Some watches beget multi-layered reviews on the basis of how many technical, design, and historical tidbits were weaved into their creation. At first glance, we may know what we’re dealing with—for example a pilot’s watch—but upon closer inspection we realize we are dealing with much more—a modern reinterpretation of a pilot’s watch; a tip of the hat to a particular period of history; a wild exploration of how far one can reinvent a codified style of timekeeping device and concoct an infinite number of ways to combine colors, shapes, and textures together to forge a brand new visual language. For each collection the brand releases that is, including every single iteration of it, none of which are the same. This is a bit of a mad work to put one through but which sets the brand apart from all other ones. And what further does so, is the fact that each version of each new collection is perfectly executed and could be its own chapter of the brand history standing on its own two legs (or lugs, as we are concerned.) 

All of the aforementioned magic is something British brand Farer excels at. Its talent as a brand is to reinvent, revisit, and rejuvenate classic styles of horology through the process of redefining what each element making up a particular type of watch can become, should be, letting go of what it was many decades ago. We explored Farer’s unique talents at the beginning of 2026 looking at the Lander IV GMT 36mm, a GMT built into a field watch nestled inside Farer’s singular design reactor. In some ways, the Lander IV appeared familiar, akin to an old blanket we found stashed in a dusty box in the attic. In other ways, it came across as elegantly revolutionary, similar to how Ford revived the Bronco—same DNA, however visually degrees apart from the original. And that is what Farer did with the idea of a field watch to which a GMT complication was tethered, as it did as well in the domain of pilot watches in the Pilot Series II Barnwell. The latter is equal parts history, design, specs, and artistic self-expression.

Specifications 

What is interesting about certain genres of watches is how their original specific use-case scenarios dictated the ways in which they would be designed and spec’ed out. Field watches, for example, had to be as legible as possible and aesthetically paired down to the bare essential to aid in coordinating attacks to the precise minute and second. That was the visual part. Technically, they had to be robust, shatter proof, and capable of keeping dust and sand away from their insides in order to keep on ticking accurately on the battlefield. Field watches were, and still are today, the quintessential tool watch: to the point and free of superfluous visual effects. Pilot watches were equally specifically designed and spec’ed out but went a step further: for they were used inside bumpy, dark, cold, and hot cockpits, their dials had to be extra legible and the visual focus be put on superlative legibility for additional purposes: being strategically on time of course but also calculating distances, fuel consumption, and airspeed. 

Moreover, pilot watches also had to be protected against magnetic fields which emanated from onboard instruments. And this was the case as early as World War II for a select number of aviation watches, mostly German Beobachtungs-uhren (observation watches) manufactured by Laco, Stowa, IWC and many others. Thus, historically, pilot watches were as legible as it is easy to see the North Star in the unpolluted nightsky, and as robust as supercharged Armadillo’s body plates armor. And these are two core characteristics of this style of watch Farer preserved (and honored) in the Pilot Series II and the Barnwell specifically: it harbors a classic Type B dial layout (we will talk about later on) and superior protection against magnetic fields which are ever so present in modern life everywhere we are, whatever we do, which is why Farer presents the three models of this new collection as being equally adapted for life above and on the ground. The Barnwell is also robust in many other aspects of its construction as we’re about to see. 

This model’s first point of technical interest is therefore the soft iron Faraday cage protecting the movement inside of it from magnetic fields up to 500 Gaus, roughly 40,000 ampere per meter (A/m.) As a point of reference, the modern $13,000 USD IWC Ingenieur’s magnetic resistance is of 1,000 Gaus or 80,000 A/m, thus making for the perfect segue to mention the Barnwell’s price tag within that specific context: $1,525 USD. In other words: it boasts 50% of the IWC’s magnetic resistance for 8.5 times less money which is impressive and important to know for many of you folks. More than that, the caliber which is so protected is the Swiss made Sellita SW300-1, of the élaboré grade, which means it ticks at 4Hz, boasts 56 hours of power reserve, and is regulated in four positions to clock in a ± 5-second daily variation. Above that still, the movement + soft iron cage are housed inside a burnished-brown PVD coated grade 2 titanium case measuring 40 x 43 x 10.9mm, complemented by an 8mm push/pull crown and a 100 meter depth rating. 

Farer wasn’t kidding when it indicated that its new pilot watch is destined for all sorts of adventures and is not only reserved for modern-day Mavericks. For instance, it endowed the Barnwell with the right amount of water resistance as noted above, but also the appropriate minor shock and scratch resistance by blanketing the case with a bead-blasted PVD coating, and opting for a domed sapphire crystal complete with five layers of inner anti-reflective coating. The British brand went a step further by ensuring superlative nighttime legibility by way of generous applications of white Grade X2 SuperLuminova of two variety, glowing ice blue on the hour/minute hands and radioactive green on the numerals marking the minutes and rectangular elements complementing them on the periphery of the dial. The grade 2 titanium case is complemented by a leather strap (there are four options), made of quick-release spring bars and color-matched buckle, bringing the total weight of this piece to 67g which is rather fine in my own little book. 

