Boldr Safari GMT Serengeti Review

Well, this post was a little inevitable...

After my last attempt to write a review I decided to give it a shot writing another, and with so much time spent raving about my newest purchase, and a solid contender for my new favourite watch in my collection, I decided I'd write a review about the Boldr Safari GMT Serengeti from Boldr's new Safari range. I bought this for £300 (US$379) from First Class Watches here in the UK, with free next-day delivery (next morning in fact, ordered at 14:00 and it arrived in time for me to size it, put it on, and still make it to my bus at 8:00 the next morning), this is considerably cheaper than Boldr's MSRP of £379 (plus tax if you are in the UK, making it a pricey £455, or US$575). This price to me is a little steep, but given First Class Watches is an authorised dealer for Boldr, and no sale or discount was used to reach the price I paid, I will write this review assuming a £300 price tag.

Brand

For those who are unaware, Boldr is a Singaporean micro-brand, most well-known for their budget titanium field watch range 'Venture', featuring traditional field watches alongside mecha quartz racing chronographs and dive watches. While this is their most well-known (and most reviewed) range, their catalogue is pretty vast by now, encompassing tool watches of every sort, although I'm more inclined to wear mine while sitting on my backside enjoying a cup of tea rather than cutting wood or any similarly physical manly activity...


Dial

Personally, I love the deep green colour, and the California dial, although I understand these can be a bit take-it-or-leave-it for some. The dial features line indices at 3, 6, and 9, a triangle at 12, and all indices and numerals are printed and have a very liberal application of lume. The finishing is pretty standard, nothing special here really, although for a tool watch a basic matte dial is appreciated and makes sense. The watch features the brand name "Boldr" and their logo printed above the pinion, and "Safari / Automatic / 200m" below it, advertising the model range, movement type, and water resistance.


Case

The case is a stainless steel one with a bead-blasted finish, measuring 40mm across with a 48mm lug to lug. This makes it a watch that will wear slightly larger on most below-average wrists like mine, but is still more than wearable, and the versatile dimensions will look good on wrists of any size. The curvature of the lugs also goes a long way to assist with wearability on smaller wrists. The dial is surrounded by a metallic-finished aluminium GMT bezel, with the daylight hours being in a light green, and the nighttime hours being in a dark green. The metallic finish on the light green appears much more pronounced than on the dark green, making it appear definitely shiny in the sunlight. The markings on the bezel are fully lumed, meaning both time zones can be easily tracked after dark.


The case also features a display caseback using sapphire crystal, with one of a selection of random safari animals printed on it, mine featured an elephant. While usually I quite like display casebacks, with the fairly pedestrian undecorated Seiko NH34 movement inside, and due to the artwork printed on the back, very little is visible, and while I am not sure how expensive a sapphire display caseback is, it is money that I feel could have either been cut from the overall watch price, or better invested elsewhere, and engraving or embossing animal artwork onto a stainless steel caseback instead.


The watch also is specced with a signed screw-down crown, and flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating. It wears incredibly comfortably, and the 20mm lug width means a variety of straps and bracelets will fit this one if the original isn't to your liking, and the quick-release spring bars of the original bracelet also makes it very easy to remove and replace.

Movement

This watch is powered by a Seiko NH34 as I previously mentioned. Like most automatic Seiko calibres, it is a more than passable movement at its low price, and the GMT complication works a treat. Unlike some no-date watches featuring Seiko movements, this watch does not appear to feature a ghost position when unscrewed. This is a hacking and hand-winding movement, and one that is far quieter than similar-priced Miyota movements due to its bidirectional winding. All things be told it is a good movement choice for this watch, and I look forward to seeing how many more budget GMTs microbrands can make with it.

My complaints

For a brand best known for their compact titanium field watches, this watch feels very heavy on wrist. Three holes of micro-adjust does help you to get an appropriate fit, but I have to wear this one quite tight to prevent it from sliding down my wrist. While this can be fine a lot of the time, after a whole day of wearing this fairly weighty watch quite tight, it can begin to feel a little uncomfortable. The bracelet also, while quick-release, can prove a pain to put back onto the watch again at times. I also always prefer a date window on my watches, although I do appreciate that it may clutter a dial of this style. Despite this, a date option would be interesting at least, but it would have to be colour-matched to limit the clutter. I also do wish the bezel would rotate, both to allow for 3 timezones to be tracked simultaneously, and for the general fidget-ability we all love.

Verdict

This watch is an amazing watch for the price, a £300 automatic GMT is pretty impressive already, and it made me realise that a GMT hand may well be my favourite complication. The green colour, while very attractive, can clash with some outfits if that is something that tends to bother you (it can definitely bother me) so this is definitely a watch best worn with either neutral colours like blacks, greys, and whites, or with a green outfit. Overall it is just beaten as my favourite watch by my Tissot PRC200 chronograph, due to its more versatile colour and slightly lighter nature, but it remains a very tough competitor for the coveted position of "Alex's most favouritest watch". While the MSRP of £379 before tax is slightly steep to me, for £300 this is amazing value, well-made and very good-looking, and I would happily buy from Boldr again, perhaps one of their titanium watches next.

Update: as of 31/07/2023, First Class watches has raised the price on this to the actual MSRP, I assume the £300 price was accidental when it was still a fresh release, for the new price of almost £500, the watch becomes slightly harder to recommend, it is still a great quality timepiece and if you want a well-build microbrand diver GMT, definitely give it a look