I was going through Instagram and discovered this company called Boom watches, they are making basic quartz watches in about 100 euro price point, sounds like nothing special right? But wait, they have a twist. It is modular, the case, dial with movement and bezel are removable.

BOOM Watches, a Swedish company that offers customisable timepieces. The company was founded through FundedByMe campaign in the year 2016 and had huge success raising 526000 euros! The company was created because more and more people want customizable watches that can be personalized for each individual. And I personally think that it is the way to go.  You can also see this trend in high end watches too as more and more people want their high end watches customized. A good example is the Bamford watch department which customizes Bvlgari, Tag Heuer, Zenith etc. watches.

So the watch came in a nice cardboard box, you open the box and you are surprised by a disassembled watch. The strap, case, inner case with the movement and dial and bezel separate. To assemble the watch you take the case and put it over the inner case lining up the crown hole, then you take the bezel and screw it on top. The strap has the quick release spring bars so it is pretty easy to put on the watch. The watch assembles in about 20 seconds so it isn’t that difficult. The first impression is good, for 100euro you can get a really solid watch with an interesting design with that modular design. Inside the box, you will also find a warranty, nice cleaning cloth and instructions.

The case of the Brinna Ochre is made of 316L stainless steel. The case is made pretty well. With modular watches, you would expect that after time the things will start to get loose, but with this one, everything is built solid. The whole watch has a polished finishing except the fluted bezel which has the bead blasted finish on top where the pattern is. Th diameter of the case is 41mm, the thickness is 8,8mm, from lug to lug it measures at 46,7mm and the lug width is 20mm. The size is really good, it is at the sweet spot to fit all kind of wrist sizes. It isn’t too small or too big. It is also pretty light so as a daily wearer/beater it will do perfectly. At 3 o’clock you have a push-pull crown which is signed with the BOOM watches logo. The case back is probably the only thing that I don’t like in this watch, that is because it is a snap on style case back. Snap-on case backs are pretty hard to take off and are barely water resistant so I would not even recommend you even washing hands with the watch on or go through rain or in shower despite that company claims it has 5ATM (50m) water resistance. On the case back you have nice engravings of the BOOM watches logo and some specifications on the outer circle of the case back. The watch has a flat mineral crystal.

The dial is pretty simple and stylistically reminds me of some kind of Timex watch or field watch. The dial is in a matte bright orange colour, and I chose this colour because it is summer and I like colourful watches in the summer. Around the dial, we have minute markers with much larger hour markers. The numbers on the dial are Arabic and they are lumed. The stick-shaped second’s hand is in silver colour with polished finishing. The sword-shaped hour and minute hands are also polished but with lume in the middle. The lume isn’t the greatest, but it does its job well. At 12 we have the BOOM watches logo which actually looks pretty good. As I review more and more watches I see all kinds of logos and there are some really bad logos that destroy the look of the watch and overall design, but this one looks good and kind of compliments the dial.

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Movement inside the watch is a pretty basic Miyota GL30 quartz Japan-made movement. All I can say about this one is that it is pretty robust and will last a lifetime. Basically, every watch or movement that comes from Japan has great quality. The battery life on this one is about 2-3 years.

The strap that comes with the watch is this interesting weaved leather strap. And what makes this a very comfortable strap is that your wrist doesn’t sweat and due to the weaved pattern you can close it on almost any hole so you can make it fit your wrist just perfect. The leather is pretty soft and wraps your wrist nicely. I also like that the strap has the quick release spring bars built in, so that makes the strap change super fast and easy. Te signed buckle is made from the 316L stainless steel and has a satin brushed finish.

Overall I really like this very affordable watch. Yes it has quartz and from the looks, it doesn’t look that special, but the modular case and the fun colour they offer makes it a great weekend watch for people who don’t want to spend a fortune or don’t want to worry if they scratch it. I really suggest you take a look at one, and maybe buy a set for the whole family in different colours and swap the modules each time you get bored with the design.

Price: 100€ @ boomwatches.com