Note: this item was sent for review.
This is my first go with a watch from Vero, thus I was really unsure what to expect. I’ve been paying attention to their Smokey Bear edition watches, as these are officially licensed and all of them are fantastic looking. They sent me the Campfire Edition, which is a very straightforward field watch, and seems like the watch you might want for a weekend camping trip and then some.
I’ve been wearing it for a bit now, and I’ve found it to be a really enjoyable watch to wear, with just the right amount of flair to it.
Materials & Specs
A quick rundown of the noteworthy items:
- 120m water resistance
- Sapphire crystal with AR coating
- 316L stainless steel case which has a Gunmetal Ion Plating coating
- Super LunmiNova
- 10yr warranty
- 38mm x 12mm with 20mm lugs and 46mm lug-to-lug
- Seiko NH38A automatic movement with 41hr power reserve (Vero notes it’s regulated Stateside, but I do not know if Vero does that or not. My sample runs at -9spd on average as read by a timegrapher.)
The fit and finish of the watch is really nice. The packaging this watch came in is some of the most fun packaging I’ve seen on any watch I have had. The plating on the watch is really nice feeling, offering some texture, but not enough to be annoying. Visually it’s very matte looking, which makes the polished bit around the bezel really jump in a lovely way.
Wearing
When I first unpacked this watch there were two things which jumped out to me:
- What is this case finish, it’s really cool?
- How big is this?
As I mentioned, this is an Ion Plate coating which gives a gunmetal effect. The closest I’ve seen to this before was on a bead blasted titanium case. The coating gives a darkened appearance, with a smooth and consistent texture across the surface — it feels almost like running your finger over an eraser. It’s fantastic.
The sizing is really interesting to me. It’s a 38mm watch, with a reasonable lug to lug. While it is on the thicker end — 12mm is still not overly thick. However the watch faces up and looks a lot larger visually than 38mm, while still wearing small. I suspect the visual effect I am noticing is that there’s a very slim amount of case around the dial, giving the dial a lot more presence than you might otherwise have on a watch of this size.
From a design perspective, this is a time-only field watch. It’s clean and easy to read with very good contrast on the hands and numerals. The font is playful, but not out there. The Smokey Bear logo is nicely tucked away, visible but not popping off the charcoal dial. The watch feels very cohesive and well balanced. The red 24hr scale on the inside of the numerals keeps the dial from looking too sparse, while adding a nice touch of utility — the nod of the coloring being related to the embers of a campfire is a solid enough explanation — they certainly have that latent glow feeling to them.
The lume on this watch is quite well done, as it’s readily glowing at even the whisper of less-than-full daylight. I love the design on the hour hand, as it adds a lot of visual interest with vintage vibes, while giving extra area to add more lume. It’s a very easy and nice to read watch in low-light.
One thing you’ll notice about the design is the crown. It’s quite large and prominent, certainly something you can operate with cold fingers. It carries Vero’s logo, as well as polished and plated areas. I’m a fan, and it helps with the scale of the watch to have a large crown on the side. It’s also great to see this much attention paid to the crown given the price point of the watch.
This watch comes with two straps, a quick release brown suede strap, and a grey NATO strap. Both are quite nicely done, and match the watch perfectly. I’m not a NATO strap guy, but do find this canvas NATO to be very nice and easy to wear. The leather strap is very supple and comfortable to wear as well.
This watch is comfortable to wear day to day. There’s no hot spots, no chaffing, and it was ready to go from the moment I took it out of the box. It will fit smaller wrists easily with a nice lug-to-lug, but still look well balanced on a larger wrist thanks to how large in diameter the actually dial is.
The only downside is that the case height means that some cuffs will catch on the watch, though I’ve only had this issue on the tightest of the cuffs I own and wear. The crystal is flush with the bezel, so there’s not tricks with the height on this, and this does help a shirt cuff to drop over the watch most of the time.
Before I move to the movement of the watch, I’ll note that the caseback has a great engraving with the Smokey Bear slogan “Only You can prevent wildfires”. It’s a very premium touch given the price point of the watch.
The movement is a workhorse of a movement. The Seiko NH line is what you put in a watch when you want something reliable. This variant has hacking seconds, and hand winding ability on top of the automatic winding. Which means you can easily get up and going. The 41hr power reserve does leave a lot to be desired, but the tradeoff here is cost and maintainability. In most cases you can simply have any watch maker replace a Seiko movement like this for cheaper than repairing it. Which means you have a very easy to own watch, and it’ll keep going for some time even if you never take it in for service (not that I recommend that).
I find it hard to complain about anything on this watch.
It could be a little slimmer, but that’s a very minor complaint as given the style this is a perfectly fine thickness. It could have a larger power reserve, but given that there’s no date, it’s easy and fast to get up and going again if you happened to take it off for too long. I am not sure either would be worth the tradeoff of the time tested movement selected here and overall durability this watch has.
Overall
I’m a huge fan of this watch. If you like Smokey Bear merchandise, then this is a really well executed watch, with nice nods to the most famous bear I grew up with, in a very lovely and durable package. Good water resistance, and excellent lume, makes for a watch which is as highly wearable around town, as it is out in the forest.
This is a really great watch for people looking for something a little fun, which is still plenty durable and still stylish enough to wear everyday. I’m a big fan of it.