Jack Mason was founded in Dallas, Texas (US) by a pair of friends who shared a passion for making best in class product. With over 25 years of combined retail experience in the retail industry, the duo decided to finally take the leap and establish their own brand. In 2013, Jack Mason was launched with a collection of watch & leather goods that combined classic Americana influences with contemporary design. They have a wide range of leather goods from small card wallets to full-size wallets and watch rolls, they also have canvas duffel bags and backpacks and other stuff. But they also make watches. All their watches are military, aviation, racing, sports-inspired pieces and they are pretty good looking for a brand that is considered a fashion brand. In my opinion, their watches aren’t fashion watches, as the quality is pretty good and the designs are done well too. They have some pieces with automatic movements, but most are with quartz movements.

The watch I chose was the Nautic Chronograph and they come in different colours, but this particular one spoke to me as the colour scheme and design kind of reminded me the Zenith El Primero Chronomaster 38mm with those coloured subdials and that grey dial. The watch arrived from the US, pretty fast, also have to thank their lovely customer service.

The watch came in this hard canvas wrapped, blue box with Jack Mason branding. The is little pull tab in Texas flag colours, the red, white blue. You pull it up and you get inside the box. Inside you will find the watch, instructions and a whopping 10-year warranty. But they also sent me a koozie, which I found pretty funny. For those who don’t know what koozie is, it is meant to hold a beverage bottle or can and to thermally insulate your beverage container. Usually, it is used in America and Australia, it is not so common in Europe. They also sent another leather strap in a darker brown, a couple of nice stickers that will go somewhere and thank you note. I was really surprised by the other things, that justs show how much attention they give to any client they deal with. First impressions with the watch right out of the box were surprising. The build quality is very good and the leather strap smells really nice and the leather is really soft. Overall the watch looks better in life than in pictures on their website.

The case is made of 316L stainless steel. The case shape is round and has mid-size lug length. The case is made really well, all the lines are sharp and everything fits together without any seams. The diameter is 42mm, the thickness is 11,6mm, lug tip to lug tp is 50mm and lug width is 22mm. The watch wears pretty well, it feels just like 42mm watch should. Finishing is done pretty well. The Nautical Chronograph has two finishes on the case. The brushed one you can see on the case sides, bezel side and case back. The lug tops, the bevel on the mains case and bezel top is polished. The bezel is kind of done in that step case design. The bezel has a bevel inwards to the dial and kind of makes that dish like look. I really like that style, I rarely see when watch companies do this. It also makes it more scratch resistant as it will be pretty hard to scratch that bezel top. On the right side of the case, you will find a push/pull signed crown which is polished and has this grove in the middle to grab it more easily. The crown is pretty big and easy to grab, the time setting will be easy for any size of hands. On that same side, you also have the start and stop pushers for the chronograph function. I kind of don’t like the action on the pushers, they have no resistance and feel cheap when pushed in, but they work fine, not that you will use the chronograph function that much anyways. The case back is solid with some very nice engraved graphics of old ship steering wheel and also you will find some specifications and Jack Mason branding engraved there too. The case back is held on with four little screws. On top of the case sits a nice AR coated the flat sapphire glass. The water resistance is 10ATM (100m) but I wouldn’t recommend swimming with it, as it only has push/pull crown and pushers. Overall the case is pretty solidly built and looks very good.

The dial is where this watch shines I think. The chapter ring with minute markers is in white and is slightly slanted towards the dial, just like the bezel top. That gives the dial a really deep look and makes it pop. The main dial is in grey colour, it has this sunburst effect which in some lights look like dark grey and in some very light grey. The applied indices have a polished edge with white middle and they are filled with SuperLuminova. At 12 we have an Arabic number four the hour indicator and I think this time it is done right. It looks good and doesn’t ruin the proportions of the dial. We have subdials at 9, 3 and 6 o’clock. The ones at 9 and 3 are blue. The left one is 60 minute counter and the one on right shows the 24 hours. The subdial on 6 is just printed on the grey main dial and it is small seconds. It has a nice red accent seconds hand. That subdial also hides the date window. I really like how they integrated the date window, usually, it is in a weird spot like at 3 o’clock or 4 and just ruined the proportions, but this time the positioning is just perfect. The second’s hand for the chronograph is red and on the counterweight, it has the Texas flag colours, which is a neat touch that only the people who know will notice that. The polished hour hand has a spade shape and the minute hand has tapered shape. It is strange that every hand has its own shape, but somehow it works and doesn’t ruin the looks. The hour and minute hands are also filled with SuperLuminova. The lume is not the best one and will last maybe an hour fully charged. The lume has a nice bluish-green shine. I like how the grey, blue and red accents work in this watch, the only thing that I would probably change is the chapter ring colour, I think it needs to be darker or in the same colour as the dial.

I don’t know what particular movement is inside the watch, other than it is Japan made quartz chronograph. Probably Seiko or Miyota quartz. Anycase if it is a Japan made movement, it will be reliable and work for many years without a problem. Battery life on this one will be around 2-3 years. The strap that came with the watch was this nice padded genuine leather strap. The strap was a bit stiff at the start, but after one week it broke in. After the break-in period, it will get softer and will wrap your wrist nicely. The tang buckle is stainless steel and is signed with Jack Mason logo.

Overall the watch is really great, and I wouldn’t categorize this brand as a fashion brand after looking into the watch. It has a nicely made and finished stainless steel case, cool dial and design. It has a sapphire glass with AR coating and also a Japan-made quartz movement. Of course, I would like the meca-quartz movement from Seiko a lot more, but this one works and thicks away with a great precision. Is it worth the money they are asking? Well, I think yes, the price is great + you get the 10-year warranty.

Price: $275.00 @ jackmasonbrand.com

• CASE SIZE 42mm
• CASE TYPE  Stainless Steel
• DIAL COLOR Grey
• MOVEMENT Japanese Quartz
• STRAP COLOR Tan
• STRAP TYPE Leather
• STRAP WIDTH 22mm
• WARRANTY 10 Year Warranty