are printed white on black or black on white, depending on which colourway you choose. Dial text comprises the Golby logo at 12, ‘limited edition’ either side of the 12 o’clock marker. Aquareef is printed in same colour as the chapter ring, and ‘Automatic’, ‘10ATM Water Resistant’ is printed above the 6. The framed date window, positioned at 3 o’clock, is colour-matched to the dial, another lovely touch and something that is often overlooked when designing budget-friendly watches.

I don’t think the Golby logo will be to everyone’s taste, me included. I’m not sure why, but for some reason I don’t think ‘boxed-in’ logos work particularly well on watches. However, with this being Golby’s inaugural watch, I don’t think it’d be too late to change this ahead of any further releases. Purists might not like the decision to go with a 12-hour inner GMT bezel or may prefer a 24-hour internal bezel, but for others it will be a useful addition that provides more functionality, after all you’ve still got the dive bezel as well!

I’m a big fan of a large handset on a dive watch, so the Aquareef’s oversized sword-style hands, which are also the perfect length, are welcome here. They feature colourful painted frames, colour matched to the chapter ring and have wide strips of RT9 luminescent compound. I’d not heard of this compound before and had to ask Craig about it. It turns out that it’s a Japanese compound which glows blue at night. I’d describe the lume as ‘reasonable’ at night, especially where you need it most, i.e. the hands.  However, to my eyes, in daylight it has a slightly murky greyish appearance rather than a bright, clean, high contrast white. For this reason, I’d probably like to see a different compound used.

The dial is protected by a flat sapphire crystal. My protoype watch didn’t have any anti-reflective coating applied and suffered from quite a lot of glare, but again Craig from Golby is already on the case and all production models will thankfully have five layers of internal anti-reflective coating. Obviously, I can’t pass comment on how effective this will be, but it should certainly help. I can’t help thinking that if improved lume was used and the hour indices were made bigger, it would lift the dial considerably and improve legibility even more.

The Movement

The Aquareef is fitted with a Seiko NH35a automatic movement, a popular choice at this price point due to its reliability and robustness. It has 24 jewels, beats at 21,600 and has a power reserve of 41 hours. Accuracy isn’t this movement’s strong point at -20s/+40s per day, but it’s perfectly adequate and the NH35a is a good solid movement for this watch at this price point and the right choice here, I think.

Final Thoughts

At the Kickstarter price of just £299, or £280 if you’re one of the first 100 backers, the Aquareef is a very solid alternative to mass market watches such as Seiko 5 sports watches or lower-end Orient, whilst offering better specifications and the feel-good factor that comes with supporting a small business. Everything is of a decent quality, and whilst it may not have a fully resolved design language…yet, this is understandable with a first watch and I’m hoping that any future Golby Watches will improve on this.

Of course, no watch at such a competitive price is going to perfect, but by the time customers receive their watches, the most significant negatives will have already been addressed (lack of AR coating to sapphire, bracelet end-links, and number of bezel clicks). Other improvements I’d like to see would be bigger applied hour markers and improved lume. Aside from these, my gripes mostly relate to styling, and of course this is subjective. I’d like to see the main crown moved to the four o’clock position, to bring more symmetry to the case and I’d revise the logo, or at least lose the square ‘containing box’, as I think it cheapens the look of the watch. Other than that, there’s very little to complain about given the very competitive launch price.

Golby Watches owner, Craig is a very straight-forward, honest guy and this is perfectly reflected in his first watch release. There is no pretence here. What the Aquareef lacks in originality and design flair, it gains in being an honest, capable, tough and well-specced watch that should prove to be reliable and all for an incredible price (around the same price as many quartz fashion watches!). And when you put it like that, it’s a no brainer! Who knows, Craig at Golby watches might even consider making further refinements ahead of the delivery of production watches, based on my feedback. If this does happen, the Aquareef 1.1 should be a very interesting proposition indeed, putting it high on the list of top affordable dive-style watches!

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Case and Wearing Experience

The CLAVIUS comes in a choice of two finishes, Black (Black dial with titanium case), or the Black Edition tested here, which features a black PVD case for a stealthy monochromatic look. The large 44mm diameter case of the CLAVIUS is a bold choice for such a simple watch with not much going on. However, don’t for one minute think that this is a bulky watch, far from it! With an overall thickness of just 9.1mm and no lugs to speak of, although it looks large, this can be worn on a surprising range of wrist sizes. It’s comfortable too, weighing in at a featherweight 42g without the strap, thanks to its Tri-Titanium case. As the name suggests, three different compounds of aluminium are used, with each alloy specifically chosen for its unique qualities best suited to the section of the case it’s used for – the bezel, the mid-case and the caseback. This makes the watch extremely light, strong, resistant to corrosion, anti-magnetic and hypoallergenic. Most of the case has a brushed finish, but sandblasting has been used to the undercut sections of the rear.

Whilst the case comprises three sections, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a two-section case as the integration of the thin bezel and mid-case is virtually seamless. The caseback doesn’t protrude from the mid-case either as the entire depth of the movement, sapphire crystal and slim caseback outer ring are entirely sunken into the internals of the casing. This is discrete and a nice touch.

Another point of distinction is the geometry of the case, which is best appreciated when viewed in profile so that the attractive architectural arc of the rear is visible. A small, signed crown sits at three o’clock, which is surprisingly grippy thanks to the deep knurling and easy to grab hold of thanks to the undercut case design. However, this does also leave it somewhat more vulnerable to accidents!

The sapphire crystal is very slightly domed and has anti-reflective (AR) coating on both sides. The AR does a reasonable job, but for a minimalist watch that’s nearly all black, I feel that there is still too much reflection. Water resistance is just 50m, but this is fine as it’s not really the sort of watch you’re likely to take into the water anyway.

The lug width on the CLAVIUS is a broad 22mm and BOTTA offers a choice of six different straps, including stainless steel options. My watch came on a black unpadded organic leather strap with matching stitching, two keepers, and a simple black pin buckle. It tapers from 22mm to 20mm, and the leather is incredibly soft and supple with zero wear-in period needed. Whichever strap option you choose, they all continue the minimalist, ‘nothing unnecessary’, design language. Plus, with a 22mm lug width, it’ll be relatively easy to pick up an aftermarket strap if you prefer.

The Dial and Legibility

Working from the outside in, the main lower dial is a matt dark grey with simple, but slightly raised, printed batons for each hour marker, which are slightly thicker and longer for each of the cardinal points. The bright green hour and minute hands are only visible in this sector of the dial. The visible part of the hour hand is a stubby isosceles trapezoid shape which extends halfway across the outer dial, and the minute hand is a thin tapering triangle which extends nearly to the edge of the dial.

A large matt black disc obscures most of the lower dial and is raised to the underside of the sapphire crystal adding much needed sense of depth. This disc also conceals the stems of all three hands and the pinion. Arabic numerals in grey can be found at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock positions. Rectangular apertures are precisely cut out from the centre disk, through which you catch glimpses of the white seconds hand as it jumps from window to window in one second increments, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a dead-beat seconds complication. This is very much the party trick of the CLAVIUS and what makes it unique. It’s ingenious in its simplicity and mesmerising to watch! Even though you know that underneath the floating dial, the seconds hand must be moving regularly at 8 beats per second like a normal automatic watch, no matter how hard you try, you can’t perceive it and you’d swear it’s only ‘ticking’ once per second. The BOTTA logo and ‘automatic’ text are cut-out at the 3 o’clock position, and this text fades in and out when the white seconds hand passes once a minute. 

Although the dial is uncluttered, I wouldn’t say legibility is a strength of the CLAVIUS. Even though the hands are bright, only small sections are visible. And whilst, of course, this is part of the design, I think the overall aesthetic could be retained whilst decreasing the size of the centre floating disk slightly to allow for larger visible sections of the hour and minute hands. Similarly, in low light, it can be difficult to see the time at a glance as the Super-LumiNova is fairly poor and doesn’t glow very brightly. For a watch such as this, I feel that the lume should be exceptional, but it’s sadly not.

Finally, whilst the CLAVIUS does have an anti-reflective coating applied to both sides of the sapphire crystal, I’d like to see reflections reduced further still. With a big expanse of all-black/dark grey dial and a domed shape crystal reflections are bound to be more prominent than on most watches.

Movement

BOTTA has opted for a Elaboré grade Sellita SW200-1 to power the watch, which can be seen through the exhibition sapphire caseback. This simple, but robust and accurate Swiss automatic movement has also been ‘individually adjusted by hand’, although BOTTA doesn’t elaborate any further on this. A custom rotor has also been fitted and bears the ‘CLAVIUS’ name acid etched in a gold colour. A nice design detail has also been etched into the rotor which mimics the cut-out dial apertures for the ‘digital’ seconds track on the front of the watch.

Final thoughts…!

I imagine the CLAVIUS will be a bit of a ‘marmite’ watch that will appeal to a narrow cross-section of buyers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it means that it’s daring to be different and stands out from the crowd. I can see it appealing to lovers of modernism, younger generations who have been raised on smart watches but have an interest in mechanical watches, and seasoned watch enthusiasts and collectors looking to add some novelty to their collection. However, given the CLAVIUS’ $1953 / €1830 price tag (at time of writing), it’s a big ask to expect the CLAVIUS to tempt people away from more conventional historied Swiss brands such as Oris, Longines and Hamilton at similar price points.

With a reliable Swiss movement, sapphire sandwich and titanium case, the CLAVIUS offers solid specifications, but nothing out of the ordinary. So, I guess its appeal will lie in its design-led, Bauhaus-inspired modernist aesthetic. BOTTA certainly puts out some distinctive watches, and CLAVIUS with its ‘digital’ seconds is perhaps one of the most unique of the brand’s two-handers. But the watch’s simplicity might be a stretch too far for some, and it could be argued that with such a large expanse of negative space on offer, a 40mm case might have sufficed.

With a watch this stripped down, I feel that what remains needs to be amplified. More extravagance could be lavished by way of top-tier engineering such as an oil-filled dial for the ultimate legibility, flawless execution of solid luminescent blocks for the hands, or applied indices cut with precision.

I admire BOTTA for doing things a little differently and the brand certainly has a niche. The CLAVIUS is a very clever design, without being complicated or expensive to manufacture. It’s a strikingly modern watch and a unique conversation piece, with a party trick certainly intrigues!

The post BOTTA CLAVIUS Review – The Bauhaus Watch With A Party Trick Up Its Sleeve! appeared first on 12&60.

