About Castle Watch Co.
Castle Watch Co. is a small brand from the San Fran Bay Area. Formed by two lifelong friends who took on the simple, yet impossible challenge of making a watch that not only looks good, but doesn’t break the bank. Their inaugural piece is the Corbel Standard Issue.
The Corbel Standard Issue hit the market in September 2015.
Castle Watch Co. sent us two Corbel’s to review and give away. Thanks guys!
Case
The Corbel Standard Issue has a 42mm 316L brushed stainless steel. There aren’t a lot of features to the case but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Castle has clearly gone for the “less is more” approach and it works well.
However, despite this minimalist design, Castle still managed to work in a few personal touches. The Corbel features a signed crown, as well as an engraved case back with the watch specs encircling the Castle Watch Co. logo in the middle. I’m a sucker for these little features, and I think Castle did a great job in this regard.
Dial & Hands
This version of the Corbel has an inky black sunburst dial and polished diamond shaped markers. All 3 hands are also polished which contrasts nicely with the brushed case. At the 12 o’clock position is the brand’s castle turret logo, and at 6 o’clock is their name “CASTLE.” It is a very clean minimalist dial that works well in both professional and casual settings.
However, I do think they could afford to have the Castle name stand out a little more on the dial. While mildly reflective, it seems to be a different, darker color than the markers, logo, and hands, which can lead to it being overlooked.
Strap & Wearability
The Corbel carries a sense of lightness to it, but it doesn’t feel cheap. Castle has fit a sapphire crystal to the Corbel, which is just brilliant at its sub-$100 price point.
The Corbel came on a quality 22mm black genuine leather strap. It is lightweight, comfortable, and dresses up or down easily. The leather straps also look and feel good, matching the look of the watch overall. At first I thought the strap to be a little plain, but the more I wore it the more I appreciated how much the strap match the minimalist face.
The brushed buckle has “CASTLE” engraved along the edge; a great detail. On the wrist the Corbel wears rather well. I’m not a very big man and have small wrists so for me 42mm is a little out of my comfort zone. However the Corbel is so lightweight and coming it at only 8mm tall, it fits nicely underneath a dress shirt.
Movement
A quartz Miyota movement powers the Corbel; a reliable workhorse choice of a movement for a brand trying to keep costs low without using something dubious. At this $100 price point, the movement is less important than the style (in my opinion).
Still, it could have been nice to see an automatic movement sweeping the second hand across the Castle logo, though I suppose that would have raised the price somewhat.
Corbel Standard Issue Photo Gallery
Very sweet timepiece indeed. Especially for value seekers, this watch comes with some great material features for its price point! No rip offs or sugar coating here.
My thoughts exactly! I’m looking forward to seeing their second release 🙂
FYI, this watch is now available on Castle’s Kickstarter for $50 U.S. They now have a fully-funded campaign for their second series watch which is pretty much identical to this one, save that it comes with a Swiss Ronda 763 movement.
A pledge of $85 or more will net you the Issue 2, which is expected to ship in Jan. 2017.
Purchased one of the black on black and blue on brown after seeing this post. $100 for both is a deal in my opinion! Can’t wait till they ship in November which is the only down side to this bargain.
Can’t go wrong at that price! You’ll enjoy them. 🙂
Went with the blue/brown myself; I realized that all my watches right now have black faces, and nothing with a brown leather strap either. Plus this is a little ‘dress-ier’ than my mostly sport-watch oriented collection And at $50, this feels like robbery.
This is my first time buying a micro-brand, but everything I’ve seen from them looks great. If these guys ever come out with an automatic, I’ll be all over it.