First Impression: Fears Brunswick 40 Topper Edition Series II Tribute to Northern California Snowed In Dial
At 40mm steel case size, 68 hour power reserve and 150m water resistance, the snow-themed 25-piece limited edition is an excellent daily wear for all seasons.
When Rob Caplan of Topper Fine Jewelers shared with me the inspirations and designs of the second collaboration with Fears one year ago, I decided to go for it. This was quite unlike me, as I tend to do extensive research before making a purchase.
There were several reasons for my decision. First, Rob's story of how he and Fears' Nicholas embarked on a trip to Northern California during the winter, which led to the designs of four collaboration models, was captivating. Secondly, the Snowed In dial design reminded me of one of my favorite classes at graduate school, where we used dithering/halftone patterns to produce grayscale images. Lastly, I had tried on my friend Thomas's first Fears Topper edition white dial, which was exceptionally well-built, instilling confidence that the second collaboration would be equally impressive.
One year later, when I finally put on the Snowed In on my wrist during the Topper First Look event, I could not hold back my smile. It was simply stunning and surpassed my already elevated expectations. I cannot wait to share the details with you.
A Brief History of Fears
The Fears Watch Company Limited, known as "Fears", is one of Britain's oldest family-run watch companies, first established in 1846 by Edwin Fear in Bristol. The business operated for 130 years until it closed in 1976. In 2016, the year the company would have celebrated its 170th anniversary, it was re-established by Edwin Fear's great-great-great-grandson, Nicholas Bowman-Scargill. Today, Fears is located in its historical home city of Bristol, where the watches are designed before being hand-built in Britain.
One of Fears' current collections is the Brunswick, which takes its name from Brunswick Square in Bristol, where the company's export warehouse was based from 1920 to 1942. The Brunswick Collection was inspired by the cushion cases of Fears' popular models in the 1920s and 1930s, as shown in the picture below.
In 2022, Fears and Topper, a family-owned retail store in Burlingame, California, for over three generations, launched 50 pieces of the Topper edition based on the Brunswick. The success of this collaboration led to a series II, with the theme of "Tribute to Northern California". Nicholas visited Rob and his brother Russ, and embarked on a ski trip to Lake Tahoe and a few California coastal towns. The results were four models: White Out, Winter Lake, Pacific, and Snowed In.
Topper Edition Series II with Snowed In Dial
During the ski trip, Nicholas and his hosts were caught in a major storm and had to stay in the lodge for a few days. Nicholas looked out the window and saw those pine trees covered with heavy snow. While the lower branches were laden with snow, some of the top branches were still visible, with the snow shaken down by the wind. This image led to the Snowed In design, a drone's view of a pine tree with its lower branches covered in snow.
The execution to produce this dial was not an easy task. The Fears team worked closely with the dial supplier in Germany and another printing company to produce the final dial after many trials and errors. The dial almost looks like the surface of an oil painting, made out of varying sizes of geometric patterns. Only the center of the dial is green, while the rest is white, including the hands and the 3-D Roman and Arabic numerals of the California dial. It feels like modern art on the dial of the watch.
Top-grade La Joux-Perret G101 MovementÂ
Apparently, Fears is adopting movements from La Joux-Perret for their newer watches, starting with the Brunswick 40 Topper Edition Series II. La Joux-Perret is a well-established Swiss movement manufacturer, which was acquired by Citizen in 2012. The Caliber G100 (with date) and Caliber G101 (without date) were released in 2022.
The biggest advantage of the G101 compared to the ETA 2824-2, which was used by Fears previously, is the power reserve at 68 hours versus 42 hours. There are three variations of the G101: the standard version, the soignée version, and the soignée vis bleues version. The top-grade G101, the soignée vis bleues version, is used for the Topper Edition Series II, which means it is finished with Côtes de Genève, diamond bevel, and blued screws.
To me, the most important specification of a movement is its timing accuracy. How will the G101 fare? I was pleasantly surprised. While the specification states +/- 7 seconds per day, I obtained much better results as measured by a timegrapher on my Snowed In.
Timing measurements
Dial up: 0
Dial down: +6
12 up: 0
12 down: 0
Crown up: +1
Crown down: -2
Average: +1.5 secs/day
Key Specifications and Pricing
Case diameter: 40mm
Case thickness: 11.06mm
Screw down, signed crown
Closed caseback
Water resistance: 150m (15ATM)
Automatic movement
Power reserve: 68 hours
Strap: dark brown calf leather with tonal stitching
Lug width: 20mm
Limited Edition: 25 pieces (Snowed In dial)
Price with leather strap: $3,900
Optional stainless steel bracelet: $400
Summary
The Fears Brunswick 40 Topper Edition Series II is an impressively well-built watch with nice proportions and top-notch specifications, including a 68-hour power reserve, 150-meter water resistance, and accurate timing performance. All the details have been well-thought-out to produce a satisfactory timepiece, including the nice packaging. The watch wears very comfortably, whether you choose the leather strap or the steel bracelet. Exchanging the strap and bracelet can be easily done without using any tools.
The Snowed In is certainly a watch that punches above its weight class. With a stunning, one-of-a-kind dial design in a 25-piece limited edition, it is a conversation piece that any watch enthusiast would love to own. The snow-themed watch can serve as an excellent daily wearer for all seasons.
First of all, you're lucky to have "stumbled" on this edition so early. And secondly, what a wonderful watch. And thank you for the extreme close ups of the dial. That had to be a "bit*h" to produce. Great write up!