Based in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Vero Watch Company has a history of making functional, great looking watches. Now, it releases its boldest design yet, the Vero Workhorse Chrono.
The Release
The Vero Workhorse Chrono features a robust 44mm stainless steel case with Cerakote ceramic coating. The case is 15.5mm thick with a 49.5mm lug-to-lug and 20mm lug width. The watch has rotated it’s Miyota 6S21 movement (accurate to -/+ 20sec per month) to have the pushers and crown on the left; the colored “Run/Stop” pusher is at 8 o’clock, the screwdown crown at 9, and the black reset at 10. A 2 o’clock crown sets the internal bezel. The watch features 120m of water resistance and rubberized protective bull horns at 12 and 6 o’clock. Offered in a dark green “Backcountry” and tan “Canyon” colorways, the watch is fitted with a Velcro pass-through strap, which can be changed easily thanks to the straight lugs, which are drilled. The watch features a flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating.
At the outside of the dial is a rotating internal bezel with 5-minute markers and numerals. The interior dial is surrounded by a recessed chapter ring—black for the Backcountry, orange/red for the Canyon. The interior dial features a 60-minute chronograph counter at 3 o’clock and an unnumbered running 24-hour indicator at 9 o’clock; both feature triangular hands. The main dial rises up slightly as it nears the center, with the Vero name and logo set upon it. The handset is stark white with block ends, while the colored chronograph hand echoes the style of the subdial hands. The hands and internal bezel are lumed with Super-LumiNova C3, while the Canyon also has lumed hour pips.
Our Thoughts
Quartz and microbrands aren’t our typical milieu, but we’re always game for something this fun from a great brand. After producing its own hands, dials, and cases for its first several watches, Vero Watch Company pivoted to a more traditional, Swiss-based production model, and released the Open Water series, a diver with one of the best bezels I’ve ever handled. The Workhorse Chrono may seem like an outlier along the brand’s trajectory, with its large dimensions and quartz movement, but to me, it continues a trend of creating exceptionally functional timepieces with excellent design.
The Vero Workhorse Chrono was created in collaboration with designer Matt Smith-Johnson, and it shows. Smith-Johnson is known for his redesigns of beloved but poorly executed watches (like the Rolex Air-King and the Patek Philippe 5550P), and the refinement of the Workhorse Chrono demonstrates his talent at creating simplicity and clean design even on a bulky watch. The left-sided crown may put off some righties, but it allows for the easiest aactuation of the pushers—with the thumb. There are some hints of the Seiko SNJ029 “Safarnie” here, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing: this watch, like that one, looks like it was built to withstand a desert A-bomb test.
Availability
The Vero Workhorse Chrono is available now and is priced at $425. It can be ordered directly from Vero Watch Company.