Design 

What we know of the Farer Pilot Series II Barnwell so far is this: technically it is very comprehensive, more so than many other modern pilot watches being sold on the market today at similar or higher prices. For, in many instances, brands focus most of their attention on the overall design of their watches—so that they adhere to the traditional design codes of aviation timepieces—but not so much on their technical sides. Like a true authentic microbrand, Farer went above and beyond what most mainstreams decide to do in order to stretch our dollars further, in the same way Jack Mason did with the Pursuit Pro Shadow by opting for a hardened stainless steel case, a soft-iron cage, and X2 Grade lumicast lume for $1,399 USD. But the Barnwell is more than the proverbial sum of its technical parts for, visually, it wholeheartedly rejuvenates and utterly modernizes the traditional Type B design by doing what Farer knows how to do best: unusual albeit effective color combinations and playing with case materials and surface treatments. 

If you read through the review of the Lander IV GMT 36mm, you already have a sense for the brand’s unique design talents. Here, from the copper-capped crown and the burnished-brown PVD coated grade 2 titanium case which appears like a vintage piece of nautical equipment, to the application of fluorescent colors where they shouldn’t make sense and the subtle and intricate juxtaposition of various dial and case textures. And in order to understand the singular visual language Farer applied onto the Brunswell we need to dip into the story it tells: that of brothers Frank and Harold Barnwell who built the first Scottish powered aircraft in 1909, where the former became an aircraft designer for the Royal Flying Corps and then the Bristol Fighter, and the latter a test pilot with Vickers Limited. Both tragically died in aircraft crashes, as the story had to sadly go. From their story Farer extrapolated the principles of boldness, inventiveness, and sheer madness, which it visually translated in how it approached designing the Barnwell. 

First, from the numerously aforementioned singular PVD-coating which adds character to the grade 2 titanium case, supported by an oversized conical titanium crown only Farer knows how to make, a vertical coin edge pattern adorning the base of the fixed bezel, and the otherwise classically-styled utilitarian case profile Farer’s surface treatment transformed into a novel piece of horological design. Second, for the combination of brown, blue and fluorescent orange color accents on the dial which should not, in theory, work together but however do here very well. The fluorange highlights the hour and minute hands and the Farer “A”-shaped tip of the seconds hand, whilst the blue emphasizes its stem, the applied logo and angled chapter ring—within which the rectangular markers are recessed—while the brown puts the accent on the angled elliptical shaped duodecimal (12) segments of the dial main which evoke a plane’s propeller spinning at full speed, adding a great deal of depth to a dial contained within an 10.9mm anti-magnetic case. 

The Heart of the Matter

The Farer Pilot Series II Barnwell did call for a multi-layered review and the British brand already commanded such an article with the Lander IV GMT 36mm. (And I bet it would, should I have the future opportunity to write about more of its collections. Nod. Nod.) At its basis, the Barnwell is a Type B Flieger where the dial is composed of a smaller inner scale for the hours and a larger outer one for the minutes, so that the time-telling functionality leans towards timing the minutes more easily and more precisely. All of the elements are indicated by way of crisply printed numerals in soft white color, and constitute the more classic section of the Barnwell design. Everything else however, as discussed just earlier, is wild, bold, and novel, thus indeed infusing the traditional genre of pilot watches with an essence of modernism and adventurism perfectly paying homage to the Barnwell brothers’ intrepid endeavours. And then there is the incredible technical side of this watch: an oddly-colored PDV-coated grade 2 titanium case, an élaboré Sellita SW300-1 caliber, excellent lume, sapphire crystal, and a 100-meter depth rating. 

Putting all of this together two thoughts might come to your mind: (1) the Barnwell is the most extravagant pilot watch you’ve ever seen, both from visual and technical sides; (2) it constitutes incredible value when adding up its specifications and visual characteristics. And I would add: it is also superbly manufactured and finished, an observation that can only be formulated by handling the case in the PVD-coated titanium metal. I did and I concur. 

Conclusion

$1,525 USD is a lot of money to spend on anything, especially on useless items such as watches. However, if you are intent on diverting such an amount of money towards your horological hobby, you might as well spend it on a brand that steps outside the norms to modernize the classics of watchmaking, and which will stretch your dollar further than any mainstream brand could, akin to how Inspector Gadget can extent its arms to unhuman length. That is what Farer excels at and that is what the Pilot Series II Barnwell offers. 

Thanks for reading.