The BOLDR Expedition Watch lets you get away

BOLDR is a small watch company with a distinct style. Selling primarily on Kickstarter, the company has gone through a number of design iterations to land on the Expedition, a watch designed to take you to the farthest reaches of the Earth and/or the copier down the hall.

The Expedition is reminiscent of some of the Hamilton Field Watches but it is improved immensely by color schemes that are designed to remind us of famous mountain ranges. The model I tested, the Fuji, featured a grey-on-grey design and orange hands and pips. The piece looks artfully faded, a style that comes from so-called “tropical” Rolex watches that spent decades in the heat and sun.

The watches range from the all-black Kilimanjaro to the surprisingly bright Eiger. Each have a Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement and Superluminova lume on the hands and pips. Early birds will pay $395 for one of these and each includes an internal crown for countdown timing and direction-setting.

I found the watches to be quite well-made and, as I noted before, on par with anything Hamilton has been making in their Khaki Field line. While I’m not a huge fan of three-handed pieces, the design, the lume, and the entire color scheme make this a hit. It’s a bit small for my wrist – 41mm is just a bit too wee for my meaty appendages – but it’s a nice beater watch that can stand everyday use including the occasional hike.

On the whole it’s rare for me to find a Kickstarter watch I truly like. This one hits on all the right notes – history, design, provenance, and materials – and the price for early birds is just about right. It’s also great that the team is shipping quickly and they’ve already surpassed their goal.

While this watch might not tell you your current GPS coordinates, calorie count, or speed, it’s nice to know that it will remain ticking long after your Apple Watch has rusted into a little hunk of steel and silicon.