Straight from the Barrel: Introducing the Original Grain New Belgium Chrono

The American brand Original Grain is known for producing affordably priced, quartz-powered wood and steel watches using modern designs. Last month, the young brand partnered with Colorado-based craft brewery New Belgium Brewing for the newest addition to its collection: the Original Grain New Belgium Chrono.

This new watch is foremost characterized by its use of reclaimed wood from aged New Belgium barrels. Yet, for the intrigue in this collaboration, this is actually not the first time the brand has used reclaimed wood. Previously, the brand has used up-cycled American bourbon barrels and German oak beer barrels in its Whiskey Barrel and Brewmaster watches, respectively.

The New Belgium Chrono was designed by Scott Young, a relatively new designer for Original Grain who previously spent six years at Movado. Throughout the watch you can see the fashion-focused influences, with it clearly having been crafted to appeal to the larger fashion market rather than the die-hard watch collector.

The 44-mm case of the new chronograph is comprised using a combination of black steel and reclaimed French oak foeder wood. The piece is strapped on a matching steel-and-wood bracelet, attached via modern straight lugs, while on its right side are two angular crown guards between wide chronograph pushers and an extended crown.

On the wooden dial of the timepiece are applied rectangular hour markers within a solid black outer minute ring. There are two subdials at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions, one for running seconds, the other a 60-minute chrono counter, and a date indicator at the bottom of the face just below New Belgium’s bicycle-themed logo. Ticking over the dial are two black-and-white, enlarged, sword-style hands for the hour and minute, along with an arrow-tipped counter for the chronograph seconds.

This model uses the Miyota 6S21 quartz movement, a relatively common quartz chronograph mechanism that comes standard in a number of watches produced by Citizen and Bulova, among many other brands.

The new Original Grain New Belgium Chrono is priced by the brand at $595, and is available through Original Grain’s online store.