That doesn't look half bad!
*** THREAD EDIT *** Turning this into an owners' thread - as over time, this has grown to be a bit of an archive of different pics, reviews and input from Lorne himself.
I first discovered the Offshore Professional Chrono website ( http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk ) a while back and stumbled upon the brand again quite randomly yesterday. A great attempt IMO to build a no compromises tool watch (although as I write... I guess EVERY watch must have a compromise to its spec somewhere?!).
As for warranty, perhaps the best set of terms and conditions that I have read!
So, do we have any current or past owners amongst us? I'd like to hear opinions and see how it looks on the wrist if anyone amongst us has tried one on.Warranty & Guarantee
There isn't much in day-to-day life that will destroy one of these watches. If you break a crown, button, sapphire crystal, damage the movement or do anything else from any reasonable level of accident (dropping onto a tiled floor for instance) over the first 2 years of ownership then just send it back and it will be repaired or replaced. Same goes for any water ingress provided you promise you didn't push the chronograph buttons when swimming.
The warranty extends to the strap, clasp and bracelet. You can swim or shower with the leather strap as it is silicon impregnated to be more waterproof than your skin, but please remember not to apply any mosquito repellents containing high levels of DEET as they will dissolve the neoprene lining and leave a black stain on your wrist.
If you manage to break an OFFSHORE Professional Field Engineer through something not covered by the Warranty, like running over it with a car, then I will replace it at half the price of a new one. This is a lifetime guarantee (my lifetime as I don't want to pass any liabilities onto my children) regardless of abuse, lack of servicing or number of owners. Failure analysis is a important part of engineering and from a dent or damage size, I can back calculate the impact energy that caused it and the energy levels that were absorbed or transmitted through each of the shock absorbing layers.
Last edited by JohnnyE; 21st June 2018 at 15:15. Reason: Turned into owners thread to group all into one thread
That doesn't look half bad!
Here's a bit more info on the man behind the watch - quoted from http://www.watchpro.com/i-make-watch...ilding-things/
I was reading a few old threads elsewhere (think it pay have been PH) where Lorne chipped in himself. He apparently has a "loaner" watch to send out to let people try the watch. Finding it rather hard to NOT send an enquiry email off!By Lorne Gifford
“As an engineer I find it impossible not to take things apart and try to improve them, from subsea multiphase flow meters to hi-fis, but watches have been a particular joy.
“It was only a matter of time before I started building my own watches and in 2012 Offshore Professional was born with the creation of the Field Engineer chronograph based on the 7750 movement and the values of quality, strength and performance.
“I don’t know, or to be honest care, too much about where my watches sit in the market. I don’t run the company as a profit-generating enterprise since I have a day job as a subsea engineer that provides for my wife and children. I run the company for the love of building and tinkering with things. Of the two dozen Field Engineer chronographs I’ve built half have been bought by engineers in the oil industry. The others have gone to individuals who simply like it, or in the case of Field Engineer 016, fancy taking it to the North Pole to test its ability to survive minus 50°C.
“At the high-end of the market the emergence of British watch companies is part of a general trend toward diversification and niche manufacturing in the UK. At the low end it’s rebranding Chinese products to be more acceptable to western markets. I don’t really push the idea of Britishness when it comes to Offshore since I largely work overseas in the oil industry but I am immensely proud of the world view of British as a by-word for the very best engineers. And since we ruled the waves I use Britannia and her trident as a logo. For a brand to say it is British-made I do think that there should a substantive British involvement; be it in the design, engineering, assembly, movement or component manufacture.
“I don’t really believe the government should put up funding to help re-establish watchmaking in the UK as any involvement by government bureaucracy is more effort than it’s worth, distorts the market and would fall foul of EU anti-competitive legislation. A tax break might be nice though.
