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In 2022, Jack Mason shook up the watch world by releasing a classically styled and beautifully finished sports watch with a true GMT movement and surprisingly affordable price. This year, Jack Mason revisits its flagship watch with a host of refinements and updates to the Strat-o-timer GMT, all while maintaining a price that still sneaks in under $1,000.
Based in Texas, Jack Mason was founded by designer Peter Cho and his partners in 2015. Though Cho never envisioned a career in watchmaking when he began his studies at New York’s Parson’s School of Design, he moved to Switzerland to work for Movado after graduation and was quickly immersed in the world of horology. When he was in La Chaux de Fonds, a hotbed of watchmaking and home to brands like Omega, Girard-Perregaux, Arnold & Son, Cho became enamored with the art and science watch-making and watch design. After moving from Movado to hone his craft at Fossil, it was time for Cho to launch his own brand. Thus, Jack Mason was born.
Jack Mason has been in operation since 2015, yet it was the release of the Strat-o-timer GMT in 2022 that truly put the brand on the horological map. The Strat-o-timer marked a transition for Jack Mason, pivoting the brand from making high-quality, affordable watches (primarily quartz) aimed at a mass-market audience to creating watches for, and by, watch enthusiasts.
When Miyota launched its new 9075 GMT caliber, it provided the opportunity for Jack Mason to launch something truly unique and special within the watch sphere: an affordable and reliable flyer GMT with an independently adjustable hour hand. But the movement is only one part of the equation; it was up Cho to design the watch that would house it. His goal was to create a classically styled sports watch that had nods to vintage GMTs of the 1960s and 70s, while being thoroughly modern in its execution.
The stainless steel case on the Strat-o-timer measures in at 40mm in diameter with a 47mm lug-to-lug distance and modest 13mm case thickness. While the dimensions remain unchanged in the new Strat-o-timer, Jack Mason has added a scratch-resistant coating that brings the case hardness up to an outstanding 1200 Vickers, a move that will keep your watch free from typical signs of wear and tear. The Strat-o-timer now receives a larger, 6.5mm crown for an easier and more enjoyable operating experience when screwing down the crown or using the jump-hour function.
In a major departure from the previous model, Jack Mason has switched to a ceramic insert on the bezel in lieu of the original split-color sapphire insert. The new insert has a polished finish and the markers are filled with Super-LumiNova. Indeed, luminosity has been a major focus of this new iteration of the Strat-o-timer, as the hour and minute hands now have more generous real estate for lume — a change Jack Mason was happy to make in response to customer feedback.
The Strat-o-timer is still available in both black and white dials, but the brand has now added an entirely new all-green colorway: Magnolia. The name was an inspired choice on two levels. First, magnolia trees pepper the Texas landscape, their large white and pink flowers illuminating their branches and ushering in spring on a backdrop of thick green leaves. Second, Magnolia also happens to be the name of a lane at the prestigious Augusta National Masters professional golf tournament in Georgia. In creating a new, green colorway, the coincidence was too much to pass up. As Cho states, “Outside of watches, I have a strong passion for the game of golf, and creating this colorway was a way for me to connect the two worlds together and also create some fun content around the watch.”
The new Strat-o-timer still features Miyota’s 9075 GMT movement that beats at a smooth 28.8kbph and features 42 hours of power reserved. Jack Mason also adjusts each movement to an impressive accuracy of +/- 5 seconds/day.
Whether you choose the colorful, new Magnolia colorway or the timeless black or white dial options, each comes equipped with an elegant 7-link jubilee-style bracelet that tapers from 20mm at the lugs to 16mm at the clasp. The new Jack Mason Strat-o-timer GMT is priced at $999 USD. To learn more about Strat-o-timer GMT, please visit the brand’s website.
