Two years with my Elliot Brown Holton

Elliot Brown are a watch company based in Poole in the south of England. They specialise in building durable, functional and somewhat affordable watches for every day use, whatever the scenario. They are all waterproof to at least 200 metres, something the brand is very proud of, explaining that they test every single watch as opposed to just one from a batch. They all have built in shockproofing, solid screw in strap bars as opposed to conventional spring bars, and a burly appearance. They have strong links with the RNLI, Mountain Rescue England and Wales and the British Military, and have made watches in collaboration with each organisation.

I have had my Holton Automatic for over two years now, and can fairly confidently say I have worn it all day, every day for about 95% of that time. I don’t take it off to get in the sea, ride mountain bikes or anything really, and so far, it has been a properly capable daily wearer.

It has taken some seriously hard knocks over the last two years, a few of the type where you expect to look down and see the hands falling through a shattered crystal, but all I have managed is a small scratch on the bezel. Shock wise then, it has performed very well and proven to be able to shrug off some impacts that I would normally only put down to a G-Shock.

Now, the specifics. The movement is the ever-popular Seiko NH35, a reliable, long-lasting movement with little to no frills. It beats at 21,600 beats per hour, has a power reserve of 41 hours, hacking, hand-winding and a stated accuracy of -20/+40 seconds a day. Mine is performing well within tolerances though, at under 5 seconds fast a day. It’s also so widely used that pretty much any decent watchmaker or jeweller should be able to service it for you, although it’s also so inexpensive that a completely new movement is likely to be more cost effective. In a world of make-do and mend, I can’t recommend that you just drop in a new movement, but the option is there if you want to save some cash. The crystal is sapphire, 2mm thick with an anti reflective coating, the case is bead blasted stainless steel and 43mm in diameter with a bolt down - as opposed to the traditional screw-down - caseback, and the 120 click bezel is designed in such a way that it can be rotated with the palm of a gloved hand. It works too, and the tactility and feel of the bezel is pleasingly positive. EB explain on their website that the bolt down caseback avoids the chance of the rubber seal tearing through over tightening of a traditional screw down caseback, and improves the water resistance as increased depth and pressure pushes the caseback down, sliding it down the bolts and squeezing the seal harder. It also helps that the detailed design is always aligned with the rest of the case.

You may look at the £650 price tag and think that it’s steep for a watch with a fairly basic movement, but it does the job and keeps good time whilst being durable. Where they’ve clearly spent the money is on the case design and finishing. It is better than many other pieces in its class, and there are some very well thought out details that go a long way to justifying that price point, a few of which you can’t see. For example, the movement is held tight in a stainless steel holder, suspended by multiple silicone elastomer dampers, as opposed to a plastic movement holder used by the majority of other brands.

This unique shock proofing does mean it is quite a big watch, though. 43mm in diameter without the crown, 52mm lug to lug and 14mm thick means anything under a 6.5 inch wrist and you could find it feels like wearing a hockey puck. I have fairly small wrists, and while it is on the larger side of what would be perfect for me, I quite quickly got used to the size and weight. The lugs curve around the wrist nicely which definitely helped.

Strap wise, the Holton Auto comes with two options: a fitted rubber, and a steel bracelet. I have tried both, and have much nicer things to say about the rubber. It’s extremely flexible, hugs the wrist nicely, and really brings this watch out as a daily, do-it-all piece. My only complaint would be that my first rubber strap lasted about a year before it couldn’t be used, because one of the holes split, rendering it hard to wear out of fear of tearing. EB were brilliant about this though, and replaced it, no questions asked. I think, and hope, that my experience was a one-off, as my dad has the same strap and it is still going strong after almost four years. My bracelet, however, was less of a success. While it was comfortable enough, it failed to impress on a few levels. Firstly, while I appreciated the clasp and the ratcheted extending buckle which easily goes over a wetsuit, it is bulky, and sits quite proud of the links of the bracelet, resulting in a sharp edge which can scratch someone or get hung up on clothing quite easily. The screw in link pins are good though, more solid than push pins and simple to change. However, the bracelet developed a considerable amount of slack quite quickly, and actually fell apart at the end link within a year of wearing it on and off. EB have said they will replace this, but need to see the watch to ensure the end links are fitted correctly. Luckily, I was only sat at my desk when it dropped off my wrist, but had I been out on the bike or in the sea, I may well have lost my watch for good. I don’t baby it, but I do rinse it after wearing it in salty water and don’t bash it around with reckless abandon, so this was a bit of a surprise. The other strap I have from EB is one of their webbing straps with patented clamp buckle. The idea behind this is to have infinite adjustment with the comfort and weight of a traditional fabric strap. The theory is great, the strap looks good and is very comfortable, but again, I don’t wholly trust it. If you are doing a lot of moving, for example mountainbiking or running, the weight of the watch causes the buckle to slip ever so slightly, which means it gets loose on your wrist and requires tightening. This gets tiresome after a while, so I currently use this strap on a G-Shock with strap adapters, where the lighter weight doesn’t cause the same issue. The very flexible and lightweight profile of this strap makes the watch wear fairly top-heavy when moving a lot as well. Currently, I wear my watch on a cheap but cheerful single pass NATO style strap. It is comfortable, durable and it looks great. Be warned though, the small gap between case and strap bar can make it difficult to wear anything thicker than 2mm, and aftermarket rubber straps just don’t work. I wanted to try the classic Citizen rubber with the no deco scale, but it wouldn’t fit. This could be remedied if the case was straight within the lugs rather than round.

Despite these minor woes, I have really enjoyed my Holton for the last two years. I have taken it up mountains (granted, I’m in the UK, so nothing massive), thousands of miles of bike riding both on and off road, jumping off cliffs and bridges into the sea, and all the day to day things in between.

If you are looking at the entry to mid level dive watch segment and wanted something a bit left field, maybe you were considering a Citizen Aqualand or similar, I would definitely recommend an Elliot Brown Holton. They do a quartz model too, which starts at around £200 cheaper, and this version has genuine military provenance, being currently issued to an undisclosed branch of the British Military. While I have had minor problems with it, I would be confident it would survive conditions that most other watches would not. If you get into a situation that kills a Holton, I doubt you would know about it, as you’d likely be dead. We all like to feel more adventurous than we really are, and a tough watch is a great way of capturing that feeling. It can make you feel like an SBS operative or a firefighter, when actually you’re just on a kayak, and that’s why I love watches like the Elliot Brown Holton.