To paraphrase Linda Martell, field watches are a funny little genre, aren’t they? It encompasses archetypal styles, military styles, other military styles, futuristic lovable oddball military styles – the genre is expansive, and murky around the edges. To refer back to the inimitable Ms. Martell, categorization is an exercise in false distinction; what matters is substance. For her own career, that question was focused on what qualifies as country music; for the subject of this review, the focus is on what a watch is capable of, and in turn, what it enables you to do.
As I see it, a field watch is not defined by a specific format or feature set, but by its capacity to be a useful tool for one’s outdoor adventures. Capability, reliability, and legibility are paramount, with myriad ways in which to achieve each. Mine is an Aristotelian view – field watch qua field watch defined by its practiced form, not its conceptual potential. From this perspective, a watch isn’t a field watch merely because it resembles a Khaki Field Mechanical if it is incapable of serving as a reliable instrument when worn out in the field.
While Astor + Banks’ new Terra Scout* certainly looks like a field watch, I wanted to test its ambition to determine if it is instrumentally a field watch, not only aesthetically. Given the humble resources here at The Time Bum, I didn’t go on a trip into a seemingly hostile environment with a professional film crew in tow. Instead, I used the Terra Scout as inspiration to go out into the many natural spaces near me, touch grass, and get a bit dirty. (Sidenote: the Atlanta metro area is rich with natural spaces – don’t just take my word, Outside Magazine agrees with me.)
*The Astor + Banks Terra Scout has no affiliation with the forthcoming Terra truck from Scout Motors. Future versions of this watch will carry a different name.
The Terra Scout is Astor + Banks’ first all-new model since the Fortitude launched in 2020. While we’ve seen updates to the Fortitude and Sea Ranger lines since then, the Terra Scout is a distinct third line in the brand’s range. It stands well as a terrestrial tool alternative to the dive-focused Sea Ranger, and as a utilitarian foil to the dress-sport Fortitude. At $995 for the steel versions, it also sits between the $1,299 Sea Ranger II and the $675 Fortitude Pro. The Terra Scout shares some dimensional similarity with the Fortitude and its Lite derivative, with all three measuring 38.5mm wide with 20mm lug spacing, though the Terra Scout has a slightly longer lug-to-lug of 46mm, compared to the Fortitude’s 45.5mm span. Interestingly, the Terra Scout is slightly thicker, with crystal, than the full-fat Fortitude – 12.4mm to the latter’s 11.9mm – bringing it closer to the Sea Ranger, which is rated for an additional 100m of water resistance beyond the Terra Scout’s 200m rating. In an era when brands are chasing thinness, it is curious to see A+B go in the opposite direction.
Fortunately, Astor + Banks has designed the case to mitigate the visual impact of its vertical size. The case shape is simple and traditional, with no chamfers separating surfaces or intricately twisted planes. The upper surface of the case is a continuous visual plane that protrudes a hair’s width from beneath the bezel at 9 and 3, with outward sloping curves that arc to form the bulbous lug tips, and terminate at the caseback. It is a subtly graceful execution, further defined by the crisp angles where the top of the case meets the flanks, which continue around the profile of the lugs, and underneath the flanks.
Using such continuous surface breaks to border the sides of the case is not a common practice, presumably because it can create a slab-sided profile that emphasizes a watch’s thickness. Astor + Banks’ design team effectively neutralized the slab-sided effect with a stepped midcase that keeps its bulk visually thin by shifting some of its height to an undercut band where the caseback screws in. The design choice presents as an intentional pursuit of simplicity, emphasizing the Terra Scout’s intended purpose as an unadorned instrument. The 7.4mm crown echoes the case’s stepped design and prioritization of function over adornment.
All elements of the case, including the nearly vertical bezel, are matte-finished, befitting the watch’s instrumental design. The absence of any hardness coating means the Terra Scout will show wear fairly easily, which was the case with the review sample I had. Perhaps a previous reviewer was overly heavy-handed in their use, but having owned similarly finished watches, you can expect to pick up some noticeable dings and scratches with regular wear. There is a 100-piece special edition with a tan Cerakote case and a $200 price increase, as well as a black DLC case option, both of which should mitigate scratches and dents better than the bare steel. I’m not sure that visible marks on the steel version are a demerit, though, as the marks on the case of the review sample fit the Terra Scout’s rough-and-tumble character. In this case, very tumbled.
Nestled within the case is a dial that is as intricate as the case is simple. The complexity of the dial layout is primarily, but not exclusively, a result of the roulette-style date indicator that helps to define the dial’s inner and outer sectors. Though it isn’t a common date indicator, the roulette date format is one I’m deeply familiar with from previous reviews. As a self-proclaimed expert on the complication, my empirical conclusion is that it is less practical than the more common date window and offers no aesthetic benefits to its more popular counterpart. The design makes for lots of unbalanced printing on the dial, thanks to the single-digit dates, and doesn’t facilitate easier reading than a date wheel that requires you only read the current date, rather than search for the correct option among 31 possibilities. I do like the depth of the inset ring where the date function resides, and would prefer if that surface variation alone was the sole demarcation between the dial’s concentric sectors. For those who absolutely need a date on their watch – fear not, I’m sympathetic – a date window within the lower ring would enable the function with less visual clutter.
I’m fond of the rest of the dial, which has shades of tactical origins without venturing into cosplay design. There are a total of 3 surface levels for the dial that are used to differentiate the watch’s main functions, of which the date function occupies one. Another level hosts the hour markers, with Arabic numerals at the cardinal points that are a balance of curved elegance in their font and utility in their cutout execution. The linear cutouts for the remaining hour markers, flat at their outer ends and rounded at their inner ends, effectively draw your eye towards the center of the dial. This level is shared with the innermost portion of the dial, which carries the brand logo, model name, movement designation, and water resistance rating. Note the orange text for the model name that matches the tone used for the date indicator, and the lumed tip of the second hand.
