Lorne Gifford (not to be confused with Lorne Greene of Bonanza fame) is one of a handful of professional subsea engineers developing the world’s remaining offshore oil and gas fields. His search for oil and gas has taken him from Trinidad to Thailand and from the Arctic to Africa. His search for the perfect chronograph took him considerably further as he decided to design his own.
In the process Lorne set himself the aim of developing the highest quality chronograph available anywhere and at any price. A provocative statement guaranteed to cause many a crusty watch forum member to whinge and point passionately to other brands.
Having broken and tinkered with more chronographs than he can recall, Lorne wanted to build a chronograph that is extremely robust and yet unswervingly reliable and accurate.
Valjoux 7750 movement
His movement of choice is a customised triple complication Valjoux 7750 chronograph
custom built and finished at the ETA factory in Switzerland and then modified at a separate Swiss facility to match and fit into the Field Engineer case. The Valjoux 7750, with a 48 hour power reserve, is battle proven time and again to be trustworthy, hardworking and with 99.994% accuracy.
One design fits all
What’s refreshing about the OFFSHORE Professional Field Engineer is its distinct lack of choice. If you are looking for a chronograph watch as fashion statement, this ain’t it. In fact the dial has been deliberately designed with no fashion influences. This watch will never go out of fashion because it will never be in fashion.
Also, rather than complicate things and offer myriad designs, colours and dials, Lorne’s OFFSHORE Professional Field Engineer comes in an un-cluttered choice of just one model with one style and one dial colour. It’s Lorne’s way or the highway.
But for all that, the 44mm 316L stainless steel dial is designed to react to ambient light conditions, bright under harsh light, soft under evening light and highly reflective under minimal light.
The bezel features Roman numerals, because as Lorne points out, no one ever actually uses a tachymetre or logarithmic bezel.
Climate and terrain proof
Another major plus for the OFFSHORE Professional Field Engineer is the fact that it’s been designed to be worn in any climate. Watches in the tropics wear completely differently from watches in moderate to cold climates. In the tropics your wrist swells, your hands and fingers are sweaty, skin allergies are common, so the strap, in a choice of treated leather or rubber, has been designed to accommodate climatic changes to the size of your wrist, while the crown and pushers have plenty of grip. The Field Engineer is suitable not only for any climate, but any level of sand, dust, humidity, sea water, chlorine water and oily water.
Dust and water tested
As part of his quality control experiments, Lorne ‘dust tested’ the Field Engineer at the top of the Namibian Desert in Southern Angola, with ambient temperature a withering 42 Centigrade (108 Fahrenheit). The dust is as fine as talcum powder, but becomes incredibly abrasive once mixed with a little water or sweat. End result, the watch was fine, but in the process Lorne’s cellphone died a death.
Two year warranty
The watch has a two year warranty. If you break a crown, button, sapphire crystal, damage the movement or do anything else from any reasonable level of accident (dropping the watch for instance) over the first 2 years of ownership then you can just send it back and it will be repaired or replaced. The same goes for any water ingress provided you promise you didn’t push the chronograph buttons when swimming.
And the price? £1,475.00. At the moment the only way to get your hands on an OFFSHORE Professional Field Engineer watch is via Lorne’s website, or if you live in the UK you can turn up in person at his house and buy one. No discount, but there is a cup of coffee on offer.
Specifications
o 44mm diameter (47.5 mm incl crown), 14.5 mm thick, 129 grams total weight
o 316L low carbon stainless steel outer case, anti-magnetic inner case
o Perfectly flat sapphire front & back crystals with anti-reflective vapour coating on inner faces
o Custom made triple complication 25 jewel Valjoux 7750 movement with anti-magnetic key components
o Self-winding mechanism (approx 4 hours normal wear to fully wind and protected against overwinding)
o Date display & hour – minute – 1/4 second chronograph
o Layered shock resistance
o Suitable for wet environment and swimming
o Suitable for any climate
o 4 layer dial designed for maximum low-light and harsh-light contrast to hands
o C1 Super Luminova solid wafers in hour and minute hand (white in daylight, yellow-green in the dark)
o No luminous markings on dial or sub-dial hands (just the arrow hour and sword minute show at night)
o Silicon impregnated leather strap with rubber core & stainless steel deployment clasp
o Leather travel case
o 2 year Warranty & a Lifetime Guarantee
