Vintage is in, if you haven’t heard, and if you’ve read some of my previous reviews, you may be familiar with my fatigue of the trend. There are some hits, like the Certina DS Super PH1000M STC I took a look at. Even with good execution, it feels like watch brands are self-constraining their design potential by playing the same hits over and over, fearful of straying too far from proven winners.
What is too often missing from vintage-inspired watches is the playful, imaginative designs that emerged between the 1920s and 1960s. It wasn’t all black or champagne dials and minimalist markers. This was an era of vibrant aesthetic exploration, and watches were one of the many products that served as a medium for creativity. The Markwell Hard Candy range harkens to the quirkiness of the era, not only in color, but through the graphic design of its markers, and the angular flourishes of its case.
Though a younger brand, this isn’t Marwell’s first appearance on The Time Bum. Toward the end of 2024, the Bum himself went hands on with the brand’s datematic series, and came away impressed. Having seen the datematic in person, I fully agree that it is a great watch in its own right, and demonstrates a maturation of the brand’s design language from their initial Momento Mori series. With the Hard Candy, Markwell has further leveraged that case design to impressive effect. Where they steered into a dressier aesthetic with the Momemto Mori and datematic, they’ve gone in a more casual and wistful direction with the Hard Candy range.
The case, dubbed the “Telford” by Markwell, is familiar if you read our previous review of the datematic, and the brand is wise to push the design for all the mileage they can get. It is a stainless steel affair that measures 37mm x 43mm x 10.35mm, and has a lug width of 20mm. The case is on the wider side for the mid-century era that the design harkens to, but the modest upsizing was a good decision to keep the watch within range for modern tastes, without losing the vintage charm. It wears lightly, but maintains a strong visual presence.
There are specific case-design choices that help maintain that visual presence. First are the lobster lugs, whose incut from the case amplifies their presence. Second, the 20mm lug width gives the case a mildly broad-shouldered feel – more Humphrey Bogart, less Dwayne Johnson – that is kept from excess by the undercut of the lugs. The case also carries well-considered polishing decisions along the chamfer on the outer surface of the lugs, and on the upper part of the midcase that surrounds the modestly-bubbled sapphire crystal.
You read that last part right, the Hard Candy’s case doesn’t have a bezel, fixed or otherwise. It is a smart choice, as the lack of additional metal atop the midcase visually slims the profile of the watch. The decision to polish the surface where a bezel would otherwise be affixed helps to broaden the visual presence of the watch, when worn. The polished surfaces have a mirror-like surface, and the brushed areas are deeply and consistently brushed. A flattened-onion shaped crown (gourd, perhaps?) sets on the right flank of the case, at 3 o’clock, and is adorned with a lumed version of the brand’s graphic logo. A subtle modern play on an otherwise retro case, as is the 100m of water resistance when the crown is properly depressed. Altogether, the case design and finishing decisions are cohesive and commendable, and executed to a high degree.
While the case may call your grandparents’ watches to mind, the “Hard Candy” moniker isn’t a reference to what you might find in their cardigan pockets. Rather, it speaks to the inspiration for the range’s dial colors. The glass-fired enamel dial comes in five flavors – Grape Jelly, Black Cherry, Blue Razz, Green Apple, and Lemon Drop – that evoke a certain brand of mouth-watering, tooth-shattering sweets. The Lemon Drop is the only colorway that doesn’t quite work for me, as the white numerals don’t contrast well, and the yellow hue doesn’t show off the radial dégradé finish as well as its siblings.
I initially gravitated to the Grape Jelly and Black Cherry variants, but the Blue Razz has charmed me with its vivacity. Starting from a light sky-blue at the center of the dial, the color gradually shifts to a deeper Santorini blue. It is a beautiful effect, and one that helps to softly define separate areas for the dial. The lighter, center portion bears the brand’s graphic logo, and minimal text for the brand name and movement designation, delineated by a thin, white linear sector graphic. The dial doesn’t need the sector graphic, or the ‘automatic’ word mark, but they are executed well.
