Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Richard Brown, the Editor-in-Chief of the WatchGecko Magazine. We chatted endlessly over coffee and found that we had much in common, not least our passion for horology. Initially our meeting should have been focused on straps, but as we got to know each other it became clear that we shared so many other interests.
Richard asked me if I'd like to “take a look” at the Sierra Zero One Phalanx and offer my thoughts, so I jumped at the chance! The Sierra Zero One Phalanx is the brainchild of Richard himself and the design is based on his extremely impressive background. To many, I've no doubt that the watch will initially appear basic in appearance but there's more going on than that. The general trend of late is to produce watches that do multiple jobs; this often results in the extremely limited space available becoming cluttered and unreadable unless standing completely still in good light. Either that, or the watch becomes too big to wear and gets caught on almost everything. To make sense of this watch we need to look at exactly what is required from it.
The Concept The watch has been designed with special operations in mind, and to 'measure-up' so to speak, it needs only to do a few things, but it needs to do them very, very well. The first thing, although it may seem obvious, is it needs to inform you of the time! Unfortunately, this is not quite as simple as it sounds. A split-second glance may be all the time you have; your heart will be pounding, and the light may be extremely poor. Many operations require exact timing and misreading a dial may be the difference between success and failure, in some cases even life and death! The dial of the Phalanx is basic and clear; the 'sword' style hands guide your eyes instantly to the right spot without thinking about it. The length of the hands is also important, although often overlooked. The hour hand falls a little short of the inboard hour track, keeping it well out of the way but functional. The minute hand extends to the outer edge of the minute track, leaving no doubt as to its position. Finally, the second hand extends past the minute track to the outer decimal track. This track splits a minute/hour into 100 equal parts as opposed to 60, offering seconds in decimal format, 9 minutes 48 seconds being 9.8 minutes, or 42minutes being 0.7 hours. Of course, you can work this out yourself by dividing 48 by 60 or indeed, by dividing 42 by 60, but on tactical operations time is often short and lying in the grass with your gloves, boots and socks off counting it all out on your 'pinkies' is rarely an option; the Phalanx allows both formats at a glance. The luminosity is subdued but clear, offering readability without the need for further illumination. There is no date window on the Phalanx, this is intentional as the clear and instant readability of the dial is paramount. Its 300m/1000ft depth rating is more a testament to its toughness than its ability as an out-and-out diver, that said, it's perfectly at home below the waves and will handle anything that you're likely to throw at it. A watch specifically designed for diving is a different beast altogether. Functionality For a watch to function in this type of environment it needs to be as non-reflective and as unobtrusive as possible; a watch that reflects every ray of light can, and will, compromise your position. Likewise, a watch that's constantly getting snagged on equipment generates noise and is, just as importantly, a distraction to you and others around you, not to mention the possibility of again, compromising your position. The Phalanx strikes a good compromise in this area when balanced with other considerations. Next up is the bezel, this is a 120-click uni-directional dive/elapsed time bezel, it's been designed to be firm in operation while being easy to grip, even when wearing gloves. Toughness is extremely important as the watch will- more often than not- spend much of its life in harm’s way and its well-being will be way down the list of your priorities when on deployment; that means it must be capable of looking after itself. The case material is machined from 316L austenitic stainless steel as expected and, as we know, this offers extremely good resistance to sea water corrosion and impact deformation. The crown is screw-down and placed at the 4 o'clock position, eliminating the possibility of it digging into the back of your hand when handling firearms. The dial is protected with a flat sapphire crystal that has an anti-reflective coating. Reliability & Wearability Reliability is obviously high on the list here! 'Sorry I'm late boss; my watch stopped.' just won't cut it I'm afraid. With the possibility of that embarrassing situation in mind the Phalanx has been equipped with the Swiss ETA 2824-2, an ultra-reliable, automatic movement with a proven pedigree, often referred to as a 'workhorse' movement. Wearability is also extremely important; the watch needs to remain comfortable over extended periods without removal in harsh conditions. The 22mm lug width offers a wider strap 'footprint' reducing the stress on your skin; a wide range of strap options are available for a myriad of different environments. Does it Work? Recently, I've been hiking, snorkelling, diving and generally crawling about in all sorts of unsavoury places while wearing the Phalanx; it's kept good time (+4 secs/day) throughout and never once got in the way. The clarity, along with the instant readability is excellent. The rubber strap is extremely comfortable and remained so even after being immersed in seawater. While diving, the face remained crystal clear and instantly legible; the bezel was easily adjusted with or without gloves due to a combination of the slight 'overhang' of the bezel and the substantial straight knurl on its outer edge. Operation was always firm and precise even though I did my best to cover it with sand. Luminescence in the dark was just right; easily legible without lighting-up everything within 500m. All in all, a very competent piece of kit. The Last Word There are a number of watches out there that will do the job; this one does it competently without any fuss or drawing attention to itself. During my time with the Phalanx, it performed whatever was required of it, in light or dark, above or below the waves without complaint and kept good time throughout. It didn't get caught on anything, even when diving and stayed out of harm’s way when exploring slippery sea caves. The thing that struck me most about the Phalanx is that it has no 'presence' as such; you completely forget that it's there until you need it; you're very unlikely to achieve that with a dedicated dive watch! An all-black PVD cased Phalanx is also available from Geckota.
