Each year I tend to have a look around the offerings by the Swatch Group, but concentrating not on their high end portfolio, but rather on the Swatch in-house Brand . This is the one started life back in 1989 with the introduction of 12 new models. The start of a range of watches from Switzerland, produced to counter the mass influx of cheap quartz watches from Asia. Termed Swatch to infer “second watch” at a low competitive price point, a Swiss movement and a true “Made in Switzerland” logo. It was a successful ploy and they have produced millions of successfully selling watches ever since.
Swatch introduce new models often and you can usually guarantee good quality, a good movement and an affordable price. So this year I looked to see what would take my fancy and be my model for this year (it might not be a 2018 build, but one I maybe missed in the past).
This time I’ve gone for a black plastic cased, quartz powered model, called the Nightspeed. I find it to be a very attractive dark toned blue dial within a black case with a black silicon buckle strap. Fitting to a conventional spring bar fitting on the case, this means you can swap out the strap for any standard one, if you prefer. In the event I like this strap as it’s very flexible, has a nice mat black finish and corresponding buckle.
The dial numerals are in white with two different font sizes, the 12, 4 and 8 being larger. There are three sub-dials with running seconds at 6, and the two at 2 and 10 function as stop-watch counters. There is also a date window at 6 with white against black and most of the dial features are luminous. There is a black stop-watch seconds centre sweep hand and the semi skeleton hour and minute hands have white tipped pointers.
There is a finely marked dial bezel featuring a Km/h marker ring and there are two black pushers on the right, either side of the centre crown for timing functions and setting the watch.
Whilst the color scheme is predominantly black and blue, the white features within the dial make this an easy watch to read. Overall it is both understated and yet very attractive.
The dimensions are 42 mm diameter and just over 13 mm depth including the slightly domed crystal, so a nicely sized watch and being plastic cased is very light on the wrist.
According to the data on the Seller’s website, the Water Resistance is quoted as 30m, though with the Swatch quick change battery “hatch” as opposed to a full screw back, I’d be cautious it testing how good that may be!
One neat point to note is the battery type (394) is inscribed along-side the hatch, which is very useful.
The Swatch 4 jewel Quartz movements, I’ve found and certainly the ones I own are both accurate and reliable . . . . which when put together with the general attributes of this particular model, I am certain will be a great model to own and at around £80 represents a good buy.
Just a note – if you are looking for a watch to match colors with clothing, it is a fact that generally the Swatch range give you a great choice, as they do offer an extraordinary number of models in all sorts of color options. Just a thought for Christmas. . . .
Watch space 