You know what? Let’s point a middle-finger to all homage brands which demonstrate zero efforts in the creativity department—as in being artistically and technically creative—for what we’re about to see demonstrates that brands can offer fresh and novel designs and great specifications for small and reasonable amounts of money for the most enthusiastic of watch nerds in us. I was previously referring to AliExpress-sale-like prices to be specific. Therefore watches which won’t rival a Rolex Deepsea Challenge or Fortis Novonaut in terms of technology and engineering, but ones which provide enough of the good stuff for us simple mortals who don’t pilot submarines or repair NASA shuttles in space. Despite what mainstream brands and mainstream media want you to believe, you don’t need the highest levels of technology to enjoy a watch, nor should you strive to acquire the latest and the greatest to have a satisfying daily watch wearing experience. COSC and METAS-certified calibers don’t do anything for actual timekeeping and daily user experience. 

Let’s be frank with one another, shall we? 

And we might be on the same boat right now: neither you or I seek to spend thousands of dollars on a watch to simply tell the time or express our identity. A reliable tool in 2025 can cost little, so can objects through which we can express ourselves. More often than not, these things just have to make sense for us, to the truest versions of who we are that is. Though sometimes this could be an MB&F Horological Machine N°11 that costs $200K as there are always exceptions to the rules after all. But I suspect that many of you are drawn to certain micro and independent brands for their affordability, unique personality, and no nonsense design. A personality which sometimes stems from the appreciation of a particular type of watches or period of horological design, for example field watches, joined by good specs and a small price. As luck would have it, today we’re going to chat about this kind of horology through our first discovery of Hemel, its Eylandt collection, and The Avenger: $199.99 USD of pure straightforward horology. 

Specifications 

Hemel is a brand I’ve had on my radar for a long while because its designs and price-to-spec ratio has always been deeply attractive to me. But I didn’t know what kind of brand it was and how nice its watches could eventually be without checking one out in the metal. So I’m happy that this is finally happening and I couldn’t be more thrilled but to check out Hemel through one of its most affordable offerings, because if this is good (which it is, spoiler alert!) then I imagine the rest of what it makes is as well. Once again, we are proven that we can get good watches with good designs for good prices, a concept that many brands missed out on and which many enthusiasts believe they can only find in one niche corner of the horological market—AliExpress Specials. So screw this mindset and let us celebrate the Eylandt The Avenger, a model from a collection of no-nonsense watches at no-nonsense pricing with both aesthetics and specs that compete. A bold claim to make but one which resonates with me oh so deeply. 

I was wondering how to subtitle this review and at first I thought I was being clever by coming up with ideas such as “The Beater That Doesn’t Look Like One” or “A Tool Watch in Elegant Clothing.” I discarded the first idea because for a watch to be a beater it needs, according to yours truly, to be equipped with superior resistance to shocks, scratches, and/or water/dust ingress. The Avenger is solid but not to that level because it could have also potentially matched the second idea, though it doesn’t as it is of different pedigree than your classic dress watch. The Avenger floats inside its own category which the brand defined perfectly actually, and this model belongs to the genre of solid, simple, and affordable everyday watches. Again the type of watch folks used to wear before the advent of computers and cell phones and I imagine many of them would have sported an Eylandt should they have existed back then. So: a case measuring a modern 40mm in diameter and lug-to-lug, 11mm thick, and a 20mm lug width. 

Indeed a watch sized for today’s wrists for both men and women as the lug-less case design makes it very easy to wear despite its 40mm diameter. (Akin to a Botta in fact.) At the four o’clock we find a small (5.3mm) push/pull crown, behind it a screw-down case-back for an excellent 100 meters of water resistance. On the hands and printed hour markers we find good applications of BGW9 lume though the latter elements glow brighter than the former, however it is good for the intended use-case scenario of this model. Furthermore, a Seiko VH31 caliber with a sweep-seconds hand which ticks four times per second, a stated monthly accuracy of ± 15 seconds, and a battery life of two years. This is the kind of no-nonsense caliber which makes perfect sense as it is cheap, reliable, and satisfyingly behaving akin to a mechanical movement. Lastly, the bezel is unidirectional and has 120 buttery-smooth clicks which impress me at this price point.  All of this therefore explains why I subtitled this review “Your Daily Watch.” 

