Briston is an exciting new French watch company founded by the multi-talented Brice Jaunet. As a veteran of the industry, Brice’s CV makes a very impressive reading. Over the last fifteen years, he has worked for the Richemont Group, Cartier, Baume & Mercier, and Zenith. With experience at a directorial level, this provided the perfect qualifications to establish his own brand.

The name Briston is derived from the beautiful and historic village in Norfolk, England. Even though Brice is French, his student days in Oxford have been influential in the styling of these watches. On first inspection, the Clubmaster Vintage Steel Chronograph looks very good quality for a timepiece of this price range. The watch measures 40mm x 40mm (excluding pushers, crown, and lugs), which I feel is suitable for the unisex market. Both my girlfriend and I tried on the watch and felt it was very comfortable to wear. I think it’s a perfect watch for daily basis. It will go with formal clothes and also with basic trousers and t-shirt. The Briston makes watches from brown Italian tortoise shell (cellulose acetate) commonly associated with the eyewear industry, and I kind of don’t like the look of them. To me, it looks cheap. So I chose the Clubmaster Vintage in steel as it looked more like a watch, not a fashion accessory like the tortoise ones looked.

The Vintage Clubmaster is made from brushed 316L stainless steel. The case finish is nice and I like that the case is small. Never had a cushion case watch so small. The crystal is domed K1 glass 2.3mm thick so it sticks out from the lot. But it looks cool with the cushion case. The dial is plain black with steel markers and hands. On the right side, you will find pushers and crown. Both do they’re job good.

The Briston Briston has equipped all its timepieces with Japanese quartz movements supplied by Citizen. The Clubmaster Vintage Chronograph is powered by a reliable Miyota OS21 caliber. Impressively the watch features hours, minutes, seconds, date and chronograph functions. The Chronograph functions work very well. Of course mecha-quartz or mechanical would be better, but this does it’s job good too. The strap is nice, but I swapped it for cheapnatostraps.com vintage suede leather strap as it looks better and watch looks a lot more expensive.

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The pros of the watch are that it looks good, has good finishing, reliable movement and a good size for both men and women. The cons are probably the packaging because the watch is 420$ and it comes with this small box. Many companies which have watches that cost half of this, has automatic movement, more changed heritage and has a better presentation than this. The other one was the strap. Basically, I changed it as soon as I got the watch. Overall the watch is great, I love it. It’s definitely a keeper 🙂

Price: $420 @ briston-watches.com

CASE
Size : 40 x 40 mm
Opening Dial : 35 mm
Thickness: 12.20 mm
316L Stainless Steel case with the following finishing:
Vertical brushed case structure / Circular brushed cover pushers
Matt finish: Lugs & case-back
Mirror-polished: Crown / Top chronograph pushers
Crown and pushers : 316L Stainless Steel
Crown with embossed BRISTON blazon
Ultra-resistant domed K1 glass – 2.3 mm thickness
Water resistance to: 50m/ 5 ATM

MOVEMENT
Quartz Citizen caliber: Miyota OS21 Functions:
Chronograph 2 counters
60 minutes counter positioned at 9 o’clock
24-hour indication / AM-PM counter positioned at 3 o’clock
Date window positioned at 6 o’clock

DIAL
Dial: black semi-glossy
Polished stainless steel applied indexes
Double applied indexes at 12 o’clock & black dots (minutes indication)

HANDS
Polished rhodium-plated “baton” Hour & Minutes hands
Polished rhodium-plated chronograph and counters hands

STRAP
Exclusive interchangeable Black Flannel calfskin Leather strap
Flannel Leather loop – BRISTON engraving on the steel pin buckle
Length: 235mm / Width: 20 mm