Some of us submerge ourselves into specific(s) type(s) of horology more than any other. We have found our collector’s calling and are fully dedicated to basking into this or that type of watches. We live and breathe our type(s) of timekeeping device(s) and dedicate sizable portions of our income to acquire, catalog, and document this/these few piece(s) which resonate with our inner person more than any other. We’re hooked, we’re driven, and we plow through the monsoon-like amounts of reviews and videos of watches to find what we’re so energetically looking for. Sometimes however, we don’t beeline to what’s right for us but take a detour; other times we require a bit of help from fellow collectors; yet at other moments we altogether deny ourselves the happiness which stems from wearing the watches we like most. However we got to them doesn’t matter as much as it matters to have found them, regardless of what people say about the journey and the destination thing.

Even though we collect machines that measure and indicate time, we feel that we don’t have enough of it to get to the watches like the most. So it takes time indeed and assistance from others to find what we seek, and from this effort stems another wonderful phenomenon: the common drive to create specific types of watches which most members of our niche international community can afford to buy. This is a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about in the past few years writing about micro and independent brands and, more importantly, spending time with a great many watches which were inspired by other more expensive or rare ones. Whether iconic or historic, there are many watches which we just can’t buy. Which is why new brands pop on the market and design and sell watches which represent their, and often singular, personal visions for a type of horology they’ve been looking for for a long time and which we might have been on the hunt for as well. (As indicated above.) 

This is in a nutshell what drove two friends to create Earthen Company and a first collection called the Summit. Today we’re looking at its second generation. 

Specifications 

You might have heard of the Earthen Company Summit before as the first iteration of the collection made the news a bit everywhere for being the most affordable ceramic case watch in the world (as far as I know evidently.) The brand calls itself the ceramic watch company as not only to highlight the material it chose for the case but also as a way to demonstrate that rarer, better, and stronger materials do not necessarily have to come flanked by high price tags as long as you know where to get the good stuff made and in the right way. I do not know (yet) how much brands pay to get ceramic cases, diamond-cut hands, 3D blocks of lume, or double-domed and double-AR’d sapphire crystals, but I do know that most of the rare ceramic case watches which are currently on the market retail, at the lowest end of the spectrum, for almost four times what the Summit Overcast MK II goes for. That in and of itself says a lot about the brand and what it is trying to achieve. For a quick historical background: Earthen Company was founded by two friends, one of whom co-founded The Horology Club.

That is as much as I will say about this because it doesn’t matter where these two fellas met as much as what they’ve accomplished and why: to create the most affordable ceramic tool watch whose value doesn’t only lie in the case material but also, and perhaps in equal measures, in its whole suite of specifications as well as its design. Whilst we will get back to the latter point in a few minutes, now we’re going to dig deep into the former. Indeed, the Summit Overcast MK II is a solid tool watch through and through and Earthen Company made sure it crossed all of its Ts and dotted all of its Is to make a balanced utilitarian timepeeking device. Ceramic is an interesting material to use for a case because it is highly scratch resistant and durable, and what a shame it is that most brands coat it in a glossy finish which makes it look cheap. Ceramic ain’t cheap and it is a hard material to work with which will explain why the brand opted for a certain case finishing as we will discover in a few minutes. (Sorry for creating so much suspense today but things must occur in a particular order.) 

When I first saw images of the Summit Overcast MK II, I was taken aback by how imposing its crown is: it measures 6.7mm in diameter and is composed of two rows of sharp knurling so that it is easy to grip and operate. (On the second version of this model the gap between the two rows of knurling is filled with black paint instead of a gasket like it was on the first generation.) The crown screws down, the case-back does too, which means we have 100 meters of water resistance which is…as we know…more than enough. On top there is a slightly domed piece of sapphire crystal with (I assume) several layers of anti-reflective coating. Inside the ceramic case we find a Miyota 9039 caliber which ticks at 4Hz and comes with 42 hours of power reserve, and the case measures a universal 38mm in diameter, 45mm lug-to-lug, 10mm thick (including the crystal, 8.8mm without it,) and comes with a 20mm lug width. The Summit ships on two excellent sailcloth-style rubber straps perfectly matching the case and dial: khaki and olive green. All of this is superb for the asking $899 USD. 

Design

The brand does a very good job at explaining where it drew its inspiration from to design the Summit collection and what it tried to accomplish with it: to pay tribute to those who embrace the elements and carve their own way forward, by way of a watch whose silhouette echoes the rugged durability of classic field watches built for resilience and precision. (I was more or less quoting from its website.) They chose a poetic language to express their vision for their first collection and I can see what they mean, and what is interesting about it is that the Summit was designed for skiers and snowboarders and not pilots or the military, though it draws inspiration from these domains as well. The Summit Overcast MK II, as well as its two siblings, the Whiteout (currently sold out) and Blue Bird, is based on the IWC Mark XI which was produced between 1948 and the early 1980s, both in the way the dial and case were designed, but which Earthen Company re-interpreted to not only attribute a new meaning to this iconic design but to also modernize it. This way, it’s a versatile watch. 