“Looking ahead, Offshore’s Field Engineer 016 is going to the North Pole this winter. As far as the brand though, I think I’ll just keep making them in small quantities. I’ve been toying with the idea of building a slim 7750 based chronograph capable of surviving abyssal plain depths. Tooling and machine costs are a little high for me to build them at the moment though.”
This column was taken from the September 2012 issue of WatchPro magazine.
A fellow owner here. Will give some thoughts and feedback later. Lorne is a gentleman to deal with, more to follow in the next exciting instalment.
Definitely check out the watch forum on PH for more information on these if you are interested. Lorne does post over there and there are a few owners who have given feedback.
Great build quality and developed from Lorne's exploits. Decent heft on the wrist and you certainly know you're wearing it. Mine has been on the leather and deployment since I bought it which is very comfortable.
I haven't tried the bracelet which is a decent quality stainless steel jobbie.
The Engineer is a chunky watch which is quite big and deep as well but sits nicely on the wrist.
The operation of the crown, which is not screw down and Chrono pushers requires some considerable effort and you get a nice mechanical click each time once the pressure point has been reached. There is no doubt or confusion about the operation of any part of it due to the positive action and sounds.
The dial is a beautiful blend of colours. Lorne has added an extra day window to the dial since I bought mine and I can upgrade to the new dial for free, but I prefer my single date only window dial to be honest.
On the whole I think it's a great piece of kit and is probably one of my most robust Chronos with the added back up of Lorne's fantastic guarantee.
We keep in touch every now and then via email, and he is certainly a great down to earth guy to deal with and listen to, no airs and graces. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending him (buy the seller) or his watch if you fancy something very rare and unlikely to be seen out in the wild, I've certainly never seen another one ever.
I think I will dig it out and wear it tomorrow after all that.
They look great. I couldn't find a lug to lug measurement. Does anyone know what it is? It will probably be too big for me but may as well ask.
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Thanks for that! It seems that all the owners are nothing short of delighted. I found a good review and picture set over here: http://www.intlwatchleague.com/showt...ronograph-Love
I came very close to buying one of these from Lorne a couple of years ago.
Kinda wish I had now.
Forgot about the Roman numerals bezel, I have the tachy bezel which I prefer and the propellor seconds hand.
Pretty cool watch for £1500 though potentially on the too large side. I really do quite like it though especially with tach bezel and day and date Windows.
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No compromises and ground up built with no consideration to cost, maximising British content or anything not core, just to be the best. The (very reasonable) final price is simply the cost of build with a pretty small profit margin. Thought about increasing the price to cover the drop in GBP value post EU referendum, but what the heck I'm sure it'll recover.
Engineering and shock resistance is as good as can be achieved with a mechanical chronograph, but obviously bettered by a plastic digital, so when asked for ultimate ruggedness I point to a Casio G-Shock. No point inviting repairs!
Climate proof from the North pole to rain forests and deserts, it’s been to them all, and will go deeper than you can get and still reasonably expect to come back from. It can actually go to any depth on a sat divers wrist as helium diffusion during compression and decompression balances pressures (tested). It’s not a diving watch though as I use a floating crown to fully isolate the movement from the outer case and don't have push button locks so silt and sand jamming into the seals is possible. Good for swimming pools and surfing, which is all I do these days.
Sized around the movement architecture and inner case movement holder. The movement is a special specification because I’m fussy on materials and like a decorated finish with blue screws. The watch sits very nicely on a slim wrist as my wrist is slim. To get the balance perfect I have a particular case and clasp profiling, tight strap to case transition, enhanced bending modulus of the layered strap and a clasp that has one extra hinge over everyone else’s so it can gimbal, a solution I once used on a drill rig to allow slightly off vertical drilling. The metal bracelet is similar, but has a different weight distribution to compensate for lack of bending modulus. Interestingly the fixity and clasp reduce strap flex and kink points so it appears to last a long time. And when it is time for a new one then since Hirsch make them for me I dimensioned it the same as their standard 22mm curved end range. Any from that range fit perfectly. It’s just the layering materials on mine that differ.
