Established in 2015 in London, Farer has been swiftly and aggressively growing its line of British-designed, Swiss-made timepieces — debuting three-hand automatics, GMT models, a dive watch series, and a dressy, cushion-shaped, manually wound gent’s dress watch in subsequent years. Last week, the latest additions to the family debuted in New York. Here is what you need to know about Farer’s three new mechanical chronographs — the Cobb, Eldridge, and Segrave.
Each named for a pioneering figure in Britain’s illustrious motor racing history, the watches feature 39-mm stainless steel cases, multi-level detailed two-register dials with bold colors and luminous-coated hands, and individually numbered casebacks that can be personally engraved. All are powered by an Elaboré-grade ETA 2894-2 integrated chronograph movement, with automatic winding, 37 jewels, and a 42-hour power reserve. Visible through a sapphire window in the watch’s caseback, the movement’s haute horlogerie finishing details, including perlage and blued screws, are further highlighted by a bespoke, openworked rotor made of polished bronze.
The Cobb model is named for John Cobb, who broke the land speed record in 1939, bettered it in 1947, and perished in Scotland’s Loch Ness in 1952 in an attempt to break the world’s water speed record in a speedboat — an accident some attribute to a mysterious wake churned up by the legendary Loch Ness monster. The watch has a matte sky-blue dial with inset subdials at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock (small seconds and 30-minute chronograph counter, respectively) in split shades of aqua from light to dark. The central chronograph seconds hand is executed in a bright yellow that contrasts the dial’s blue tones. A tachymeter scale along the flange — a classic racing-inspired touch — has numerals and indices in orange.
Named for the last man to break the land speed record on an open road in 1924, Ernest Eldridge (also an inveterate gambler who once lost 60,000 pounds in Monte Carlo in a card game), the Eldridge stands out with its chocolate brown dial whose subtle depths shine like copper when they catch the light. The dial’s inset, tone-on-tone have a snailed finish. Here, blue is used for details, including the central chrono seconds hand, the small seconds hand, and markers along the minute track. Also of note: the Eldridge sports a telemeter scale along its flange rather than a tachymeter.
Rounding out the trio is the Segrave, named after Henry Segrave, the first person to hold both the land speed record and water speed record simultaneously and the namesake of the modern Segrave Trophy, awarded by the Royal Automobile Club to individuals demonstrating “Outstanding Skill, Courage and Initiative on Land, Water and in the Air.” The Segrave boasts the increasingly popular “reverse panda” dial design, with pearly white subdials on a charcoal-black main dial. The hands and indices are thick and blocky — a contrast to the Eldridge’s elegant Arabic hour numerals — and the central seconds hand stands out in orange. Green makes an appearance on the small seconds hand and blue marks the details of the surrounding tachymeter scale. Like its siblings, the watch has a date display in a window at 6 o’clock.
All three of the’ cases have a thin profile (just 12.5 mm) with drop lugs that secure the watches’ over-stitched Horween leather straps, which are color-coordinated with the dials and details and which fasten with polished stainless steel buckles. Farer’s inbuilt strap mechanism allows the wearer to easily change these straps without the need for a tool. Priced at $1,950 in the U.S., the watches are available exclusively online at the brand’s website, farer.com.
I wonder if at least some brands consider that their are potential customers to whom the movement matters.