Are YÖ experienced?
Galvin Watch Company might be as Australian as Bea Smith at a barbecue, but this brand was founded by Swedish-born Susan Galvin, who was raised in Finland and graduated from the Finnish School of Watchmaking before eventually going on to work at Tag Heuer and Omega.
However, in 2020, just as she was on maternity leave, she was made redundant. For a lady who specialised in precision timing, this was about as bad as timing could get, but undeterred, Susan took all of that horological know-how and founded the Galvin Watch Company in her new home country, Australia.
Working from her Sydney-based workshop, Susan assembles every watch the company sells. If you’re unboxing a Galvin, you know that her educated fingers were at play when it was put together and regulated. And that’s quite rare in the microbrand space. A lot of brands are putting out great-looking watches, but they’re outsourcing almost the whole process to factories elsewhere. That’s not what you’re getting with Galvin.
But along with her vast horological experience, Susan’s Finnish upbringing is also a major part of the brand’s design language with Scandinavian-inspired aesthetics but with nods to the landscapes, and indeed nightscapes, of Finland itself. The brand has borrowed inspiration from the aurora borealis with its blues, greens and purples (or, if you’re me and spent two separate weeks there and didn’t get lucky despite standing on a frozen lake in Levi every single night: grey) in their other ranges such as their stylish Loimu GADAs.
The limited edition YÖ takes that concept even further, though. YÖ is Finnish for night, and this watch aims to capture the very essence of a Finnish night sky, but the watch is something of a spin-off from Galvin’s summer-inspired Suvi range. That was a series of dress watches with distinctive tonneau cases (elongated barrel-style shapes) that had smart polishing, elegant hands and indices and suede straps.
The YÖ is the Suvi after dark, with some of the dressier aspects phased out and the drama levels turned up to ‘Mariah Carey’, and it all starts with that dial, which has a turquoise fume effect colour scheme. It’s deceptively darker than it might seem (the watch’s strap makes everything seem brighter than it is) but it does a good job of representing darkness and light simultaneously. There’s a real sense of darkness closing in with this one rather than the lighter centre of the dial trying to reach out into the dark.
If we were being prim and proper about it, we’d be talking about the guilloche-style texturing, intricately machined into the brass dial. That doesn’t really do it justice though, and without over-embellishing the whole thing, it’s essentially a cross between an intricate fingerprint and a spiderweb. Of all the dials we’ve reviewed, this one is the most impressive. The fine texturing, the product of several layers of finishing, and the clever sectoring of the dial. There’s an argument that if the sectors lined up with the hour positions, it’d help orient the wearer given that the dial has no indices, but this orientation, where the sectors are midway between the five-minute positions, is more distinctive and gives a star-like shine that’s very in keeping with the night theme.
Aside from Galvin’s encircled G logo, there’s no other detail on the dial, which is definitely the way to go so that you can see more of that excellent texture work, but if you’re a watch-wearer who needs indices… well, look. This isn’t really that type of watch. This isn’t a watch that screams ‘synchronise watches, lads, we’re going in’; instead it yells at dancer number three and refuses to continue until it gets its sparkling water.
The hand set on this watch is quite unique too. It borrows from the Suvi in that all three are very slender but quite different at the same time. The leaf-shaped minute hand barely has the width to even support the elongated oval curvature; it’s very intricate and precise. The hour is really interesting. It starts off as a leaf too but ends in a circular aperture. In that way it really contrasts against the minute hand. It might just be some watch-design whimsy, but it’s a neat detail and, as Susan told us, “the opening makes the hour hand feel lighter visually and also allows more of the dial to remain visible.” It also picks up some of the curved accents present elsewhere in the watch, giving a nice consistency to the whole piece.
The seconds hand is a simple stick pointer, and that completes the set while also really giving the impression that the job here is to show off that dial. However, what’s absolutely crazy is that all three hands are lumed in black C3. Looking at the watch in daylight, you’d never expect them to actually be lumed. And when you do get this watch filled with photons and then into a dark room, the lume effect suddenly takes centre stage, with the hands really popping against the full-lume dial.
Unlike other full-lume watches, the effect here is a little more subtle. Instead of a retina-searing shine, you get a more relaxed glow. It’s still BGW9 Swiss Super-LumiNova but a little more muted, but that has a benefit because it allows you to still see that gullioche pattern. Those lumed hands do the heavy lifting of actually letting you read the time, but they sit over a, dare we say it, aurora borealis radiance. In over thirty reviews, no other watch we’ve looked at has ever had a lustre like the YÖ.
The dial sits under what the website calls a domed sapphire crystal, but it’s not really domed but rather curved along the length of it. It’s very smart and sits just a fraction of a millimetre above the case. The anti-reflective coating does a good job of keeping things clear, but if you do get light directly reflected on the crystal, the shape of it does a good job of making sure you don’t get the whole thing shining at you. Instead, light tends to disperse as a horizontal bar rather than taking up the whole footprint of the crystal.
In keeping with letting the star of the show get her flowers, the case is coated in black DLC (diamond-like coating). It’s still the same stainless steel 316L as the Suvi had but now completely black, ensuring that the dial does all the talking. We were concerned that the watch might wear big, but actually the 33mm x 40mm case size is very wearable, and the short lugs really help to keep things proportional, even on certifiably skinny wrists. The lug-to-lug is an impressively low 46mm, and the thickness is just 11.15mm. The curvature of the case continues underneath too, so this watch really hugs your wrist and does its best to stay relatively small.
