That’s not a dial. That’s a dial.
Australia has given the world some great things. Prisoner: Cell Block H may have been laughed at for its low quality sets and questionable acting, but that shit went hard back in the ‘80s with plotlines that could have made it into HBO’s Oz (a hardcore drama about prison, not Australia). They’ve got the two best cooking shows (their versions of MasterChef and the Bake Off). And don’t get me started on music. You’ve got INXS, the best new wave pub rock band in the world, Ocean Grove (a sort of modern nu-metal outfit) and a bunch of really good shoegaze acts (Miniatures and Hideous Towns, for example). Also, the wife’s just managed to get me into Survivor Australia against my will and, annoyingly, I really like it. Well, I really like shouting at the TV at all the idiots on it. Vote out Mark, ya drongos!
But, yeah, Australia rocks as long as you don’t mind plate-sized killer spiders in the toilet, ultra-poisonous snakes in your sock drawer and having the sun perched about ten feet above your house, frying you like a rasher of streaky bacon every day. They also have quite the watch scene going on with the likes of Susan Galvin, Hz, Melbourne Watch Company, Ocean to Orbit and, of course, Erebus tearing it up with some seriously impressive pieces.
Well, you can add Blessington Watches to the list. Formed in 2020 by brothers Tane and Tanner Blessington, their aim has always been to put out watches that have a story and a meaning to them. From their debut effort, the Snowy Monaro, with its mountain-inspired vision of the rugged terrain in their native Crackenback, to the Sapphire Coast Collection, a robust and vivid piece inspired by coastal towns where the boys grew up and now the Wildlife Collection, which is a set of truly unique dive-style watches, each inspired by a different animal native to Australia.
It’s a really interesting range with the various animals not only represented by dial colours but also by textures. From the green, scaly dial of ‘The Crocodile’ to the grey web-like pattern of the ‘Funnel Web,’ if there’s a creature in Australia capable of killing, or at least scaring the shit out of you, then the Wildlife Collection probably has a watch based on it.
We chose the most iconic of Australian animals. No, not the eye-eating wolf wasp or whatever bullshit has evolved out there to terrorise the human population. The Red Kangaroo, the largest of all the kangaroos. We tend to think of them as cute and harmless because they’ve got baby pouches and do cute hopping things. But they’re still Australian and quite capable of running at you at 40MPH and kicking your face clean off. It also lives in some of the harshest conditions this side of a block of flats in Bootle.
The dial tells that story with its rugged orange-red colouring and cracked-earth texture. It looks like a vision of the harshest desert terrain imaginable, and yet it is quite beautiful, not failing to elicit an ‘ooh’ from anyone we’ve shown it to. It’s not gimmicky, though and is actually rather well-considered, even having a mild fume effect and a lovely shine to it that really plays with the light. It’s one of our best wrist-rollers yet, creating a nice pinwheel shine effect whenever we change its angle against the light.
The available models of the watch all have really interesting dials, but we’re happy we opted for this one as it looks great, has a really defined story to it and is, to us at least, the most Australian-looking one. Although, oddly, the stock photo on the Blessington website doesn’t really show how cracked and rugged it is, and so we weren’t expecting it but when the watch arrived, we were happy at how exaggerated the effect is. It makes for a much more interesting watch, and given that we’ve reviewed over twenty in the last year, we need watches that have a bit of attitude to them.
On the dial, you get a kangaroo embossed at the 12 o’clock position with ‘BLESSINGTON’ printed just below in a small, clean font. In the bottom half of the dial, you just get ‘The Red Kangaroo’ which is perfect. No extra nonsense or faff. No movement type, no water resistance details. Excellent work, Blessington.
The chapter ring is suitably functional too. You get a numbered minute track (something we don’t see all that often), which is colour-matched to the darker orange edge of the dial. For a dial that is kind of attention-grabbing at first, the details are a study in refined restraint. We really like it.