To ensure a classic and fashion proof design I removed my own prejudices by using a mathematical basis. The 12th Century Fibonacci sequence; 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34… the numbers move toward the ‘golden ratio’ of 1 to 0.618 which da Vinci was so fond of. The sequence features everywhere including colours as each change varies through the pallet by sequence steps. The dial is big and subdials are 1.5mm bigger than other chronographs (not that you’ll notice) and devoid of spurious marking, so layering and colour shade transitions are necessary to prevent blandness. A similarity to Corum Romulus has been pointed out, but not as often as the ‘why is it a Maserati logo’ comment.
Up to nearly 100 made now with owners all around the world, so is and will remain incredibly rare and very unlikely you’ll see another one. I like this as I’d hate to see someone else on a tube train wearing it. Actually, that’s not true because it’d be a really good conversation. I sat opposite someone once who was reading a book of mine and had a quite uncomfortable journey looking at a smiling picture of my younger self on the dust cover. If it had been a pretty lady reading it I might have made eye contact and motioned to the picture, but it wasn’t so I kept eyes to feet level. This is why the Field Engineer doesn't have any personal references on it. Not sure what level of egotism requires naming things after yourself, but will ask Christopher Ward if I ever meet him.
I do tend to post on Pistonheads quite a lot because I like cars, and it’s the only forum my computer remembers the login too. Had to re-register on TZ to post this! Thank fully though I remembered to click 'remember me' so I don't have to remember the 216th password this year.
Love the comments written here. Watch tastes are very subjective so I really don't mind people saying it’s not their style, or as one commentator on an American forum said, 'Fugly'. Had to google that and was quite shocked.
Lorne, thanks for taking time to pop in and share that! As you say, style is so subjective... but I'm in the camp of "fascinated, with no idea why"! It just works for me. Must be that magic number ratio kicking in with my sub conscious perhaps?!
Actually, I DO know why I like your design and suspect there are many others on this forum with similar thinking. I've bought and flipped quite a few watches over the years, trying to find one that "clicks" as such. Truth is, mass produced stuff quite bores me now. At the end of the day... they just tell me the time... so if its going to float my boat, it needs to have a bit of a back story; something more than just a movement in a case.
Its at THIS point that the watch industry marketeers dance up and down. They can now sell me a dream! Mark it up a few grand - make me think when I wear my watch I'm James Bond (actually.. they got me there... wearing a SMP today - oops!).
So what I'm rambling towards is this!... well done on a no B.S. product. Designed with purpose. I like that!
That number sequence and the ratios it provides are the key, I think. It's everywhere on da Vinci's Vitruvian man, and any building, shape or object that just looks good.
Marketing is something I've never quite got to grips with as you can probably tell. OFFSHORE Professional is an engineer and a master watchmaker. If anyone is good at marketing and wants to be the third person then I'm more than happy to hear from them.
Edit: there's reason for every detail in the Field Engineer. The fan hand for running seconds for instance is because mechanical watches drift by a second or two a day and it used to annoy me when the running seconds was more than 10 or so seconds off the radio 4 pips. With 3 second hands that doesn't happen. The circular day date at the 4 O'clock line is to balance visual weight and remove crowding from the 9 to 3 line. Two letters for day indication because no day of the week actually needs three to identify it. Lots of details but as you say hopefully all hidden from concious thought so you can just look at it and see what time it is.
Last edited by LorneG; 23rd September 2016 at 12:06.
Not a marketing man myself Lorne.. although I do have a degree in Business and Marketing!.. I moved into ICT and am a software developer / systems analyst and run my own part time web design business outside of the day job.
Funny thing about doing web design as a hobby turned part time income is that I'm not that needy of marketing either. My day job pays the bills and keeps me and my family comfortable. I take the extra/private work as I get it via personal recommendation (like your watches). People get hung up on design... the latest look.. but I always say this; Look at Google. A white page with one logo. A no nonsense approach because what matters there is that their page is fast and does what is needed - ie. gets results back fast and accurate.
