The Olmsted 38 - White

I received this as a surprise birthday gift after obsessing over it for the better part of a year, and I just adore it. Some things that impressed me about the watch in person: it's far lighter than I would've expected; the movement of the sweeping seconds hand is butter smooth; the cutout numerals on the white dial have a beautifully subtle effect that doesn't impact legibility at all; and the precision of the cutouts and alignment of design elements are just absolutely spot on. They even set the time for me, so when I put it on my wrist, the time was exactly right — I mean down to the second. Five days later, it's running 5 seconds fast compared to the exact GMT time.

The only slight oddity is that the gap between the links in the bracelet are perhaps a bit larger than I was expecting. But the bracelet is beautiful, light, and extremely comfortable, with an absurd number of micro-adjustment holes.

This watch wears beautifully, and I just find myself staring at it all the time. Chase was really friendly and helpful in the video call we had, and the packaging was top-notch. I couldn't be happier.

It took me a while to marinate over the decision between the Navy and Grey dial, but happy that I finally chose the classic Oak & Oscar dial color. I love the size: the short lug-to-lug distance really makes it a perfect watch for folks like me having a slim wrist. It could sometimes be mesmerizing to follow the orange seconds hand making its way around the dial :-) Moreover, the whole experience of becoming an Owner has really been made personal and unique by Chase: he really took the time to patiently answer my questions and clarify my concerns. I believe he's truly an icon among the independent watch brand owners by still investing heavily into keeping Oak & Oscar a friendly and personal watch brand.

On the negative side... Hard to find fault, but if I have to nitpick, I'd add drilled lugs to make it easier to swap straps, and perhaps a quick-change bracelet (like how Baltic's BoR works). Oh, and make the case a bit smaller, like 36 or 37mm, lose the date, yadayadayada, my usual wet dreams about 38-40mm watches :-))

Thank you, Chase, for designing yet another great O&O watch. And I'm looking forward to seeing a no-date 38mm Humboldt ;-)