Howdy folks! I wanted to write a few words about the release of our new Field Watch, plus explain some of its features and why we decided to launch this one.
First and foremost, this watch is in keeping with our left-side crown placement, as we’ve done on all of our watches for supreme comfort in the field. Another thing you’ll notice is the difference in the casing. The watch utilizes a brushed 316L surgical stainless casing, versus the titanium casing that our customers are used to with our Sportfisher models. We did this for two reasons. First, we really just wanted to give this watch a different look, and with the new casing and a slightly different style crown, it has a contrast to the Sportfisher models. The premium titanium casings we use on our Sportfisher models are also costly to manufacture. With the new stainless casing, we are actually able to bring the overall manufacturing cost down a good bit and introduce the Field Watch at a lower cost to the customer, something we are really happy about!
This watch will also be our first to utilize numerals at the hour markers, as is the case with most traditional field watches. We’ve designed it with both the standard and “military” numerals on the dial. To keep costs down on the manufacturing side, this watch utilizes our Swiss Super-Luminova illumination paint on the hour markers and hands vs. the more premium tritium illumination we used on our last two rollouts in the Sportfisher Blackand King Tide. Again, the goal here was to create a good-looking field watch that could be introduced to our customers at a slightly lower overall cost compared to the premium titanium and tritium-illuminated watches we’ve been making with the last few rollouts.
Our Field Watch colors are pretty unique. Our co-founder and designer Gash Clayton designed one dial with a traditional tan pantone color scheme, but the other two are slightly different. One is a lighter blue that I believe will be quite popular, and the other is a darker blue. The blue dials traditionally are some of our best sellers, but in the Field Watch, I think we have given our customers some pretty good color options to choose from.
Field watches are traditionally paired with a woven nylon, canvas or even a tough leather strap. We will continue to offer our dive straps with the Field Watch because we know the vast majority of our customers like that strap the best for its overall toughness and its ability to hold up in water and in other harsh conditions, but we are also introducing with this rollout a new Cordura two-piece woven nylon strap. We’ve put this strap through the ringer over the last year in testing, and I think our customers are really going to like it. We’ll offer this strap in a variety of earth tone colors—black, gray, navy, olive, sand, and an orange for hunting. We anticipate guys and girls who like to get out and hunt, fly fish, hike the backcountry, etc. to love these new Field Watches, which are more lined up with the type of gear and apparel they are typically wearing to head out on their next excursion. We hope you all really like it, and we can’t wait to get your feedback on the product!
We can’t thank y’all enough for your continued support!
Michael Sims
Co-Founder/President, H+G