As a potential customer of one of your watches (bearing in mind I work at websites!) - I didn't care less that your site is home made and a few years old. It won't display easily in my mobile device.. RH edge of the pages is getting chopped off for me... but I wasn't that bothered! Reason?.. its the CONTENT that mattered. If you do want to modernise the site later, your content is spot on (to me anyway). You just need it brought over into a proper, responsive framework (ie. it automatically fits the device - whether tablet, smartphone or desktop pc). You also could do with plugging in Google Analytics too. It gives you a WORLD of business critical info on your site. I wrote a short article a while back on that which may shed light on that for you: http://egewebdesign.co.uk/advice/analytics
Photos - nice crisp photos will make a MASSIVE difference here for you. There are some RIDICULOUSLY talented photographers on TZ here who do a better job than I've seen on the big branded watch websites. I'll be the first to jump in before the queue!... if you still have that "loaner" mentioned on PH... I'll happily spend some time trying to capture it on camera for you for free. It'll probably end up with me being a grand and a half worse off... but none the less, the offer is there if you fancy my attempt at improving the images on your site.
Good article! Looks like I'm going to be playing with the website soon. Photographs also not my speciality and unfortunately the 'loaner' watch didn't come back from one potential customer, although an envelope of cash did so I'm not complaining. Will build another loaner in due course but at the moment chronographs are built to order as the profit margin is too thin until the pound recovers some of its value.
To get the analytics working, Google give you a code block to add to your pages which activates it all. It'll really help you understand where your site is/isn't working for you. Drop me a PM if you want a hand. Happy to assist for free. I can even add your site to my own google analyics collection and PM you the code that you need to add. Shouldn't take you long to get running at all.
So.... back to the watch. You mentioned them being built to order. What sort of lead time are on them?
Lorne, kudos to you for your approach. The watch isn't my cup of tea but I can appreciate it for what it is. Congratulations for bringing it to market.
A little bit of constructive criticism though - you do need to sort out the website! I have only viewed it on the mobile but it does no justice to you or your product at all. Best wishes and keep us posted. Dave
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
This has got the juices flowing,I better do some research,not everyday the owner of a watch company signs in for a chat ,well done that man,great reading
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I'm not sure I can trust you to make a watch if you can't remember passwords
That said, I'm a fan of the watch and it's been on my radar for a couple of years now.
The engineer of a watch company. Owning it is an expensive by-product that is annoyingly all to do with accounting, imports and exports, taxation and other things that have no interest whatsoever. I love talking engineering and watch design!
Edit: Just realised this is an excellent excuse to post some (blurred) pictures - marketing and all that!
Or may be not, as that didn't appear to work.
Here we go, approved water depth rating:
Last edited by LorneG; 23rd September 2016 at 14:28.
What's with the blue date wheel on the right hand side here Lorne....
The splash of colour looks well to my eye!
Nice looking watches.
With the knurled edges, it would seem that the front bezel is crying out to rotate (either 0-60 or 60-0, or even 1-12). Any plans for such an option? I personally find tachy's a long way less usefull than a bezel.
Dave
I think that might be a good example of me taking a picture in which the sapphire glass is somehow enhancing the colour of a nearby light. The only blue you'll find is the screw heads in the movement:
Does look rather good though!
And an edit: decided against a rotating bezel. Used one for timing my car park meter countdown, but the stopwatch in a chronograph is a nicer way of doing it. Agree through that a tachymeter scale is not overly useful, so the option is roman numerals. Ratio of sales is 9 tachymeters to one roman numerals.
Last edited by LorneG; 23rd September 2016 at 17:25.
Fair enough, it is just that some of my favourite chronos (Zenith DeLuca, Sinn EZM1, Tutima ZUZ, Leonidas AMI, Zenith Cairelli etc etc) have bezels.