Héron first appeared on the scene in 2021 with its Gladiateur, but the Montreal-based company’s second watch, the Marinor, is quite the leap forward and offers an appealing mix of vintage charm and modern-day capabilities.

Taking inspiration from dive watches of the past, most notably the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Héron dubs the Marinor ‘a tribute to seafaring and 1950s diving watches’. It’s a well-timed release that will have some buyers scratching their heads as to why they’ve just spent nearly as much money on a plastic Swatch with fabric strap (Swatch/Blancpain collaboration for those who have been living under a bush for the past few months!).

Three colourways are available from the core collection, priced at $620 USD – Seastorm Black, Atlantic Blue (a dark, dusky blue) and my favourite, the vibrant Caribbean Blue with matching sapphire bezel (Close to teal in colour). My review model was the Maelstrom from the Anchor Collection which was an exclusive colour as part of Heron’s Kickstarter campaign. Sadly, this colour is no longer available, so apologies to those who like the look of it from my photos. Unfortunately, my review watch was delayed at customs, so I couldn’t publish my review before the campaign ended. 

The Case and Wearing Experience

The Marinor’s case dimensions are sure to be crowd-pleasing. With a diameter of 39mm, lug-to-lug measurement of 47mm and overall height of 12.9mm, it’s an easy watch for most people to wear.

The case is made from 316L stainless steel, standard issue for watches now, right? Yes, but Héron has given the entire case and bracelet a hardening treatment, which is a huge selling point. This provides a hardness rating of 1200hv (Vickers), six times that of stainless steel. What this means is that your Marinor will stay looking pristine for longer, and that this is one of the most ‘Instagramable’ watches out there, so go ahead and grab those ‘on the rocks/at the beach’ pics all you like, without fear of scratches.

I was initially sceptical about just how scratch resistant the watch would be, but I was encouraged by Héron to use the length of ‘standard’ stainless steel bracelet included in my review package as a benchmark against which to test the Marinor’s scratch resistance. They insisted that I give it my best shot and attack the watch case and bracelet with everything I had. Now that’s confidence in your product! Being the reserved English gentleman that I am, I was reluctant and decided to photograph the watch first, just in case. But once I’d got my quota of pics, I did indeed put it to the test, using paperclips at first, progressing to the end of a skewer and finally a knife. I was disappointed at first as I could see marks to the metal. However, after a quick rub of the surface the watch appeared to heal itself, surviving unscathed, so much kudos to Héron here!

In terms of design, the mid-case is very slim and has a lovely profile with lugs that curve gently down, something that undoubtedly adds to the comfort factor. The 6mm screw-down crown features a ship’s wheel and sits at the 3 o’clock position, flanked by full-sized crown guards. Crown operation is good, with a confident screw-down action and no ghost date position.

The case features a blend of different finishes which adds to the refinement and level of detail. The mid-case is horizontally brushed to the sides, with circular brushing to the tops of the lugs. Polished bevels grace the edges of the lugs and widen towards the bracelet end.

The 120-click rotating bezel is polished, has a rounded coin edge for grip and a gorgeous, domed sapphire insert. Bezel markings are kept simple, with Arabic numerals for the 15, 30, 45-minute markers and hash marks for every five minutes between. It’s a good move to keep markings simple here as legibility on a domed sapphire is never going to be quite as strong as on a flat bezel insert.

Rising above the bezel is a scratch resistant, box sapphire crystal with clear anti-reflective coating to the underside, a detail that adds to the vintage vibe and is an indication of the attention to detail and quality materials used. Bezel action is excellent; smooth, accurate, and refined. I’d go so far as to say that the bezel action is probably the best I’ve experienced on a microbrand watch.

The screw-down stainless steel caseback depicts an archetypal ship captain. It’s a complex engraved and embossed design that combines brushed, bead-blasted and polished elements. The caseback is also nice and slim and barely protrudes from the mid-case, so the watch sits flush to the wrist. 

Case finishing on my review watch is flawless, save for ‘dink’ to one of the lugs. I’m assured isn’t a manufacturing fault, so I can only assume the watch must have had an unfortunate accident either with a previous reviewer or at some point on its arduous journey around the world to get to me). Comfort on the wrist is exceptional for a dive watch with 300m of water resistance. It perhaps not surprising that it feels considerably slimmer than 12.9mm, as the case without the sapphire is just 11.3mm, and even less if you take off the domed sapphire bezel.

The Bracelet

The three-link bracelet of the Marinor tapers from 20mm to 16mm and is of a flat link design. When viewed from the side, each individual link is u-shaped, with a flat top. When viewed from the top this gives a highly engineered look with tight tolerances and hardly any daylight visible between the lugs. This design means that the bracelet is completely fluid in one direction thanks to the u-shaped underside, but you can’t ‘stack’ the links back on themselves like on some bracelets.

Short female end links and articulated second links means that the lug-to-lug measurement is a true indication of span across the wrist, and each of the screwed links is relatively small too. These combined factors mean that the watch hugs the wrist well.

The bracelet is quick-release for easy strap changes and has a milled twin-trigger deployant clasp which features polished bevelling and an engraved stylised Heron.  The push buttons are ellipse-shaped and more substantial compared to many. You’ll have no problem getting the perfect fit either, thanks to the micro-adjustment system which slides at the push of a button, no tools required!

Movement

The Model Three is powered by the Miyota 9039 Japanese automatic movement, from global brand, Citizen. This extremely reliable movement beats at 28,800 vph / 4Hz, which gives a smooth 8 ticks per second, and it’s a close competitor to the Sellita SW200 in all respects bar accuracy, which is within -10s / + 30 seconds per day.

The Dial and Hands

All variants of the Marinor feature fumé dials that have a subtle gradient going from lighter in the centre of the dial, to darker at the outer edge. Indices comprise circular polished silver hour markers and rectangular batons for the 3, 6, and 9. Taking pride of place at 12 o’clock is a uniquely shaped index said to represent the North Star, a significant symbol for seafarers. All indices are filled with a blue BGW9 Super Lumi-Nova luminescent compound for excellent legibility in low light. You’ll find a simple minute track on the dial’s outer edge, which comprises printed hash marks and printed dagger-shapes at every five minutes. Other than that, the dial is clutter free, with no date window to interrupt the symmetry or micro-second printing to distract visually.

The hour, minute and seconds hand are all polished but feature longitudinal centre creases to reflect light and aid legibility. The hour hand is a broad arrow, filled with BGW9 lume which mirrors the arrow-shaped surround. The minute hand is a tapering sword shape with a lume strip that covers about a third of its entire length. Again, it’s shaped to mirror the frame of the hand. The second hand features a lollipop lume.

Legibility is generally excellent for this style of dive watch. The AR coating on the sapphire does a good job at minimising reflections and the dial lume was strong. The only slight negatives are that the bezel lume is weaker, and the printed seconds track isn’t all that visible due to the distortion from the box sapphire. The dial generally looks to be very well executed, but I was unfortunate with my review watch, as there was one small hair (or possibly a scratch to the AR coating under the sapphire). However, the good folks at Héron have assured me that quality control for production watches will be carried out in Montréal and that something like this wouldn’t be allowed to slip through the net.

Final Thoughts

The Marinor offers the best of both worlds; a comfortable wearing experience akin to a skin diver, but with the specifications of a true ‘tool’ dive watch. With its beautiful fume dial and nods to vintage inspiration, it’s on the dressier side of the dive watch spectrum and relatively petite, but this belies its impressive capabilities. There is extensive use of premium materials such as sapphire, and genuinely thoughtful, practical additions including case hardening technology and on-the-fly bracelet adjustment. Add to that 300m water resistance, nautical design touches, and a reliable Japanese movement and it’s clear that the Marinor is a good catch given the very reasonable $620 USD (approx. £515) asking price. In fact, aside from the unfortunate prototype niggles mentioned above, the only negatives I can come up with for the Marinor are purely subjective. I’d like to see the hour hand increased in size slightly, and I wish that Heron would have retained a few more of the colourways offered in the original Kickstarter campaign. But that’s it! Impressive stuff considering this is only the brand’s second watch release.

The post Héron Marinor Review – Skin Diver or Tool Diver? It’s both! appeared first on 12&60.

As the name suggests, this is Alkin’s third watch design, although in some ways it could actually be their third and fourth, as the Model Three comprises two styles, a Dual Time and a Diver, based on the same case shape and internals. The key differences are the dial designs, bezel type and colourways.

The GMT comes in three colours, yellow, powder blue and the brushed copper featured here. The diver also comes in three colours, blue, green and my review colour, black. The GMT features a steel 12-hour bezel for tracking a second-time zone, whereas the Diver features a countdown bezel which either matches the dial colour, or in the case of the green, contrasting black bezel.

The Model Three is available for pre-order now, priced at £375, after which the price will increase to £445. Estimated shipping is January 2024.

The Case

The 316L stainless steel case has a diameter of 40.5mm and a lug-to-lug measurement of 48.5mm. Overall thickness is 12.5mm. These are certainly crowd-pleasing dimensions, which provide a good balance between wrist presence and wearability, so the Model Three should look right at home on a wide range of wrist sizes.

The modern, angular three-section case is entirely brushed for a tool watch vibe and features elegant lugs, sharply cut. The bulk of the watch is in the mid-case, which is straight-sided and vertically brushed (from dial-side to caseback). This suits the design of the watch perfectly and helps give the profile a distinctive look. The tops of the lugs feature longitudinal brushing from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock and the low-profile caseback helps the watch to sit flush on the wrist.

The case is weighty, and it feels and looks precisely engineered. The brushing is carried out to perfection and the transition lines are crisp and precise. The standard here is very high and the perception of quality is far beyond its price point.

The screw-down stainless steel caseback and grippy, well proportioned, screw-down crown help provide an ample 200m water resistance. The caseback has a circular brushed finish and is engraved with the key specifications and model name, including a nod to the brand’s Bristol heritage. The 6.5mm crown sits at the 4 o’clock position, something which I personally love as it means that there’s no chance of it digging into your wrist. The crown is engraved with the brand’s logo, and it engages confidently, winds smoothly and pops out freely.

The 120-click rotating bezel is unidirectional on both the Dual Time and the Diver models. The three Dual Time watches feature a brushed stainless bezel insert with BGW9-filled lume pip at 12 o’clock and laser-etched Arabic numbers denoting hours, which are filled with black paint. Whilst you couldn’t call these watches GMTs, the 12-hour dual-time feature does at least speed up telling the time in a second time zone, although I’m not sure as to the reason why a 24-hour bezel wasn’t used.

