Informational
Straum's New Field Watch - Expedition
Norwegian Watch Brand Straum have made a statement in the watch industry in the past few years, especially with their fascinating dial designs and patterns, as well as their high-tier build quality and reasonable price points. This recent design takes a new path from the rest of their collections, but still reflects the brand's ethos.
Straum was Founded in 2017 by industrial designers Lasse Roxrud Farstad and Øystein Helle Husby, who both wanted to create their own products from their own brand, and add their passions for the outdoors and particularly Norwegian Nature, which leads to the stunning dials featuring on their watches. Due to their industrial designing backgrounds, the founders not only care for aesthetic appeal, but feel and design quality too, making each piece worth the reasonable price tag that comes with it.
This new watch release from Straum is called the Expedition, a tough field / exploration watch with lots of familiar characteristics, yet combined it creates something quite unique.
The watch arrives in three different colour-dial choices, White Lume, Midnight Blue and Titanium Gray, all still suitable for the intended function of this watch but also all have a unique and charming aesthetic, matching the Grade 5 Titanium enclosing the dial, with the White Lume variant being the most unique of the trio, as the dial is BGW9 Grade A Lume, rather than the indices and hour-markers of the other Midnight Blue and Titanium Gray versions of the watch.
These watches are a great composition of all the elements of the most successful Exploration or Field Watches, with the large Arabic Numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 - large and clear making them easy to read with or without Lume depending on the version of this watch you choose - a perfect feature for a field watch, and something we have seen on many of the other watches similar to this, such as Rolex's Explorer I.
The white dial version in the day provides great contrast between the seconds-hand orange and the text 'Expedition' on the dial, a similar striking contrast to the rest of the dial, and as a small extra touch, the date window numerals are orange too. Also in dark settings, the Blue Lume keeps the contrast and visibility of the orange elements, and due to the dial Lume, there is none in the Arabic numerals, yet the time is still easy to read with the black indices, hour-markers and minute-track still clear and elevated above the dial background. The Midnight Blue and Gray variants have their Lume reversed in classic style, making the time-reading easy and natural, with the numerals really popping off the dials.
With the bezel, case and bracelet all made from Hardened Grade 5 Titanium, this watch is durable and perfect for it's intended conditions. Not only is the case material well-designed for the purpose, the shapes are made for tough conditions with a stepped-bezel, ensuring there is no sapphire crystal emerging outside of the space covered by the more durable titanium material. If the double-domed crystal is in possible danger, Straum have applied both a scratch resistance and internal anti-reflective coating to it, keeping legibility and protectivity paramount in the design.
If the case wasn't secure enough, the bracelet is with a butterfly clasp with double-pushers and an enclosed-ratchet micro-adjustment system, allowing the wearer to adapt the bracelet to the conditions or clothing they are wearing, and the butterfly clasp gives confidence that the watch cannot fall or open on accident.
While secure, the bracelet is also stylish, following previous designs on Titanium pieces from Straum, with a bead-blasted texture and polished accents, matching the case of the watch. If that doesn't suit, there is the option to have the Straum FKM Rubber Strap, which can be purchased in a variety of colours, and is easily fitted with the Quick-Release system.
This watch is powered by the La Joux-Perret LJP G100 - a time and date movement with a useful 68 Hour Power Reserve at full-wind. It's only the standard grade movement, but the large power reserve coupled with the automatic aspect makes this movement fit-for-purpose, reliably keeping explorers and people on-the-move aware of the time.
With a lug-to-lug measurement of 45.7mm and a case thickness of 11mm, this watch is versatile and can fit many wrists, and with the strap movement and flexibility of sizes, Straum have catered to a range of customers with this choice of size and it also keeps the watch safe and out-of-the-way when in the wild.
What do you think of this functional timepiece by microbrand Straum?
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