The outer, darker-toned portion of the dial amplifies the contrast of the hour markers – cardinal Arabics rendered in the beautiful font that debuted on the datematic, and circular plots for the remaining hours. Bless the Markwell designers for not including a minute track, as it keeps the dial beautifully simple. All the markers are Lumicast printed blocks that include luminous material in their mixture. Though a watch of this style doesn’t require lume of any kind, the Lumicast markers achieve the top-down effect of printing, with the added benefits of additional dial depth, and respectable low-light glow. The depth, in particular, is appreciated given the otherwise flat dial.
Each colorway includes a second hand with a color-matched outer quarter, the lollipop tip of which echoes the rounded non-cardinal hour markers. It is another fun design choice, and one that will look even better with the planned changes to the Hard Candy’s handset. For production models, all the hands will swap in white-painted surfaces for the polished metal areas visible on this review sample.
The handset, specifically the hour and minute hands, are my strongest critique of the Hard Candy’s design, as they don’t quite jive with the rest of the design. The updates that will be made for production – white painted surfaces, and rounded tips to the hour and minute hands – are a marked improvement, but there’s still a lot of blockiness that’s incongruous with the rest of the dial design. Though I’m merely a critic, not a designer, white-bordered, rounded obelisks would look nice, and maintain the playful theme of the watch. I’d also ditch the skeletonization at the base of the hour and minute hands, as they add complexity to a dial whose beauty is rooted in its soft simplicity.
Whatever the design of the hands, they are moved about by the Miyota 9039. The datematic utilized a Selitta SW-200, but the 9039 represents a wiser choice in my view. It is more reliable, half a millimeter thinner, shares the same 28,800 bph beat rate, and has a greater power reserve. If the Swiss designation matters greatly to you, you can purchase a datematic, or perhaps explore your preconceived notions.
I previously noted that my strongest critique of the Hard Candy pertains to the hour and minute hands. That was a half-truth. It remains my strongest critique of the actual watch, but it isn’t my biggest critique of the entire package – that would be the strap options. You can buy a Hard Candy with either a white or black FKM rubber strap, neither of which does justice to the watch they are affixed to. The quality is good, but these are straps meant for dive watches, and are too visually heavy for the delicately proportioned Telford case. My sense is that the straps provided are a concession to the plethora of aftermarket strap options available. For a watch in this price range – $579 – I’d prefer to see strap choices that are as considered in their design as the rest of the watch.
That said, with 20mm lugs, there is a bounty of alternatives to be had, and the Hard Candy’s compact strap gap enables the watch to look great on any option. I loved it on a fabric single-pass, which complements the dial design’s high-low concept. It also wears exceptionally on a Bonklip style bracelet, a pairing that leans hard into the mid-century motif. Markwell even sells some decent leather straps, the blue version of which paired well enough with the Blue Razz Hard Candy.
If you have read my previous reviews, you may have noticed that my taste skews towards tool watches. There have been some exceptions – hello, Bremoir Eastern – but I frequently shy away from dressier watches, as they are too daintily sized for my tastes. Many dress watches tend to look like children’s watches upon my wrist, which is rather frustrating, as I deeply appreciate the beauty of a well-designed dress watch. Similar to the aforementioned Bremoir, though, Markwell has made a bevy of design decisions that give the Hard Candy a greater visual presence than its specs imply, without moving the design too far into sports watch territory.
Having spoken at length with Markwell’s owners, it is clear that they have a vision for the brand. With the Momento Mori, datematic, and now the Hard Candy series, Markwell has demonstrated the adaptability of a great case. While the Hard Candy falls just shy of the unassailable excellence of the datematic, it is still a great design. With a few refinements, particularly to the handset, it’ll easily stand evenly with its predecessor. Consider me colorfully enthusiastic about where Markwell goes from here. The Hard Candy series can be pre-ordered from the brand’s website, with expected shipping in June 2025.
