Given their signature 1930s style, I was wondering how long it would take Bristolian heritage brand Fears to embrace warm weather pastels. What else would you pair with your summer linens? A crisp white dial? ‘Tis the season of colour and while white or black might suit a sharp business suit, embracing la dolce vita along the Italian Riviera just doesn’t feel the same without something breezy and unstructured.
What is more of a surprise however is that the new releases are part of Fears’ Redcliff line. Initially the Redcliff was the brands quartz-powered debut, essentially a fundraising proof-of-concept for what would be the Brunswick. It was (rightly) retired in 2020 – but you can’t keep a good watch down and the Redcliff returned in 2024 in a sleek, automatic collection, all brushed silver and hot pink. Now the collection has arrived in its most wearable form yet in the Fears Redcliff 39.5 ‘Pastel Collection’.
This is a collection unsurprisingly all about colour, so that’s where we’ll start. And they are glorious. Instead of falling into the Oris trap of simple pink, blue and green, Fears’ selection is a little more evocative, more English country garden flowerbed than SS26 catwalk. The soft peach colour has a distinctly rosy hue; the lilac, to its credit, channels Rolex’s most popular colour last year and the sherbet yellow brings a bit of zesty lemon energy to the trio.
For once, I can’t really decide between the three. The yellow’s perhaps a touch too highlighter-adjacent for my liking, so it’s between the lilac and the peach, which more than anything comes down to strap. The peach and yellow come on complimentary straps, while the lilac comes on a matching version. This for me makes it a bit too feminine. I’m a fan of switching straps anyway (in this case to something neutral like taupe) so it’s not a deal-breaker, but when the choice between two watches is this close, it’s still a factor.
What’s less feminine is the case. It measures 39.5mm in diameter with a thickness of 10.37mm, which is just about perfect for my wrist. It sits very low and flat, which is great for comfort, and it slips beneath a cuff without a thought. However, with the trio of colours it feels like Fears are aiming at that classic 36mm market cornered by the Oyster Perpetual and to a lesser extent Omega’s Aqua Terra Shades. That may not be the case, but either way I would love to see these a bit smaller. 39.5mm (40mm to all intents and purposes) is a substantial size for what could easily be a unisex collection, and the Redcliff has enough space on the dial that downsizing won’t feel cramped.
Speaking of the dial, the Fears Redcliff 39.5 ‘Pastel Collection’ has a classic three-hand layout with central hours, minutes and seconds. This is the first modern Redcliff since its 2024 revamp without a date function and as someone that generally prefers without, I’m happy to see the change. When you have colours like these, interrupting them for an indicator you always forget to set is less than ideal. The pipette hands and printed minute scale feature lumed elements but the hour markers and seconds hand are matte white. It’s a little bit of dissonance to my mind because they have the look of lumibrite or globolight markers like those on the sporty Redcliff 39.5 Date ‘ES’ Model – but they’re not.
Turning the watches over reveals the exhibition caseback through which you can see the La Joux-Perret G101 decorated with Côtes de Genève and a blue ‘Bristol Flower’ rotor. It has a 68-hour power reserve and an accuracy of +/-7 seconds per day as it’s the higher spec soigné version. It’s both a looker and specs-heavy, both reasons it’s considered one of the more premium third-party movements.
For pricing, the Fears Redcliff 39.5 ‘Pastel Collection’ is £2,750 on strap or £2,950 on bracelet, including VAT. That’s £200 less than both the equivalent date version of the Redcliff and the entry-level Brunswick Polar White. While that’s not an insignificant amount I doubt it’s enough to make the new Pastels seem like a better value proposition, especially when they share largely the same specs, meaning they sit nicely within the broader Fears collection.
Perhaps more importantly, I like what this means for the Redcliff collection as a whole. These three colours are beautiful, but they also open doors to more options, colours that wouldn’t suit the Brunswick’s classical 1930s looks. Cooler colours for winter, perhaps some autumnal leaf shades, there’s a lot of room for growth here. Whether Fears will delve a little deeper or not – they do have a habit of doing one cool idea then moving on – we shall see. But if one of these came out in a 36mm case, I’d be hard-pressed not to go for it.
Price and Specs:
More details at Fears.