Auto log in this morning. No need to remember the password!, so it looks like I'll be a general TZ-UK commentator, probably when someone asks for a watch recommendation, or asks why the edge of the glass on their Rolex is so susceptible to damage.
Notice the missing screw in the picture of movement 004? That could either be a screw I forgot to put in, in which case the owner of 004 should be careful, or it could be where the non steel screw went that makes every chronograph completely unique and different to any other one.
These really appeal to me. I've not gone into the "microbrands" much at all with the obvious exception of a couple of Eddie's fine offerings but I can see me adding one of these to my rotation.
Now you are just toying with us Lorne!
Passwords are the bain of my life; I recently had to set one up that had to have 8-10 characters, a mixture of letters, numerals, capitals and at least one non-alphanumeric character.
The problem then arises as to how you remember them all. Do you write them all down??
This is the answer... https://lastpass.com/
I switched to this 6 months or more ago. Try it - its free (and $12 a year if you want it to sync across all your devices). I got it to run a "security challenge" on installation... where it scans your browser cache and tests ALL of your logins/passwords. I scored 17% secure!!! 6 months later... I'm at 98%.
Before you ask.... "but what if lastpass gets hacked?". I read up on this and lastpass only store a heavily encrypted version of your passwords on their servers. The encryption keys stay ON YOUR SIDE. A hacker would need to hack lastpass and then go steal your laptop/ipad/phone.
Yes.. but its just one "master" password to access them all. Each of your devices only insists that you input that password once every 30 days - so you can set it to "autocomplete" all your logins for you if you wish. There is also a "secure notes" area for you to store stuff like house insurance policy numbers etc etc. Good idea for the hateful event of a house fire. You can use your phone to access your secure notes and at least know who to ring and what policy number to quote.
You won't regret it, I've been wearing mine since my last reply still on the leather, proper bit of kit.
I really think that they're stunning and would love to have one in the future, seem great value to me too.
I keep coming back to this thread and lusting over these. I've concluded that the only thing that has stopped me from placing an order is that Lorne isn't offering a non-date version. If he did I would buy it today. Obviously I understand that a "micro brand" may have to standardise its products to a large extent, but I will continue watching for the non-date version.
I too came back to this threat this week
I really really like the watch.
It also has the added bonus of being made less than a mile and a half away from my front door.
The only thing stopping me buying is lume on the dial.
Not sure if there is any.
I would love to hear from owners if we have any on the forum.
John
From memory only the main hands are lumed the dial is non lume
You could always have a chat with Lorne to see if there's anything that could be done. He's a great guy to deal with, and exceptionally helpful.
I've just ordered one of these ,but lorne as one in stock,as he likes to be in front ,so 105 should be here next week,watch this space
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I haven't sold mine, still going strong
According to the FAQ page:
The Field Engineer double O variant is now available. Modifications from the earlier Field Engineer are quite extensive and all in the movement and aesthetics. These include include day of the week indicator, a full set of revised hands slightly different in size and shape, different tube alloys, a completely new and totally unique day and date arrangement, C3 superluminova added to hour markers, small changes in the chapter ring and dial layer sizes and layout, and numerous other very small tweeks that pull everything more tightly to the Fibonacci sequence.
[QUOTE=Sinnlover;4357299]Good to know.
Cheers
The other thing to note is that Lorne can update anything when watch is in for service so if you wanted new dial, hands etc Lorne could probably fully update it then if you wished.
Mine is one of the originals and I want to keep it that way.
This along with, my GGB mk2 and my 29a are top keepers
Ah reading.... I suppose that helps sometimes. ;-)
I had read on some blog reviews there was no lume. I guess the new ones have this covered
- - - Updated - - -
[QUOTE=Cat7;4357511]I will contact Lorne and see if I can get a watch to look at
If I do but I will post some pictures
Cheers gents
John