Continuing that theme, we get ten identical baton marker indices, which is always nice to see as we’re not huge fans of mixed indices these days (see the awful Phoibos Voyager for why that’s not a great look), with the kangaroo taking up one space and a date window taking up the other. That’s set at the 3 o’clock position, which is the best position. But wahhhh symmetry. Kick rocks, nerd. 3 o’clock is king. Shut up, or we’ll put an Australian fire snail in the post to you and watch it burn your tarty little hands off.
We’re glad the date wheel isn’t colour-matched, as it’d be a bit too much orangey-red, and legibility might have been an issue. What’s nice is that the numbers on the wheel are quite large and so take up most of the window, which is good for clarity.
The hands are consistent with the indices, being baton-shaped as well. There’s not a lot you can say about them except that they’re lumed, edged with a full polish and offer immediate readability against that dark dial. Another restrained but functional element that does a job without stealing attention away from the colour and texture of the dial.
This all sits underneath a flat sapphire crystal, which is nice to see at this price point. We can’t see much evidence of anti-reflective coating on there but it seems to handle reflections well.
A brushed inner bezel leads up steeply to this watch’s other main feature, which is the which is its tungsten bezel. This is pretty substantial. Where the dial is around 28mm across, the bezel is 6mm (including the coin-edge grip), and it stands out thanks to being fully polished. We hardly ever see that. Most bezels are coloured or brushed, and so this really is pretty unique. It might not be something we’d want if we only owned one watch, but we’re watch-collecting degenerates and so this stands out really well in a box of other watches. Also, tungsten is one of the densest, hardest-wearing metals available and is known for being practically scratch-proof. That said, tungsten can shatter, so don’t twat it against a wall or anything (a rule we have for all our watches).
The bezel has a lumed triangle marker at the zero (12 o’clock) position, while the five-minute markers and 15/30/45 numerals are in non-lumed white. It’s all just a little bit different to our other dive bezels, and that’s very positive, adding some real character to a watch that’s already. The bezel also has a 120-click unidirectional rotation, and it’s as clicky as a clique of Zulus giving a TED talk on the use of computer mice.
The rest of the case is made from 316L Stainless Steel, which helps to keep the weight and cost down a bit (even with the steel case, the overall weight is 200 grams). The dimensions are a little larger than I’d usually go for, with a case diameter of 42mm and a lug-to-lug of 50mm. However, I really like wearing it. This, along with my Citizen, is my big watch for when I want to wear something a bit substantial that has some presence to it. The tapered lugs also ensure you get a nice drop to the bracelet, offsetting the size somewhat for those of us with the wrists of a galah.
The case also offers a good contrast to the bezel thanks to its brushed polish. Combined with the grippy edge to the bezel, you get some really nice variation here, making the watch really interesting to look at once your eyes finally move away from that dial.
The contrasting finishing continues with the side of the case, which doesn’t continue the brushed polishing of the top. It’s kind of crazy in that it’s all one piece, so it’s like they’ve put a vertical brush on top and then gone for full polish on the side and done it in a way that’s oddly seamless. It’s a nice effect, though, and it means that the crown guards have a nice shine to them.
Thankfully, they’re also pretty unobtrusive, which means you’ll be able to get your fingers right in there without too much trouble. And the crown’s actually pretty nice here too, with a good grippy texture and it’s signed with Blessington’s starry logo.
Functionally, it does a good job too, with it screwing down for improved water resistance. The rating here is 200 meters, which is perfect for me because I plan on keeping the watch at least 200 meters from bodies of water because I swim like a fridge that’s full of smaller, denser fridges. But if you must insist on swimming with your watches, this will do a fine job of not dying. Unlike you, when you dive into an Australian river and get immediately killed by an Australian Red Murder Salmon or whatever nonsense is floating around in there, ready to mess you up.
The crown has unscrews to offer up a date setting position and a further time setting one. The movement here is a quartz Ronda 515, a popular Swiss-made effort that’s known for decent reliability while also being affordable. Blessington does offer some variations in this range with Miyota 8215s, but I love a bit of quartz, and I’d be quite happy buying quartz versions of all my favourite microbrands. I know that horology and all that matters, but it’s a joy every time I pick up this watch, my Citizen or my Brew and just put it on. No fannying around, winding the watch past 3am so that I can set the date without the watch having an immediate breakdown about it. But, yes, if you’re fancy, you can opt for a Blessington Tiger Shark instead, which is very cool and will have you cooing over its smoother sweep.
