In our exploration of the Helm Vanuatu Titanium we discovered one of the few remnants of the genre of traditional hard core utilitarian horology: a legible, robust, and affordable timekeeping device built to be mistreated in real-life scenarios and not only in fancy and polished commercials. The Vanuatu has been around for more than a decade and is so popular that its waitlist is several months (or even a year) long. Nothing that Helm brags about in the same way a Swiss house of luxury watchmaking would brag about for its latest steel sports model being wait-listed, but a simple consequence of the Vanuatu’s excellent value and of the brand’s limited means of production. Moreover, Helm quality controls and tests each and every one of its watches before sending them out to the world so that they will perform as well as the branded intended to, a process which adds a bit of complication. And for $350 USD I was hard-pressed to find a better value proposition coupled with such a singular design. 

Helm is back with another extraordinary tool watch collection called Togiak which is of equally high value and visual uniqueness as the Vanuatu steel and titanium, and which comes in three versions: the Scout which has a fixed bezel and day/date complication and retails for $285 USD; the Expedition which has a rotating bezel and a day/date complication and retails for $340 USD; lastly, the Expedition UTC which has a rotating bezel, a date and GMT complications, and which will set you back $380 USD. Whichever model you look at you will get the best of Helm which can be summarized as follows: all of what is great about micro/independent brands—singularity in design, affordability, generous specifications—and none of what mainstream brands are known to offer—poor value, unjustifiable price mark-ups, and questionable heritage. Helm only has its own 11-year heritage to uphold, and since it beats at the sound of its own drum, it will never stray from what has made it so good and so successful in the past decade. 

Specifications 

Whenever we study a “spec monster” we mean that the watch in question offers an incredible suite of technical and mechanical perks for a reasonable amount of money. If two watches were to offer the same specifications but one retails for $340 USD and the other for $2,000 USD, the former would indeed be a spec monster and the other one simply an overpriced tool watch. Because when we talk about spec monsters we also talk about having more of what makes it a robust timepiece—a solid construction, a reliable and easy to service movement, a case that won’t show scratches easily, superlative legibility, etc.—and less of what makes it a fancy timekeeping device—mirror-polished chamfers, applied hour markers, a high-end caliber that is not easy nor cheap to service, and a case that will instantly show the first hairline scratches. In other words, what we could commonly define as being a proper tool watch which is one that we won’t mind bashing around knowing that it will keep on ticking more or less accurately and look better for being cosmetically imperfect. 

Well, the latter of the type of horology Helm is into. So am I, shocker!

With the Togiak Expedition UTC the brand offers even more value than it did with the Vanuatu titanium which was already quite incredible in its own right, as we find: a brushed Grade 2 titanium case measuring 42mm in diameter, 49mm lug-to-lug, 14mm thick, and coming with a 22mm lug width; a flat piece of sapphire crystal with colorless inner anti-reflective coating; insane applications of SuperLuminova C3 on the hands, hour markers, minute track, date numerals, and bezel pip; a Seiko NH34 GMT caliber which beats at 3Hz, comes with 40 hours of power reserve, and which runs in the single digits of daily deviation even though Helm does not regulate its movements; 200 meters of tested water resistance (though, unlike the Vanuatu, the dial doesn’t read “Diver’s” which I will get back to in a minute) made possible thanks to a 6.5mm screw-down crown and case-back; and a 120-click unidirectional PVD-coated stainless steel bezel that comes with a fine, multi-row knurling for easy operation. 

Regarding the water resistance then: unlike the Vanuatu whose dial has the magical word “Diver’s” designation printed on it, the Togiak Expedition UTC doesn’t because you, the customer, can choose from one of five types of bezels when purchasing the watch—elapsed-time, countdown, 12-Hour, 24-Hour, Compass—and that only one of them would qualify for the ISO 6425’s certification. (So the brand didn’t bother certifying only one small portion of the UTCs which is understandable.) I opted for the latter because I loved the idea of having a tough-as-nail and tractor-like looking tool watch that has both a GMT complication and a count-up dive watch bezel, combining into one affordable timepiece all of the functionality I would ever want to have in a de facto tool watch. And when I say “tractor-like” timepiece I mean it with all the love in the world as I will demonstrate shortly below. Again, keep in mind that for all of these specs you will have to only depart with $380 USD for which you also get a titanium bracelet and NATO-style nylon strap. 

I mean, what the fuck? 

