This year at the Watch Clicker, I will bring you a series of in-depth gift guides for the mechanically inclined. Given that inflation in the United States was recently at its worst in over forty years, we will focus on your long-term return on your hard-earned money. This means the gifts will not be the cheapest options, but they will bridge the gap between being attainable and leaving a lasting impact on the receiver.
It is an issue that we all run into at one point or another. We are faced with an overwhelming dilemma of the false choice of having to pick out a gift for someone who already has everything. In this position, we inevitably resort to thoughtless gifts ranging from novelty mugs, gift cards, a bottle of their favorite liquor, or a book we enjoyed and hope they would. So, what happens if you plan on buying a watch collector a gift this holiday season and have a budget of around $500? There is a veritable and endless landscape of Seikos, Citizens, and a surprisingly depressing amount of microbrands that simply copy the staples from the abovementioned brands.
This is where the Vero Forest Service Edition Workhorse stands out amongst the entire marketplace. Not only is it a unique design made by one of the industry’s most talented watch designers, but its movement offers a critical historical point of interest that any horology intellectual would immediately be fawning over.
What Makes This Watch So Special
Two distinct aspects of the Forest Service Workhorse make it the perfect gift for the horology lover in your life who already seems to have everything. The first is right there in its name: the Forest Service. The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service is an immense organization that covers the entire United States. Different government bodies manage dozens of regions and departments, and their work is even more vast. We highly recommend looking at the expansive list of services they offer here. Even here in Canada, we think of the USDA merely as park rangers. Still, they are much more than that – the Vero Forest Service watches reflect this through their four colorways and by donating a portion of the profits of every Forest Service watch to the USDA.
The two watches being reviewed here are the HotShot, whose yellow colors represent the high-visibility uniforms worn by firefighting crews, and the Ranger, whose charming khaki matches the uniforms of the Forest Service Rangers.
The most important aspect of these timepieces that a horology lover would have an immediate deep affection for is the unusual movement powering them. Watch enthusiasts who do not make the field their entire identity tend to love the sheer variety and the incredibly nuanced history of horology.
The Seiko Px928A movement, now called a Kinetic movement, dates back to 1986, during industry upheaval due to the quartz crisis. At the time, Seiko led the world in quartz movement technology and incorporated the best aspects of a battery-powered quartz movement and a mechanical movement into their Kinetic movements. This movement’s 6-month power reserve is much longer than a mechanical movement’s typical 40 hours. Its service intervals are also every ten years, while most mechanical watches in this price segment range from every 2 to 4 years. Quartz watches are naturally more shock resistant due to having far fewer moving parts – they do not rely on a delicate escapement – so these Vero’s are the perfect companion for rough outdoor adventuring. Lastly, the owner of these Kinetic-powered Workhorses can enjoy the superior accuracy of a quartz movement while still experiencing the mechanical relationship in powering the movement – where one’s movement activates a rotor that powers a battery through capacitors.
Most watch enthusiasts likely do not have such a watch, and receiving one would be an absolute surprise. Not only does it offer a unique and uncompromised ownership experience, but it also speaks to the ingenuity of humans in a rapidly evolving environment.
On Wrist
The worst thing that can happen to a thoughtful gift is that it disappears into a drawer, never to be seen again. A timepiece usually suffers this dreaded fate when it does not wear well or its design is simply not inspired. The Forest Edition Workhorse’s compact dimensions and unique design ensure that the gift receiver will wear them.
The mission statement of these watches is clear: They are timepieces built for the outdoors, and they are meant to age and patina as their owners enrich their lives with nature. Sports watches are typically oversized for functional and, at times, purely aesthetic reasons. Vero’s original Workhorse, which you can read Will’s excellent review here, was decidedly larger than these 39mm editions. Still, its perfectly circular case makes it wear comfortably on wrists of all sizes, within reason.
The Forest Service Edition accomplishes this as well, but with a level of refinement that took me by surprise. I have owned and loved a Workhorse for quite some time, but I was taken aback as soon as I strapped the HotShot version of the Forest Service on my wrist. Even with its brilliant and glistening yellow case, it blended in with my dress shirt. This should not happen. The conservative dimensions make this watch suitable for an officer’s wrist rather than a weekend adventurer’s. I immediately put on the Ranger version; its khaki and green colors cemented this notion. These watches have a strong sense of purpose and authority that matches Vero’s mission of devoting a portion of the sales of these watches to the United States Department of Agriculture – USDA.
If put on a leather strap, these watches transform into something that defies classifications and categories. This is one of the main reasons this would make the perfect gift for the consummate watch collector. When deciding what to wear to an event, this Vero will be a fine option to subvert all expectations regarding dress codes for many reasons. First, no one will have a clue what you are wearing. Second, these beliefs regarding what watches are appropriate for certain events have already been decimated by smartwatches.
Vero Forest Service Workhorse Specs | |
Case Width 39mm | Lug-to-Lug 45.25mm |
Case Thickness 12.5mm | Lug Width 18mm |
Water Resistance 120m | Strap Nylon Velcro |
Crystal Sapphire | Lume Yes |
Movement Seiko Px928A | Price $475 |
Case and Strap
Arguably, the Workhorse has been the most successful new case design in the last five years across the entire industry, save for efforts by De Bethune, which is in an entirely different price category. The Forest Editions add to the Workhorse’s appeal with what initially seemed to be a different cerakoting – ceramic coating – process. I had the rare opportunity to have more than one model to review, and both watches seemed to have an additional layer that shimmered in the light. In reality, the manufacturing process looks like my traditional Track Day Workhorse, but the effect is stunning.
