Calmed and collected – the Schofield Japanese Beater B5

Appreciation, this is the best ingredient that in my opinion globalization has managed to deliver. We can now appreciate better different cultures, fall in love with new designs, enjoy different foods and of course have different inspirations to make those objects that we love the most. If we look at watches from different countries, they have their own design language/ethos even if they are from different eras, German watches look clinical and minimalist, Japanese watches can be very colourful and playful and Swiss watches, well, they aim to be luxurious. What about British watches? Despite the love affair that Britain has with timekeeping is hard to define a British aesthetic, yes, we can go back to those maritime clocks, and we can find good inspirations, but what if we want to merge several cultures in the process? Pick the best of what we know? Would you have a watch with a Swiss movement, Japanese inspired and built in the UK, sounds intriguing? well the result is great, enter the Japanese Beater B5 from Schofield Watch Company. It’s a watch that has so much character, from the colour palette to the case, everything feels like something like I’ve never experienced, I was lucky enough to have it for a week and below are my impressions.

The Specifications

The Japanese Beater B5 is a big watch, at 44mm there is no hiding on the fact that is meant for larger wrist but because of the short lug to lug wears really nice on my 16 cm, imagine a Panerai Luminor case but instead of all polished you have an incredible bead blasted finish, luckily the design doesn’t end here, the case is so complex, full of curves and angles, I have never seen so many on a watch, for example the Japanese beater has crown guards but not in the traditional sense, they ‘‘grow’’ from the right lugs making it an organic transition, it’s very well made. Now of to the dial, I still not sure what to call this colour, it is a light pink with grey but this grey tone itself has a purple pigmentation, then you have green rings and numerals with Super-LumiNova C3, trust me it works, it might sounds like a weird description but when you look at the pictures, when you look at the watch, it just works. Another great detail are the hands, which are gold skeletonized with a brushed finish and lume application, it looks glorious, I love that there is a seconds indicator and not a hand, it gives the watch so much symmetry.

Under the hood we can find an STP 1 -11 Swiss movement with a power reserve of 44 hours, robust and ready to do work, I was waiting to see this new architecture from the case back but, I was greeted with something much better, a steel and sterling silver vitreous enamel masterpiece, a work of art of a Japanese plum design, what a finishing touch, it is just an eye candy.

On the wrist

The Japanese Beater wears and looks great, part of this comfort is the strap that it comes with. A nice canvas plum color (of course) with blue inlay to break the red palette a bit, I manage to spend around 4 days in a row with this Schofield creation and it was so hard to take off, you really become used to it. The legibility is assured, the hands are long and well proportion so you can tell at a glance the time, the dial is something that I never get tired of, it more versatile that I imagined, easy to match with light colors but also dark ones, it’s a great sports companion but also looks good with casual attire. The lume also makes an appearance when the lights come off, great application and lots of attention to detail.

Conclusions

Many watches are so safe, so predictable, what Schofield Watch

Company gave us with the Japanese beater is a chance to experiment different cultures in a cohesive package,

unfortunately this is a very limited package with only 29 watches available. The Japanese Beater B5 is futuristic object than looks into the future by representing a very old tradition like watchmaking, it blends it well and by adding the extra layer of Asian inspiration, we can just give a big thumbs up to what can become a collector’s item. People like Schofield Watch Company give us that Sakura feeling, optimism on a new breed of watches.

More info at www.schofieldwatchcompany.com

Visit us on Instagram #robbieandwatches