Many historic watch brands have been resurrected in recent years, although not all revival brands should be considered equal. While Buser Frères has a history that dates back to 1892, the brand was recently revived in 2023 under the German company Dekla. Rather than just being another new brand operating under an old name, Buser Frères benefits from its parent company’s comprehensive in-house manufacturing capabilities. Consequently, the revived Buser Frères brand now represents quite a compelling value proposition, and models like the Buser Frères Marine feature Swiss-made movements paired with cases, dials, and hands manufactured in-house by its German parent company’s facilities.
For the most part, Buser Frères produces vintage-inspired field watches, although its Marine collection stands out as a noticeably more dressy offering that pays tribute to the marine chronometers that revolutionized navigation during the 1700s. From an aesthetic perspective, the Buser Frères Marine occupies the role of the brand’s dress watch, although its fundamental design pre-dates the concept of dress watches and harkens back to an era when all timepieces were functional tools. Just like the early marine chronometer “deck watches” that were designed to aid with navigation and survive life aboard a sailing vessel, the Buser Frères Marine features a highly legible dial paired with durable water-resistant housing. However, the Marine’s overall styling is quite refined and elegant (especially by today’s standards), and it can easily integrate into more formal settings to make the transition from everyday timepiece to dress watch.
Crafted from stainless steel with brushed sides and high-polished upper surfaces, the case of the Buser Frères Marine features a traditional round profile, and it is fitted with a thin stepped bezel that has a brightly polished finish to match the upper surfaces of its lugs. Set within the bezel is a gently domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both its inner and outer surfaces, while the reverse side of the watch receives a solid caseback that is secured by six small screws and adorned with a relief engraving of John Harrison, the British carpenter and clockmaker who is widely considered to be the godfather of the marine chronometer. Additionally, while the large fluted winding crown at the 3 o’clock location operates with a standard push/pull-style action, the Buser Frères Marine still offers a solid 100 meters of water resistance, which is more than enough to survive everyday wear, as it is twice what is offered by classic fan-favorites such as the Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical and the Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch.
In terms of its dimensions, the Buser Frères Marine measures 38mm in diameter by 9.15mm thick (or 10.55mm if you include the additional height of its domed crystal), while its lugs are set a standard 18mm apart and extended to create an overall lug-to-lug profile of 45.4mm. As for its weight, the Marine comes in at 55 grams for just the watch head itself, or approximately 66 grams when you factor in its included leather strap, and since the caseback offers a very flat overall profile, the Marine maintains a low center of gravity that sits flush against the top of the wrist. Additionally, while the Buser Frères Marine features a highly versatile case size that can comfortably fit on a wide range of wrists, its relatively large dial-to-case ratio provides it with a decent amount of visual presence that prevents it from looking too small or dainty, even on individuals with larger arms.
Along with making its own cases, Buser Frères also produces all of its dials and hands in-house thanks to having direct access to Dekla’s German manufacturing facilities. While the actual construction of these components isn’t especially intricate or elaborate, they do benefit from a rather high level of attention to detail, and this is exactly what you want from an elegant and classically styled watch like the Marine. At the time of writing, Buser Frères offers the Marine with the option of three different dial colors (white, gold, and blue), and each colorway is available with either Arabic or Roman numeral hour markers. With that in mind, regardless of color or index style, all of the Marine dials feature the same time-only layout with a pair of centrally mounted hands, a bright red 12 o’clock marker, and a recessed register on the lower half of the display that tracks the running seconds.
All six versions of the Buser Frères Marine receive a poire-shaped handset, and on the white-dial model featured here, the hands are given a heat-blued finish, while the dial showcases a subtle grain texture across its surface with a slight silvery undertone that gently sparkles in direct light. While the Marine does not feature any luminous elements, its blued steel hands offer strong contrast against the pale surface of its dial, and the proportions of its components are incredibly balanced and well-considered, with the tip of its minute hand extending all the way to reach the outer perimeter of its railroad-style minute track. While the overall appearance of the Buser Frères Marine is rather dressy and definitively refined, it also benefits from ample levels of legibility, and it exists in somewhat of a similar aesthetic space as watches like the IWC Portugieser Automatic 40 or one of the simple time-only models from the Breguet Classique collection.
Fitted to the lugs of the Buser Frères Marine is a black leather two-piece strap that tapers from 18mm at the case down to 16mm on the underside of the wrist, and completing the strap is a stainless steel tang-style buckle that is engraved with the Buser Frères logo. The strap features a decent amount of padding within its structure, which means that you will need to wear it several times before it fully conforms to the shape of your wrist, and the brushed steel buckle strikes a nice balance of being thick enough to feel substantial without detracting from the Marine’s natural elegance. Devoid of any contrast stitching or embossed textures, the minimalist appearance of the Marine’s strap allows the visual emphasis of the watch to remain on its dial; however, with standard 18mm lugs, a virtually endless options of third-party options will also be compatible with its case.
Powering the Buser Frères Marine is an elabore-grade version of the Swiss-made Sellita Caliber SW216-1M, which is a manual-wind movement with a hacking seconds mechanism that is anti-magnetic according to DIN 8309 standards. The 24-jewel Sellita SW216-1M runs at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 42 hours, and Buser Frères regulates its movements in-house to an accuracy rating of -/+7 seconds per day. With that in mind, the movement is actually the source of one of my only nitpicks, and since the Sellita SW216-1M is naturally a time-and-date caliber, the Marine exhibits the horologically irritating “ghost position” that often characterizes time-only watches that run on standard third-party movements. While a no-date movement would have certainly been preferred, it’s hard to be disappointed by an elabore-grade Sellita, especially when you consider the price of the Buser Frères Marine.
These days, watches seldom cost less than my expectations, and given that Buser Frères uses Swiss movements with its other major components manufactured in-house by its German parent company, I genuinely expected the Marine to cost at least 50% more than what the brand currently charges for the model. The Buser Frères Marine has an official retail price of €882.35 EUR (approximately $925 USD, at the time of writing), which ultimately seems quite reasonable considering you are getting a German-made watch with an elabore-grade Swiss movement for roughly the same price that many microbrands charge for timepieces entirely manufactured in Asia. Aside from eliminating the movement’s ghost position and adding a small logo to the open space within the tip of the crown, I struggle to find much else that I would change about the Buser Frères Marine, and it ultimately represents a very compelling offering for anyone who wants a well-made watch with a timeless and classic design. For more information on the Buser Frères Marine collection, please visit the brand’s website