The Diver variants have traditional elapsed-time dive bezels with lumed Arabic numerals at 15, 30, 45 minutes, and lumed hash markers for every five minutes between. A black bezel is used for the black and green dials, whereas the blue dial features a matching blue bezel. The brushing on bezel insert of my black Diver prototype was off axis, but Charlie is already on the case and I’ve every confidence that he wouldn’t let a production model be sent out to a customer with such an issue. Bezel alignment on both of my review models was accurate with no backplay, although the bezel action on the GMT felt slightly smoother, more refined and ‘lower-pitched’.

The bracelet

All versions of the Model Three will be supplied with a brushed stainless steel bracelet that tapers nicely from 20mm down to 18mm. It has solid end links and a milled clasp. Adjustment links are secured by single-sided screw pins and there are six-stops of micro adjustment so it’s easy to achieve the perfect fit.

Much like the case, the bracelets on my review watches were engineered beautifully and brushed to perfection. However, on my prototype Diver I did have some issues. The security fold-over catch wouldn’t stay shut under tension from flexing the wrist, and the main outer clasp didn’t want to lock into place either. Whilst these two things combined are significant negatives, I’m sure these are prototype niggles rather than inherent design faults. Charlie at Alkin has been very receptive to my feedback and offered assurance that production watches will be thoroughly inspected as part of quality control process and not released to customers like this.

The only negative for me in terms of bracelet design is that the end links of the bracelet have a slightly soft, rounded finish which is at odds slightly with the sharp geometry of the lugs and case.

The dial

The dial is where the main differences lie between the Dual Time and the Diver, and where each sibling finds its own personality. I feel that the Dual Time is a modern design, whereas the diver has a more vintage-inspired dial. Both versions featured dual-layered dials, but the execution is completely different. On the Dual Time the centre of the dial is cut out purely to add depth and interest to the dial, with the base layer being the same colour and featuring the same vertically brushed finish as the upper layer (the blue and yellow version aren’t brushed). The diver features a sandwich dial construction with the hour markers cut out to reveal the white of the layer beneath.

The hands and applied markers on the Model Three Dual-Time share a ‘stadium shape’ design language, giving the watch a more clean, modern look. The black frames of the hands and applied indices contrast nicely against the dial, and they are filled with Super Lumi-Nova BGW9 which glows strongly at night. The indices also have considerable height which brings a sense of depth to the dial. These factors combine to ensure excellent legibility in any lighting conditions. Dial text is kept nice and simple, with just the brand name above the pinion and ‘Automatic’ below. Attention to detail is evident in a few nice design touches on the dial. Firstly, the outer rounded end of the minute hand perfectly aligns with each index as it passes over. Secondly, the length of the hour hand perfectly reaches the edge of the centre dial cut-out. And lastly, the simple stick minute hand has a lumed lollipop disk, the centre of which perfectly aligns with where the inner and outer dials meet. It’s all very pleasing to the eye, symmetrical and satisfying!

Indices on the Diver are a mix of circular hour markers and larger triangular markers at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 positions. The indices at 3, 6 and 9 are also printed with black Arabic numerals. The Diver has an all-white handset, with an arrow-shaped hour hand, a pointed sword for the minute hand, and a stick seconds hand with circular lume pip. The green dial variant of the Diver features Super Lumi-Nova X1 C3 for hands, indices and bezel markings,whereas the blue and black dials have Super Lumi-Nova BGW9. Again, lume application is consistent and glows brightly, lasting well into the night. Dial text on the diver comprises brand name above the pinion and ‘Automatic, 200m/656ft’ below.

The flat sapphire crystal on both models has an anti-reflective (AR) coating to the underside which does a reasonable, but not exceptional job.

Dial execution is impressive on both variants, with precise printing, well applied/cut-out indices, consistent brushing on the copper dial variant of the Dual Time, and nicely textured upper dial layer on the Divers.

Movement

The Model Three is powered by the Miyota 9039 Japanese automatic movement, from global brand, Citizen. This extremely reliable movement beats at 28,800 vph / 4Hz, which gives a smooth 8 ticks per second, and it’s a close competitor to the Sellita SW200 in all respects bar accuracy, which is within -10s / + 30 seconds per day.

Final Thoughts

The Alkin Model Three offers plenty of choice for buyers, with two core styles and six variants. To my tastes, the design of the diver is more successful when combined with the colourful and playful blue and green dials, which also have contrasting colour accents courtesy of the seconds hand. I feel the black and white is just a little austere for the retro design. However, there will aways be buyers for more conservative dial colours, so I’m not at all surprised that black is offered as an option. The GMT works well in all colourways and I love them all, but if I had to choose, I’d probably pick the brushed copper dial variant.

Provided Alkin can resolve the niggles that were evident with my prototype models, it’s difficult to find much to complain about considering the price point. About the only negative I can find is the end-link design, which I feel could be sharpened up a bit to better match the sharp lines of the case. A nice-to-have would be on-the-fly bracelet adjustment, but it’s certainly not expected at this price point. And I guess some people might like to see quick-release bracelet, but again, as the lugs are drilled this is not really a big negative as strap changes are relatively easy.

The Model Three offers great value for money at the full retail price. At the pre-order price of £375, it’s virtually theft! It’s solidly built, very well-designed, fit and finish is impressive, and it’s comfortable to wear. Add in strong lume and 200m water resistance and you could argue that there’s no need for another watch. However, on the flip-side, although every Model Three shares the same core attributes, the Dual Time and the Diver are sufficiently different that you could have one of each and feel like you’re not wearing the same watch!

The post Review: Alkin Model Three – Great British Design, Bargain Price! appeared first on 12&60.

Not your average dive watch!

First off, before I even get to the ‘what made me go wow’ section, I’ve got to say that the unboxing experience set the tone for what was to follow. The Apple-like tolerances on the packaging were impressive, with seemingly not a gram of the 100% sustainable packaging going to waste. Getting to your watch is a bit of a Russian doll experience, so you feel like a kid at Christmas. Think fabric pouch within inner box, within outer box, handwritten notes, all using quality textured card, branded and embossed. It strikes just the right balance between making you feel like it’s a special experience but without ever feeling opulent or like a disproportionate amount of your money is being spent on the packaging. Even the functional protective packaging made me think that someone at Aera must be in high demand come Christmas wrapping time!

Get to the watch, and you can tell right away that it’s a hefty bit of kit, but before you’ve even unwrapped the plastic you also get a good feeling about the form. The first thing I noticed was that the rubber strap is very high quality, without being too bulky like some rubber straps. Then, unpeel the plastic from the dial-side and you’re hit with the beauty of the drop-dead gorgeous, bespoke, high-domed sapphire crystal covering the concave dial. It’s quite unlike any other watch and I was genuinely excited to get it on my wrist. Not a bad start for a watch brand that many of you might not have heard of yet hey?!

Now that I’ve had time to take a deep breath and calm my excitement, let’s dive into the structured review and see if the good vibes continued…

The Case And Wearing Experience

The first sign that Aera is a microbrand that does things differently is that the case of the D-1 Diver is made using 904L stainless steel. This is more expensive than 316L stainless steel both in terms of raw material costs and the machining costs, but has numerous benefits, such as greater resistance against corrosion and ability to take a higher polish than other grades of steel. The fact that Rolex uses 904L stainless steel, gives you some indication that this is a premium material. Aera has not scrimped on details either as, unlike many watch brands that use 904L for the main case but 316L for other parts, Aera uses 904L stainless steel throughout, including the caseback, crown, bezel, and even the buckles on the straps!

The case diameter is 44mm, so there’s no denying this watch is on the larger side. It’s thick too, with an overall height of 16mm. You could probably use this watch as a weapon in close combat, and I’m pretty sure it would even survive nuclear meltdown. However, considering its mass, it feels delightful on the wrist. There are a few reasons for this…

Firstly, the case itself is a much more reasonable 13.4mm thick, with a diameter of 42mm. The remainder of the diameter comprises the overhanging bezel (which significantly aids grip) and the thickness is boosted by the star of the show, the stunning sapphire crystal that covers the dial. The lug-to-lug measurement in relation to the case diameter is also reasonable at 49.8mm.

Secondly, case design and integration with the supplied custom fit, curved-end straps is beyond reproach. The organic undercut case shape combines a series of complex compound curves, with a barrel-shaped centre, and a profile that somewhat resembles a UFO. The lugs angle down sharply, and when combined with the sharply downturned, formed straps, the watch hugs your wrist like a koala to a gum tree. You can’t help but love it.

Lastly, the bezel and sapphire integrate perfectly with a seamless gentle curve, meaning you’re less likely to catch your clothing on the D-1 than most watches this size.

The entire watch has a brushed finish. The top and bottom sections of the lugs, and solid caseback feature circular brushing, whereas the mid-case features linear brushing. The screw-down caseback is engraved with the Aera logo, serial number of the watch and some of its specifications. A nice touch is that the serial number is also engraved onto the reverse of the bottom right lug. The 120-click unidirectional rotating bezel has a matt black ceramic insert with Swiss Super-Lumi-Nova X1 filled, engraved Arabic numerals and hash markers. The Bezel action is crisp, lines up perfectly and has zero back play. Looking at the case on a macro level, maybe the brushing could have been slightly finer, but that’s about the only negative here. Whether this is something that’s just more noticeable on 904L because of the sheen, I’m not sure, but it’s not something you’d pick up on unless examining under a loupe.

The large 6.5mm crown juts out from the case a fair way, but somehow never digs into your wrist. The crown is grippy, engages positively and features a blue, lumed accent to match the 12 o’clock bezel marker. Water resistance is an impressive 300m / 30ATM.

Size Analogy Alert!

In true Watchfinder style, let me make a poor attempt at an analogy here. You’re sat on a train, with an empty seat beside you. At the next stop a much larger than average chap, let’s call him Dave, makes a b-line for the gap. He takes a seat, but rather than being aware of his mass, he ‘man-spreads’ like a Puffer Fish in an inflatable sumo suit. Well, the D-1 Diver is the opposite of Dave. The D-1 Diver is Dave trying his darndest to huddle up and pull every flailing limb inward in an attempt to minimise his mass, thus avoiding intimidating others or meeting some stereotype the other passengers may have of him!

