Dufrane Waterloo

Review by Nate DeNicola

Deep in the heart of the Texas capital, you can hear it.  It percolates in the coffee lines and sizzles around the food trucks.  It echoes from the sound checks and gurgles in fresh poured IPA.  It’s on belt buckles and guitar cases and stitched inside well-worn cowboy hats.

Keep Austin Weird.

Locals will tell you it’s a self-preservation thing.  Understandable.  After all, this is the land of Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, of South x Southwest and City Limits, of sunset bat tours under Congress Bridge and nude bathing in Barton Springs (yes of those Barton straps) — the heart and soul of a carefully cultivated life so often imitated on Instagram (no really).  

But lately all that is threatened by creeping urban sprawl and surging tech expansion.  Exemplified by companies like Apple investing $1 billion in a North Austin hub — with the thousands of new jobs and often new families that follow — it’s become commonplace to see industrial complexes encroaching where Austin’s natural, wilder instincts once roamed free.  

Amidst such tension between native soul madness and commercial sensibility, what sort of local entrepreneurs emerge to represent this vibrant yet vulnerable culture?

Meet Dufrane Watches.  

Founded in Austin in 2016 Dufrane has quickly made a name for themselves among the micros for producing reliable watches with pleasing designs.  And for the record, no relation to Mitch Hedberg’s party of two.  

Now you could argue their first two watches weren’t especially weird.  The Bergstrom aviator and Barton Springs diver — Bergstrom reviewed here on The Time Bum — were widely recognized as well-made watches, if not slightly tailor-made for the masses.  

Their third release, an Austin City Limits-themed GMT, helpfully named “City Limits,” began to challenge convention.  The rare tropic dial (only 10 made) certainly is the only brown dial GMT that comes to mind among the micros.  And those delightfully decorated City Limits straps feel right at home on 6th street with live music and a brisket taco.

Which brings us to the fourth release, the Waterloo.  As with all Dufrane watches this model pays homage to Austin history — Waterloo was the original name for Austin in the Republic of Texas — and bears the hashtag #aquietconfidence.  Dufrane owner Steven Lee seems especially sure of this one which he’s called his favorite in the lineup, and early reviews seem to agree.

Let’s find out why.

The Basics

The Waterloo is a modern dress watch — already a somewhat daring prospect — that comes in a 2 x 2 set of options: silver or gold case x mechanical or quartz movement.  Here we review the gold case x mechanical version.

Case

Dimensions up front: 39 mm x 10.4 mm x 47 mm all suit this dress watch perfectly well and will fit most wrists (pictured throughout on my 7.5 inch wrist).  Now the fun part: the rich gold coloring.  The company lists this as rose gold (more on that in a minute) but the PVD-coated case itself excluding the chapter ring appears as a warm yellow gold that harkens back to turn of the century pocket watches and stamped cases of the Art Deco era.  

That Arts Décoratifs styling is elevated by a subtle yet distinguished double-ring stepped bezel — an applauded touch that I must admit I didn’t truly appreciate until day 2 or 3 on the wrist.  The polished bezel rings contrast otherwise brushed surfaces which provides a nice overall aesthetic balance.

Dial and Handset

Here’s where the rose gold shines.  Literally.  The polished chapter ring comes in a lovely rose gold-tone with a brushed finish and milled numerals that not only add to the Art Deco aesthetics but create the signature colorway for this model.  You might have thought a two-tone gold-on-gold look would be gaudy, but the Waterloo pulls it off as charming and even a bit luxurious. The chapter ring sits atop a linen dial with a texture that seems to alternate between parchment paper and flat white depending on the light.  

If you enjoy fine attention to detail (and who are we kidding, of course you do) the minute hand extends precisely to the dotted minute markers making it enjoyable to hack and set at any time.  The lumed tip of the minute and second hand also perfectly align with the chapter ring border.

The blued steel hands (note: not just blue hands) are actually heat-treated — and it makes a difference.  If you’re a fan of vintage watches, as I am, you know that true blued steel hands generally look dark or black when viewed head-on and that metallic “blue steel” only flashes briefly at the right angle.  That’s exactly what you get from the Waterloo — a welcome distinguisher from many modern watches that attempt this look simply by using overly blue handsets.

Strap

Typically the strap isn’t a deciding factor in buying any watch, but even here the Waterloo offers some character.  First, it’s a perfectly fine 20 mm stitched leather strap that starts off a bit stiff but wears in well even over a week.  The signed gold buckle matches the case identically — and since it might be tough to match this PVD gold from third party straps this is one buckle I’d keep around even when swapping out straps.  

The strap attaches via curved, quick-release spring bars that are one of several small details that all add up to a heightened look.  That’s not all.  To accommodate both curved and straight spring bars the Waterloo gives you two sets of lug holes (the curved set is drilled).  Kind of weird; and kind of awesome.  While we’re exploring straps we can take a minute to admire the Texas lone star on the caseback.  

Now I’m certainly not going to call the Waterloo a “strap monster.”  In fact you might barely notice the difference between black and tobacco straps shown throughout here.  No, this watch mostly lends itself to the dressier strap options: leather, reptile skins (real or otherwise) — and if you’ve never gone through a herringbone phase this watch might get you there.

