You tend to know where you are with Fears – namely 1930s Bristol. The British brand’s archival leanings have made it a bit of a darling, with the cushion-cased Brunswick leading the charge for throwback, vintage proportions. But then we got hands-on with the Fears Redcliff 39.5 Date ‘ES’ and its anything but what I was expecting.
First a bit of background. Earlier in the year, Fears sponsored ultra-endurance rower Angus Collins on his Great British Odyssey. Unfortunately, Angus had to call the voyage quits for a confluence of reasons, but he managed to raise a good chunk of his £250,000 goal for suicide prevention charity James’ Place. He also took something else from the attempt: a unique, endurance-specification Fears watch.
Fears have now taken the hardening and material advancements they trialled in the Experimental 01 and leveraged them for their sportiest watch ever with this. And it very much is that. The 39.5mm case is hardened (to 2,000 HV, many times harder than standard steel) and frosted, while the bezel and crown have been given the DLC treatment for a dramatic, black look. It also has an everyday-perfect 150m water resistance, a world away from the soft cushion of the Brunswick.
The dial too has been overhauled. It’s high-contrast white on black is punctuated with a bright orange seconds hand – black and orange being aesthetic shorthand for performance these days – offset by a matching textured rubber strap with orange stitching. It’s striking without being off-putting, a fine balance that Fears have nailed. There’s also plenty of lume across the dial and a subtle, perfectly dial-matched date window at 3 o’clock. I’m not normally a fan of date windows, but this one I can happily give a pass.
The end result is a solid, compact, surprisingly solid daily wearer with some serious wrist impact. It also doesn’t feel like a Fears. Oh, there’s still the kind of attention to detail the obsessive brand’s known for, from the multi-level dial to the orange numerals on the rehaut. Even the grained black dial is lovely – just in a very different way from, say, the brushed dials of the broader Redcliff collection.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing of course. Every brand needs to evolve now and then and moving into a sportier arena makes a lot of sense to compliment their dressier pieces. But as our last issue showed, the field watch arena – which the Redcliff ‘ES’ is firmly throwing its hat into – is seriously competitive.
Which brings me to the one major issue I have with the Redcliff ‘ES’: price. The new Endurance Specification will set you back £3,350. For Fears, that’s a solid price point that’s hard to argue with. But in the world of field watches, it’s harder to justify.
To put that into context, you can find solid, full titanium field watches with more eye-catching, individual designs for the low hundreds. I am well aware that Fears’ finishing and attention-to-detail puts them in a different ballpark, but the idea of a field watch is that you don’t mind knocking it around. No matter how treated the new Redcliff’s case is, I for one am not ballsy enough to test it out.
Inside that ultra-hard steel case is the La Joux Perret G100, a high-quality automatic Swiss movement that goes some way to explaining why the ES edges over the £3K mark. But these days LJP movements are getting a lot more common, and equally British brand Paulin used the G101 variation in their shiny new dive watch for half the price (and double the water resistance), albeit with assumedly less finishing.
Again, I’m not saying that the price is unjustified in a vacuum. And I’m going to say very clearly, that I love the Redcliff Endurance Spec on the wrist. It feels solid, looks great and the finer details keep me coming back for more. But with so many watches coming out every day, we’re not in a vacuum as much as an overly saturated flood of competitively priced timepieces.
I’m sure the Redcliff ‘ES’ will do well and as the basis for a new, sportier attitude for Fears, it’s a great direction. With a little time and a few more pieces in the collection, it’ll begin to feel more at home next to the Brunswick and Arnos. I’m also self-aware enough to get that a lot of what I’ve said has an ‘old man shouting at new things’ vibe. But I also think that if you were looking for a new field watch rather than a new Fears, you’ll end up with something else.
Price and Specs:
More details at Fears.