The back of the case is kind of cool, too, actually. You get the Blessington star logo right in the middle, and that’s surrounded by a nice engraved pattern. On the outer edge, you get some engraved details, but instead of boring-ass tech specs that you already know, you get the name of the watch, the company, a batch number (TWC2026V1) and a nice little blurb about the watch being designed in Australia. This watch is no-nonsense, and you have to admire that.
The strap is a little bit of a mixed bag. Unusually for a diver, it comes with a butterfly clasp, which can have pros and cons. On the plus side, they’re extremely easy to take off. One squeeze and you’re done. However, the watch doesn’t come with any half-links, which means that it might be a little too tight or loose for some. I opted for slightly tighter than I’d like for the first few weeks before putting in an extra link while taking all these photos. Neither setting is perfect and so I would love to get a half link on there. That’d be absolutely perfect. Both Big Wrist Syndicate and The Budget Watchman had the same issue, so hopefully Blessington will sort that out.
Also, while you could just pop the watch onto a strap, I think you’d be losing something from the overall look because the bracelet goes really well with the watch, thanks to its chunky three link design and mixed polish. It just suits that case and bezel so well. Sure, a leather strap would work, but that’s not the look here. And, unfortunately, this bracelet doesn’t have quick-release springbars, and so removing and re-attaching it is going to be something of a ballache of a chore. Come on, microbrands. Quick-release on everything. I’d quite happily have quick-release eyes that I could spring out of my head every time I see an advert for a Phoibos watch, for example.
Usually, I find that I’m okay wearing this watch all day while at work, but by the evening, when my work clothes come off, and I put on my comfies, so does the watch. It’s certainly one I’m not looking to wear at night, just in case I wake up with a purple hand. And that’s fine because the Japanese lume on here is a bit underwhelming. It initially looks good with lumed hands, indices and that 12 o’clock triangle on the bezel, but, like me in a room full of funnel-web spiders, it doesn’t stick around for long.
Overall, though, this is a very good watch. And not just for the price, which is a very fair £199. You get a lot of watch for your money here and some solid specs, too. It looks great, and rather different, and it has a good quality feel to it. It’s maybe a couple of choices away from budget greatness, and watch snobs might turn their noses up at the quartz movement, but for me, it’s a bit of a ripper and a watch that has guaranteed itself a lifelong spot in my favourite watch box.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Pros:
+ Really great dial
+ The tungsten bezel gives the watch a unique look
+ Nicely contrasting polishing
+ A good price for the specs
Cons:
– Bracelet can’t be micro-adjusted and comes with no half-links
– The lume isn’t great
– A little heavy
Summary:
When a watch has a cool, unique look along with decent specs and a good backstory, we can overlook the smaller issues. And sometimes it’s just nice to have a quartz watch that you can grab and go. But overall, when you factor in the price especially, this is a bonzer watch which has plenty of ‘I like that one!’ appeal from friends and family who otherwise couldn’t give a rat’s about this hobby.
JUST THE FACTS
Availability/Options: The Wildlife Collection currently has thirteen quartz models and three automatics in their men’s 42mm range, as well as seven quartz 32mm versions in their women’s selection. While they’ve not specified how limited the run is, Blessington do not typically restock when a watch sells out. So don’t hang around if you’re thinking of getting one.
Brand: Blessington
Model: The Red Kangaroo
Style: Diver
Case Size: 42mm (50mm lug-to-lug)
Movement: Ronda 515
Material: 316L Stainless Steel case, tungsten bezel
Lug Width: 20mm
Band Type: Bracelet
Price: £199
This watch was sent to us for free by Blessington and so counts as paid promotion. However, this has not affected the review and this article was not shared with them in advance of publication.