I have in front of me a trio of intriguing watches, well, technically one watch in three colourways. It’s the new Boldr Expedition Enigmath, the Singaporean brand’s first slide rule bezel timepiece. You know, just in case your tool watch wasn’t tool-y enough already. Let’s strap one of them on and see how it all stacks up.
First I need to choose which one to put on and the choice available is the green, blue or black, titled the Sinharaja, Coconino and Schwarzwald respectively. Each has a gentle fumé gradient dial in their dominant colour surrounded by the black and white rings that form the slide rule bezel.
Each of the colours change the character of the watch quite a lot. The black is dark and monochromatic, making it the most subtle of the three, the electric blue is the most vibrant and eye-catching and lastly the green has an olive, khaki quality that makes it feel almost mil-spec.
I find myself reaching for the green Sinharaja and putting it on. The canvas straps are colour matched to the dials and feature a leather style lining and metal eyelets for the pin buckle. As with all canvas straps it’s fairly stiff because it’s new, after time and wear it should loosen up to become incredibly comfortable. The eyelets and pin are perhaps a bit on the large side, which means I find that I’m either half a loop too tight or too loose, but as straps can be replaced that’s not a major issue.
I haven’t looked up the watch’s exact size yet because I often find that putting a number on it can affect my bias both positively and negatively. On the wrist it feels big, but not uncomfortably so. The lugs are long and sweeping, adding quite a lot of additional length to the piece. Similarly the flanks are built up on both sides increasing its width. It’s right on the limits of what I would comfortably wear daily. And looking at the dimensions now, the numbers agree with that analysis. It’s 41mm in diameter with a 47.5mm lug-to-lug and a thickness of 12.8mm.
An upside of the size is that the display is very easy to read, which is what you want from a tool watch. The combination of Arabic numerals and bar indexes that form the hour scale are fairly large and coated with lume. Speaking of lume, the central hour and minute hands also shine in the dark with their distinctive, partially skeletonised design. Around the edge of the dial is that slide rule bezel in high contrast black and white that gives the watch its Expedition Enigmath name.
Using the slide rule bezel is pretty straight forward. It’s operated via the screw down crown at 2 o’clock, which rotates the white portion of the internal bezel. This allows you to line up the corresponding scales on the white and black sections. Rather than get into the nitty gritty of the calculations you can perform with a slide rule bezel right now, check out our complete guide here. Suffice it to say it’s an incredibly versatile and useful tool for calculating distance, speed, fuel consumption and more without relying on a digital complication.
Taking the watch off and flipping it over reveals the exhibition caseback which has a mathematical theme as well. The sapphire window is decorated with a whole range of mathematical diagrams and formulas, really testing my memory of A-level maths. I can see Fibonacci on there with the golden ratio, an acute angle, a spiral, the structure of a right-angle triangle and the formula for calculating its internal angles. There are also some concepts and diagrams on there I don’t know. It’s a nice touch and makes the caseback much more interesting than usual.
The movement that’s visible through the caseback is the Miyota 9039, a fairly typical automatic calibre with 42-hour power reserve. It also helps to keep the Boldr Expedition Enigmath accessible and easy to repair should it take one too many knocks on your daily adventures. Speaking of accessibility, the watch is priced at £484. I think this is certainly the nicest rendition of the Expedition Boldr have released to date and the added utility is great.
Price and Specs:
More details at Boldr.
