Long before watch companies were creating purpose-built timepieces specifically designed for adventure sports and professional applications, a wristwatch was intended to be a person’s sole method of timekeeping. This meant that it needed to be tough enough to withstand the rigors of daily wear, while also being refined enough to integrate into more formal settings. Among its recent releases of 2024, the Cambridge-based microbrand Beaucroft has created exactly this type of timepiece. The Beaucroft Element is a dressy time-only sports watch with subtly distinct design details that is perfectly poised to be a person’s go-anywhere, do-anything timekeeping companion.

From a conceptual standpoint, the Beaucroft Element exists within a similar category as something like the Rolex Oyster Perpetual. While its on-paper specs and general durability classify the model as a sports watch, its overall design could really best be described as an everyday timepiece that fully embodies a “beach to the boardroom” ethos, and it can easily be worn with virtually any attire. With that in mind, while Rolex doesn’t technically classify the Oyster Perpetual as one of its sports models, Beaucroft explicitly describes the Element as an “elegant sports watch” on its official website, and this informs much of the model’s overall design. Along with featuring twice the water resistance as the venerable Oyster Perpetual, the Beaucroft Element also offers slightly more utilitarian styling with primarily brushed surfaces contrasted by small high-polished elements, rather than having a fully polished bezel like Rolex’s famous entry-level model.

The case and bracelet of the Beaucroft Element are both crafted from 316L stainless steel. However, they receive a transparent surface coating that brings their hardness up to 1,200-1,300 Hv (approximately five to six times greater than untreated 316L stainless steel). Similar types of surface coatings are slowly starting to become more prevalent within the industry. While the most notable example is the Duratect coating that Citizen uses for its Super Titanium alloy, a number of microbrands such as RZE, Traska, and Zelos have also integrated this highly practical technology into their watches. While a hardened surface coating can result in difficulties when trying to polish a watch, it also significantly increases a timepiece’s resistance to scratches. For reasonably priced sports models such as the Beaucroft Element, a hardened coating makes a lot of sense, as these watches are less likely to receive touch-up polishing work in the first place.

When looking directly at the Beaucroft Element, its case appears in a fairly traditional round profile, although turning the watch on its side reveals a more refined and intricate overall design. The sides of the lugs taper inward toward the center of the case, while a rounded middle section sits recessed behind their outer surfaces. Along with offering quite a lot of visual intrigue, the Element’s rather unique case design also significantly reduces the visual perception of its height. Although the majority of the case is brushed, mirror-polished bevels appear along the edges of its bezel and lugs to highlight the fluid lines that form its profile. Protecting the dial is a double-domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on its underside surface, while the reverse side of the watch receives a solid screw-down caseback. Sitting at the 3 o’clock location is a signed screw-down crown that helps to guarantee the rather generous 200 meters of water resistance that is offered by the Element collection.

As for its dimensions, the Beaucroft Element measures 39.5mm in diameter by 11.7mm thick (including the additional height of its domed crystal), while its lugs are set a standard 20mm apart and extend to create an overall lug-to-lug profile of 46.5mm. Excluding the additional weight of its bracelet (which will differ depending on the number of links that are required to fit an individual’s wrist), the Element weighs approximately 59 grams. Due to the carefully considered geometry of its case, the watch has a low center of gravity that evenly distributes its fairly moderate mass across the top surface of the wrist. Along with existing in a sizing sweet-spot that can comfortably be worn by a wide variety of collectors, the proportions of the Beaucroft Element also lend themselves to a high degree of versatility. It can easily be an unobtrusive companion in everyday life, while still offering enough presence to not feel undersized when worn by individuals with larger wrists.

