The Field Engineer - CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE

The Field Engineer is no longer available for purchase. Existing owners needing service/repairs to their FIeld Engineer watch, please contact http://clockgallerylondon.co.uk and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (best to phone 07542 513 984 rather than email though).

The only watch currently made by The Marine Chronometer Company is the Field Engineer chronograph.  Future models will follow in due course, but each requires an extensive design, engineering, prototyping and testing phase before reaching production.

£2200 - Field Engineer chronograph fitted with hand-made custom Teju leather layered strap.  Slightly different colours from the below pictures, the standard strap has a black matt finish outer layer, navy-blue inner layer and black stitching. The metal bracelet is included in the custom leather travel case that the Field Engineer is supplied in.  The straps are expensive, which is why the strap version of the Field Engineer costs quite a lot more than the bracelet only version.

£1800 - Field Engineer chronograph fitted with metal bracelet.  The custom made bracelet is a constant width and thickness, features 5 row link construction and is fastened by a butterfly deployment clasp. As with the strap option, the Field Engineer is supplied in a custom leather travel case that will take two watches.

£ direct from dangerous9 - Teju or fully bespoke straps with a choice of leathers and colours.  See the Straps page for details.

The Field Engineer is a triple complication chronograph that combines bespoke engineering with visual design derived from Fibonacci sequence ratios.

It is as classically elegant and robust as a mechanical chronograph can be and is fitted with a teju leather layered strap and deployment clasp that have been designed and built to be as tough and elegant as possible.  A metal bracelet is also provided that can be fitted by a local jeweller.

The Field Engineer is built in the UK from the base architecture of a Swiss integrated chronograph movement that is modified to the in-house 775M2 calibre.  Every part of the case, dials, hands, bracelet and clasp is custom designed and made.  

To recognise the Swiss origin of the movement and the UK watch build, movement modification, engineering and design, the backplate carries the names of both countries. 

Overall size is 44 mm diameter by 14.5 mm thick, with 22 mm reducing to 20 mm strap width and constant 22 mm wide bracelet.  Total weight on the strap is 132 grams.

Specification

• Marine grade stainless steel case with perfectly flat sapphire front & back crystals, each chronograph pressure tested and rated to 10 ATM

• Chronometer standard calibre 775M2, triple complication, 25 jewel, self-winding integrated chronograph movement with 48 hour power reserve

• Three layered shock resistance with mechanically isolated movement and floating crown

• High visibility four layer dial and handset incorporating solid super-luminova wafers in hour and minute hand and dial hour markers

• Leather strap with profiled natural rubber core, anti-sweat lining and butterfly deployment clasp.  A marine grade stainless steel metal bracelet with adjustable links and butterfly deployment clasp is also provided

• 2-year Warranty & a Lifetime Guarantee

Calibre 775M2 movement (7750-Modified)

The heart of the Field Engineer is built from a Valjoux 7750 chronograph movement, finished to a custom grade in Switzerland and then modified in London. The 775M2 designation shows the movement is built from the 7750 base structure but with major modifications.

775M2 is an integrated 25 jewel unit with shock absorbing on all main bearings. In its standard 7750 form it is a supremely solid and accurate timepiece that has had over 40 years of gentle fettling to achieve an incredible level of reliability. M2 doesn't change any of the drive chain and timing architecture or internal shock absorbing, instead replacing the day/date mechanism to offset display into an 00 arrangement that sits below the 3 0-clock line, applying a vertical compression system, modifying and enhancing a few other things. The standard level of shock absorbing is enhanced by the compression system, internal movement holder, outer case design and mechanical isolation of the movement from the case. Dial materials, chapter ring and casing provide electrical continuity for Faraday cage magnetic shielding.

The serial number of each chronograph is engraved into the self winding rotor visible through the sapphire crystal back.

MATERIALS

The principal material used for the case, clasp and bracelet is a low carbon 316L stainless steel alloy, often referred to as surgical or marine grade. 316H, with a higher carbon content, is used in components such as the crown tube, double headed screws and chronograph pushers.  The chronograph pushers are double sealed and the floating crown is triple sealed.

The movement main-plates, gears and self-winding rotor are a copper-zinc alloy, plated in rhodium to give a sliver grey-finish. Movement bearings are ruby (an aluminium oxide) with a Mohr’s hardness of 9.  With the exception of the main spring, all other movement materials have no Ferrous content to ensure full anti-magnetic properties.  The main spring alloy has a 5% Fe content so its operation falls below the lower fatigue level. 

Front and back glass are cut from a single crystal of sapphire (like ruby, an aluminium oxide), with fluoride anti-reflective coatings vapour deposited onto their inner surfaces. 

The strap is layered in leather-rubber-leather/neoprene with the rubber core thickening toward the case connection to ensure a correct and comfortable fit on a wide range of wrist sizes.

DESIGN

Visual design uses Fibonacci sequence numbers and ratios. The Fibonacci sequence is the simplest of number patterns; 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34... and features in many natural forms, as well as art and architecture since classical Greece. It was first analysed and understood during the 12th Century European Renaissance, at the same time that numbering switched from Roman to Arabic, the Indian concept of a zero was introduced, and paper began to displace parchment; three small and obscure changes that suddenly made everything possible. The closed form solution of the Fibonacci sequence is a ratio of 1 to 0.618, often called the golden ratio due to its perfectly balanced visual proportions. 

The Field Engineer uses some obvious sections of the number sequence, but more subtly relies on the ratios within the sequence for all its visual design and variations in colour pallet shades.

The four layer dial is designed for high hour and minute hand visibility under a wide range of lighting conditions and is a marvellous example of a 'chameleon' dial that adapts to and blends in with its surroundings .  Hour and minute hands contain solid C1 super-lumiova wafers so that night time luminescence projects downward onto the dial as well as upward, with dial hour markers highlighted in C3 super-luminova.