One Of The Best Budget Field Watches Around! Swiss Watch Company ARK Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2024
- Once again, a huge thank you to the Swiss Watch Company for giving the ARK to the channel.
You can find more info here: swcusa.com/swc-ark/
For the Timex Pay Strap Review: • One Less Reason To Buy...
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Today we take a look at one of the best grab-and-go quartz watches I've run across, with the Swiss Watch Companies ARK. SWC followed their winning formula from the Bunker, to create a simple, no-frills field watch. Yet it's one that's made right with higher-grade materials. Including a Titanium case, making it extremely lightweight.
---- Straps Used:
Brown Leather (on Amazon): geni.us/YolqZ
Barton White Silicone (On Amazon): geni.us/ZJRw
Black Sailcloth (on Amazon): geni.us/4N3iMK7
---- Other Watches Shown:
SWC Bunker: • Hard To Beat The Bunke...
Casio Royale: • Making the Casio Royal...
Vaer Heritage Dark: • Vaer Heritage Dark Rev...
-Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links, I am an Amazon affiliate so I would earn a small commission on qualified purchases. But most of the time Amazon is just the best source to link something just to get a look. I always encourage you to shop around and find the best price.
In Addition, I'm also an affiliate with AVI-8, Armilla, Aliexpress, Spinnaker, eBay, Jomashop, Meranom, and Phoibos.
00:00 Intro
01:15 Specs
01:58 On the Wrist
02:15 Case
04:13 Dial
07:38 Design
09:12 Lume
10:10 Movement
10:23 Strap
11:56 Value
12:54 Final Thoughts - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Another great vid! I really appreciate the obvious effort you put into your detailed reviews and excellent camera work. Your meticulousness is really a cut above. As for the watch..I totally agree. A solar-powered movement and no-date configuration would make this just about perfect. Even as is, definitely one I'd consider. Thanks again!
Really enjoy your nicely played out photos of the watches with holsters and knives (both EDC tools I also enjoy). These videos are very professionally edited and framed. Great work Shane👍
Great reviews and wow! It looks great on that Timex strap. And a nice price in that one, too.
I nearly pulled the trigger on the Bunker last year when they restocked. Picked up the Greeen/black Arc and enjoy it very much. Amazing lume. Extremely light and comfortable. Perfect grab and go casual field quartz watch. Agree it compares favorably with the Vaer. Another great watch with a differ vibe
Great review! I picked one up and love it. It is very much a no nonsense tool watch, but it does it so well!
I love SWC watches, I recently bought one of their Trench mechanical watches and just now ordered an Ark, after watching your video. SWC make some of the most beautiful watches, a great company.
I purchased the bunker... You’re my go to guy when it comes to field watches. Not to mention when I need some ideas for straps! I love the watch… If I didn’t already have it I would be buying this one. Great review as always!
Nice review! I've had my black/red SWC Ark a few weeks now, and it is the perfect grab and go for me. It is, perhaps, the most comfortable watch I own. I especially like the straps. The ARK knows its function......and it does it very well for the price.
Hey Shane,, great review as always. I picked up my White ARK back in at the beginning of this year. I love this thing ❤ I have all types of nato and Zulu straps that look great on the watch. It is a super G&G piece for sure.
Great review! I got my black and red Ark a few months ago now. Love it! It disappears on wrist wears really well. The strap that it is supplied with I’m not in love with. It’s comfortable and looks good. It sucks when you want to take the watch off. Every time it comes out of the spring bar! I have a 8” wrist to fit the watch over my hand I got to take strap out from around the spring bar. Put it on a proper strap and the watch is sweet.
It's impressive how great the lume is on the indexes even though they're not applied. I wish they made a no date version though.
How do you recharge the lume after it dims out
I've got one of these on the way - can hardly wait!
I have the ARK in the black/red combination and it is fantastic. When I took it out of the leather case I thought maybe the crystal had fallen out, but no, the antireflective undercoating is that good. And the black date wheels is the perfect match on the black dial. Keep up the great content Shane! Cheers!
SWC with another banger. I'm thinking while watching, it would be perfect with a solar movement - an excellent observation made at the end of the video.
Really enjoyed the video! I have the dark blue with red seconds version and just love the thing. My 2x and 3x price Autos have just been sitting around mostly since I got it. Agree about the date window color, which is why I went with a darker colorway. It's still black but is closer to the blue so not as distracting.
Very nice watch & great value! I like the idea of a “grab & go” watch. I’ve got a Citizen Eco-Drive BM8180 that fits the bill nicely. I did put a different strap on it, though.
