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HANDS-ON: The Farer Field Watch Collection lets you have your cake and eat it too (Mmmm…cake)

Nick Kenyon

Vintage-inspired watches have been selling like hotcakes for a few years now, and there’s no sign of their popularity slowing down. And to be honest, I can understand why. Design from the golden age of watchmaking in the middle of last century, blended with all of the perks of modern watchmaking – what’s not to like? It’s like getting in a time machine and not needing to worry that you’ll get stuck in the past without your smartphone. As it turns out, you can have your cake and eat it too. It’s that design ethos that we see in the latest collection from Farer in the Field Watch Collection, which offer the best of no-nonsense British tool watch design, with a robust Swiss-made caliber inside. There are three references to choose from, each with their own personalities thanks to their different coloured dials that all offer a slightly different presence on the wrist.

The case

The Farer Field Watch Collection features three different watches that share most of the same specifications on paper, apart from the colours on their dials. Measuring an almost universally perfect 38.5mm in diameter and sitting just 12.3mm tall, they are well sized to feel compact, while still having a decent presence on the wrist.

But if you hear 38.5mm and scoff at it being too petite, never fear as the long curved lugs measure 45mm from lug to lug, making it wear slightly larger than it might seem from the diameter.

The case also features an oversized crown that delivers a quiet nod to mid-century field watch design, and is also inlaid with bronze that has been cast in the Farer logo. The caseback is secured with a quartet of screws that guarantee it to 200m of water resistance, which is more than enough to protect the movement from anything you’re likely to subject the watch to.

The dial

The real treat is when you arrive at the three different dials of the Farer Field Watch Collection, with an olive green dial for the Exmoor model, a deep navy blue for the Lomond and a crisp white dial for the Pembroke. All three references are named after different national parks across Britain, in a further connection to where these watches were born.

As you would expect from a classically inspired field watch, the dials feature bold Arabic numerals with healthy lashings of lume, and highly legible hands that get the same treatment. What is a slight departure from tradition however is the pointer date display, which is a fantastic choice by Farer.

The pointer date doubles down on the vintage vibes that the watches serve up, without a date window ruining the symmetry of the field watch dial that they are so famous for. With each dial variation, you also get a kaleidoscope of different colours for the seconds hand and date hand, which don’t overwhelm the dial but offer just the right amount of pop to what otherwise could be a rather sombre design.

The movement

Powering all three references is the Sellita SW221-1, which will be hard to break when you’re out in the wild, and equally hard to break the bank when you take your watch in to be serviced.

The bracelet and straps

The final treat that the Field Watch Collection delivers is the range of different straps that the watch arrives with. Not only do you get a supple horween leather strap, but also a steel bracelet and a NATO strap.

If that wasn’t enough, all three straps feature quick-change mechanisms, so you don’t have to mess around with strap-changing tools. The perfect embodiment of the practical tool watch ethos.

The verdict

So there you have it, the new Farer Field Watch Collection, offering the best of both worlds in heritage-inspired British design and contemporary Swiss watchmaking.