Special mention for the straps

The lug width on the Aera D1-Diver is 22mm, so it’ll be relatively easy to buy aftermarket straps for. However, I seriously doubt you’ll feel the need to. Aera generously supplies three straps as standard, two core straps (black rubber, and grey suede), and you get to choose the third. My favourite was the Orange Pebble leather strap. Make no mistake, these are not cheaply made straps bundled in just to make it look like you’re getting more for your money. The supplied straps are carefully chosen and are some of the best quality straps I’ve handled. All are bespoke to the watch and feature bolstered, curved ends with quick-release spring bars. They fit extremely close to the case and look amazing. The straps are also formed so that they curve dramatically downwards from the case, ensuring the watch doesn’t ride high on the wrist. The custom buckles are made form 904L stainless steel and milled to perfection, with a deep channel to the reverse, which ensures that the buckle sits flat against the strap.

There is no stainless steel bracelet option offered for the D-1, which could certainly be a negative for some people. However, I have a feeling that this might have been a purposeful decision made by Aera at design stage, as I’m not sure how a bracelet would look. In light of this however, it might have been good to fit an adjustable deployant clasp on the supplied straps so it’s easier to get a really precise fit. Oh, and whilst the straps are easy to remove thanks to the quick-release spring bars, they are very difficult to fit, because of the tight tolerances. If the quick-release spring bars were double-sided this might be easier.

Aera D-1 Diver Dial – a lesson in legibility!

As you’ve probably gathered by now, the D-1 Diver is all about function, form, and purpose. There are no shiny surfaces, metal surrounds or chamfering, and the dial is entirely monochromatic except for the end of the seconds hand, which is painted with a blue to match the 12 o’clock triangle on the rotating bezel. It’s clean, simple and has supreme legibility. Think Sinn or Damasko and then some!

And of course, Aera didn’t do the dial the easy way. Extra effort was made to achieve something different. Two design elements in particular deserve mention here. Firstly, the matt black dial is no ordinary dial. It’s sprayed with Aera’s proprietary matt black “velvet” lacquer. (The deeply etched markings are added prior to this.) This makes the surface super-sensitive. If the dial is touched, cleaned, or if dust lands on it after spraying, Aera’s engineers have to start the entire process from scratch again. Now that’s dedication to achieving a vision! Secondly, the dial is pressed as one seamless and continuous piece with the outer perimeter of the dial (essentially the minute track) being subtly curved. It’s this curved dial together with the exceptional domed sapphire crystal that give the D-1 Diver that ‘wow’ factor I mentioned early in my review.  The sapphire crystal also has a double-sided anti-reflective coating applied.

Considerable real estate is given over to immense blocks of Swiss Super-LumiNova Grade X1 which is all applied by hand into the ‘wells’ created before the dial is sprayed. Dial markings are pure white in the daytime, but glow blue at night, except for the Aera logo which glows white. Every marking on the dial is pure lume, including the bezel markings, the blued tip of the seconds hand, and even the five-minute hash marks on the outer minute track. The result is a lume-lovers dream. If you get lost in the woods at night you could probably use your D-1 diver to guide a safe path home.

The hour hand is baton-shaped with a circular design element, and the minute hand is a simple baton. A simple stick-style seconds hand features a circular counter-balance. The hands are all lumed.

True to form, Aera has again shown their design flair in two exquisite details that you might not spot at first glance. Firstly, the ‘A’ in the Aera logo is perfectly framed by the lollipop counterbalance of the seconds hand as it glides by. Secondly, the counter-balance of the seconds hand fits perfectly within the circle of the hour hand as it passes over.

Aera D-1 Diver Movement

The D-1 Diver uses the Swiss-made Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. This industry standard 26-jewel movement beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4Hz), has a 38-hour power reserve, and hacks to stop the seconds hand so you can set a precise time. You can also hand-wind the movement.

Aside from anything subjective, the movement is about the only significant negative about this watch. It’s not that the Sellita isn’t a good choice, in fact far from it. A Sellita is the obvious choice for a watch at this price point and more than adequate. However, Aera missed a trick by not regulating the movement themselves to bring greater accuracy than the standard +/- 12 seconds a day (+/- 30 seconds per day positional deviation). Also, this is a no-date watch, but the ‘ghost’ crown position, which would normally operate the date wheel, has been kept. This is a real shame as it feels completely at odds with the level of attention to detail lavished elsewhere on the watch.

Final Thoughts

It’s impossible not to be impressed by the D-1 Diver. Having it on loan has been both a delight and a surprise. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay the Aera is that I was genuinely excited about it the second I unpacked it. It just put a smile on my dial and made me feel like a kid in a sweet shop. This is quite an achievement, as the more watches you get to see, the harder it is to be awe struck.

The D-1 is a watch that bucks the recent trend of vintage-inspired small dive watches and skin divers. Of course, its size means that it’s never going to be a crowd-pleaser, but to be fair, I suspect it was never designed to have mass market appeal. This is a dive watch in the true sense of the word, a tool designed to be used as such, whilst looking beautiful to boot. Having said that, the watch wears considerably better than its on-paper dimensions. So, unless you have small wrists, dismiss this watch at your peril! To do so would mean missing out on one of the best dive watches currently available for under £1500.

Would I like it to be smaller? Ultimately, yes. But only slightly. The unique design of this watch works best on a large scale. If it was shrunk too dramatically, it would lose some of its appeal and the impact of the amazing dial and sapphire combo.

Excluding any sizing concerns, the only noteworthy negatives of the D-1 Diver for me are the ghost crown position, lack of in-house regulation on the movement, and the lack of a bracelet option. Anything else is either subjective or just nit-picking.

As I’m sure you’ve picked up on, I’ve been blown away by this watch. It’s a remarkable first watch from a new brand, that also comes with a three-year warranty. The D-1 Diver offers something truly different to most dive watches. It combines many unique design elements, it’s well specced, utterly contemporary and it offers phenomenal legibility, probably the best I’ve seen on any watch. It’s virtually impossible to fault the materials used, engineering and overall quality of this Swiss-made watch. This is clearly a watch that has been conceptualised as a whole package, with every detail thoughtfully considered. And if you collect watches, I virtually guarantee it will be unlike anything you already own!

The post Aera D-1 Diver Review – Big, Bold and Beautiful! appeared first on 12&60.

Tool Watches for Explorers With a Social Conscience

BŌKEN, (the Japanese word for ‘Adventure’), is headed up by owner and founder, Daniel Banks, who wanted to create a brand where style meets adventure. BŌKEN watches are said to be a vibrant expression of untamed spirit, crafted with precision for the modern-day explorer. It’s inaugural watch, the Nomad, is Swiss-made but designed in Great Britain. True to their philosophy, BŌKEN also align themselves with Just One Ocean and will donate a portion of its annual profits to them. Just One Ocean is a charity established to protect and conserve the oceans for future generations. They achieve this through raising awareness, undertaking research, and supporting the development of scientific knowledge.

Pick a Colour, Any Colour!

To my eyes, BŌKEN appears to have taken at least some inspiration from Doxa, and Breitling’s Superocean when designing the Nomad. This isn’t a negative as I like both, and the Nomad certainly isn’t a homage watch as it brings plenty of its own design elements and character to the table. My review watch is the Ember Blaze variant with vivid orange dial and black bezel, but a total of five dial and bezel combinations are offered, so there’s bound to be one that appeals to you. Aside from Ember Blaze, you can choose from Midnight Sapphire (blue), Solar Flare (yellow), Arctic Frost (white with white bezel), or Moonlight Onyx (white with black bezel).

The Case and Wearing Experience

The Nomad’s case diameter is 42mm and the thickness is 13.4mm. This is very much a modern tool watch designed to be used as such so it wears true to size, if not slightly bigger. It’s befitting that the Nomad uses a tonneau case shape that is simple and purposeful with no polished sections or bevelling. The relatively short wide lugs, aggressive looking bezel and grippy, well-sized crown combine very well and give the impression that this is a watch where functionality doesn’t play second fiddle to looks.

The case has circular brushing to its dial-side and rear, and linear longitudinal brushing to the sides. Case finishing looks to be exemplary, and in my opinion, BŌKEN has made the right choice by opting to craft the case and bracelet from grade 2 titanium. This not only helps keep the weight down and offers increased strength, but the darker greyish tone really looks cool, especially against the orange dial. For a titanium watch, it’s still fairly hefty, coming in at 129g on the bracelet when sized for my 7.25” wrist (as a comparable, my Tudor Black Bay 41 ETA in full stainless steel is 164g). If you’ve previously ruled out a titanium watch because you don’t like how light they feel, this watch might strike the right balance for you, as the perception of weight it gives on the wrist is somewhere between titanium and steel.

Water resistance is an impressive 300 meters, thanks to the screw-down caseback and screw-down crown, which is deeply knurled to provide ample grip, and etched with the brand’s logo. I’m a big fan of the unfussy case shape, but whilst the mid-case does have a nice gentle curve to it, I think comfort could be improved further if the curve was slightly more pronounced, or the overall thickness reduced with more of a taper at the lugs. I’d gladly sacrifice a decrease in water resistance to 200m if it helped. Rather than an etched crown logo I’d like to see deep engraving or maybe embossing. But let’s face it for most people, me included, ‘etched vs engraved’ detailing will be very low down the list of criteria when choosing a watch!

I particularly love the deep bezel design, which features wide toothing and provides extreme levels of grip, even with gloves on. The bezel insert is made from black ceramic and looks to be well executed with deeply etched numerals and markings. The glossy surface looks great against the matt grey of the titanium. The bezel on my prototype has a nice action, lines up perfectly and has no back-play.

The Straps

The quality of the three-link style titanium bracelet is excellent. Lug width is 22mm which tapers to 20mm, and links are secured using push-pins. The brushing on the links is very fine, consistent, and silky smooth. However, the outer sections of the clasp let it down. The deployant fold-over section, twin-trigger release mechanism and security latch need to be thicker, less sharp and preferably milled. I also wish BŌKEN had opted for female end-links to help keep the lug-to-lug measurement down. As it stands, with the non-articulating male end-links, I measure the total span across the wrist to be 55mm. Of course, the end links do have a slight curve to them, so the reality is that it wears somewhere in between the quoted 48.5mm lug-to-lug and 55mm. Half links are provided, and the clasp has three micro-adjustment holes, so you should have no problem achieving the perfect fit.

