Weiss Automatic Field Watch
Weiss watch has been around since 2012 producing hand crafted watches right here in America. The brand started its humble beginnings in Los Angels California producing limited batch watches until the brand was able to establish a robust process of manufacturing their field watches. Over the years Weiss has released various offerings with its original 42mm field watch, released a 38mm field watch, and released a limited run ultra lite titanium field watch. However, regardless of these offerings the one thing Weiss has been missing from it’s line up is an automatic timepiece. Recently Weiss made a new iteration of their long produced manual wind 38mm and 42mm manual wind pieces. With these new iterations Weiss released a new 38mm automatic piece, a first for the company. In this article we break down the details of this new watch and give some insight on what this new release means for the company and its future.
Weiss Automatic Field Watch
The Weiss automatic field watch is offered in a 38mm option only and deviates from the standard dial layout we have come to know of Weiss (small seconds sub-dial on the dial face). Rather the dial has hours, minutes, and seconds on center and the addition of a date window at the 6 O’clock location which is color matched to the dial.
Price: $1650
The Movement:
Like previous Weiss watches, this is not a full in-house movement but rather a reliable Swiss movement with all of the component finishing work and movement assembly done by Weiss. The movement used to power this watch is dubbed the Caliber 2130 by Weiss, but is based on the M100 movement, a reliable swiss movement having many similarities to the well know ETA 2892-A2 movement. The caliber 2130 is automatically wound by a stator and operates at 28800 Vph while having a power reserve of 42 hours. The movement also features a quick set date function, allowing the user to change the date register without adjusting time and a hacking seconds function.
While Weiss has yet to offer a true in house movement the handy work can be seen in the finishing details through the sapphire display back case. On the stator we see some beautiful Geneva stripes set behind a centered engraving of the Weiss logo in gold. On some of the larger components seen through the back of the watch there is also Perlage finishing, giving additional depth to the piece among the intricate moving components of the piece.
The Case/Case-Back:
The case is made of a durable 316L stainless steel case that measures 38mm in diameter and 9.9mm thick making it a very wearable and low profile piece for most people. The watch also features Incabloc shock protection which is fairly standard on most watches. Essentially it is a chamfered circular bushing in which the ruby’s (bearings) rotate within, with a spring mechanism on the top side. This allows the rotary components (ruby’s) to freely move by translation in any direction to absorb unintended forces or impacts, in turn lengthening the life of the piece; think of it as suspension for your watch components. Also featured on the case is a screw down crown giving this watch added sealing from the external environment, allowing it to have a 100 meters of water resistance.
Diving a bit deeper into the finishing details on the case the top half is polished stainless steel which transitions into the case body which utilizes a linear brushed finish spanning from lug end to lug end. On the bottom half of the sandwich the case-back edge gets a polished finish, transitioning into a radial brushed finish on the case back just prior to the sapphire display back. This radial brush finish is echoed on the top and bottom side of the lugs, contouring the dial radius and maintaining continuity with the case back details. The last detail to note is the four stainless steel screws on the case back, while they are functionally for case closure they do keep the utilitarian design que of the piece that stays consistent with Weiss’s brand.
The Dial:
Moving toward the dial we see the standard field watch text from Weiss we have all come to love which is contrasted nicely in white or black against the four available dial colors: Black, White, Blue, and Latte.
The dial is classically true to the field watch nature we have all known from Weiss. An hour scale is shown as the base scale and is surrounded by a 0-60 scale on the outer chapter ring for the reference of the seconds and minutes hand. Near the 12 O’clock position we see the classic Weiss logo color matched to the numerals and other dial insignia. Slightly south of center is written “Automatic” to let you know it is an automatic watch, and not in fact another manual wind from Weiss. The last notable and most important feature on the dial is of course the date window at the 6 O’clock location, a new addition from Weiss that comes with their new automatic movement.
Getting into some of the details, each dial is created from naval brass and is hand painted and finished with Super-LumiNova BGW9 applied on the numerals for low light legibility (except on the latte model). The BGW9 lume gives a light bluish-white color when in low-light/dark conditions and is also applied to the hands inside of the black oxide treated steel border.
Covering all of this dial detail is a double-domed beveled sapphire crystal, which has a multi layer anti-reflective coating on the inside surface of the crystal to improve visibility in bright light conditions. These details stay true to what we know from previous Weiss offerings, giving the brand continuity for past, current, and future customers.
The Straps:
To compliment the four dial colors available there are various strap offerings, each of which are hand stitch and allow you to customize the look of the piece. The strap offerings are as follows:
Canvas Strap (115mm/75mm):
Black
Olive
Horween (115mm/75mm)/XL Horween (130mm/90mm) Leather Strap:
Black
Brown
Tan
Natural
Horween (115mm/75mm)/XL Horween (130mm/90mm) Genuine Shell Cordovan Leather Strap:
Black
Navy
Natural
The Specifications:
Movement: Weiss Watch Company Caliber 2130 mechanical movement, M100 base, finished and assembled by hand
Functions: Automatic winding, 28,800 beats/hour, 42 hour power reserve, hours, minutes, central sweep second, quick-set date, hacking seconds, incabloc shock protection
Case: 316L stainless steel, 38mm diameter (not including crown), 46.2mm lug to lug, 9.9mm thick (including crystal), screw-down crown
Weight: 55 grams with strap
Caseback: Sapphire crystal and 316L stainless steel exhibition caseback, secured by four 316L stainless steel hex screws
Dial: Hand-painted naval brass finished with high visibility numerals and Super-LumiNova BGW9 applied to dials, except for Latte model
Hands: Black oxide treated steel with white Super-LumiNova BGW9 paint
Front Crystal: Double-domed and beveled sapphire with multi layer anti-reflective coating on the inside surface
Back Crystal: Beveled sapphire
Water Resistance: 330 feet/ 100 meters
Band: Choice of Hand-stitched Band
Price: $1650
What This Means for Weiss?
Weiss is a relatively young brand, and for many years has stuck with it’s manual wind only pieces. While these watches are simplistic yet beautiful, the demographic of people who want to hassle with a manual wind watch is a relatively unique one. I truly believe Weiss watch was somewhat limited by their previous offerings, leaving stranded the people that wanted a Weiss brand watch but were detracted by the cumbersome task of having a manual wind piece. The release of the automatic timepiece from Weiss eliminates this excuse for those buyers that were previously on the edge, and opens the brand to a whole new demographic of people seeking a set it and forget it everyday watch from the brand.
What’s Next?
Many people will note that Weiss decided to release the automatic watch in a 38mm case size; opposite of what they originally did with the manual wind pieces, releasing the 42mm first followed by the 38mm manual wind field watch. I think Weiss learned from the initial sales of the 42mm and 38mm manual winds and came to the conclusion that the 38mm is a more wearable piece when considering all customers. A smaller watch on a slightly larger wrist is more acceptable than a watch that is too large on someone with a smaller wrist (I don’t make the rules). Many times you will see men and women alike wearing the 38mm piece as it is a case diameter that can jive with majority of wrist sizes. That being said, I do see Weiss gaging the sales of the new automatic piece and later down the line releasing a larger dial option of the automatic piece with date display.
Do you think Weiss will take a different approach to their structure? Let us know in the comments…
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