British unbiased model Farer is heating up the summer season scene with a brand new line of costume watches: the Lissom collection. The result’s enjoyable, stylish, and fantastically true to the model’s daring design language. I had the purple dialed “Lindley” in for overview, however there are 5 whole watches within the Lissom assortment, providing a terrific mixture of vivid colour combos and extra conventional neutrals.
Each watch within the Lissom line has distinctive traits, however they’ve one factor in widespread – every reference shares a reputation with influential figures within the fields of botany and the pure sciences. I realized that my overview pattern was named in honor of John Lindley (1799 – 1865), an English horticulturist whose analysis, botanical illustrations, and championing of a pure system of plant classification had been influential in his subject.
The emphasis a primary impression ought to have on watch buy historical past needs to be studied. In my very own assortment, I’ve an array of watches with various levels of “love at first sight” affect – it doesn’t in the end sway me someway when deciding to buy a watch. Nevertheless, only a few watches I’ve dealt with have elicited the audible gasp that accompanied my unboxing of the Lissom Lindley. Within the title of science, very like its namesake, I’ve tried to deconstruct why I used to be so instantly taken with this watch.
At 38mm in diameter with a thickness of seven.95mm, the Lindley is svelte, sharp, and downright dreamy on the wrist. A lot of the low profile is owed to the motion: the La Joux-Perret D100, a manually wound, Swiss made caliber, has a top of simply 2.5mm. The Lindley is the primary manually wound watch I’ve spent any vital period of time with, and it grew to become shortly obvious how a lot I’ve change into reliant on automated actions and their capability to self-power. My every day routine hasn’t concerned winding a watch every day, so this half took a bit of getting used to. Thankfully, the 50 hour energy reserve makes the Lissom assortment extra forgiving of the forgetful than another hand-wound choices on the market.
The case is crafted from 316L marine-grade stainless-steel. Angled 20mm lugs make the watch really feel very well-proportioned and match the general glossy design; in addition they assist in intently hugging the wrist. As a substitute of the graceful lug curve widespread on many costume watches, the Lindley achieves the identical impact by means of three distinct bevels which have been extremely polished. This contrasts remarkably effectively with the satin brushed ending on the perimeters of the case. The flat sapphire crystal – doubly utilized with anti-reflective coating – retains the entire profile skinny.
The dial is fascinating. The Lindley is a wealthy shade of satin brushed purple, a colour not continuously related to the costume watch class. The model appears to double down on circumventing colour custom in additional methods than one – the subdial at 6 o’clock is a powder blue hue with a pink seconds hand bordered by a black railroad seconds monitor. The Lissom Forrest and Arber colorways are teal and raspberry purple, respectively. Nevertheless, the Balfour and Solander present impartial choices, white and black, for these wanting a extra conventional colour scheme. 4 out of the 5 references within the Lissom assortment characteristic white radially mounted Arabic numerals and white tapered fingers. The Balfour, which has a white dial, has electrical blue hour markers and fingers. Every colorway supplies excessive legibility and affords a crisp visible, the place every bit is aware of its place.
A lot to the model’s credit score, these shockingly contrasted parts made me query the character of what it means to be a costume watch and the way I’ve traditionally outlined this class. Usually, after I’m conjuring up a picture of a costume watch in my thoughts, legibility is an element that doesn’t obtain a lot consideration. In fact there are notable exceptions, however I have a tendency to think about swirling script and customarily fragile options. Class is a precedence, however readability is just not. Farer appears to subvert expectations by extending a throughline of legibility that runs all the gamut of their collections.
Lume additionally isn’t excessive on my listing of specs when contemplating a costume watch, however the Lindley has labored to vary my thoughts on this. The hour markers and fingers are coated with Grade X2 Tremendous-LumiNova, which affords an attractive blue glow that enables for straightforward nighttime viewing.
The Lindley has a water resistance of 50m, which is smart for its class and dimension, and is on par with related watches by the model. What the watch good points in aesthetic by being very skinny, it sacrifices in robustness. The push/pull crown at 3 o’clock doesn’t present the identical stage of safety towards unintentional disengagement when underwater {that a} screw down crown may, however – in my view – it’s probably not the job of a costume watch to play that function.
As a substitute, my solely qualm with the crown is only a matter of aesthetic choice, not operate. Farer’s inclusion of a bronze cap with an embossed “A” brand is a part of the model’s identification and I believe it seems to be nice on the vast majority of their watches (particularly their subject and GMT strains). Nevertheless, the shortage of bronze anyplace else on this very stainless-steel-forward watch makes the cap really feel a bit misplaced. With out one other bronze tie-in (even one thing so simple as the screws on the caseback maybe?) I can’t assist however really feel the uniformly dressy nature of this watch is considerably disrupted when viewing the Lindley from its profile. Once more, this actually is a private choice that would function a selling-point to another person contemplating the Lissom line. It’d even improve the watch’s capability to extra intently bridge the hole between “on a regular basis wearer” and one thing purely formal.
The model supplies a handful of choices for strap pairings that the wearer can choose within the checkout course of. My overview pattern got here on a royal purple suede strap that matched the dial, however the denim blue suede matched to the subdial supplies a bit extra visible selection. If somebody desires the vivid dials to take middle stage, the model supplies brown, grey, black, and tan strap choices – some suede and a few leather-based – all with color-matched stitching down the facet. The fast-release mechanism on the straps provides a contact of comfort and shall be useful for these eager to experiment with a number of colour pairings. For those who’re in search of a steel choice, a milanese bracelet might be chosen for a slight upcharge.
In the end, the Lissom assortment affords fanatics a costume watch that’s thrilling, daring, and extremely Farer. I can see this line being match for somebody who doesn’t typically dabble within the costume watch recreation and values legibility and lume, or somebody deeply entrenched within the formal world who’s in search of one thing to shake it up a bit of. I can confidently say the ending on this watch – the utilized indices, the marginally sunken subdial, the depth of the dial hues, and general richness of the sporting expertise – is one thing I affiliate with watches double the worth level. That Farer is ready to ship this stage of high quality within the sub-$1,300 vary is, frankly, boggling to me. With 5 colorways supplied on this assortment, coupled with the standard the model is thought for, many will discover these watches deserving of significant consideration of their subsequent costume watch buy.
The Lissom assortment is priced at $1,295 on an OEM suede strap. The watches can be found for pre-order now on the brand’s website with an estimated ship date of mid-July 2025.
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