What happens when you mix two of the hottest trends in watches — integrated bracelet sports watches and textured dials — then add a dash of Scandinavian design and a healthy dose of artistic inspiration from a tiny volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean? The answer is the Straum Jan Mayen, a distinctly Norwegian take on the classic stainless steel sports watch.
Much like Grand Seiko, Norway’s Straum uses its country’s striking natural beauty as inspiration for its watches, especially in the creation of their colorful and dynamic dials. In the brand’s latest release, Straum turned to Jan Mayen, a tiny, 55km-long island located 900km northeast of Norway’s mainland, high within the Arctic Ocean. Given the island’s remote location, the population is very small, consisting of fewer than two dozen personnel employed by the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, along with the occasional intrepid volcanologist. Combine its remote location, often severe and unpredictable weather, single unpaved airstrip, and lack of harbors for easy boat access, and you’ll see why Jan Mayen’s natural beauty has remained largely unblemished. Indeed, in 2010, Norway designated the island as a nature reserve.
If you do manage to gain permission to access the island, you’re met with black volcanic-sand beaches, rocks covered by vibrant lichens and mosses, and Beerenberg, an eternally snow-capped volcano that rises straight out of the ocean at the island’s northern end. It’s an otherworldly landscape like nowhere else on earth, with a profusion of textures and colors to draw from. Straum did just that, utilizing two distinct dial textures and five colors for the series, all inspired by Jan Mayen. The black and white colorways feature a dial with vertical striations with subtle rises that resemble (at least to me) the surface of wind-packed snow. The more colorful dials feature a radial, grooved effect that’s complemented by a fumé transition at the edges. Regardless of whether the inspiration resonates with you, the dials are simply gorgeous. We only received the blue and green colorways in for review, but given the beauty of these dials, there’s no doubt that the rest will be equally striking in their own ways.
With a dial like that on the Jan Mayen, the most important thing is to not screw it up by adding superfluous elements — to simply let the dial speak for itself. Thankfully, that’s exactly what Straum did, and I give credit to its Scandinavian restraint. You won’t find a date window, a power reserve, or added text at 6 o’clock. Outside of the simple applied indices and matching handset, all you’ll find is the brand’s logo and wordmark at 12 o’clock. The result is that your eye is drawn directly to the dial and, if you manage to tear your eyes away from texture and color, the watch is highly legible. That said, if I’m going to pick nits, I would have liked to see the minute hand extend slightly further to brush the minute markers and differentiate more from the hour hand.
The hands and markers are all rhodium-plated and filled with Super-LumiNova, and nighttime visibility is excellent. However, it would have been nice to have a slightly differentiated, or double, 12 o’clock marker to make time-telling at night slightly easier. That said, it’s hard not to appreciate the symmetry of the layout, so it all comes down to personal preference.
The Straum Jan Mayen is available in black, white, blue, red, and green. Of the two we were sent, before they arrived, I was certain that the deep green dial would be my pick (I’m a sucker for green dials). And it certainly is gorgeous, albeit subtle and subdued. However, the blue that transitions from a bright azure blue to deeper, darker hues at the edges is simply mesmerizing. Though the Jan Mayen is a relatively small watch on paper, the broad bracelet (see below) makes the watch wear bigger and bolder than you might expect. Given that, the attention-grabbing bright blue dial just seemed like the right fit to me. Maybe that’s because the sun is shining and summer has arrived, but whatever the reason, this is a watch that just looks right with a bright dial. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the red-dialed limited edition made in collaboration with our friends at Fratello has already sold out.
Moving on to the case and bracelet (in a watch like this, you can’t talk about one without the other), the case measures in at 39mm in diameter, 45.8mm lug-to-lug, 9.9mm in height (11.3 with the box sapphire crystal), and 24.8mm where the bracelet connects to the case, tapering down to 18mm at the clasp. The dimensions are spot-on for my 6.75” wrist in terms of fit and comfort, but the wide bracelet results in a watch that looks and wears bigger than its dimensions suggest and will wear easily on larger wrists.
The brushed case is simple and angular, with a broad bezel, high-polished chamfering along the edges, and crown guards on the 3 o’clock side. The simplicity of the case works to the Jan Mayen’s advantage as it keeps your eyes directed toward the dial. The casework is solid, with sharp transitions and attention to detail, like radial brushing on the bezel. The short lugs transition seamlessly into the integrated H-link bracelet. Though the surfaces are all brushed, Straum adds a high-polished chamfer to the edges of each center link. It’s a subtle touch, but it’s that attention to detail and added refinement that makes a watch like this stand out.
The bracelet on the Jan Mayen terminates with a butterfly clasp. The upside is that you get a truly integrated look with the watch. And, as Straum includes extra links that are 1.3x longer than the standard links, it’s relatively easy to fine-tune the fit. Of course, the downside here is that you’re not going to get on-the-fly micro-adjustment (or any micro-adjustment at all). However, Straum has been listening to feedback from its customers and is currently developing a micro-adjust system for the bracelet that will be compatible with all of Straum’s bracelets. Kudos to Straum for listening to its customers.
The bracelet links are secured by a pin-and-collar system. While I can hear some of the groans already, Straum had good reason for using this system over screws. Using a pin-and-collar system allowed Straum to position the bracelet links closer together, resulting in a tighter, more seamless bracelet. The bracelet does, indeed, have high tolerances and is hard to fault in that regard. And honestly, sizing a pin and collar bracelet really isn’t too tough, and you can pick up a sizing kit cheaply online. If you’re used to bracelets that flow like water as you run them over your fingers, you won’t find that here, as the construction means that the bracelet is relatively inflexible. Most importantly, the bracelet is comfortable and well-balanced, with no flopping at all.
If you were expecting a Sellita SW-200, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. Jan Mayen opted for the G101 automatic movement from La Joux-Perret. This Swiss movement isn’t one we see terribly often but is more than welcome, as it’s a true no-date movement with 24 jewels that beats at 28.8kbph and features a 68-hour power reserve. Straum opted for the Soigné grade, which is adjusted in four positions. Straum then added a simple custom rotor and put it all behind a sapphire display caseback.
Whenever a new integrated bracelet sports watch comes to market, comparisons to Gerald Genta (or Genta-inspired) designs are inevitable. Sure, you can argue that the case has a bit of a Zenith Defy styling and the H-link bracelet echoes that of the Patek Philippe Nautilus, but putting all the elements together, the Jan Mayen feels like its own coherent design. That’s not an easy feat. Once you add in the beautifully textured fumé dial, La Joux Perret movement, and competitive price of €1,600, the Straum Jan Mayen becomes a seriously interesting proposition. Pre-orders are open now with delivery slated for November 2023. To learn more about the Straum Jan Mayen, please visit the brand’s website.
Necessary Data
>Brand: Straum
>Model: Jan Mayen
>Price: €1,600 excluding tax (pre-order; delivery November 2023)
>Size: 39mm diameter, 11.3mm height (9.9mm not including crystal), 45.8mm lug-to-lug, 100m of water resistance.
>When reviewer would personally wear it: When looking for a fun conversation starter with the blue dial or a daily wear in one of the monochrome colorways.
>Friend we’d recommend it to first: Someone in the market for an integrated bracelet sports watch who wants a dynamic, eye-catching dial.
>Best characteristic of watch: The dial. No question.
>Worst characteristic of watch: Butterfly clasp with no micro-adjust, though Straum is working on an alternative clasp.
