WISHMOOR WATCHES

Sartorial

Gustav Temple’s attention is drawn momentarily from his modest collection of vintage wristwatches, by road testing a brand-new quartz timepiece www.wishmoorwatches.com

This publication has always been careful not to bang on too much about wristwatches, purely because most other men’s magazines do so, usually to shore up watch advertisements featuring has-been actors flying aeroplanes and so forth.

However, when a missive landed announcing a new wristwatch by fledgling British company Wishmoor, the watch itself immediately took the eye. And since it wasn’t bracketed in the ‘silly’ price category, we decided to investigate further.

Wishmoor Watches was founded in 2018 by Richard Hayes, a chap working in the insurance market with an eye on a higher calling. A long-term admirer of the Tag Heuer Monaco,

“For this member of the above community, it certainly made a change to wear a watch that simply tells the time accurately, doesn’t need winding up every day, doesn’t require expensive regular cleaning and won’t eventually stop working altogether, just when you’re about to catch a train”

showcased by Steve McQueen in 1971’s Le Mans, Richard’s first automatic watch was a Fossil Mens Grant Sport Watch (ME3138), which he immediately took apart to see how it was constructed. Also keen on the Panerai Luminor (1949), his research into watch manufacture, combined with an admiration of vintage cars, led to the design of his first wristwatch, the Pioneer Chronograph.

Incorporating the Swiss Parts variant of the Ronda 5021, a nickel-plated movement with five jewels, providing accuracy of -/+ 20 seconds a month and battery life of around 4.5 years, this is clearly not a watch for those entirely dedicated to vintage timepieces.

For this member of the above community, it certainly made a change to wear a watch that simply tells the time accurately, doesn’t need winding up every day, doesn’t require expensive regular cleaning and won’t eventually stop working altogether, just when you’re about to catch a train. As to the style, the Wishmoor is more Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File than Robert Donat in The 39 Steps. The chronograph function would certainly come in handy when timing the making of “the best omelette you’ve ever had” and can time up to 30 minutes.

The various colourways include black with black leather strap, russet brown with brown

leather strap and green with a silver metal strap.

The only novelty, for a fellow who usually wears vintage wristwatches from the early 20th century, is the size. The Pioneer Chronograph is in a hefty 40mm case (although a standard 20mm at the lugs), which means one may only wear it when the wrists are encased in a shirt with French cuffs and cufflinks. Why any reader of this publication would be wearing any other kind of cuff on their shirt is of course purely academic. I personally admire the early 60s flavour of the watch, although I don’t have any other watches from this period to compare it with.

Wishmoor have made no attempt, at least not yet, to produce a fully British watch; the Pioneer Chronograph is currently manufactured by a small company near Venice in Italy, who have the watches assembled in Hong Kong (this is in fact precisely how most Swiss watches are manufactured). It is quite obvious that one would not be paying £210 for a watch of this standard if it were made entirely in Britain, although Mr. Hayes does have plans to manufacture entirely in the UK in the future, and will one day make Wishmoor a truly 100% British brand. n