We’re always looking to improve where we can and continue to offer our customers the best quality.
Sometimes, that’s a quantum leap like the Beachmaster Automatic, but more often than not, it’s rolling production changes we put in place behind the scenes to improve quality or ‘liveability', like changing to the single-sided strap bars we now use on all watches.
The EBINOX Holton GMT is the answer to two questions we asked and then prototyped a couple of years ago:
- If we already hardened the bezel on a Holton (and the Tyneham, before it sold out) could we harden a whole case, and if so what would it look and feel like?
- Is a blue Anti-Reflective (AR) coating still the ‘best’ finish, especially on our watches with matt black dials?
The answer is that the hardened EBINOX case feels smoother and slicker than the standard vapour blasted Holton it’s based on, as the case hardening modifies the surface of the metal, smoothing it out.
It’s subtle, but it’s there and everyone who handled the original bare case prototypes in the office loved it.
The hardening process also changes the colour of the metal from the cold grey natural matt vapour blast finish to a slightly warmer colour. There isn’t much in it unless you put them side by side but it’s apparent when you do.
While we were at it, we also prototyped changing the colour of the AR coating from blue to clear.
We’ve used blue since the very first days of Elliot Brown, as in some ways it’s a watchmaking tradition but we'd never tried an alternative, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to see if blue was still the ‘best’ AR colour, especially on the black EBINOX dial.
The end result is definitely a very different appearance from the blue AR coated sapphire glass we’ve used previously. Especially on a black dial, there’s a new clarity to the graphics that’s very evident; the glass disappears more somehow.
Those two small changes continue to push the Holton range forward keeping it at the forefront of affordable tool watches.
#inholtonwetrust
(Why EBINOX? — it’s EB-Inox - inox is short for acier inoxydable, French for stainless steel.)