The third plane of the dial is an applied ring that sits atop the primary dial plate and houses the track for reading the seconds and minutes. It is a combination of hash marks for each minute, surrounded by quarter-circle cutout channels that reveal a layer of lume to denote quarter-hour time blocks. The channels terminate either side of the cardinal points, leaving a break in lume at the 15-, 30-, and 45-minute positions, and a cutout triangle at 60.
The quarter-hour demarcation is further emphasized by alternating lume colors – BGW9 blue for the first and third quarters, and C3 green for the second and fourth. It is an attractive, but curious, execution given that the minute markers aren’t lumed, meaning low-light reading of minutes is only precise to a quarter-hour block. Yes, you can make a fairly accurate guess therein, but the functionality could be improved by either luming the hash marks or cutting them out to let the lumed underlayer shine through. In its current form, the Terra Scout is not the most precise low-light instrument, which misses the mark of Astor + Banks’ positioning of the Terra Scout as a “watch that is rooted in military necessity”. If you look at it, instead, as a non-tactical field watch, the lume layout affords enough legibility in darkness to let one know the approximate time while camping or otherwise experiencing the outdoors.
The lume choice works better for the hour markers, which are easy to read in all lighting conditions thanks to smart use of lume and choices of contrasting colors. The full-lume cream dial options have a black unlumed backing plate, while the black dial is backed by a lumed cream surface, which puts the two surfaces on both colorways in maximum contrast in any lighting condition. The matte gunmetal rounded obelisk hands are lumed in BGW9 that matches the hour markers, with an impressively bright, thin channel running up the second hand until its orange lumed end.
Legibility is also aided by the box sapphire crystal that seems to rise vertically from the flanks of the case due to the thinness of the bezel. Because the crystal sits near the perimeter of the case, it provides ample viewing space for the dial, with the curved edge only impeding legibility at extremely shallow angles. It also adds about 2mm to the aforementioned 12.4mm height, meaning the Terra Scout would likely be thinner than the Fortitude if it shared the latter’s flat sapphire crystal. As is, the box domed sapphire adds character that evokes the domed viewing ports of a subaquatic or spacefaring vehicle, and since those additional 2mm are see-through, they emphasize the case surfaces, locating the visual weight of the Terra Scout’s profile closer to the wearer’s wrist.
To power this new model, Astor + Banks has turned to the LJP G100, an increasingly popular option for mid-range microbrands. The G100 was developed from the venerable 9015, but given a host of upgrades in function and finishing. (Read here if you want to learn more about the differences.) What matters most, in this case, is the 68-hour power reserve – a significant upgrade over the 9015’s 42-hour reserve – and the improved anti-shock system. The G100 is also finished to a higher standard than the 9015, but that is inconsequential given the Terra Scout’s closed caseback. While I love the 9015, I appreciate that the use of the G100 isn’t used simply for the clout of being Swiss, but that it brings functional upgrades to the watch.
Affixing the Terra Scout to the wrist is a supplied canvas strap that is equally inoffensive and unexceptional. The textured fabric upper surface is a good aesthetic fit with the matte case and the Terra Scout’s overall design motif, but two related factors hold it back from being praiseworthy. The first is its stiffness, which may soften with prolonged wear, but the glorious era of watch bands we live in has seen the better options on the market move past a necessary break-in period. The second detrimental factor is particular to my taste, and that is the leather backing. In my view, the benefit of a fabric strap is breathability and the material’s ability to conform around my wrist when worn, both of which are negated by a heat-trapping, stiff strip of leather.
The Terra Scout also comes with an FKM rubber strap that I did not have on hand and therefore cannot attest to its quality. Fortunately, if, like me, you aren’t fond of the canvas and leather combo, the Terra Scout utilizes the strap aftermarket’s most popular width, 20mm. To its credit, the Terra Scout wears wonderfully on a multitude of styles, in part because of the lower of the double set of springbar mounting holes in each lug box. That set is optimal for single-pass straps, as it provides space for the strap to pass between a springbar and the case and keeps the material low to the wrist without any unsightly gaps. I assumed that the uppers were best for two-piece straps, to bring the strap end closer to the case and give it space to arc down and around the wrist, but the holes are too close to the case, and cause even the supplied two-piece strap to rub against the case. It turned out that the lower mounting points were also best for two-piece straps. I wonder if there’s a bracelet planned for the future, which would explain the tight gap from the upper mounting points to the case.
Having worn the Terra Scout in a mixture of the field conditions it was designed for, I can attest to its merits as a functional field watch. It is durable even as it shows its scars, and is highly legible, though not always specifically so. The watch is a somewhat self-conflicting oddity, but in a charming manner. The gracefully simple case is stylistically at odds with the busy and intricate dial, but that contrast creates some balance. Were the case as complex as the dial, the entire watch would be visually overstimulating, and if the dial were as simple as the case, the Terra Scout would be too close to the field watch archetype to stand out in a crowded space.
The Terra Scout is a characterful new entry for Astor + Banks, one whose design language is a departure from what I’m used to seeing from the brand. Though some elements are a bit too far of a departure for my taste, there is no faulting the precise execution of the entire package, which has been one of the brand’s strengths since its inception. I commend the A+B design team for not resting on their laurels and stretching for something different than their familiar fare. Even if the results aren’t perfectly aligned with my preferences, I applaud the innovative thinking and look forward to seeing where this new range goes in the future.
The Terra Scout is available at Astor + Banks’ website. All versions are sold out at the time of writing, but a small batch is expected at the end of June 2026.