In addition to the titanium bracelet, the Nomad comes supplied with a high quality quick-release rubber strap which tapers from 22mm to 20mm and has a weave pattern to the topside, and ridges to the underside. The highlight of the rubber strap though must be the strikingly angular, branded, titanium buckle. Pairing the watch with the rubber strap helps constrain the span across the wrist to a true 48.5mm and keeps the weight down to 92g. Whilst I’m usually a bracelet guy, I have to say this watch looks right at home on the rubber strap and I think if I owned a Nomad, it would spend most of its time on this!

The Dial

If there’s one type of watch that orange is made for it’s a diver! The vibrancy just screams ‘holiday watch’, perfect for a day at the beach, a dive, or an adventure. It also serves a purpose as orange is widely considered to be the most legible colour under water.

The dial on the Nomad has a smooth matt finish, against which the blocky matt-black hands with needle tips contrast nicely. The minute track is printed in black onto the white, sloped rehaut. Bolder hash marks are used for every five minutes/hour and additional Arabic numerals are used at ten-minute intervals, beginning with 05.

On the Ember Blaze Nomad, the hands are all filled with Swiss Super Lumi-Nova C5 which glows brightly in low light and has a green/yellow colour (the four other colourways all have Super Lumi-Nova C1, which is a white compound). I found the lume on the hands to be excellent and I could tell the time throughout the entire night. However, the indices don’t glow as brightly as the hands, so they would certainly benefit from more layers of Super Lumi-Nova.

The block-style, applied stainless steel hour markers also feature C5 Super Lumi-Nova centre strips. The outer sections of the indices are cut at a shallow angle. In certain light they look to perfectly match the matt black handset, and in other lighting conditions, they reflect the light. I can’t say whether this was an intentional design decision, but either way, it really works.

A simple black-on-white date window sits at 3 o’clock. Black printed dial text comprises ‘BŌKEN 1988’ at 12 o’clock (1988 is a nod to when founder, Daniel was born), and ‘Titanium, 300m / 1000ft / automatic’ at 6 o’clock.

The dial is protected by a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal which has an internal anti-reflecting coating applied to the inside for enhanced legibility.

The movement

A Sellita SW200 Swiss automatic movement powers the watch and is visible through the sapphire exhibition window in the caseback. This workhorse movement is a mainstay for watch brands at this price level. It has a 38-hour power reserve and beats at 28,800 vph or 4Hz, giving a nice smooth sweep to the seconds hands. BŌKEN has added a custom rotor, bearing the logo and tagline ‘adventure awaits’. They’ve even gone so far as to regulate the movement to bring an improved accuracy rate of +/-12 seconds per day, which is very worthwhile improvement. Like the crown, it’d be nice to see engraving, embossing (or maybe skeletonization) used for the branding details on the rotor, but in the scheme of things, I appreciate this is nit-picking!

Final thoughts

The Nomad is a watch that ticks a lot of boxes. Not only is it good looking, but it’s tough, extremely legible and uses premium materials. A titanium watch, designed in England, made in Switzerland, with a Swiss movement, 300m water resistance and a ceramic bezel. You couldn’t really ask for much more in a dive watch.

It’s a great first outing from this fledgling brand, that could be made even better with a few improvements. My two biggest gripes concern elements of the bracelet, namely the stamped clasp and the male end links. My other negative is purely a subjective one, that of size. I would love to see the thickness reduced ever so slightly for the MKII. There was a slight misalignment of the 6’oclock applied index on my prototype watch, but when I mentioned this to Daniel, he was appalled. Even though I explained that it’s very minor, he said that any amount of imperfection is not good enough. This is clearly a man who cares about his products, and I have every confidence that Daniel will ensure that production models will be perfect!

The Nomad is a full-sized, modern dive watch with a true tool watch vibe and performance to match. With plenty of colour options to choose from, the BŌKEN Nomad is a very cool and more exclusive alternative to mainstream offerings from brands such as Seiko and Christopher Ward, and a cheaper alternative to brands such as Tag Heuer, Doxa, Sinn. Plus, with two quick-release straps provided as standard, you can achieve a different look in a matter of seconds! If you like the look of the Nomad, I’d suggest you get in quick at the Kickstarter price of £995. The Kickstarter campaign starts at 7.30pm, 15 October and finishes 12 November. Thereafter the price will increase to £1395.

The post Review: Hands On With BŌKEN’s First Watch, The Nomad appeared first on 12&60.

Baltic’s inherent intuition for producing well-designed watches imbued with just the right amount of vintage charm has won them lots of fans in a comparatively short space of time. They have also shrewdly managed to keep their prices relatively low by knowing just where savings can be made in production costs (such as movements used) without sacrificing the overall appeal. It’s for these reasons that I’ve been keen to get my hands on one of Baltic’s watches for some time, so when the chance came to review the new Baltic Bicompax 003 chronograph, of course I jumped at the chance.

The Case and Wearing Experience

Whilst I love smaller watches as of late, I am averse to watches that have shrunk in all dimensions bar thickness, as proportions can look ‘off’. For this reason, when I saw in the specifications that the 36.5mm Baltic Bicompax 003 was 13mm thick, my heart sank. However, after having it on the wrist for a week now, I can honestly say, don’t let this put you off! The reality is that this watch wears a lot thinner. In fact, it wears very well indeed. The case itself is just 10mm thick and the stunning high-domed Hesalite crystal takes up the remaining 3mm. The 1940s-style ‘stepped’ case also helps in this regard. Conversely, I’d also say that on the wrist it wears more like a watch with a 38mm diameter, thanks in part to the relatively long, elegant lugs and lug-to-lug measurement of 46mm. It all balances out nicely and will suit a surprisingly wide variety of wrist sizes.

The finishing on the elegant 316L stainless steel case is simple, being predominantly brushed, with just the dial side of the upper bezel, crown, chronograph pushers, and part of the caseback being polished.

The mid-case is slim and very elegant when viewed from the side and the stepped case is a nice feature. The lugs curve gently downwards, but the relatively deep caseback means that the watch does sit slightly proud of the wrist, but not annoyingly so. The circular brushed finish to the tops of the lugs appears to give a tonally bright, but less refined look than the linear finish to the case sides. The lugs are drilled, a nice feature which makes it easier to swap out straps that don’t have a quick release function. However, Baltic’s own straps are quick release, so swapping these out is even more of a doddle than using the drilled lugs. My watch came paired with the Beads of Rice bracelet (€60 option) and although there is quite a lot of flex in it, I found this combo to be comfortable, well-balanced and light on the wrist. I think the watch might look great with a dark coloured leather strap for added contrast.

The 20mm lug width gives the watch a wide and flat stance across the wrist. Given the design approach taken with this watch I’m a little surprised that Baltic didn’t opt for an 18mm lug width, which would have been truer to the vintage spirit. However, it might then look more dainty on larger wrists.

The screw-down caseback comprises a polished outer, brushed inner and exhibition centre, made from Hesalite. The unsigned push-pull crown is oversized, making it very easy to wind and set the time, a good move for a manually wound watch. Unsurprisingly, water resistance on the watch is just 50m. But then most people don’t buy a vintage-style chronograph for water resistance!

Baltic Bicompax 003 – Dial and Hands

First off, confession time! Whilst salmon dials seem to be a big crowd-pleaser amongst microbrand lovers, I’m not easily pleased when it comes to salmon dial watches. All too often they are either too pink or verge on brown. So it was with some trepidation that I unboxed the Baltic. It was a very dull day when I opened the package, and initially I was underwhelmed. I thought the dial lacked dynamism and the colour was more wishy-washy than I was expecting. However, I’m pleased to say that in better lighting the dial comes alive and has more light play. Now that I’ve lived with the watch for a bit, I think that the colour choice is a good one, leaning more towards copper, but with just a hint of salmon. 

I love that a combination of different finishes has been used. Arranged in a sector dial type design, the centre section has a grained finish, the chronograph sub-dials have a concentric circle pattern (what Baltic call ‘Azurage’), and the hour sector and minute track both have concentric brushing, separated by another thin band of graining. These textures help break up the dial in the absence of any contrasting or accent colours and also help bring the dial to life.

The fully polished flat leaf-style hour and minute hands are elegant and well proportioned. However, adding a longitudinal centre crease, chamfering or contrasting finishes might have helped improve legibility here. The slender chronograph seconds hand reaches right to the outer edge of the dial and has a circular counter-balance.

Polished dial furniture comprises pointer-shaped applied indices at each hour, with applied Arabic numerals for the 12 and 6. The outer minute track, running seconds and 30-minute chronograph registers are printed in black, as is the minimal dial text comprising brand name and ‘Bicompax’ model name. There is no lume, which is to be expected for this type of dressy chronograph.

Legibility and contrast are poor on this watch, especially in low light. Also, bear in mind that once you throw a wide bezel and stepped case into the mix, the dial itself is pretty small. This is fine for time-telling and for style, but not so great if you plan on frequently using the chronograph functions. So, if like me, 20/20 eyesight has long since disappeared in the rear-view mirror, you should probably consider one of the other two dial colours available, Silver Blue or Blue Gilt, both of which have increased contrast. I’m hoping that Baltic might also consider revising the salmon dial variant by giving it dark or blued hands for added contrast, wink wink.  

Bring on the Hesalite!

As any watch brand will know, choose Hesalite for your new vintage-inspired watch release and people will complain, choose Sapphire and people will complain. It’s a no-win situation. However, in the case of the Bicompax, there will surely be fewer distractors than normal. Why? Baltic have firmly planted their flag in the sand with this watch. They make no qualms about the fact that it has been designed to fully embrace vintage, not just pay homage to vintage, or pick and choose certain elements. They understand that this watch isn’t going to please everyone, so those that it will appeal to will probably welcome this decision. I know I do, as the high-domed Hesalite looks amazing and certainly adds to vintage charm. Plus, as I’ve recently discovered (after previously being scared to try it), small scratches can easily be polished out with Polywatch.

Baltic Bicompax 003 Movement

The Bicompax 003 uses the Chinese-made Seagull ST1901 manual winding movement. This column wheel chronograph is based on the Venus 175 movement and is now a mainstay choice of movement for Baltic. It’s non-hacking, has a 42-hour power reserve and beats at 21,600 vph, or six ticks per second. It doesn’t give the smoothest sweep to the seconds hand, but it’s well suited to this watch.

I’ve not handled a watch with the Seagull movement before and was pleasantly surprised at the winding action. However, the crown’s push-pull action takes a bit of getting used to. When you pull the crown out to set the time, the engagement feels vague with very little discernible click, and you’re never quite sure what position it’s in.