I'm keeping an eye on their upcoming Hyper-G
It looks really nice
The only thing missing, ...yes, a solar movement. Spot on Shane, that would make it perfect. Plus my cheap Lorus Titanium Quartz still gives me all i want in this kind of watches (ffs, just took a look at it and battery went out, just 2 days ago... time for a change... of battery!).
Thanks for the review mate, another good one, cheers.
A near perfect field watch very nicely reviewed. Looks great value to me.
As always you choose and review watches I love. Looks awesome! Although some of that might be your camera work 😂
Very nice watch at a great price, excellent review also!
I love the Bunker and this seems like a worthy cousin. If I'm in the mood for a quartz watch I'll keep this in mind.
Thanks for the great review.
Great review.
That date window ruins the dial for me.
Great watch! Great Lume and Super Light and Comfortable!
Looks like an excellent EDC watch.👍🏻
Excellent review as usual Shane. SWC makes some good value watches. I appreciate the materials, especially the titanium casing.... and the many layers of AR and Lume, a very unexpected bonus. I think this watch would have been better with a track on the outer edge of the dial, like the Vaer, basically to fill in its "vacant" appearance. The date sorry to say is an eyesore. Having a solar-powered capability would bring it to the next level. Overall a decent sub $200 offering. I do appreciate the second-hand sub-dial which I think is its best design feature.
Nice shirt Shane. I would have bought this watch 5 times over if they had done center seconds, so I could pull the hand off. IDK if one pops up for the right price I may pick it up.
I agree 100% that they should have done it with a SOLAR movement. Great review as always.👍🏼
Very nice, solar and some different color dials would perfect it. The velcro straps are awesome too
This was my recent purchase love this watch really does feel like there is nothing on my wrist granted this is my first titanium watch but yeah I feel like it's worth the 200$
This is a modern version of the _"my dad wore an XYZ for 99 years before he died. I still have it"_ type of watches. It isn't "the best" in anything but it's better than it's price and does everything well.
No question, that Ark looks good with that leather strap... great find there. I've personally never thought field watches look very good/interesting from the fashion angle (but what do I know, I think dive watches do, hah!), but that leather strap has me thinking maybe I need to rethink this position. I usually feel fairly strongly that if you are wearing field watches for actual outdoor activities, then you gotta go double pass NATO.
Great vid as always. Thanks Shane!
With a big generic name like that it's gotta be good! That lum is Star Wars light saber glow. Great review too, I enjoyed it!
I have the Bunker and love it. When I am in my deer blind and dusk comes, the Bunker comes to life. When I get home it glows all night long and I can easily tell time at 4 am. The logo doesn't bother me one bit. It's a great watch. To me the ARK would make a nice watch for my wife. And she being a nurse would appreciate the grab and go nature of the quartz movement. It also lacks the 24 hour markers that a true field watch should have. The only field watch that I have found which matches the Lume of my Bunker is my B44 Combat made by Lume-tec. It isn't as bright of a glow but it lasts all night long. The Lume-tecs use their own proprietary lume and chemical base coat. I would like to see it go head to head against these SWC watches in the lume wars!
I want to buy a bunker but it's sold out 😒
@@wspanialymenrzu3436 the brown color way is in stock.
@@drzaius844 I got the brown...it's great 👍
It is a nice watch but what I like more is that coffee cup. Just got notification mine shipped!
Nice but I am waiting for a Bunker replenishment. thanks for the vid
Shane, this reminds me of the Bertucci watches.
Great review. This watch hits a lot of sweet spots, and I’m going to buy one. Clean, Swiss made titanium field watch for $200? Won’t find that anywhere to my knowledge. As clean and functional as it is, the poor logo is astounding to me. I think it probably looked better at a larger size, like on a website, but scales down horribly at this size and resolution. Hard to believe it made it out of prototype. I’m buying it anyway. You were very diplomatic about this point.
So the arc and the bunker have grade 2 titanium. But I think SWC advertises titanium #5 on their upcoming watch, what’s the difference? Anyway I bought the Ark as a Xmas gift for a family member and they love it.
I am very positive towards this particular watch, with its bright dial color. Let me give it 8,5 /10 points.
This could be the perfect daily quartz, if it had a white date wheel and a number 3 applied instead of the bar shaped hour marker.
There is clearly enough space for the number to be applied. With these improvements it would recieve a 10 /10 from me. ♥
I’d like to see you review the Momentum Atlas Eclipse Solar 38mm. I think it gives this watch a run for its money priced at $220.
the watch looks nice.. maybee, with the small second hand, a bit more art deco style numerals would be a bit more fitting. oh, and the straps looking great.
