The world of watches is typically a clearly defined one, with most models designed to help you with a specific task. Take a dive watch for a dip in the ocean, a GMT watch on your overseas trip, and a dress watch to that important work meeting. Many watch manufacturers have tried to cover all these bases in a single watch, but they often miss the mark. It’s not easy to merge two distinct watch styles and also retain their functionality, ease of use, and core design identity.
The Ridge has made a name for themselves by taking on challenges just like this one, and they’ve used their learnings from the success of their excellent Ridge Wallet to develop their newest EDC product: The Ridge Land & Sea GMT Watch.
Combining the best elements of a dive watch with the added benefits of a dedicated GMT dual-time watch, the Land & Sea Collection perfectly encapsulates The Ridge philosophy: taking a piece of your everyday carry and making it more efficient, more durable, and reaching its fullest potential of form and function.
Here are the thoughtful details that set The Ridge’s first foray into the watch world apart.
Bold Case Design
The Ridge Land & Sea GMT Watch is, first and foremost, a diver’s watch. Ridge designed a comfortable and streamlined 42mm brushed 316L stainless steel case rated to 200 meters of water resistance to withstand up to 20 ATM of underwater pressure. That depth rating puts it on par or even bests some of the most popular dive watches on the market today.
Its angular lugs give it a formidable, muscular presence on the wrist while calling back to vintage divers from the 60s. A screw-down crown and caseback prevents water from entering the watch and damaging the components inside.
Interchangeable Bezel Deliver Function and Form
Unique to the Land & Sea Collection is its ability to quickly and easily swap out bezel, depending on your preferred functionality and aesthetic.
The highly legible, 90-step unidirectional aluminum dive/compass bezel helps you track how long you’ve been underwater at a glance as its original purpose. But it’s just as capable for day-to-day applications like timing your commute. The dive bezel also features markings for North, West, East, and South, letting you use it as a compass for outdoor excursions as well.
Once you’re out of the water, simply rotate and pull up on the bezel to easily switch to the included GMT bezel. The split-color, 24-hour GMT bezel allows you to keep track of up to three time zones at once, with the GMT arrow hand pointing at either your home or local hour.
Interchangeable Strap System for Every Occasion
The Ridge Land & Sea GMT Watch comes with both a rubber strap and a stainless steel bracelet for even more ways to switch things up. And with a versatile 20mm lug width, the watch is poised to be a strap monster.
Opting for the rubber strap gives a sportier appearance, a lighter feel on the wrist, and easy adjustability, which can come in clutch during the hot summer months. A quick-release mechanism on the rubber strap lets you remove it without the need for tools.
Slapping on the quick-release stainless steel bracelet gives the watch a whole new look. The brushed three-link design is suitable for everyday wear and a night on the town. Sizing the bracelet is easy thanks to its removable screw links, a welcome upgrade over the common pin-and-collar type system found on other watches. For a dialed-in fit, the Land & Sea GMT Watch offers micro-adjustment in the clasp. Two more features in the clasp let you wear the watch with confidence: a double push-button mechanism prevents accidental release, and a safety latch adds another layer of security.
Three Dial Choices to Match Your EDC
The Land & Sea Collection offers three dial designs to choose from: Royal Black, Alpine Navy, and Carbon Fiber, each with their own unique matching bezels.
Legibility comes easy with a clean dial design and easy-to-read applied hour markers. The Arabic numerals are bold without crowding the watch, while well-proportioned stick markers at 6 and 3 (along with the date window) help reinforce the visual split of the GMT bezel and draw your eye to the cardinal directions of the dive/compass bezel. The triangle at 12 o’clock also echoes the triangle on both bezels. Finally, the 24-hour chapter ring with minute markers tracks a third time zone and lends a sense of depth to the dial.
Enhancing its legibility even further is its clear sapphire crystal, a material used in more premium watches sought after for its excellent clarity and scratch resistance. Super-LumiNova-coated hands and markers make it easy to tell the time even in pitch-black situations.
As the more premium offering in the Land & Sea Collection, the Carbon Fiber model boasts a few unique details. It takes a stealthier approach with a carbon fiber dial and its signature woven texture, a black PVD steel case, bracelet, and strap buckle. Its dive/compass bezel gets the blacked-out matte aluminum treatment, while the GMT bezel insert sports the split black and red combination as Ridge’s nod to the iconic “Coke” style. A matching red GMT hand is the final detail to bring it all together.
A High Accuracy, Low Maintenance Movement
At its core, a watch’s main purpose is to tell time accurately, and quartz movements are simply the most accurate movements in the watch world. Powering the Ridge Land & Sea GMT is a Swiss quartz movement, which boasts an accuracy of -10/+20 seconds a month and a battery life of around 45 months. Its quartz movement allows you to “set and forget” the time without worrying about wearing it to keep it running or purchasing a separate watch winder. A quartz watch is something you can grab and go to focus on the task at hand.
With the multiple styling options and variations made possible by the inclusion of two distinct bezels and two choices of strap materials, The Ridge Land & Sea Watch returns an impressive value for money.
Whether diving at night or crossing continents by day, Ridge ensured that their Land & Sea GMT Watch was the one timepiece you needed to take with you. And created with the same careful choice of materials and excellent craftsmanship found on The Ridge Wallet, it becomes a true everyday essential you can rely on.
Take your pick of materials and color combinations at the link below, and as a reader of Everyday Carry you get an exclusive 10% OFF your entire order at The Ridge with code EDC10 at checkout.
