Independents

singingbee
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My first bespoke watch - Garrick S4

The Garrick S4 is a recent and significant addition for me as it is my first bespoke watch and is also from an independent brand which I am a fan of.

Garrick Watchmakers has been on my radar for a few years. I really like that they are a champion for old school watchmaking and strives to do most of their stuffs in-house. I have been following their Norfolk, S2 and S3 for awhile. In fact I almost bought the Norfolk (it was their previous entry-level watch and has been discontinued) but back then I had reservation on the size and thickness of the Norfolk case and how it wears on the wrist. It was using a different case from the “S” models and I knew that it wears bigger and chunkier. In comparison, the S2 and S3 has a more streamlined and slimmer case profile. When the S4 was announced 18 months ago and uses the same S2/S3 case, I knew that this is the one I want.

After viewing many beautiful builds of the S4 online, I ordered mine at the start of the year. The 7 months journey with them in “building” this watch is a pleasant one due to the strong personal touch from David (the co-founder of Garrick Watchmakers). My understanding is he personally liaise with all his clients on their watches from start to finish.

David was very patient with my proposed ideas for the watch and gave good suggestions. We went with this build in the end as it is abit different from most of the other builds I have seen so far. And we are glad we stuck with it! He updated me throughout the process and I learned quite a few things from him from our chats.😉

My initial thought is the yellow gold engine-turned dial here is very well done and coupled with the beautifully flame-blued anchor hands, contrasts very nicely against the Breguet numerals. Even the movement which is a reworked Swiss ETA 6498 movement, is finished in a very clean and pleasant manner by Garrick. The 42mm steel case which is made in-house has a certain lustre and gleam to it which I really like. It also wears quite well on smaller wrists due to the short lugs.

I am grateful to David and Garrick Watchmakers for making my first bespoke watch experience a great one! The end result definitely surpasses my expectations.