At the time of writing, Beaucroft offers the Element with the option of six different dial colors (Forest Green, G&T, Glacial Blue, Obsidian Black, Ocean Blue, and Sunset Orange). On the Ocean Blue model featured here, the dial is a dark blue color with a fumé gradient finish, while the seconds hand appears in a contrasting shade of ice blue. Aside from the colors of their dials and seconds hands, all six versions of the Beaucroft Element are otherwise identical. Each of the dials feature a perfectly symmetrical time-only layout with a recessed center section, an elevated outer ring, and a minute track printed along an angled rehaut surrounding the periphery of the display. While I would normally nitpick about the tip of the minute hand not reaching the corresponding markers printed along the rehaut, this was clearly an aesthetic decision (rather than an oversight), and the tip of the minute hand instead aligns perfectly with the outer edge of the hour markers, with the two components displaying identical overlapping profiles.

The Beaucroft Element’s hands and applied hour markers both appear as rounded baton shapes with a rhodium-plated finish. They feature brushed central sections, with mirror-polished facets running down their sides to add visual dimension and a subtle splash of elegance. The Beaucroft logo appears as an additional applied detail below the 12 o’clock marker, while dial text is kept to a minimum. The only words that appear on the front side of the watch are “Beaucroft” and “Cambridge,” with the rest of its markings relegated to the caseback. Additionally, just as you would expect from a model that is categorized as a sports watch, all of the hands and hour markers on the Beaucroft Element are luminous, and they receive Super-LumiNova BGW9 inlays that emit an aqua blue-colored glow-in-the-dark.

Powering the Beaucroft Element is the Japanese Miyota Cal. 9039 automatic movement, which has quickly become one of the top choices for time-only watches from small-scale independent brands. Running at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 42 hours, the 24-jewel Miyota 9039 offers the conveniences of both hacking and hand-winding. Since it is naturally a no-date caliber, the Beaucroft Element is free from the ever-annoying vestigial “ghost position” that is frequently found on affordable time-only watches. While the timekeeping specs of an off-the-shelf Miyota 9039 aren’t especially noteworthy or promising, Beaucroft assembles its watches in England, and this stage of the production process includes further regulation of the movement to bring the accuracy rating of the Element down to a fairly respectable +/-10 seconds per day.

The stainless steel bracelet that comes with the Beaucroft Element is significantly better than what you would normally expect to find at this price point. It features fully articulating links constructed from solid machined components, with single-sided screws for the removable links and integrated quick-release springbars attaching it to the lugs. Along with tapering from 20mm at the case down to 16mm on the underside of the wrist, the brushed surfaces of the links are contrasted by polished bevels along their sides. This creates a slightly rounded profile that further promotes comfort on the wrist. Additionally, just like the case, the bracelet receives the same hardened surface coating to increase its resistance to scratches, and the thin polished bevels on the edges of the links visually connect the bracelet to the case by completing the mirror-polished accents that run down either side of the watch.

Just like the rest of its bracelet, the Beaucroft Element’s clasp is also a bit more premium than what you typically find on similarly priced watches. It consists of machined components with a double push-button release and an integrated tool-free extension system. Pushing a lever inside the clasp releases the extension, although contracting its length can be done while the watch is still on your wrist, by simply pushing the end of the bracelet into the clasp. Additionally, despite offering six positions of on-the-fly adjustment, the integrated extension system is relatively compact, and it ultimately adds only a small amount of bulk to the clasp’s overall structure. Lastly, the internal folding segments of the clasp are entirely adorned with perlage. While this is undeniably a superfluous cosmetic detail, decorated clasps are always a welcome feature, and are seldom found on watches below the thousand-dollar price point.

Watches like the Beaucroft Element are designed to be non-pretentious daily timepieces. While their clean designs and minimalist features make them inherently less exciting than something like a highly complicated dress piece or an ultra-burly exploration tool, these intentionally restrained models are actually the watches that have the best chance of becoming a person’s go-to timekeeping companion. With an official retail price of $675 USD, the Beaucroft Element exists in a similar realm as other microbrand watches that run on this highly popular series of Miyota calibers. However, the Element offers a higher level of attention to detail than many of its competitors, and it ultimately represents a very well-executed overall package. Rather than being a watch designed for people to gawk over its outlandish design or features, the Beaucroft Element is intended to be a timepiece that can effortlessly integrate into everyday life and make the cliché “beach to the boardroom” transition without missing a beat. For more information on the Beaucroft Element, please visit the brand’s website.