Today we are gonna talk about a small brand from the USA that isn’t so known in a watch or microbrand watch world. The brand is called Jack Turner and I assume that the full name of the founder is the same as on their website there is a book with Jack Turner as an author. I actually found them through Instagram and was following for some time and what surprised me is that they have a lot of watches in their collections, well most of them are already sold out while writing the article and I don’t know if they will be back, but from the looks, they have some really nice designs! I particularly like their diver, which kind of reminds me one of the Blancpain watches.

But today they sent me two of their Limited Edition sports chronographs called El Magico. Both of the watches are limited to 300 watches, so when they are gone, they are gone for good! Both of them are with stainless steel colour cases, the only differences are the dial colours and bezel insert colours, otherwise, they are the same. Each of them costs 499$ which in my opinion is a bit too high, but I understand why the price, mainly because of that Swiss Made writing as that usually costs a lot as you need to assemble or make the watches in Switzerland.

Both of them arrived in pretty casual rectangular cardboard boxes. But what makes me happy is that they also threw in two pairs of jewellery gloves which will help me a ton in making photos of the watches in future! So thanks to them for that 🙂 So in each box you will find the watch, warranty and manual. The first time I saw them, they actually reminded me a little of the Nezumi Voiture I reviewed some time ago. But none the less I quite like these watches. I always liked chronographs no matter what movement they have quartz or mechanical and from what I can see these ones are built pretty well!

The case of the El Magico chronograph is made of 316L Stainless Steel. The cases are really well machined, I especially like the gap between the fixed bezel and main case! All the lines are sharp and sleek! On the watch, there is a mix of polished and satin-brushed finishes. The case is round and it has similar design cues from Omega Speedmaster in my opinion. The diameter is 43mm, the thickness is 13mm, from lug to lug it measures at 50mm and the lug width is 20mm. The size is decent for a modern chronograph watch, and it actually wears a bit smaller on the wrist. On top of the watch, we have a fixed bezel with an aluminium bezel insert. On the blue one we have a blue bezel insert and on the black one a black insert. On both of them, we have a Tachymeter scale printed on them. At 3 o’clock we have a push-pull crown which is signed with Jack Turner logo on top. At 2 and 4 o’clock we have pump pushers for the chronograph function. The pushers have a nice “clickiness” to them which is very similar to mechanical chronograph movements. The solid case back is held on with four small screws. The case back is signed with Jack Turner logo and it shows which limited edition number of 300 you have. Around the case back we have also some specifications. On top of the case we have a double domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating. The coating is pretty good, actually one of the best I’ve seen recently. The water resistance is 100M (10ATM) which is pretty good, but I wouldn’t suggest swimming with them!

The dial is very similar actually to the Nezumi chronograph I reviewed a couple of years ago, especially the blue one has some design cues which look similar. But yeah, my favourite dial version is the blue one as the orange accents work so well with that blue colour. The black one with red accents is nice too, but I don’t like black and red colour combo that much, for me it is too played out, but I know there are a lot of people who will like it, just my opinion. Around the dial, we have a minute track printed in white. The applied rectangular hour markers are polished with lume in the middle. At 12 o’clock we have the Jack Turner logo which actually is very well executed! At 9, 3 and 6 o’clock we have the subdials for the chronograph. The subdials have a circular texture and they almost look like sunburst blue and play in the light a lot. At 4:20 we have a square date window. I actually would’ve removed it, as it ruins the dial a lot and they didn’t even bother to match the dial colour on the date wheel, they just took a white date wheel and stuck it on. I really like the rectangular hour and minute hands, as they have that 70s look. The hands are polished with lume in the middle. The second’s hand is stick-shaped with an arrow on the end and the counterweight is the Jack Turner logo which is a nice touch. The lume isn’t the best, on some markers, it is poorly applied and on some, it is applied well.

As these are Swiss-made watches, inside they have a Swiss Ronda Quartz Chronograph 5030.D movement. There isn’t a lot to talk about here, as it is just quartz and Swiss, all I can say is that it is a good movement and will last many many years! The battery life is around 2-3 years. The straps that both watches came on are made of leather. The leather has an interesting crosshatch texture/pattern on them, kind similar to sailcloth straps. The straps are pretty stiff from the box and definitely will need the wear-in time to get more supple. The strap tapers from 20mm at the lugs to 18mm at the buckle. The signed buckle is a regular tang style buckle which works fine. The underside of the strap is beige and very soft, the underside is also signed with Jack Turner logo.

Overall I quite like the watch and it has some nice specs and looks, but the problem for me at least is the price, which is too high. If you compare it to other competitors like Helgray, Undone or Nezumi, their prices are basically twice as low and all they lack is that Swiss Made on the dial. I just think that at this price it is too much, but somehow people are buying them out so they must do something very good with their marketing! Any case if you want this watch, I would wait Christmas or Black Friday and get it then as they maybe could have discounts or something.

Price: $499 @ jackturnerwatches.com

Case Size – 43MM
Dial Color: Black or Blue
Index Markers: Red or Orange
Hands: Red or Orange
Case Material – 316 Stainless Steel / Combination of Brushed and Polished
Caseback – screw-down case back with Deep Etching effect
Case Thickness –12.4mm (case+caseback+glass)
Movement – Swiss Ronda Quartz Chronograph 5030.D
Watch Strap – 22MM
Glass – Double Domed Sapphire Crystal with anti-reflective coating
Strap -Full Grain Genuine Leather
Water Resistant – 10 ATM
Date Window between number 4 and 5
Screw down machined case back with Limited Edition Number (The one you will receive will be a random number between 003 to 300)