Spinnaker Bradner GMT Watch Review (and Giveaway)

Update: This competition is now closed, congratulations to the winner of the Spinnaker Bradner GMT. Make sure not to miss out on future competitions by subscribing to the magazine here.

For more than a year now we here at Oracle Time have been giving away a watch to a print subscriber every six months. Previous competitions have included a William Wood Ruby, an Orient Star Diver V2 and most recently the Signum Cuda won by Thomas Hanford. Starting from now, we’re doubling your chances to win by hosting giveaways every three months instead six, adding yet more value to being an Oracle Time subscriber. The watch being given away this time is the brand-new Spinnaker Bradner GMT (available to buy from tomorrow, 29th March 2024). Let’s get up close and learn all about this new watch that you could own.

The Bradner GMT, as you would expect, is based on the standard Spinnaker Bradner. Which means it has a 42mm diameter case in stainless steel with a round design and dual crowns. On the wrist it sits quite high with a thickness of 15mm, giving the watch a reassuring heft. The other impact of the thick case is that there is amazing depth to the dial. Combined with the refraction of the sapphire crystal it really feels like you’re looking into a deep well of a watch.

That illusion is emphasised yet further still by the layered, three-dimensional display. The version I have here and which is being given away is the Abbott Brown edition. Around the periphery of the dial is the internal, 24-hour rotating GMT bezel split into black and brown halves for day and night with raised Arabic numerals. At the bottom of the bezel’s slope is a minute scale in a very light copper colour verging on pink.

Below that layer you then have the applied indexes which are square and rectangular, coated with lume. Only then do you get to the main plate of the dial in a rich chocolaty brown colour. Recessed even further back into the dial is the date window with white numerals on a black disk. Situated in the centre of the display is the hour, minute and seconds hands in the same pinky copper tone as the minute scale and the GMT hand which has a black stem and red arrow tip.

If you wanted to use the Rolex-ified nicknames that everyone applies to GMT watches, this would be a variation on the Root Beer colourway with its brown and black dominant colours. However, any similarity to the Root Beer is heavily offset by the use of the pink salmon tone that’s very distinctive and quite unique. It adds a bright spot of colour to an otherwise very dark watch and enhances the display a lot. I really like it.

To quickly cover the other editions of the Spinnaker Bradner GMT that I don’t have here there’s: Night Shadow (black/blue), Gravel Black (black/green), Parisian Night (blue/red), Uniform Grey (black/grey) and Sombre Red (black/red). Of all of them, I actually think I’d pick the Abbot Brown because it’s the most distinct.

Unstrapping the watch – I’ve been testing it with the brown tropic style rubber strap although it also comes with a 7-link steel bracelet – allows you to turn it over and admire the exhibition caseback. It reveals the Japanese NH34 GMT movement housed inside, equipped with a Spinnaker branded rotor. It’s a pretty standard calibre with 41-hour power reserve and its accessibility means having it serviced and repaired should be easy as it’s very common.

The Spinnaker Bradner GMT is priced at £476, which is a great price for a practical tool watch. Of course, for one Oracle Time subscriber it will be free when they win it through the giveaway. In order to enter for a chance to win, you simply need to be a paying subscriber living in the UK prior to June 28^th, 2024.

I’ve grown to really like the Bradner GMT in my time with it, there are so many small details on the dial to admire and despite being quite overwhelming at first, it does come together to create a cohesive design. If I could enter the giveaway myself, I would.

More details at Spinnaker.