Circula Protrail, I've Diversified And Gone All 'Fieldy'

A few weeks myself along with a few fellow crunchers popped along to the microbrand show at Heathrow London, and there we met Cornelius from Circula Watches. Now Circula is a brand I've looked at before, but at they're dive watches. Now I'm not really into field watches as such, most are small, lumes not a patch on divers, no twiddley bezel (and I do love a twiddle) and with generally less than 200m of WR my thinking has always 'nah no good to me'.

After a couple or 3 hours looking at the good stuff on offer and working out I needed a lottery win to slake the thirst of all the 'want's' I'd seen, took one last look at the Circula stand, and 2 of the party were buying watches so myself and Adam aka @Scooby were watching proceedings and I picked up the protrail (again, actually). Titanium I blurted out, mouth before brain as ever😖 as it was far too heavy, but it looked titaniumy/exotic metal. Now @Scooby whispered 'you need that watch' now he's always saying I need field/military style watches😆 my thoughts 'no I don't', but then I hit me

I actually liked the angular case bit seiko samurai'ish,(my fave seiko diver), the unusual finishing, legible dial. So now the pulse rare was up, wallet was sweating, Adam willing me on and to top it off Cornelius (the brand owner) quick as a flash said if I buy that watch @Guvnor64 Craig could have a free strap with his purchase. That's it deal done,everybody happy (clever fella that Cornelius).

And what a watch, love the look.

Unlike any field watch I've seen, no soft curves as generally seen on this type of watch, it's all angles in fact it's industrial more Ruhr valley

Steelworks,heavy engineering than country/field

The sharp angles,the recessed midcase with a gorgeous textured inner, the bracelet that fits seamlessly to the case almost looks as its forged in one piece even down to the crown all give it a tool like aesthetic, nothing field about the metalwork.

But the dial is more traditional field, super legible,big hands a lovely recessed centre portion of the dial, long second hand with a splash of orange at the tip which is a joy to watch it go round the minute marker track at the edge of the large dial.

Now it's no lightweight

Sized up for my 7"1/4 wrist it's 159g. The case is 46mm lug to lug but the bracelet has male endlinks that take it to 52mm, but they do angle down aggressively and there's superb articulation.

To reinforce its tough tooly nature the movement is incased in a soft iron cage which gives it a magnetic resistance of 80,000 am, and the case and bracelet has been hardened with a process called Klosterizing which involves heating the steel and diffusing carbon into it which gives it a hardness of 1200 on the Vickers scale, so should keep it looking fresh for a long time.

A few more specs for you movement SW 200-1 elabore, sapphire glass, 40mm case,20mm lug width, 150m WR (it'll do 'just'😉) and 13.6mm thick.

It's a watch that means buiseness more

Than

But let's take it from the industrial zone

And give it the Stricko strap treatment

Here's the 2 stock straps,the other is a nice sailcloth

So let's go country,and give it some field..

A bit of leather

Bang on some Nato's (sorry nylons, don't want a copyright infringement like Mark at Long Island Watches)

And for full camo

Knew I shouldn't have let him watch Acopolypse Now, he's gone native and keeps going on about 'going up river' (just hope it washes off).

Let's even try it on tropics. Tropic's on a field watch I hear you say, well it's a practical watch and these straps are really practical as well, comfortable, waterproof, warm in the colder months, breathable in the heat, easy to keep clean.

In my opinion goes well with the watch reinforcing it's capability of a watch that can handle whatever life throws at it

So there you have it,I've got a field watch and probably the only one I'll own as I don't think you can top this. Super practical, wearable on lots of straps, has a coating tougher than a bare knuckle boxer and great lume as well

Awesome design 'vive la differnce' , the ultimate analogue field watch. A package that makes this watch a superb daily, that can handle even the roughest of tasks

And to Cornelius Huber and the team at Circula, thankyou 'Good Job'.