The distinctive lugs from the perfectly circular case and Bullhorns are present. The HotShot’s lugs are not PVD coated like the Ranger’s or my Track Day’s. I showed these watches to the many sets of eyes, and they all immediately commented on this. The exposed steel lugs on the HotShot perfectly mirror the dual crowns and are my preferred presentation of these lugs. To my eyes, this added a welcomed dimension of complexity and refinement to the watch and elevated its robust character. The only other Workhorse with these non-coated lugs is the standard Canyon, which is perpetually sold out. The only downside of the non-coated lugs is that they will not patina with the cerakoat case or the BullHorns.
You can tell that the designer of these watches, Matt Smith-Johnson, is a child of the 1980s from the BullHorns. As a child, I had a Casio with similar “protective” BullHorns. I enjoyed seeing them age over time as their thin finishing came off, and I bumped and crashed into everything in my path. These watches are made to age with the owner, and the patina of the coatings and horns is intentional.
The strap is also made to age with the rest of the watch. Its intricate weaving and stitching soften over time, often resembling tried and tested camping equipment. Some have called these straps a Nato-styled strap, but that would not do them justice. Made from several pieces, the Velcro sections serve two purposes. The first is to size the watch correctly, for which Vero offers two strap sizes. The second is to secure and envelope the spring bars. This adds the second layer most laypeople attribute to being a Nato strap, but there is much more happening here.
The same is true of the case, which looks like it is constructed with three separate pieces when it is made of one stout piece of stainless steel. Weeks into having these watches, I finally discovered why they gave me the impression of being more refined than the standard Workhorse. From its profile, you can see the midsection of the case surrounding the crowns and supporting the button, which is responsible for the power reserve indicator. This small detail sows into one’s subconscious the feeling of quality and level of attention that watches start receiving at around ten times this watch’s MSRP.
The circular case’s symmetry is rounded out by opposing crowns at the nine and three o’clock positions. The crown at three operates the timekeeping functions while the opposite crown sets the internal crown. At first, one would think that operating the bezel would be difficult, but it is quite easy in practice. Reaching atop the case with one’s index finger and thumb allows easy and accurate adjustments.
The screw-down crowns contribute to these timepieces’ 120-metre water resistance. Once again, this ensures that the owner rarely has to take off the watch. Altogether, the Forest Edition watches are perfect for anything you can save when relying on external life support systems.
Dial and Hands
In my previous review of the Workhorse, I mentioned that Mr. Smith-Johnson said the rims of vintage sport utility vehicles inspired the contoured and three-dimensional dial. With the smaller dials, this bulging center section increasingly ennobles the raised bezel, offering a more focused visual interest. On both review copies, the bezel’s color matches the power reserve button, resulting in an added cohesion element. The word refinement repeatedly echoed in my head as I wore these timepieces during my month with them, and the dial had a lot to do with this.
The bezel operates incredibly smoothly and uses a more tactile mechanism than the standard Workhorse. In general, the Forest Service Editions amp up the tactile experience, making these timepieces feel a lot more expensive and substantial than one’s initial impressions. This extends to the date window, which is new for the Workhorse lineup. Housing a highly legible date wheel underneath, the date changes occur right at midnight and offer a satisfying “snick” sound that can almost be felt.
Due to having a professional watch designer at the helm, the typeface and fonts are perfectly sized, and the hands offer perfect legibility while also cementing Vero’s own design language. The beautiful caseback proudly displays the USDA Forest Services logo while providing a view of the complex construction with the lug housing surrounding the caseback. All this results in a design that will never fade as the decades pass, as it is truly unique and timeless.
The Movement
Underneath the handsome caseback is the Seiko Px28A Kinetic movement. Operating it could not be simpler. The button at 2 o’clock activates the power reserve indicator, where the second hand moves at a specific interval based on how much power the watch has stored. This ranges from the second hand moving anywhere from a 5-second interval to 30 seconds, communicating a power reserve range from a single day up to 6 months. With no manual winding system, these watches must be moved to charge. It will take a lot of arm movements to power these timepieces, and a full day or two of wear would supply ample charge. Many watch enthusiasts are spoiled by turning the crown of a mechanical watch twenty times for a full charge but remember that the capacitors within these Veros can store a lot more power.
In my month with these timepieces, they were extremely accurate and offered no variance in timekeeping between the two models. Vero should be commended for taking the risk and using such a movement, and I hope that more people will realize just how special these watches are and pick up one for themselves or a loved one.
Final Thoughts
Sure, I have made it abundantly clear that these Forest Service Edition Workhorses would delight any sane horology enthusiast in your life. However, as I stare at these two watches, another thought invades my mind. With the added refinement of these watches over the standard Workhorse, I would love to see a high-end Workhorse. One with a suggested retail price of $5,000 rather than $500. The remarkable and unequivocally unique design has an incredible amount of potential. To be clear, I am not suggesting that the bulk of the price of such a watch be in a fancy mechanical movement, but rather in the materials and manufacturing used. I would prefer a high-accuracy quartz or solar-powered movement in such a watch, but sourcing one may be difficult.
These Workhorses offer that level of potential while on the wrist, and this will not go amiss by a seasoned watch collector. At every turn of one’s wrist, these Vero’s remind the owner how refined, robust, and opulent they are. Opulent is not a word that many would like to associate with the tool-watches that these are, but the level of detail and work that went into these watches certainly makes such a claim obvious.
Check out more Vero reviews at The Watch Clicker here
Check out the Vero website here
