AnOrdain Updates Model 2 Field Watch

Scottish watchmaker AnOrdain expands its Model 2 field watch with a slightly larger case size, new typography and a new slate of dial colors inspired by nature. 

Initially launched in 2019 with a 36mm case, the AnOrdain Model 2 is the watchmaker’s classic field watch that emphasizes its highly visible dial and rigorous case.   

In addition to the larger case option, this latest generation of the Model 2 also features a few small design upgrades, in part made to meet customer suggestions. 

Notably, you’ll see a new minute track and a seconds hand, both of which upgrade the watch’s basic functionality. And the typography here differs from the earlier edition with the introduction of a font inspired by 1950s industrial equipment (including a laboratory clock belonging to AnOrdain founder Lewis Heath’s scientist grandfather).

Even while scaling the design to 39.5mm in diameter, AnOrdain retains the Model 2’s look with its characteristic rounded lugs, large crown protectors and broad, curving bezel curved to seamlessly mesh into the double-domed sapphire crystal.

As with all of this independent watchmaker’s designs, the Model 2 also features a customized hand design and a stunning hand-wrought dial. First, let’s take a look at the hands. 

Called ‘syringe-style’, the watch’s in-house-designed hands are unusual. Each hand is characterized by a tapered void with a luminous tip that projects outward. It appears to form the shape of a hand holding a fountain pen. 

“The hands were prototyped in-house before the final design was sent to a hand manufacturer in the Swiss watchmaking town of La Chaux- de-Fonds, where the blanks are made,” explains AnOrdain in its press material. “The hands are sent back in raw steel form and are heat-treated in-house to protect from rust and tarnish.” 

The hands’ luminous paint, hand-applied to each tip, is another unusual feature and one rarely seen on blued steel.

Enamel dials

While much of AnOrdain’s early buzz among collectors focused, at least in part, on its eye-catching handmade fume dials, the watchmaker’s enamel dials are also notably rich for such an affordably priced collection. 

Each of the Model 2’s dials is made individually by a single master enameller and can take several days to complete. And, to further differentiate AnOrdain designs from those of other watchmakers, AnOrdain says that it purposefully veered from making a traditional white enamel color for the collection, opting for a more opaque white dial.

The new collection will also be available with new colors, including the previously mentioned opaque white, racing green, grey haar and flax. A haar, in case you’re not familiar with the modifier, refers to a grey fog settling off the Scottish coast and is a term particularly suitable to the Glasgow-based AnOrdain. 

AnOrdain continues to fit an automatic Sellita SW210 movement into the watch, regardless of case diameter. AnOrdain will make about 200 Model 2 watches per year. Prices: £1,700 (about $2,217) for the 36mm model and £1,800 (about $2,350) for the 39.5mm model.