I chose to spec the optional exhibition caseback for my review watch as I wanted to show our readers the movement. And I’m glad I did, as the movement fills the viewing window completely, which is a good look. The architecture of the ST1901 also ensures there’s lots of visual depth, so if you love mechanics there’s plenty here to keep your attention. There’s a nice balance of colour, with steel, gold, blued screws and pink jewels. There are also small sections of Côte de Genève decoration.

At a glance, it’s a great looking movement. However, if you buy watches with exhibition casebacks because you like sophisticated finishing and craftsmanship that stands up to scrutiny under a loupe, you might prefer to opt for a solid caseback and save yourself £25 in the process. All-in-all though, when you consider that you’re getting a mechanical chronograph from a respected company for a starting price of just £540 in the days of frequent and rapidly escalating price increases, there’s a lot to be grateful for here.

Final Thoughts on the Baltic Bicompax 003

With this release Baltic is amongst the handful of trend-setters who have fully embraced vintage, rather than just dabbled around the edges. As I’ve been saying for while now, I think we’re starting to see brands shift from making vintage-inspired watches recreated at modern sizes, to truly vintage-sized pieces (KUOE, Nivada Grenchen, Baltic to name a few). Most brands that can afford to experiment with this approach will still offer core collections of crowd-pleasing sizes, whilst others are choosing to specialise. I’m not suggesting that these watches will be the biggest sellers, but there is certainly a growing niche for them.

I think Baltic is onto another winner with the reduced size Bicompax 003. They’ve timed its release well and I’m sure they’ll sell enough units to make it worth their while. I’d be curious to know how sales of this new 36.5mm size compare with its larger sibling, the Bicompax 002.

Other than field watches, there aren’t currently many truly vintage-sized watches on the market, even less so when you’re looking at chronographs. Therefore, at this point in time, the Baltic Bicompax 003 is a compelling package, especially when you consider its price point (from £540, or £625 as tested). This watch will likely appeal to two different types of buyers. The first will be those who already know that they love smaller watches and are looking for a watch with full-on vintage aesthetics. The second will be those who usually buy modern ‘full-size’ watches but are drawn to the romanticism of smaller vintage watches. The Baltic Bicompax provides the opportunity for them to take the plunge without breaking the bank, and without the risks that come with buying a genuine vintage watch.

My biggest gripe about the watch is undoubtedly legibility. Contrast is low, and the lack of angles, chamfering or alternating finishes on hands and applied indices doesn’t help. If you’re concerned about this, you have two choices. You could choose between the other dial colours, or you could look towards the 003s larger sibling, the Bicompax 002.

All-in-all, the Bicompax 003 is another interesting release from Baltic. It’s got killer looks, great overall design, and attractive dial finishing. It’s also configurable with different dial colours, caseback options and plenty of strap choices. Just as importantly for some, it feels like you’re wearing an actual vintage watch and it’s fun!

The post Baltic Bicompax 003 takes the vintage vibe up a notch appeared first on 12&60.

MAEN Watches was established in 2017 and occupy the mid-tier of the microbrand market, with watches ranging from roughly €300 and €1500. The new Hudson 38 GMT is currently priced at just under €800 and available in four colourways. On test here is the GMT AGM.01.

The GMT That Thinks It’s A Dive Watch!

Before I even received the watch for review, certain specifications made this watch stand out from the crowd for me, such as its water resistance rating which exceeds most dive watches, and the movement used. It’s also an incredibly attractive watch. So much so, that its good looks alone will undoubtedly prompt some buyers to reach for their flexible friend (nice 80s reference there!). But how does the entire package stack up, and is it worth the asking price?

Case Design And Wearing Experience

The 38mm case is made from 316L stainless steel and is of a conventional three-section design, comprising 120-click rotating bezel, mid-case and caseback. The case finishing is all perfectly executed and predominantly finely brushed.

Working from the dial-side of the watch to the rear, first up we have a double domed scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with internal anti-reflective coating protecting the dial. This sits slightly proud of the steel bezel insert which has a matt black finish and is deeply engraved with an off-white 24-hour GMT scale to provide an easy reference for a second or third-time zone, in addition to the independent GMT hand.

Brushed and polished finishes are used for the coin edge of the bezel, which provides very good levels of grip considering that, despite the Hudson GMT’s phenomenal 300m water resistance, this is not a dive watch.

I’d describe the bezel action as very good for the price point with very little back play. Considering the watch is a GMT, not a diver, I’m surprised that MAEN has chosen to fit a uni-directional bezel rather than bi-directional. It could be that this is a cost saving measure, as they can carry it over directly from the Hudson dive watch.

The mid-case is a simple tried and tested shape, similar to the original Tudor Black Bay. It has straight sides with longitudinal brushing and has polished bevels which widen towards the ends of the lugs. The lugs angle downwards ever so slightly, but don’t extend past the caseback. The screw-down caseback is also a simple affair, just stainless steel with a brushed centre section and specifications engraved into a polished circular band.  The screw-down crown with signature ‘M’ surrounded by an etched circle, is polished, perfectly sized and has lots of grip.

For a GMT with 300m water resistance, this is a thin watch! Overall thickness is just 12.05mm, and the all-important lug-to-lug measurement is a crowd-pleasing 46mm. With measurements like this it should come as no surprise that I found this to be an extremely comfortable watch to wear. It’s worth noting that the height is nearly identical to its non-GMT dive-watch brother, the Hudson 38 MK4. From what I can gather, MAEN has managed to achieve this by using printed indices for the dial which are obviously less tall than the applied indices used for the dive watch. In addition, the caseback hardly protrudes at all, so it beds down into the wrist and sits flat.

From a visual standpoint, despite the mid-case being slab-sided, thanks to MAEN’s efforts to keep the watch thin, the watch never looks bulky from any angle. Polished bevels to the tops of the outer lugs also help break up the visual mass. The double-domed sapphire brings some lovely distortion and light play to the face of the watch.

The 316L stainless steel five-link bracelet tapers from 20mm to 16mm, feels great and is very fluid. It’s predominantly brushed, but added contrast comes courtesy of thin polished links that sit outside of the centre link. The female end links help restrain the lug-to-lug length. However, the stubby centre sections of the end links sit slightly higher than the outer links and case. Although to me this is not aesthetically pleasing, it’s not a big deal, and I doubt most people would notice it, let alone be bothered by it. But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t point it out so you can make up your own mind. The bracelet’s twin-trigger fold-over deployant clasp is milled, signed and has four micro-adjustment holes. It also has a wide, polished bevel running its entire length. The bracelet is adjusted using single sided screws. On-the-fly clasp adjustment would have been nice, but it’s certainly not a deal-breaker. Overall, the watch head and bracelet combined result in a well-balanced package.

Hudson GMT Dial And Hands

The matt black dial has a grained texture and a printed outer minute track showing fractions of seconds increments, as well as printed 24-hour scale with red Arabic numerals denoting 6, 12, 18, 24 and grey numerals for every other 2-hour interval. Surrounding the main dial is the rotating bezel which has a steel insert in matt black and deeply etched off-white numbers in a very clean looking and attractive font.

The design for the baton-shaped indices is interesting as they are slightly raised from the dial, giving a more premium and three-dimensional appearance than that of flat printing. A double baton is used for the 12 o’clock marker, and all main indices are filled with a centre strip of glowing Swiss Super-LumiNova Grade X1 for improved legibility in low light.

The unique hour and minute hands are sporty but elegant, have a polished steel finish, and are filled with neatly applied X1 Super-LumiNova. The lollipop seconds hand has a simple circle of X1 lume and a tapered counter-balance. Being what is known as an ‘office’ or ‘caller’ GMT, the Hudson 38 GMT has a fourth hand, an independently adjustable GMT hand used to show a second time zone. This is instantly recognisable by its perfectly executed red arrowhead. To set the second time zone, you simply pull the crown out to its first position and turn away from you to make the GMT hand jump in increments of one hour. Everything about the handset looks to be very well executed.

Dial text is simple and clean. Just the brand name at 12, and ‘Automatic’, ‘Hudson’ and ‘GMT’ at 6 ‘clock. ‘Hudson’ is picked out in red to complement the GMT hand. Also at the 6 o’clock position is a framed black-on-white date window and ‘Swiss Made’ designation at the outer edge of the dial.

The only thing I found disappointing in terms of the dial was that the 24-hour GMT scale on the main dial has very poor legibility. Most of the time this won’t be an issue, as you can just read the 24-hour time by reading it from the rotating bezel, provided you ensure that it’s set to its default position with the triangle lined up to 12 o’clock. However, if you’re using the rotating bezel to track a third time zone and you’re not very familiar with GMT watches, you’ll struggle to quickly read the time at a glance. For the Hudson MK5 I’d like to see larger Arabic numerals used on the rehaut, as well higher contrast colours. I also think cleaning up the minute track by removing the micro hash marks (denoting fractions of a second) would help with legibility.

MAEN Hudson 38 GMT – The Movement

MAEN has taken the unusual decision to use the Soprod C-125 Swiss automatic movement for the Hudson GMT Mk4. This makes for a refreshing change from the usual Miyota or Sellita movements and it shows that the team at MAEN aren’t afraid to go their own way. This 25-jewel movement with bi-directional rotor ticks at 8 beats per second (28,800 vibrations per hour) which gives a nice smooth sweep to the seconds hand. It has a 42-hour power reserve and has Incablock shock protection.

Another point of difference from many microbrands is that MAEN went the extra mile by opting for the Elaboré Grade, which is decorated and adjusted to three positions, bringing accuracy to within 7 sec +/-7 per day, impressive! It’s just a shame that you can’t see the movement because of the solid caseback. However, like anything, this is a trade-off. Fitting a sapphire exhibition caseback would have added to the overall thickness of the watch. Given the choice, I’d prefer to have a thinner watch, so this design decision suits me just fine. Of course, this is personal preference though.  

The winding action is great, the crown engages positively in all positions and screws down with confidence. Pull out to the first position and turn towards you for setting the date, away to set the independent GMT hand. Pull out to second position to stop the seconds hand, hack the movement and precisely set the time.

Final Thoughts

There’s an awful lot to like about the MAEN Hudson 38 GMT and very few negatives. It’s well proportioned, looks phenomenal on the wrist, and offers quality that exceeds that of most other microbrands and indeed many mainstream luxury brands. In fact, in-house movement aside, the MAEN even compares favourably to the Tudor Black Bay GMT when you consider that it’s around a fifth of the price. Plus, the MAEN has more water resistance, even though the Black Bay is pitched as a dive watch!

