TheSharperTheBetter Islander Penn ISL-171 Review

Here is my first attempt at a review. This design is Marvin Menke’s, the owner and founder of Hemel Watches, on Long Island, New York. The manufacturer is Long Island Watch… or Islander Watches… i really don’t know which it is now…anyway!  

The dial. The color got me good, it’s got a faded butter/golden wheat field thing going on, besides just calling it vintage gold. There’s an inner “island” of vinyl record pattern providing a dash of depth and beyond that the surface has an almost fine paper texture only seen under the loupe. Both the handset and the printing on the dial use an inky piano gloss. The lume filled hands form a delicate silhouette of shadows. I love the font chosen for the arabics, and the way the railroad track dives under the small twenty-four hour numerals is a welcome, playful interpretation on the minute track.

The case. Probably some kind of Seiko (please correct if I’m wrong), has; brushed sides, polished top and bezel, no chamfering, slightly downturned and drilled lugs, screw down exhibition sapphire case back, slightly nested crown. The crystal is flat sapphire with AR undercoating (dunno how many layers, cuz that matters to some). The screw down crown is what it is, nothing to write home about, embossed with the logo, actually it’s a tad gritty threading and unthreading which is a little sad.

The strap. Twenty millimeter width tapering to eighteen millimeters, is pretty darn good. Soft, supple, pliable, no cushion, no break-in time, and handsome enough to wear out of the box. Labeled as brown leather, it’s kind of a camel/caramel brown.

The lume. The curved bars taking up the parallel negative space outside the track and 24 hour numerals, filled with C3 Super-LumiNova, almost hide in certain lights and angles. Although tastefully designed, it doesn’t seem to last as long into the morning as my other Islanders lume fests.

The movement. An NH36 with a ghost position. The caliber inside doesn’t concern me greatly at the current point in my watch journey. I personally don’t want the phantom stop and am just thankful it’s not a noticeable 49 seconds off a day or something ridiculous.

The story. I was aware of the initial railroad inspiration, but I didn’t know there was a specific railroad watch aesthetic and that there are certain design cues that signify it as such. Please refer to Greg/Aurelian for more information. I’m not a romantic bohemian, just a recovering hippy/hipster. The only railroad association I have in my mind is that I remember being told that my grandfather worked as some sort of switch operator. Nothing else railroad related. So the historical significance doesn’t quite weigh on my mind. I just thoroughly enjoy the overall layout, the simplicity, the cleanliness, the essentials and the bonus’.

The specs. I don’t have a timegrapher nor do I have an app, so don’t ask (If I had to make a strained guess it seems to be running about +5 a day) but I do have calipers:

36.20mm wide

44.00mm lug-to-lug

11.77mm thicc

35.35mm bezel

6.30mm crown

20.00mm strap that tapers to 18mm at 2.30mm thick

I have a 7.25” wrist.

The cons? If I wanted to make changes to it, I would start by swapping in a domed crystal—who cares about legibility at severe angles, give me distortion or give me death. Get rid of the AUTOMATIC text on the dial. QC the crown threading more. Increase the layers of lume. Either put a power reserve and decorate some portion of the movement if you’re going to have an exhibition case back or seal it up and give us the extra millimeter of thin-ness. I like crazy talk, so lastly if I really wanted it perfectly my way it would have a Spring Drive with at least 50hrs of power reserve, a tegimented titanium case, ISO 500 meters, vegan leather strap, and just move those lug holes a lil’ bit… but that’s if we’re talking Leprechauns and Unicorns. Of course then we couldn’t buy it at $250 (as of November 2022).

The conclusion. I made threats of this being an exit watch. When I wear this it constantly whispers to me like a siren that there were immediate feelings and emotions when i opened the box. It whispers to me about how happy we could be just the two of us. But then i come to my senses. I’m an enthusiast and a collector. I enjoy my collection because I enjoy having different options, and I also need them—I can’t batter this like a G-Shock, and I can’t say anything to it’s wearability with a blue suit (though with the right strap, probably pretty easy), I just really love the sharp, steady, Johnny Cash train that this has taken me on.