Camden Watch Company Review | Camden Watch No 29
Maybe you want a look straight from Victorian times on your wrist. That’s where this No.29 watch from Camden Watch Company comes in.
I’ve had this pocket watch lookalike sitting on my shelf for around a year and never got around to reviewing it, because unfortunately I don’t really like it.
This is a British brand, based in Camden Town in London, who basically make vintage inspired wristwatches. They’re pretty new, I think they were founded in 2013 and they sent me this No.29 watch to look at late last year. This retails at £110, though they only seem to have the white versions online at the moment.
Each of their designs are penned in-house and you can tell, because there isn’t much like them available elsewhere. I like the fact they are far from generic and they have a very distinct aesthetic, it’s a rarity in low cost watches.
Nevertheless, here’s why I haven’t been wearing it; I just don’t think this one has been well executed. The watch feels cheap and is disappointing in-person, compared to online, in my opinion.
Camden Watch Dial
Let’s begin with the dial. It does have that pocket watch aesthetic with the slim Roman numerals around the perimeter and the retro sub-dial. Unfortunately, it lacks texture and depth. Everything on here is printed, which may be historically accurate but I think it just cheapens the appearance of the watch. It does have a slight indented section but I just find it a bit boring.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the slightly messy logo used by the brand doesn’t translate particularly well to the dial. It comes across as if the printing isn’t very good because it looks a bit sloppy, even though it’s actually very representative of the logo.
Construction
The watch itself is constructed of stainless steel, with a brushed bezel and sides. It has a screw down case-back providing 5ATM water resistance and is sized at 43mm in diameter and about 9mm in depth. While it sounds on the large side, I’d say it does wear slightly better than that. My complaint with it is that it feels too light and cheap considering the size. It’s as if the watch is hollow.
Inside the watch is a Japanese quartz movement, the same as you’ll find in loads of fashion watches. While these aren’t necessarily bad, they are cheap. You can easily buy these yourself for a couple of pounds online. There are plenty of watches containing better movements than these for lower prices elsewhere.
The dial is covered by a piece of mineral crystal, which is fine considering the price point, it will provide some limited scratch protection, though again, it’s nothing special.
WATCH STRAP
The strap you get with this watch is unusual. It looks great and definitely fits the aesthetic of the watch, but feels overly thick and almost plasticky. It is only genuine leather, which is a low grade of leather and it shows. I would hazard a guess that this would wear pretty underwhelmingly over time. Unfortunately, this doesn’t have the quick release tabs and the watch also doesn’t have drilled lugs, making strap changes slightly more difficult than other watches I’ve covered recently; which is a shame. On the website, the straps do seem to be a little different now though, so maybe my judgement isn’t representative of their current stock.
One thing I do want to mention is the packaging, it’s some of the coolest I’ve seen so far. The box and its contents really fit that Camden theme and it definitely pulls you in. A pleasure to open quite frankly.
Are Camden Watches Any Good?
Overall though, I just don’t know what would make me spend £110 on this. In every aspect, I feel like it’s nothing special. Whilst designed in Britain, they are manufactured in the Far East. The build quality isn’t great and outside of the design, it feels really similar to other cheap fashion watches I’ve reviewed before.
You can get the Orient I featured in my recent blog post for the same price and while it looks a lot different, it’s just a far higher quality piece in comparison.
I like the idea with this Camden Watch Company but I don’t like the execution of this No. 29. I feel like in several areas they’ve just cut costs. Since they sent me this, they have come out with multiple other designs, including some automatic pieces. Maybe I would get along better with some of those, who knows.