If you’re looking at buying the MAEN Hudson 38 GMT specifically to track three time zones, it’s worth bearing in mind my points above in the ‘dial and hands’ section. In reality though, I think most people who buy GMTs will either only be tracking two time zones, or they’ll just like the look of an extra complication and a pop of colour. My only other negatives are very minor. Some people might like to see on-the-fly adjustment for the clasp, and maybe a quick-release trigger for the bracelet. Personally. I’d like to see the stubby end links of the bracelet sit flat with the case and rest of the bracelet, but that’s about it for negatives as far as I’m concerned.

Overall, the Hudson 38 GMT feels like a premium watch. The finishing is great, it houses a regulated Swiss automatic movement, and one of its biggest selling points is that it’s a GMT that can double as a dive watch, thanks to its unidirectional bezel and 300m water resistance. It’s also on the dressier side of sporty, so if this isn’t a ‘go anywhere, do anything’ (GADA) watch, I don’t know what is!

At the current retail price of around €800, it offers outstanding value for money. In fact, I can’t think of another non-homage Swiss-made automatic GMT with 300m water resistance for less than €1000. If you know of any, I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments section below!

The only fly in the ointment is that for UK customers, by the time you’ve added VAT and import costs, competition does open up from British brands such as Christopher Ward and Farer whose watches won’t incur these additional costs. However, even then, the Hudson 38 GMT certainly holds its own and it has its own style, so it’s horses for courses here!

The post MAEN Hudson 38 GMT review – the watch with the split personality! appeared first on 12&60.

Due to the low production volumes I’ve not managed to get my sticky mitts on this one in person. However, I can say that Sebastian appears to have put together a compelling package for CHF 3150 (under £2900 at time of writing). Keep reading to find out why I think the Pilot GMT LE.2 could be an exciting alternative to equivalent watches from mainstream brands.

About Brellum

Brellum was founded in 2016 by Sébastien Muller, a fourth-generation watchmaker who gained valuable experience working for other top brands, before switching his attention to making watches under his own name. In less than a decade, this independent Swiss brand has gained a loyal following amongst watch enthusiasts prepared to look beyond the high street. The brand sets itself apart from many other by offering small-production quantities and limited-edition watches, with high levels of finishing, design prowess and timekeeping precision.

Inspired by avionics instruments, ready for modern travellers

The Brellum Pilot GMT LE.2 has a diameter of 41.8mm and a case thickness of 11.7mm. However, if you include the top and bottom sapphires crystals it’s a more substantial 15.9mm thick. It’s certainly a full-sized watch, but considering it incorporates GMT and chronograph functions, that’s to be expected. The dimensions also allude to the fact that this is a watch where function is every bit as important as design, and this makes for quite refreshing change in a time when vintage sizing is prolific.

Whilst the watch is inspired by avionics instruments, it drops the austere white on black colour combo found in cockpits, in favour of a blue opaline dial. The blue dial brings a nice pop of colour whilst retaining the high level of legibility associated with avionics. The balance is just right here, as the dial could have easily become too busy if Sébastien had introduced too much colour. As it is, the dial is about as attractive as a GMT chronograph gets in my books.

At the outer edge of the dial, you’ll find the minute track and 24-hour register for the GMT function, printed in white. The main hour markers are a mix of satinated applied Arabic numerals with generously applied Super-LumiNova, and printed blocks of pure Super-LumiNova for the 12, 3, 6 and 9 hour markers. This should give a strong glow to ensure excellent legibility in low light.

The large chronograph registers sit on their own layer beneath the main dial. You’ll find the 30-minute counter at the 12 o’clock position, the chronograph seconds at nine, and the 12-hour register at the six o’clock position, which also houses the date window, printed black on white. Dial markings for the chronograph functions are printed.

The distinctive, brushed hour hand and minute hand manage to be both sporty and elegant, and again feature Super-LumiNova. The same shape is also used for the chronograph hands. The red-tipped seconds hand has a lovely diamond-shaped counterbalance, and the GMT hand culminates in a skeletonised red arrow. For those that aren’t familiar with a GMT, the additional hour hand can be independently set, and makes it easy to track a second time zone. The handset choice throughout is well considered and the same colour red is used for the ‘GMT’ dial text within the 30-minute sub-dial.

Case finishing looks to be very good and comprises brushed and polished finishes to the stainless streel, with bevels that widen towards the outer lugs. Completing the dial-side package, we have an embossed signed crown, and gorgeous box sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the inside. Water resistance is 100m.

To the rear you’ll find a stainless steel caseback secured by screws and deeply embossed with some of the watch’s specifications around the circumference. The large exhibition window is crafted from sapphire crystal and given anti-reflective treatment to the inside. The choice to display the Brellum BR-754 GMT automatic movement (based on the Valjoux 7754) was a good one as it’s attractive and has been decorated to a very high standard, with blued screws, perlage and Geneva stripes. A stunning customised 4N gold coated rotor proudly displays the individual number of your watch (e.g. ‘Limited edition 01/23’) and features a silhouette of a fighter plane. Like all of Brellum’s watches, the movement is officially COSC certified too, so the watch has chronometer levels of accuracy, within +4/-6 seconds per day. The movement has a power reserve of 46-hours and beats at 28,800.

The Pilot GMT LE.2 Chronometer comes with a brushed and polished stainless steel bracelet with deployment buckle, and a custom-made blue Nubuck Pilot strap with contrast stitching. Strap changing tools are also included.

Final Thoughts

To my eyes, this watch is a thing of beauty, and whilst I find myself leaning towards more modestly sized watches nowadays, I’m very happy to make exceptions for watches that have additional complications. The Brellum Pilot GMT LE.2 is certainly a fully featured watch, with no less than three complications – a GMT function for tracking a second time zone, and chronograph function for precise timing, and a date window – so the fact that it’s a larger watch is entirely appropriate. In fact, combined with the impeccable dial design, its larger size is partially what makes this watch so successful as the legibility looks to be exceptional. Form and function have been given equal billing here. The Pilot GMT LE.2 Chronometer not only looks good, but it has clearly been designed to be used as a tool. The whole package is very well balanced, with no area left as an afterthought.

Despite this, some prospective buyers might still be put off by the thickness. As I’ve not got hands-on with this watch, I can’t say for sure how it wears on the wrist, but I’d imagine is wears somewhere in-between its ‘case only’ dimensions (11.7mm) and ‘with crystals’ dimensions (15.9mm). For others, the biggest barrier will be not being able to see the watch in the flesh. However, if you get past this and you’re the sort of person who likes to stand out from the crowd and you’re prepared to look outside of the established mainstream brands, surely the Brellum has to be on your shortlist. In fact, if you’re scouring the market for GMT watches with chronograph functions it won’t take you long to realise that pickings are scant. So when you then consider that this watch is Swiss made, chronometer certified with a fully decorated movement, produced in very limited numbers, and beautifully designed and engineered, you could argue that it’s a bit of a bargain for sub-£3k.

With just 23 pieces of this limited edition available, if you like the look of what’s on offer, you’d better get your skates on!

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Overview

The Tsuyosa (Tsuyosa being the Japanese word for ‘strength’) is an integrated sports style watch aimed at the budget conscious. The retail price is £299 and it’s available in a huge array of colours, from the vivid to the understated. It’s a versatile everyday watch that could easily be your only watch. Equally, if you’re a collector, pick a bold colour and you’ll have a fun summer watch from a legendary Japanese brand, which doesn’t break the bank.

Case and Wearing Experience

The 40mm case has an overall thickness of 11.9mm and a lug-to-lug measurement of 45mm. These are certainly crowd-pleasing dimensions, however, it’s worth bearing in mind that the bracelet has ‘male’ end links which aren’t articulated, so this does add slightly to the overall span across the wrist. Generally though, the Tsuyosa is a very comfortable watch to wear.

The mid-section of the case has straight sides and is thin, with much of the overall height taken up by the caseback. This is a trick that watch brands frequently employ to minimise the perceived thickness of the case. When used in moderation this can be a clever move, however I feel Citizen has pushed this concept close to its limit here. This could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you like your watch to look and wear. I personally found that the watch sits slightly high on the wrist rather than bedding down into it, but this is something that you’ll quickly get used to.

The mid-section of the case has polished sides and chamfered edges to the top which run the entire length of the case including the downturned lugs. The dial-side is brushed, and the bezel is angled and polished. A tough, scratch-resistant flat sapphire crystal protects the dial and has an effective anti-reflective coating. The screw-down caseback comprises a polished stainless steel outer and an exhibition window at its centre.

The three-link bracelet tapers from 22mm to 18mm and combines rounded-top, polished centre links and brushed outer links with polished edges. The engineering tolerances for the bracelet aren’t exactly tight and it’s a bit jangly, but no more so than many watches at this price point. And in all honesty, the flexibility does bring fluidity and probably help somewhat with comfort. The simple, fold-over style stamped clasp bears the Citizen logo and has three micro-adjustment holes to help ensure a good fit. Finally, I can’t help thinking that the rounded links of the bracelet are at odds slightly with the sharp angular design of the lugs.

The push-pull crown is probably my least favourite aspect of the Tsuyosa’s design. I love the placement at the 4 o’clock position, however it’s heavily recessed into the case, so despite a having finger-nail cut-out in the case, it’s still relatively difficult to release the crown, and even more difficult to grab hold of and set the time, or wind. If it’s your only watch this probably won’t be a significant downside, however if you don’t wear it often, resetting the time could become frustrating. Of course, the trade-off is that a heavily recessed 4 o’clock crown certainly helps ensure a comfortable wearing experience!

Water resistance is 50m, which is fine, but given the versatile style of this watch it would have been nice to see a 100m rating for added confidence when using in water. 

Citizen Tsuyosa –  Dial and Hands

This is truly where the magic happens. Citizen have absolutely nailed the colour options available for the Tsuyosa, with something to please everyone. The yellow has proved to be so popular that it’s been difficult for Citizen to keep up with demand. This isn’t surprising as the yellow watches aren’t always easy to get right, but Citizen’s gorgeous, deeply saturated yellow, which leans towards orange end of the spectrum, is perfection. The light blue has also proved popular. However, the green reviewed here is a sleeper and should not be overlooked. The deep, rich emerald green with perfectly executed sunray pattern is honestly stunning in the flesh. Other colour options are more subdued: blue, black and the most recent release, a fumé teal.

