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The regular GP reader is likely no stranger to the Weiss Watch Company, founded in 2013 by Cameron Weiss and based in Los Angeles, California. Weiss, a graduate of the Nicolas G. Hayek Watchmaking School and a WOSTEP Certified Watchmaker who underwent extensive training at Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin, is part of a collective of new business owners striving to bring back the manufacture of mechanical timepieces to the United States. His latest offering, the 38mm Standard Issue Field Watch (from here on out the “SIFW”), is the most affordable Weiss timepiece yet, and makes the brand’s aesthetic accessible to another demographic.
The Good: The SIFW could easily become an everyday watch so long as you don’t mind (or better yet, enjoy ) having to wind it each morning. You would likely have to change the canvas 2-piece strap to a leather one for certain occasions (unless you want to look like a GI just returned from the War at that rooftop cocktail party you have on Thursday night), but other than this small consideration, this is a pretty great everyday wear in either a black or white dial (I requested the black version for review). A steel case with a time-only black or white dial is going to work at the office, out on the town, or any other number of places – though the lack of a screw-down crown here is going to render it a no-go for the beach or pool (more on this later).
Who They’re For: If you love the “field watch look” but want something refined that comes in at that Goldilocks size, with many of its parts made and designed in America to boot, then this is certainly the watch for you – at least with respect to aesthetics (there are more practical options for actual use in the field). Cameron Weiss has taken many of the hallmarks of the American field watch classics, such as the A-11 and the A-17, and updated them for the modern wearer, and he’s incorporated a nicely finished mechanical movement, which should thrill many purists out there.
Watch Out For: I find myself wishing (like, really wishing) that the SIFW watch had a screw-down crown, brighter lume and that the crystal were less reflective. It’s also important, however, to acknowledge that while the Standard Issue Field Watch is certainly playing upon the heritage of the mechanical field watch that was at one point in time issued to GIs (i.e. during World War II), it is not necessarily a watch that is meant for the field today, given some of its feature set. Reflective surfaces (including polished bezels and sapphire crystals) are a no-no in a military or hunting setting, as are non-screw down crowns in any environment in which the watch might become submerged (as opposed to simply wet). Then, of course, the Standard Issue Field Watch is mechanical, rather than automatic, which would render it somewhat dated in a field setting, simply by virtue of the fact that there are watches available today that don’t require any winding, which is generally not something somebody wants to worry about in an outdoors setting when there are plenty of other important things to occupy one’s attention.
Again, however, it doesn’t strike me that Weiss’s raison d’etre is to create watches that are actually meant for an outdoors or military setting, but rather to call upon the military heritage of the American field watch in order to design a modern upgrade that looks the part aesthetically and is well-made; in this, I believe they have succeeded beautifully.
