The Roebuck Watch Company has released its first field watch. Called the Ranger, it is the next evolution of the brand’s popular Diviso dual crown sport model, but this time, with a military bend. I tried a blue Roebuck Ranger for this review.
If you recall my Diviso review, you will notice that the case is identical, and this is not a bad thing because the brushed stainless steel is rather attractive with those deep matte recesses on each side framed by polished edges. In the biggest departure from the Diviso, the Ranger’s bezel is simply brushed on the top side, without an insert, and polished around its outer rim. Roebuck bills the Ranger as a “dressy field watch,” and these areas of hand-finished brightwork earn it that description.
Finally, the crowns are matte-finished and surrounded by tall, polished peaks that look great and afford easy grip. The upper handles the inner bezel while the lower sets the time. Both are signed.
Dual crown arrangements are uncommon among field watches, but I can’t imagine why. This compressor style has deep roots in the dive watch world. If it is tough enough for the deep blue sea, so why not use it on dry land too? The Ranger’s case is already equipped with 100m water resistance and an anti-reflective coated sapphire crystal, which is exactly what you need for outdoor adventures. My only caveat is that bidirectional inner bezels are far less tight than unidirectional external bezels. This makes sense given the very different manner in which you set them, but it also makes it easy to knock them out of place. My wish list for the next incarnation of this case would include screw-down crowns, not for any increase in water resistance, but to ensure that bezel stays put.
I found the Ranger’s proportions to be right on target. Measuring 42mm wide, nearly 50mm long, and just about 12mm thick, it looked appropriately sporty on my 6.75” wrist.
On the back side, you’ll find the Round Rock, Texas, water tower, which is a nice nod to the brand’s hometown. Beating beneath it is a Miyota 9039, a no-date variant in the respected 9000-series line of 28.8k bph automatic movements. I am agnostic about dates on a dial. I like them if they are well integrated into the overall design, but never consider them a must-have feature. On a field watch like this, the Arabic numbers and 24-hour index occupy all of the available space for a date. Cutting a window into such a dial requires truncating or eliminating another element, so I much prefer it be left off entirely as it was here.
The Ranger’s long hands are lume-filled and reach right to their markers. I particularly appreciate the way the minute hand grazes the index of the white inner bezel. I only wish Roebuck had given the bezel pip a dose of C1 SuperLuminova so we could use that function at night.
Roebuck offers the watch with black or blue dials. The blue is muted and sober, with more than a touch of gray in it. I love it, but the green camouflage strap does it no favors. It’s a perfectly good strap, 22mm wide with thick, Zulu-style hardware, it’s just that the color is better suited to the black dial. Roebuck will ship the Ranger with a calfskin-lined Italian leather strap. I didn’t have that one for this review, but I swapped a strap from my stash, and I think it was a significant improvement, waking up that mellow blue. Beige or tan would work here too, giving the blue more pop.
The Roebuck Ranger is a novel take on the traditional field watch and it’s available now for $575. Head over to Roebuckwatchco.com for more.
