Carpenter watches, started as a Kickstarter campaign back in 2016 and was founded by Neil Carpenter in the vibrant city of New York. Having been fascinated by watches from a very early age, Neil decided to try and make his dream a reality. The campaign was successfully funded and thus, the release of the Brooklyn field watch came to fruition.
It is now 2020 and I present to you the beautiful Brooklyn Gent and more specifically the bronze cased and black dialled variant. My personal pick for favourite from the lineup.
Bronze Case
Coming in at a nicely sized 38mm the solid bronze polished case shines wonderfully and the patina will be a sight to behold once that develops properly. The watch measures 12mm thick and 42.5mm lug to lug, the watch therefore does feel rather small on the wrist, giving it a very vintage feel. Vintage looks but with modern components, what’s not to love there?
The watch is traditionally shaped and the rounded case bevels nicely into the short lugs that feature horizontal brushing on both the underside and topside. The watch features a signed screw-down crown, in the first position you have a quick-set date function and in the second position you have a hacking seconds feature that also moves the hour and seconds hands.
Having a screw-down crown I thought that this would give the watch at least 100m of water resistance but it only features 50ms, leaving me wondering why there’s a screw-down crown in the first place. To me, this is a dress watch, a vintage-inspired dress watch that doesn’t really need any water resistance at all.
True to the inspiration, the watch features a box-style acrylic crystal that you can see sit high on the case looking at it from a side profile. The crystal distorts nicely depending on the light and has that lovely feel that you get from true vintage watches. However, I would have liked to see sapphire crystal on this one.
Dial
The black dial features a very subtle sunburst effect and is the perfect companion for the bronze case. The bronze indices are all applied and feature no lume. At the 3 o’clock position there is a very nice circular date window, very nice it may be, but it is not colour matched, a small feature that really bugs me. A black date window with white numerals would have made this dial that bit more special in my opinion.
The bronze hands are nicely finished and a beautiful addition that feature some lume. But, much like vintage watches, the lume is rather poor and I feel that solid bronze hands would have been a better fit here. The solid bronze seconds hand sweeps around the dial giving you that satisfying feeling we all get from the sweep.
ETA Movement
The movement powering this watch is visible through sapphire crystal on the case-back and is the ETA 2824-2, a real workhorse of a movement and a great addition to any watch, a personal favourite of mine. It is a handsomely finished 25 jewelled movement that beats at a modern 28,800 vibrations per hour and has a power reserve of 38 hours. Like previously mentioned, it features a hacking seconds hand and also features hand winding capabilities. The movement is finished nicely with a signed rotor to complete the look.
Generally, on micro brands watches like this are usually paired with a Miyota 8 series or a Seiko NH35 movement so to have a premium movement on this is an extremely nice addition and certainly helps anyone considering this watch and it’s price.
Vintage Strap
Completing the look is a true to form vintage sized 19mm strap. The strap, early on for me shone through. It feels perfect on the wrist and feels perfect to touch.
The beautiful brown leather tapers nicely and hugs the wrist leaving you feeling like you’re wearing your own little piece of luxury. The term ‘strap monster’ is thrown about quite a lot in the watch community, but I really do feel like this watch is a strap monster and would pair perfectly with a lot of straps.
Closing Thoughts
Coming in at $795 this watch is a step up in price from Carpenters previous offering thanks, in part to the addition of the ETA movement. But, for that money, vintage inspired or not, I would at least like to have seen a sapphire crystal on the dial.
No denying that this watch feels fantastic on the wrist and has a healthy presence, giving off strong vintage vibes. The whole lineup provides fantastic variety so you’re sure to find something that you like. A few things let this watch down for me and leave me feeling frustrated at the fact that this could have and should have been very very good.
To have a look at the entire Carpenter range of watches visit their official website here.