On The Wrist

If you’re an “above the bone” watch wearer (in medicalese: that’s proximal to the styloid process of the ulna bone) the Waterloo sits quite comfortably here and still manages to easily slide under the cuff.  The only feature that might interfere with that is the stiff, fresh-out-of-the-box strap, which obviously wears over time.

If you’re the “on the bone” type (… calm down) the Waterloo likewise rests easily on the wrist joint and due to its restrained dimensions doesn’t dig the crown into your hand.  In practical purposes I found myself adjusting the watch location to the type of shirt and had no issue either way.

Lighting and Lume

How a watch plays with light is one of my favorite aspects of any model and here the Waterloo truly distinguishes itself.  Despite what some photos may suggest, in person the balance between rose gold and yellow gold overwhelming favors rose — on nearly any wrist glance the overall appearance is one of pink and salmon and sometimes copper.  With regular indoor/outdoor wear you get a multitude of reflections and metallic radiance that, yes, can obscure the numerals at times, but is a small tradeoff for the overall aesthetic enjoyment.

What about lume on a dress watch?  Again, kind of funny, but also exudes character and a bit of pizzazz.  Now you can easily google photos of the Waterloo’s C3 SuperLumiNova in total dark, but I found it most appealing in transitional light — as you might encounter during a cocktail hour or in a dimly lit restaurant.  

Movement

Please don’t read anything into the movement being listed last (other than I am a self-acknowledged “dial” guy).  In fact you could argue this is the Waterloo’s strongest value proposition.  The Sellita SW200-1 packs the Waterloo with a 4 Hz, 38 hour power-reserve Swiss movement not often seen among the micros, or frankly any watch at this price point (see pricing below).  It joins a proud SW200 family including Oris Divers Sixty-five, Christopher Ward C60 Trident Pro, AnOrdain Model 1, and Formex Essence.  A clear check in the plus column.

When I’d Wear It

Obviously as a dress watch (shown here in several actual days at the office).  It could be used as a way to mix it up from your “desk diver” rotation and can certainly rise to the occasion for more formal attire; anything with fine china comes to mind.  There’s also something enjoyable about wearing local watches in their natural habitat — with family and friends in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio (and typically annual conferences to boot) I’d look forward to adding some lone-star character to regular Texas visits.

As a dress watch the Waterloo can still pull off a casual look.  By no means is it a GADA watch (go anywhere, do anything); it’s more like the watch version of a sports coat: wear it with jeans and a t-shirt and there’s a relaxed yet dressy vibe.  Have to admit it was fun adding a dress watch to the regular rotation of divers and field watches.

Macro View

So I’m going to use “macro” the way it makes sense to me: referring to the bigger picture or zoomed-out view, much like “macroeconomics.”  Whatever your word choice, I enjoy thinking of watches in this way.

The first zoomed-out view is microbrands with gold cases x textured dials.  Know it sounds specific, but the micros have filled this narrow niche with some sizeable offerings: notably the Lorier Falcon in gold PVD case and alluring waffle dial, and Origin Railway Edition with a more subdued gold case and true-to-era sunken subdials.  

In fact, the Waterloo isn’t even the only gold case x textured dial to come from Austin.  While sitting at a substantially different price point, the Tockr Alfred Pepper D-Day watch features a robust gold case (well, ok… bronze) and a most decidedly textured dial: aluminum mined from the actual That’s All, Brother WWII fighter plane.

The second lens is a welcome trend among micros featuring salmon or copper in the dial.  We all know about Baltic’s Bicompax.  More recent releases include Vario’s Empire in salmon and a much-anticipated copper version of the Nodus Sector Pilot.

And finally to note that Austin is home to several other watch companies also entrusted with local heritage and design: Roebuck Watch Company in Round Rock just outside Austin, and the newly launched GM Lang currently on pre-order.

Pricing 

The Waterloo comes in at $599 for the mechanical version in silver or gold.  Now we generally accept two types of watch fans: dial people and movement people — and for both, I’d say this is a win-win proposition.

Dial aficionados double their pleasure with golds and linens and generally-speaking a signature look without compromising anything on movement.  Though not reviewed here in detail the silver version would offer all of the same aesthetic perks just slightly toned-down from the gold.  

Movement folks get a reputable Swiss 4 Hz motor at a rather justifiable price, not to mention coming in an attractive package.  The quartz movement comes in at $425 and without diving into every pro/con of quartz-value this seems reasonably priced as well.

Final Thoughts

So I’ll leave you with some closing thoughts and a Wes Anderson tribute composition — because, well, I just can’t help myself.   Much like Anderson’s “slightly heightened reality” in cinema, the Waterloo can feel both quirky and classy all at the same time.  

There’s no escaping that it presents uncommon features: two-toned gold, two lug holes, double-ringed Art Deco bezel, linen dial, and happy-hour lume.  Yet at a casual glance, it has all the appearances of a traditional dress watch.  Infusing elegance with some eccentricity is no easy task and it’s done brilliantly here.

Yeah but is it weird?  

Well it made an antique-style dress watch both relevant and entertaining, and did it with a quiet confidence of stately charm.  I’d say it saved Latin.  What did you ever do?