Some of you may know Ancon watches for their tough-looking collection of military-inspired dive watches, which serves only to illustrate the departure represented by the Ancon X-35 Concept. The Ancon X-35 Concept may boast the same strong lugs as their Sea Shadow line, but that is where the similarities end, with the Ancon X-35 Concept opting for a more radical and three-dimensional design. Melding the footprint of a bold dive watch with the dial design and wrist presence of a much more expensive and complicated watch, the Ancon X-35 Concept offers an interesting package for those looking for a watch that might fill the void between affordable and avante-garde.
Before moving forward with a closer look at the Ancon X-35 Concept, I’ll address the elephant in the room – the dial design of the Ancon X-35 Concept is almost identical to those from SevenFriday and their popular P1 line. The Ancon X-35 Concept and the SevenFriday P1 are fairly different watches in terms of shape and style, but they use identical movements and the Ancon X-35 Concept borrows heavily from the P1. I can’t speak as to why Ancon made this decision, but it’s certainly hard to ignore and will undoubtedly bother some readers. I’d wager that, due to differences in pricing and overall look and feel, these watches will appeal to different groups of buyers and for those interested in both, they may actually appreciate the expanded range of options. As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.
The Ancon X-35 Concept is 45 mm wide and 16 mm thick and, with a lug to lug of 56 mm, it’s going to feel large on almost any wrist. With a black PVD treatment covering its steel case, the Ancon X-35 Concept weighs 156g fitted to a black rubber strap. The weight is considerable but not uncomfortable, thanks to the soft and pliable nature of the included 24 mm-wide strap.
Though it is mostly black, the Ancon X-35 Concept is offered in five color variations – red, blue, yellow, green, and orange, allowing you to pick your fav of the five as the accent color on the dial and the rubber ring under the bezel. With drilled lugs, a sapphire crystal up front, and a display case back in the rear, the Ancon X-35 Concept does cover a handful of the common enthusiast favorite features.
The previously mentioned dial is rather complex looking, but still uses three hands to show the time and sports a skeleton view of the balance and a day/night indicator at nine o’clock. The hour hand is the shorter colored hand (red, in this case) and the seconds are shown in a half sub dial between four and five. The strength of this design is that it offers a lot of visual drama without relying on an unconventional time display or movement. Watches that offer a truly different way of showing the time almost always require a specialized movement, which is much more expensive, making the Ancon X-35 Concept’s sub-$1000 price point impossible.