Design 

If you glance through Helm’s now vast catalog of professional-grade tool watches, you will notice that no two collections share the same dial design, that a few share more or less the same case design, but none look like the Togiak Expedition UTC. However, what all Helm watches have in common is their superlative legibility and their no-nonsense character which have contributed to making the brand so popular within a niche segment of our niche world of horology: those who love/adore/are obsessed with straightforward utilitarian watches as I am. And though the Togiak does not look like any other Helm—whichever version of it you look at—it is the model that looks the most singular of all Helm’s creations for it comes with a few particular design elements which I’ve personally never seen before and which aid in endowing this collection with a particular identity—a tractor-like ultra utilitarian one if you will. In a way, it is the most unorthodox tool watch the brand has ever released and the greatest departure from what it has been doing thus far. 

The first area where our eyes linger is the dial, which comes in three colors by the way, black (08AR1,) light grey (08AR2,) and yellow (08AR3.) Evidently yours truly opted to review the black variant because it is the most classic looking of all three and because it makes it easier (and more realistic) to compare this model—in my own mind and mental catalog of all watches I’ve reviewed thus far—to other tool watches which have come before it. So we find large and lumed Arabic numerals printed in a modern typeface for the local time, a grey 24-hour military scale printed inward, and further in the brand’s target-like logo above the pinion and the words “200m RESIST” and “TOGIAK” below it, also printed in gray, and crisply so I may add. At the six we find a date aperture composed of a step frame and lumed numerals printed on a black disc, the whole occupying more or less the same amount of real estate as the other Arabic numerals. Already we’re noticing a certain attention to detail when it comes to designing and proportioning all visual elements of the dial. 

Beyond the large numerals we find the GMT scale printed on a cliff-like portion of the rehaut, where the even hours are highlighted with numerals and the odd ones with inward-facing triangles. On the shoulder of the rehaut we find a minute track printed on a narrow ring, where the five-minute increments are highlighted with numerals and the 60-minute is delineated by two red dots, keeping in mind that the minute track is lumed as well. Further beyond that we find the elapse-time diver’s scale incised within the PVD-coated steel bezel insert and paint-filled with black ink, where again the five-minute increments are highlighted with numerals and the bezel pip is lumed and framed by a black circle. Evidently all of what we’ve looked at thus far has been carefully designed and arranged to be superlatively legible. And so are the hands: an arrow-shaped hour hand, pencil-style minute hand, and a thin seconds hand equipped with a lumed rectangular element and a colored tip*, and an arrow-shaped GMT hand painted in orange. 

*Painting the tip of the seconds in this way makes it easier to spot on the dial. 

I thoroughly enjoy looking at the Togiak Expedition UTC through all angles and super up close and personal so that it is possible to notice the tiniest of its awesome design details, for example the blacked-out bottom sections of the hour and minute hands and their white surrounds finely finished to a level that has surprised me at this price point. (I admit.) The case itself is not deprived of visual interest either although it was purposely simply designed so as to not draw too much attention onto itself. Though I do appreciate the baton-shaped, rounded lugs, the fine knurling on the bezel insert, and the massive military-like knurling found on the 6.5mm screw-down crown flanking the case at the 4 o’clock. The crown is semi-guarded by stubby crown-guards which are perfect in relation to the case’s dimensions. Lastly, the case-back shows a partial topographical map of the Alaskan Togiak National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness Area the collection was named after. A nice touch, another nice one. 

The Heart of the Matter

What keeps my little horological heart ticking after so many years of looking at and writing about watches is the consistency and authenticity we can find in a rare few micro/independent watch brands. By their very own nature and structure and scale, these brands operate independently and are shielded from trends and external influences and as such are capable (and willing) to gift an extraordinarily enjoyable and rare type of horology to those of us who seek and appreciate it.  As we know, Helm specializes in attainable, clean, and robust tool watches as we saw with the Vanuatu Titanium a few months back and as we saw again today through the Togiak Expedition UTC. From a spec-to-dollar ratio, rare are the brands which can match what Helm has to offer here again today. And from a value-to-design ratio, rarer still are the brands which can match what Helm has to offer here again today. Through this review we were therefore able to analyze a blueprint for excellence in micro utilitarian horology and I have the feeling this won’t be the last time that we do. 

Conclusion

As a reminder, the Togiak collection comes in three main variants and the Expedition UTC comes in three colorways and five bezel options, meaning that there are 15 versions of this model you can get directly from the brand’s website for the modest sum of $380 USD. That is again little money to spend on an extraordinary watch, and once again, I would be doubly hard-pressed to find a better option at this price point with these specs and this singularity in design in the whole of the micro and independent watch market. But if something like this exists, please shoot me an email (vincent@mainspring.watch) and I would be glad to review it. 

Thanks for reading.