The dial layout is simple, but pleasing. Classic baton-shaped applied indices, faceted to three sides, are used for the hour markers, with a double baton at the 12 and 6 o’clock positions   and a date window at 3 o’clock. The minute track is simple with no fractional markers, and printed lume squares denoting the hours. Dial text is simply the brand name and ‘automatic’, refreshingly simple. Whilst it’s inevitable that people will compare the Tsuyosa dial style to the Rolex Oyster Perpetual, it’s worth bearing in mind that this is a widely used design for a reason, it just works!

Only the protruding magnifier for the date interrupts the otherwise unfussy, well-balanced approach. For most people the magnifying ‘cyclops’ will be a love it or hate it thing. I’m actually neither one way or the other on a magnifier per se. However, in this instance I didn’t find the cyclops to all that effective at enhancing the visibility of the date. For this reason, if Citizen ever brought out a no-date version, I’d opt for that!

Date window aside, legibility is truly fantastic on this watch in the daytime and at night. A strong application of Citizen’s proprietary lume ensures that that the baton-shaped hands and indices glow green well into the night. Only the seconds hand isn’t lumed.

The Movement

Flip the watch over, and through the exhibition caseback you’ll see that the Tsuyosa is powered by Citizen’s 8210 automatic movement, which has a power reserve of 40 hours and a beat rate of 21,600 vph (3Hz). You can also hand wind and hack the movement for precise setting of the time. Whilst it’s not a particularly sophisticated or accurate movement, it’s supremely reliable and the perfect choice for a watch at this price point. Citizen has chosen to finish many visible parts of the movement in a gold colour, which provides some interest and contrast to an otherwise plain-looking movement. All in all, you couldn’t really expect any more, given its price point.

Final Thoughts On The Citizen Tsuyosa

Whilst it may sound like I’ve found many shortcomings, in reality some of my negatives are subjective and the rest are minor niggles, especially given the bargain £299 retail price. The Tsuyosa is already proving to be a best seller for Citizen and it’s easy to understand why. With a stunning array of dial colours to choose from, a reliable movement made by Citizen themselves, and a versatile style that will see you right in most situations, its wide appeal is undeniable. Add to that Citizen’s five-year warranty (six if you register your watch online) and the reassurance that buying a high street brand brings, and it’s clear the Tsuyosa is a fantastic value proposition for both watch enthusiasts and mainstream buyers who are looking for their only watch. I could see some collectors buying two or three for the dial colours alone. Initially I was disappointed that I couldn’t get the yellow for review, but having lived with the green for a few weeks now I can say that, in my opinion, it doesn’t play second fiddle to any of the other colours.

Given the popularity of this watch I expect it to remain a staple watch in the Citizen line-up. Therefore, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more colours added in the future. Even at the time of writing, Citizen has released a new fumé version in teal, which is very tempting!

Who knows, maybe we’ll even see an Eco-Drive version down the line?

There are now more integrated bracelet sports watches on the market than you can shake a stick at. However, when you’re looking for an automatic on a tight budget the choice narrows considerably, and for me the Citizen is the best option currently available at this price point from a mainstream brand. Whether that will still be the case in 12 months-time, only time will tell!

The post The Tantalising Citizen Tsuyosa – Strength in Colours! appeared first on 12&60.

Circula is a family-owned business, based in Pforzheim, one of Germany’s oldest horological centres. If you’re not already familiar with the brand, it may come as a surprise to hear that they’ve actually been around since 1955. Now under the watchful eye of Cornelius Huber, the grandson of the original owner, this brand is beginning to attract significant attention thanks to its concise but compelling line-up of divers and field watches. 

A Field Watch For The Twenty-First Century

Field watches seem to be having a bit of a renaissance as of late, something that I’m delighted about. However, many manufacturers understandably look to the designs of military-issued field watches from the 1940s or 1970s eras. As a consequence, if you squinted, you’d struggle to pick one out of a line-up. It’s refreshing then, when you come across a brand such as Circula that takes the essence of everything a traditional field watch should be, but bring it kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. This is exactly what they’ve done with their latest release, the ProTrail, by combining their own unique design language, with strong specifications and advanced engineering technology. But is the end result a success? Let’s delve in and find out…

Case Design And Wearing Experience

The ProTrail has a 40mm diameter and a wrist-friendly 46mm lug-to-lug measurement. These proportions will hit the sweet spot for many. However, proportionally it is relatively thick, at 13.4mm. Slim enough to fit under all but the tightest of shirt sleeves, but it does make the watch head feel fairly weighty.

The stunning 316L stainless steel case blends angular geometry, compact integrated lugs, and distinctive details. The mostly sandblasted finish looks good and minimises reflections, something that is traditionally important in field watches, as it minimises the risk of giving away your position to the enemy! A robust, scratch-resistant surface treatment is also applied, which gives the case an impressive hardness rating of 1,200 Vickers, approx. five times that of stainless steel.

The unconventional case is a breath of fresh air, with sharp angles throughout the mid-case and lugs, giving it a thoroughly modernist look. The sides of the mid-case also have a cut-out design with a coarse-grained finish, which contrasts against the rest of the case. This clever detail also helps visually break up the mass. The lugs curve slightly downwards, and the case steps down between the lugs and is cut straight across. This is a design trait I like as it means that, provided you fit a suitable strap, there are no unsightly gaps between the strap and the watch head. If you’re the type of watch enthusiast who has a bulging strap drawer, you’ll have some fun trying different looks out on this watch!

The bezel is conventional with a flat top, straight sides and a chamfered edge which is polished, but has the appearance of something more akin to satin, due to the Kolsterization hardening process. The sapphire crystal has a bevelled edge and sits slightly proud of the bezel.

The caseback and crown are both screw-down, helping the watch achieve a water resistance rating of 150m, which is very respectable for a watch of this type. The solid caseback features a contour map design which is lightly etched into the steel, and the conical-shaped crown features an engraved Circula logo filled with Swiss Super-LumiNova® BGW9!

Circula ProTrail – Dial and Hands

The sector dial design is dual-layered and features 12-hour and 24-hour displays, in-keeping with a military style field watch. The 24-hour display sits at the centre of the dial on the bottom layer and comprises orange Arabic numerals on a background of concentric circles, which gives the appearance of a dark grey colour. Outwards of that, the main dial features the 12-hour display and sits on the upper dial level. Large Arabic lume-filled (Super-LumiNova BGW9) numerals are printed in white against a semi-matt black background, and a white printed circle helps visually separate the two sections of the dial. Finally, a railroad track at the outer perimeter counts the minutes, with every hour/5-minutes denoted by Orange printed dots, except for the cardinal points which feature orange arrowheads.

The custom handset is bold and distinctive, yet graceful. The hour and minute hands are brushed and feature a longitudinal crease down the centre. They’re also filled with strips of Super-LumiNova BGW9 that echo the shape of the hands. The painted white seconds hand is a simple stick shape with an orange tip. The orange tip perfectly spans the width of the outer dial, and this purposeful design choice is a great example of the attention to detail that elevates Circula from other brands at a similar price point. In fact, all hands are perfectly proportioned and the perfect length too. That maybe sounds like an odd detail to point out, but it’s amazing how many brands don’t get this right!

Dial text is fairly minimal with the brand name printed in white on the inner dial above the pinion, ‘Protrail’ (printed in Orange) and ‘Antimagnetic’ (printed in white) below the pinion, and ‘Made in Germany’ underneath the six o’clock marker.

Legibility is exceptional thanks to the large Arabic numerals, high contrast colours and double coating of anti-reflective treatment to the underside of the scratch-resistant, slightly domed sapphire crystal.

Everything appears to be well executed, with precise printing and nicely finished hands. The dial design is cohesive and pleasing to the eye. It also has great balance, with no date window to interrupt the symmetry. The only real negative here is that, surprisingly, the lume on the numerals doesn’t seem to be all that bright and fades quite quickly.

Movement

The ProTrail is fitted with the Sellita SW200-1 Swiss automatic movement, a mainstay for many brands due to its reliability, availability and relative ease of servicing. It’s hacking, hand-winding and beats at 28,800 vph, giving a nice smooth sweep to the seconds hand.

Where Circula differ to most though is that, rather than using the basic movement, they have opted for the Elaboré version which has Incabloc shock protection. Circula also regulate the movement to three positions to improve out-of-the-box accuracy, ensuring a very respectable tolerance of -5/+7 seconds per day. And the icing on the cake? The movement is encased within a soft iron cage to provide an anti-magnetic rating of 80,000 A/m (roughly equivalent to 1000 gauss).

Final Thoughts on the Circula ProTrail

One thing that has become evident as I’ve spent time with this watch is that no area is left as an afterthought. This approach doesn’t just go for design, but also for the engineering. The team at Circula have done a fantastic job with this watch. For circa €755 at the time of writing, the ProTrail is a well-considered and beautifully balanced package that combines good specification, cohesive design, and nice attention to detail. It’s also a watch that’s very much its own thing and not a homage to anything else. What’s perhaps even more surprising is that the ProTrail is a watch designed with significant input from the watch enthusiast community, an approach that if not steered correctly, could quite easily have backfired. As it is, Cornelius expertly steered it to very successful conclusion!

Any negatives? Yes, but very few. For the next generation of the ProTrail, I’d love to see the thickness reduced. Although the ProTrail is a robust field watch, it feels premium and relatively refined for a tool watch, so it’s surprising to me that it’s thicker than many other field watches on the market. The anti-magnetic cage might account for some of this thickness, but regardless, it does detract slightly from the wearing experience.

I’m also not overly keen on the sailcloth strap. Aesthetically it suits the watch and it’s of good quality, being backed with leather and with a nice custom hardened buckle. However, it’s a light strap that is slightly at odds with the heavy watch head. Thankfully, since sending my review watch, Circula have launched a solution in the form of a great looking quick-release bracelet with micro adjustments. Whilst this does add to the cost, it’s definitely the option I’d choose as I think it completes the package and will make the watch more balanced on the wrist. I also think that this is a watch that would work very well in titanium, so this might be something Circula could consider for the future. Finally, I think the caseback design could be executed better by using deeper engraving or embossing for a more premium look, bringing it more in line with the level of finishing on the rest of the watch.

If Circula could make these refinements for the next generation ProTrail, for me personally, it would be the perfect modern field watch. As it stands, it’s still a great time-only GADA (Go Anywhere, Do Anything) watch. In fact, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better modern interpretation of a field watch!

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