Love the watch.
If that second hand doesn't line up with the tick marks, it would drive me crazy
Ditch the date add train tracks viola perfect!
That would look good.
I'm not a fan of solar movement. I like the battery movement for convenience of watch rotation. No need to keep the watch exposed to light. SWC makes great watches. I have a bunker, hyper-g and ark.
Nice case with great specs/dimensions for me. I really don't like the logo or the way the name is written though. I don't actually mind the hour and minute hands being a bit short, I actually find it a bit annoying that the second hand appears to be a wee bit too long for the that subdial. If there's a black dial version, I think I'd prefer that - the date window would probably look less distracting on such a color way I imagine.
Make a no-date version, and I'll buy it in a heartbeat as a perfect everyday watch.
I like the dirty dozen style, like that the sub-seconds doesn't cut off the arabics. Like the titanium and coating, AR application and I like the size.
Not a fan of the colorway (I know personal taste), don't like the mismatched date wheel and on this watch the brand name and logo are too much - ironically I liked the bunkers look, colorway better and the name and logo didn't really bother me. The hands look a bit short and small to me.
I've seen people complaining about the logo....i have no problem with the logo but they should just have SWC under it.
Nice to have a screw down crown .
How do you recharge the lume after it dims out?
Depends on what you recharge it with. Direct sunlight or a UV flashlight, only a few seconds.
There are no replacement velcro straps for the Ark. The Bunker ones are almost all out of stock . What’s going on?
Forgot to tell you that I’m a great fan of your reviews. One of the best watch TH-cam channels . Keep up the good work!!!
It's good to see a nice, clean quartz field watch with adequate lume. Citizen makes a few Eco Drive field watches, but then they ruin it with teensy dots of lume, leaving me unsatisfied. Once again, like the Bunker, the verbose logo ruins a clean look. How about a nice, subtle SWC.
This watch looks great but I'm going to continue to wait for a chance to find a bunker.
I couldn't buy a watch with "Swiss Watch Company" in big letters. That would be like buying a wine with "French Wine" on the bottle. Other than that, it looks like a good watch. Axios also makes a well priced field watch.
I agree with the name. I just can't get past it.
Agreed, abbreviate it to SWC and drop the logo.
Oh, come on. It's their company name, they can wear it proudly given the obvious quality of their product. This is a very nice watch.
I'd also prefer the "SWC" abbreviation, but even as it is, at least it's not an aesthetic disaster the likes of some Christopher Ward logo iterations.
@@grahamwallace Too much like IWC. How about SwatchCo? LOL Fonduration? CuckooCo?
I think if you took a poll and asked "which logo is worse; Swiss Watch Company or Islander?" You'd have a tie. Both make some of the best watches out there; SWC making originals, Islander making homages, but until they hire a graphic designer I'm not buying either.
Information on that white rubber strap
I believe that's a barton. Should be a link in the description.
@@RelativeTime I tried the link but it did not give me the exact same one when you have has different type of texture pattern on it
😭 why doesn't it come in automatic?
Are you a native of nashville or just visiting?
I was visiting.
Logo, which is not great, only, text on back. That seconds hand hangs over the track! Ugh. I love a small seconds, but... Black date wheel? Nope, I'm out.
😃
SWC makes great value watches, but they need to get a new designer. Love the lume, the titanium, and the AR coating. But their watches just don't look very good.
hmmm? a Black Date Window on the White Dial 'Ark' ... and a White Date Window on the Black Dial Bunker ! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I think the thing that bothers me the most visually is that small seconds hand. It is just a bit to long. Would have it been that hard to make that sundial bigger or the hand a little bit smaller to match their sizes?
The date window is to small and unframed. It looks too cheap for this quality of watch.
Those hands 😢. Hour and minute hands are to short and the seconds hand is to long. At $200 their competition is Vaer who nails the details w/ their watches. But they don’t have the lume of the SWC.
Their logos really put me off and that's why I haven't bought one. It doesn't feel right with the vintage style of watches.
A 30 usd design in my opinion
l love my 37? mm Citizen.
I like your review, as always. But the watch itself seems too bland and generic in design, and I don't care if it's stainless or titanium
The watch is OK, perhaps a bit generic. A bit hefty price for quartz on the canvas strap. However I can't get past the ultra stupid SWC name. One of the most horrendous names in watch industry together with the strange logo. Perhaps US market doesn't notice this oddity.
I really don't get the hype. Generic, awful company name, black date wheel... Meh.
Too small!