The 6mm crown is subtly signed with that same G logo as the dial, embossed into the head of the crown in the same black as the case. Surprisingly though, there is more of that black lume on there, showing up as a blue circle after dark. It’s another tasty touch that really highlights the fact that there is more to this watch than meets the eye and only is only revealed at night. Conceptually, that works brilliantly to tell this watch’s story.
The Miyota 9035 is a premium Japanese movement and is essentially the no-date version of the 9015, which is commonly used in mid-to-high range microbrands. The 3.9mm thickness clearly benefits this watch’s slender case, and you get all the usual goodness that you’d expect: hacking seconds, 42 hours of power reserve and a smooth 28,800 vph sweep. And remember, Susan herself regulates them all so you know you’re getting the very best version of the 9035 possible.
Being a no-date version, the crown has just two positions. In its default pushed-in position, you can wind the watch, and when pulled out you can set the time. We normally like having a date complication, but going no-date was clearly the right play with the YÖ visually, and it also has the benefit of meaning you’re not having to faff about with the crown too much to wake the watch up. The crown doesn’t screw down, nor is it guarded, so you’re not getting quite as much water resistance (5ATM or 50 meters), but, as usual, you don’t wear something this dressy underwater unless you’re trying to surprise a red snapper with your sweet lume.
Unlike the Suvi range, there are no details engraved on the back of the watch. Instead, that black DLC surrounds a sapphire crystal exhibition window that shows off the movement, which is finished off with a custom signed black rotor.
The watch comes with an FKM rubber strap, and there’s a fair bit going on here. You choose a black or turquoise one. It would have been nice to get both, especially as they have quick-release spring bars, but you’ll have to pick. This watch, kindly on loan from Susan, came with the turquoise version.
It’s actually a cut-to-size strap. You need to break out your least rusty Stanley Knife and slice off segments until you get the right fit. Measure twice, measure twice again, make doubly sure, go and have a cup of tea, re-measure and cut once. You then reattach the butterfly clasp, and you’re good to go. As long as you measured twice, thrice or more. I actually left it as is. Another reviewer had it before me, and I can just about get away with the current sizing on it without cutting off chunks. And that was Fernando from VCT with his seven-inch wrists, which means I’ve clearly been eating too many ice-creams in this UK heatwave.
The benefit of all this is that you can get a really good fit with a super clean, integrated look. Once you’ve done all this, the fit should be pretty much perfect. That said, there is a little bit of microadjust built into the butterfly clasp. That’s pretty cool, as that’s often an issue with butterfly clasps: you’re locked into a size (once you’ve removed however many links needed to go), so having microadjust here is good. It does require a tool though, so you won’t be making any quick changes on sunny days or after eating your own weight in Chinese food.
The clasp mechanism is really satisfying. There’s almost a weight to how it closes. It feels like strong magnets, but the effect is just created by resistance as the two ends of the clasp press against a metal bar that keeps them in place. It feels nice though. And the whole clasp is coated in the same black DLC as the case and is also signed on one end.
The slight red kangaroo in the room is that, on the turquoise strap especially, the YÖ is unusually modern in appearance. The black case, contemporary shape, coloured dial and bright rubber strap can make it look, at a distance, like a smartwatch or fitness tracker. The illusion disappears when you get up close, but you have to get pretty close indeed. Certainly, the watch has had a mixed reception in my experience, with some people completely getting it while others thought it was maybe just too contemporary. However, when you get it in your hands, the whole thing has a quality feel to it and the greatness of the design is revealed and, as Susan herself says, “mechanical watches do not always have to follow familiar or conservative design codes.”
It is certainly a watch that stands out. The YÖ may have something of a niche appeal to watch collectors and might not appeal to traditionalists, but there is a market for this watch. If you’re ready and willing to step out of the 1960s-inspired dive watch treadmill into something truly contemporary, this could be what you’re looking for. If you’re looking to graduate from a fitness watch (because, let’s face it, none of that data actually matters) to a real mechanical watch with genuine horological bona fides, while keeping the modern styling you’re used to, then this is a bigger step up than Neil Armstrong breaking the lunar triple jump record.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
Pros:
+ Spectacular dial
+ The lume is as much a design statement as it is a feature
+ Premium movement
+ Assembled and regulated in-house
+ Quality feel to the materials
+ Very unique
Cons:
– Can look a bit like a smartwatch from a distance
Summary:
The YÖ might be a tough pick for traditionalists but if you want an impeccably-assembled watch with unique, modern looks and a strong design concept then you can’t go wrong with this impressive piece.
JUST THE FACTS
Availability/Options: The YÖ is limited to 50 units and is currently sold out, however the model it is based on, the Suvi range, is still available in various colours.
Brand: Galvin Watch Company
Model: YÖ Limited Edition
Style: Dress
Case Size: 33mm x 40mm (46mm lug-to-lug)
Movement: Miyota 9035
Material: 316L Stainless Steel case with black DLC coating
Lug Width: 19mm
Band Type: FKM strap
Price: £720
This watch was sent to us on loan by Galvin Watch Company.