BOLDR Venture
Manufacturer: BOLDR Supply Co | Price: $299 USD (£230 GBP, €275 EUR approx)
I’ve always been a fan of BOLDR Supply Co and their watch designs, although I’ve never actually had the opportunity to have one on wrist, until now. I’ve been wanting to review one for such a long time, I was about to go and just buy one of these Venture field watches, as I’ve never had any joy from BOLDR when requesting a review sample. That all changed however, when just a few weeks ago, I actually got a reply back from BOLDR, stating they’d be more than happy to send out a Venture for me to review. Yes, finally! Around a week later it arrived. So is it any good? Let’s find out shall we…
Specifications
- Dimensions: Diameter – 38.2mm, Thickness – 11.9mm, Lug to Lug – 43.9mm, Lug Width – 20mm
- Movement: Seiko NH35A, Automatic, 21,600vph (3Hz), Hackable, Self Winding, 41hr Power Reserve
- Case Material: Aerospace Grade Titanium
- Strap: Matching Nylon NATO, Titanium Hardware
- Crystal: Flat Sapphire, Underside Anti-Reflective Coating
- Bezel: Fixed, Titanium
- Water Resistance: 200m / 20ATM / 660ft
- Lume: Japan Superlume
- Crown: Screw Down, Signed
- Caseback: Screw Down, Embossed Artwork
- Warranty: 2 Years Overall Weight: 56.6g Where to Buy: Boldr Supply Co
- Options: Dial Colour – Carbon Black, Jungle Green, Navy Blue, Sand Storm (White)
BOLDR Supply Co - The Brand
Whether you're traversing the forests of the world or striding through an urban jungle, the BOLDR spirit empowers you to face everyday challenges head-on, with a watch that never leaves your side. Designed to be worn, used, and abused every day, strap on a BOLDR and step out of your comfort zone."
Case & Crown
The case of the BOLDR Venture field watch has an overall diameter of 38.2mm. The lug to lug is 43.9mm and the overall thickness, including the sapphire crystal, I measured in at a very svelte 11.9mm. The entire case, caseback, bezel and crown are all aerospace grade titanium. What is aeospace grade titanium I hear you ask!? Well, I’m f**ked if I know! I’ve spent an age trying to find out whether the watch is made from either grade 2 or grade 5 titanium. If you know, please let me know by posting in the comments. All I can tell you about titanium is, it’s very light compared to steel, grade 2 is slightly softer than grade 5, yet still harder than gold. Lesson over! Professor Will Duncan has left the building…🤣🤣
The case has a rather unique design, which I have to admit, I really like! The overall weight of the watch, on the supplied NATO strap came in at a miniscule 56.6g. The BOLDR Venture has a very impressive water resistance rating for a field watch of 200m / 20ATM, thanks to the screw down caseback and crown. The proportions of the watch are just great with its very short lug to lug length of just 44mm. The BOLDR Venture would look fantastic on almost any sized wrist.
The signed crown looks great and there is absolutely zero wobble when the crown is in use, you can also feel a nice pop as you unscrew it. The caseback has an embossed artwork design on it that does look nice, however, if I bought this watch (which I plan to), I wouldn’t be wasting my time looking at the caseback when I could be wearing the damn thing instead!
Straps / Bracelet
The BOLDR Venture field watch comes fitted as standard, with a colour matched 20mm nylon NATO strap with some very nice signed, matching titanium hardware. If you’ve been reading my reviews for any length of time, you should know by now that I don’t wear NATO straps, as I can’t stand the extra material you get and have to double tuck-over etc… My first choice on any watch is always a bracelet, but that wasn’t going to happen with the Venture, so my choice was to fit a very nice navy blue elastic strap from The Watch Steward that you’ll see in the majority of the pictures that I’ve taken.
Movement
The movement selected for the BOLDR Venture is the microbrand go-to movement of choice, the super-reliable NH35 manufactured by Seiko. The SII NH35 is a fantastic workhorse with 21,600vph, 3Hz, 24 jewel automatic movement with a 41hr power reserve, self winding and of course hacking. Checking the accuracy after running the BOLDR Venture for just over a week, mainly on my wrist and occasionally in my watch winder, I thought the accuracy was spot on, with it showing an average of just +1.3 seconds per day!
Dial & Bezel
As you can see in the images, the hour and minute hands are nicely done with their syringe style appearance. The matching seconds hand is great too, with it’s wee lumed rectangle section and contrasting orange tip that reaches right out to the very edge of the minute track. All said & done, the dial is very well designed, clean and very legible. Great job!
Lume
The lume on the BOLDR Venture is very nice indeed, and it actually had me double checking the spec to find out exactly what type of lume it is, especially after seeing the results in low light. The lume that’s been applied to the BOLDR Venture is Japan Superlume. I was pleasantly surprised with just how bright it is, even after not a great deal of charge. I’ve been wearing the BOLDR Venture quite a lot since it arrived and even at 4am, I can still clearly make out what time it is.
Conclusion
The Venture field watch from BOLDR Supply Co has been a bit of a surprise to be honest and I’m still a little shocked by just how much I like this watch. I love it when a sample turns up for review and it just over delivers way past my expectations. The only negative aspect that I could find with this watch is the supplied strap, but I suppose that’s more of a personal thing, as I know there are plenty of watch lovers out there that love wearing all kinds of different NATO straps. Don’t get me wrong, the supplied NATO is nicely made with titanium hardware etc, it’s just not for me.
If I were to label the BOLDR Venture into just one category, other than a field watch, I would easily give it the title of “the perfect every day watch“. It’s simple design, value for money, overall lightness on wrist and the build quality all add up to a watch that I just want to wear every single day. All this for only $299, I can’t recommend the BOLDR Venture enough. Go buy one peeps! I most certainly will… the sand storm (white dial) version keeps winking at me. 😉
BOLDR Supply Co – Outstanding job! 10 out of 10! The perfect everyday / beater watch.
I sent them an email asking which grade titanium they use, and they responded noting that the watch is made with grade 2 titanium!
Just picked one of these up. Truly a watch that disappears on the wrist.
The legibility is excellent. Small without being dainty. The one I have is
must be the latest iteration. So my one complaint is, I do with they would
have kept the orange tip on the second hand.