Because it is what most of us non-Astronauts really need on a daily basis.  

Design 

Sometimes journalists/reviewers/influencers describe simple and effective dial designs as being “inoffensive” which is kind of odd to me. Designs which won’t harm you? How does that even work? Well I imagine that many would describe The Avenger as having an inoffensive design because it is straightforward and effective indeed. It mostly makes me think of a pilot watch on account of the juxtaposition of a full set of Arabic numerals for the hours and of somewhat syringe-style hands, but then I look closer at the dial and see a 24-hour military scale printed inward a la field watch paired with inward-facing small triangles printed outside the hour markers*, again akin to those found on battlefield-born timekeeping devices. But then again there are the five minute increments printed next to them, again a la pilot’s watch. So instead of comparing the dial to something else and sweating over categorizing The Avenger as being this or that, let us appreciate it for its simple and distinct originality.  

After all, I wanted to discover Hemel through this collection and model because it looks darn cool, in an everyday and simple cool-kind-of-way. As I do love the monochromatic aspect of the white-printed elements set against a deep black background, which makes reading the time extremely easy and something I want to compulsively want to do every other minute for no practical reason. (We watch enthusiasts do not ever need a reason.) The polished hands are simply gorgeous and elegant, and perfectly proportioned to the printed hour markers, again reinforcing the no-nonsense nature of The Avenger and the brand’s affinity for effective designs. The pop of color found in the orange seconds hand adds a dash of fun and playfulness to the watch, sending the message that a tool can be legible, versatile, and fun, as I do find that so far its design language to be extremely compelling. Add to that a vintage-styled logo printed above the pinion and the mention of the depth rating printed in the shape of a smile below it and we do indeed find ourselves with a superbly simple yet sensical package. 

If my memory serves me well, which it doesn’t always do, besides the aforementioned Botta this might be the second lug-less case I’ve ever checked out. Hemel describes it as being puck-shaped which, well yeah it does. A perfectly circular and horizontally-brushed mid-case makes up most of the meat we see, framed by two chambers, an upper polished one and another brushed one below, which visually reduces its footprint and makes this simple shape an elegant design element. The upper chamfer meets the base of the bezel assembly which is composed of a coinedge finish on its outside, a black bezel insert on which minute markers and 12-hour scale are printed in a silvery paint, and what appears to be a floating lume pip as it is located on the outside of the bezel and part of the outer assembly. For this price it is quite remarkable to see so much design creativity, so it is to witness so much technical creativity as most of what you see if flawlessly executed*. With this model, Hemel is giving AliExpress specials a fat middle finger indeed. 

*For the life of me I couldn’t remove the blue protective layer inside the crown, sorry! 

The Heart of the Matter

I love this model. Not only because it is easy to wear and legible, or because it is fairly priced and well spec’ed out, but mostly because it looks different. Here and there in this article I described the Hemel Eylandt The Avenger as being a daily watch, which it is, but its nature goes beyond that. It is a clever creation and a small and quiet revolution in the vast, overcrowded, and over-saturated world of micro and independent watchmaking. It redefines value in horology and pushes us watch enthusiasts to revisit what a good watch in 2025 can look and feel like, and it should inspire brands to spend a little more time to think outside-the-box and off-the-beaten-path without veering into the bizarre and odd. One can create something new without jacking up prices or disrupting the idea of time itself (yikes), as Hemel did with The Avenger and as it seems to have already done before with many of its other collections. For $$199.99 USD you can’t go wrong with this watch from specs and value perspectives, neither can you from a personality one. 

Conclusion

Watchmaking is a tough business and brands must work hard to stand out from the sea of brands that exist today and the even larger ocean that will be here tomorrow. Oftentimes, when a brand decides to stand out it does so by way of spec’ing out a watch, or coming up with a new way to tell the time, or even going the bizarre route of machine watches only the most eccentric of us would ever dare wear in public. But I’ve been hoping to see brands such as Hemel that can do something different which feels familiar, a balance most would struggle to strike. Again, for $200 USD you won’t find anything quite like The Avenger on the market today and I challenge you to find a more original, sensical, and comprehensive watch you-know-where. If you do, then shoot me an email (vincent@mainspring.watch) and I will gladly review it.

Thanks for reading.