First things first, let’s dissect the dial which I've been relishing to do for the past few minutes. You know me, I adore tool and military watches so of course I was delighted to get hands-on with the Summit Overcast MK II. The Mark XI dial layout with the subby rectangular hour hand, long pencil-style minute hand, and suite of Arabic numerals for the hour markers make for one of the most legible combos I have ever seen. The first generation of the Summit had numerals from 1 to 11 and an inverted triangle at the twelve. But the MK II sees the swapping of the numerals at the 3, 6, and 9 for long batons to create a reverse Rolex Explorer 1 effect—where the numerals accentuate these markers whilst batons and an inverted triangle make up the rest. This adds a different kind of symmetry to the dial as now the 3, 6, and 9 markers play better with the inverted triangle + short baton combo at the twelve o’clock, and together create a sort of target-like design. Traditionally, pilot watches come with an up-facing triangle whilst dive watches come with a downward-facing one. Earthen went center. 

This revised dial layout was then paired with two blends of luminescent compounds to accentuate the juxtaposition of the numerals and batons. The numerals are therefore painted white which glows blue at night and the batons and triangle in creamy/old radium paint (the color which the tritium on old Mark XI’s took on over decades of patina’ing) which glow green when the lights are out. Thus during diurnal and nocturnal activities the dial is easy to read as the hour markers are segmented and the cardinal points emphasized which, to me, helps in reading the time and adds a little extra of visual interest. Moreover, Earthen Company printed its wordmark above the pinion in a military-style typeface whilst it placed its logo (which resembles a ski slope and a mountain in a circle) exactly where the “T” for “Tritium” was placed on the old IWC. The seconds hand which we have yet to mention is fully painted white and is composed of a hollowed out counter-balance which vertically aligns with the logo when passing over it. Tiny little details which go a long way in making a coherent design. 

Then there is the question of the case. The brand explained that in order to keep the costs down as much as possible, it opted for a classically profiled case instead of going the bespoke route. Since it is made of ceramic and that ceramic is expensive and difficult to work with, shaping the case in an unusual manner would have increased the price of the Summit as it would have required additional tooling. By sticking to the profile of the Mark XI—one which is in itself superb—Earthen Company was able to offer the whole package for less than $1,000 USD which therefore indeed places it within enthusiasts’ reach. The case is flat, as we know 10mm including the crystal, with an elongated narrow mid-case which ends by way of thin claw-like lugs which turn down towards the wrist, a domed two-step bezel, and a crystal which slightly sits above the latter. The case is then decorated with brushed treatments on the case flanks and upper mid-case, radially on the bezel, and rake-like grooves on the upper part of the lugs plus polished accents on the thin chamfers of the upper mid-case.

The Heart of the Matter

I was skeptical of this release when I first heard about it because the first generation Summit (in all three versions) popped on all major online watch magazines all at once. When this happens, my brain goes into a “too-good-to-be-true” mode with a heavy dose of “what on earth drove all of these reputable magazines to write about a seemingly unknown brand.” So I did my research, contacted Earthen Company, got a watch sent to me, and spoke with Jonathan Chan, one of the two co-founders of the brand. When I put the specifications of the Summit side-by-side with the watch’s design and finishing, which I then put side-by-side with what Jonathan shared during our call—The Horology Club, his passion for iconic watches which are too expensive to acquire and/or too fragile to use, making bold moves by using ceramic, and their singular approach to creating a tool watch—I understood that I was holding in my hand a genuine piece of enthusiast’s horology. One which is timeless, of high value yet attainable, mechanically complete, and visually familiar yet different.

It is a home-run for Earthen Company and I for one am very glad to not only agree with watch more experienced journalists said about the first generation of the Summit, but to have experienced what the IWC Mark XI could have become should the Swiss giant had not abandoned the design, used the materials it now uses on its professional tool watches, whilst keeping a foot firmly on the ground to keep its collections financially reasonable. Thus the Summit Overcast MK II comes with all of the attributes of a solid, well-rounded, and well-priced tool watch just like we like them here on Mainspring. Again, bravo team. 

Conclusion

With each new review we discover something new: a new genre of timekeeping devices, new designs, new materials, new stories, and more importantly, new definitions of what the noun “value” means today. Before getting hands-on with the Earthen Company Summit Overcast MK II I didn’t think that it was possible to get a ceramic case tool watch for under $1,000 ($899 USD to be exact) as before the Summit, the cheapest such watch I had seen retails for close to four times more than this one does. That is a lot of money to spend on any watch and brands find ways to justify the high asking prices because of the relative novelty of the material. But these more expensive watches are made in Switzerland and now we know, should it be made elsewhere, that ceramic can actually be more affordable. So well, this Earthen Company pilot/field/snowboarding piece is rather special and I hope to be able to see more from the brand. 

Thanks for reading.