Let me share with you a few of the words that Graham uses to describe its newer Chronofighter Oversize GMT Black Steel watch collection. The name itself is long enough as it is. Let’s see here, according to our friends at the British Masters this watch is “chic, gutsy, dogged, classy, undaunted, a milestone, magnetic, skilled, extra sensitive, faithful, and a backslider.” Wow, that sounds like rock band made up of a KGB spy, an ex dictator turned psychologist, Alexander the Great, and a criminal who was formerly an arch bishop. I had to look up “backslider” by the way. No, it isn’t a cool way of falling down the stairs. Apparently it is a religious term for a “saved” person who has fallen into sinned. Oh Graham, you dogged backslider you.
Ignoring the thesaurus-derived spew we can focus on the watches themselves. The design is a bit of a hybrid between some of what Graham has offered in the past. Mainly its famous Chronofighter and GMT watches. When I first learned about Graham watches a long while ago I thought to myself, “cool, but would anyone actually wear these?” Well the answer is yes, people actually wear them. I am pleased to report that I have spotted a fair number of their timepieces on wrists out in the wild – crazy pushers and all.
What Graham has going for themselves is a certain sense of boyish charm. These high-end watches are a bit larger than life. They don’t take themselves too seriously and are the grown-up equivalent of carrying around a giant Nerf gun to make yourself feel more bad-ass. I still think Nerf guns are pretty cool – which makes for some difficult moments when I ‘accidentally’ stroll through the toy section at Target.
With a few different dial options available, these steel-cased watches are 47mm wide (not counting the crown and pusher) and come in rubber straps. I like that the cases are mostly polished. The color schemes are all rather cool – though I think the version with British racing green will be the hardest to move outside of England. I am a bit partial to the blue and gold version myself. Classy isn’t it? Yes, that is one of the adjectives above!
Inside of the watches is Graham’s G1733 automatic movement. This is probably a caliber from Dubois-Depraz. It has a big-date indicator, 30 minute chronograph, and a super-sized GMT hand. I actually like the big ol’ GMT hand the more I look at it. More and more these days I like GMT chronograph watches as I find them useful for travel. Though I tend to prefer those with full 12 hour registers. Gee, even the “GMT” label on the dial is massive.
In addition to the rubber strap is an alligator strap option which should prove really nice. As far as Graham watches go, this is a pretty darn nice one if you want to experiment with a large-sized watch that will call attention to yourself. Price for the Chronofighter Oversize GMT Black Steel watch is likely to be in the $8,000 -$11,000 range.
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