Jack Mason is on a mission to fill out your watch box. Looking for a do-it-all watch? Grab a Strat-o-timer. Want a do-it-all watch with the ability to track dives? Opt for the Strat-o-timer’s titanium diver variant. Fancy a dress watch? The Ellum is a fetching mid-century accessory for your formal affairs. More of a pilot watch fan? The Pursuit awaits your wrist, as does the Pursuit Pro if you want a rotating bezel. And if you want to split the dress-tool divide, the Canton is a versatile piece appropriate for professional and leisure environments. With the newest Canton, the Day-Date, Jack Mason has maintained the standard model’s versatility while marginally increasing its glam factor.
This is not the first day-date version of the Canton, but it is a significant step up in design and quality from its predecessor. The first version had a more traditional side-by-side day-date complication inset from the 3 o’clock position, a common arrangement on dive watches. The day and date wheels were black text on white backgrounds, which clashed with a few of the colorful sunray dials. The design was caught between fashion appeal and more refined watch design, befitting the brand’s pivot at the time from mall watch motifs to enthusiast appeal.
The newest Canton Day-Date is unequivocally refined, nowhere more prominently than its dial. Gone is the sunray finish, replaced with a guilloche pattern made up of concentric rings of intersecting three-dimensional diamonds. The design has a mesmerizing effect that gives the dial two distinct personalities. In brighter light, the color appears light blue, and the texture is flatter. In lower light, the peaks and valleys of the guilloche reflect and consume light to create dramatic shadows, and the color appears as a moody periwinkle, as if a typical periwinkle swatch got deeply into emo music. Both personalities are beautiful, but perhaps owing to my own ever-present fondness for emo, I prefer the brooding visage.
The colorway I had on hand is listed as “Slate” by Jack Mason, but someone may have forgotten to add the black tone to the mixture. Not that I mind, as the pale blue is a regal shade. Two other standard colorways are offered: Chocolate combines a brown dial with gold accents, and Lagoon applies the same silver accents as the Slate to a beautiful teal dial. The Lagoon caught my eye when the Day-Date was announced, and I must not be alone in my appreciation of the colorway given the lack of an available review sample of it. Since the three standard colorways were launched, Jack Mason has introduced two special “Resort” editions that deviate from the standard models’ monotone dial by adding contrasting perimetral minute tracks, and swapping the radial guilloche texture for the diamond grid texture found on the standard Cantons.
All colorways for the Day-Date utilize the same dial layout. Rectangular metal-framed and lume-filled bars mark all the hours but 12 and 6, the former of which is absent to accommodate the day display, and the latter of which swaps a shortened rectangular marker to make room for the circular date window. Those apertures are bevel-edged, and the date window’s bevel is polished, easily discernible thanks to the under-mounted magnifier on the sapphire crystal. Many people hate magnifiers on principle, but I’m a utilitarian about them; if the application improves legibility, I’m content. In this case, I found the magnifier a detriment to legibility, as it distorts the text of the date wheel unless viewed at a 90° angle. It is the one element of the Day-Date that I would prefer to be fully removed.
There are no such issues in viewing the remainder of the dial, including the tidy transition from the inner guilloche pattern to the circularly-grooved surface that the minute track is printed upon. The texture change allows for the scale to be printed in a legible manner, which would be a steep challenge to do on the radial guilloche. The color (still blue!) is matched well across both surfaces, and the outer track catches light in a flatter, more consistent manner that aids in reading the minutes.
Light play is a central attribute of the polished metal surfaces that adorn the dial, including the handset. The polishing is exquisitely done, and enables the surrounds of the indices and the hands to brightly reflect even minimal, indirect light. The choice in metal finishing is a strong fit for the dressy sports watch positioning of the Day-Date. With how reflective the surfaces are, Jack Mason could have left lume out of the equation, but they did not, and I’m glad of that choice. The BGW9 glows surprisingly brightly and is quick to activate.
All the aforementioned beautiful elements – dial textures, indices, handset – sit within a 41mm wide case with mixed brushed and polished finishing. You read that dimension correctly; the Canton Day-Date is a full 2mm wider than the base Canton. I assume the difference is to accommodate the SW240-1 that powers the Day-Date, which is 3.4mm wider in diameter than the LJP G100 that powers the standard Canton. There will be folks turned off by a 41mm dress-sports watch, and I think 38-39mm would be perfect proportions for the Day-Date, but if the size choice is a product of function, it makes sense. The guilloche pattern does a good job of masking dead space toward the inner portion of the dial, and keeps the Day-Date from looking ill-proportioned.
The SW240-1 is also a bit thick at 5.5mm, making the Day-Date’s 12mm height just over 1mm thicker than that of the standard Canton. But that 12mm height is well-proportioned to the 41mm width, and the 48mm lug-to-lug span. In sum, the Day-Date is on the large side for the type of watch it is, but it is harmoniously proportioned.
The case is also artfully designed and finished, with crisp transitions between the brushed flanks and upper surfaces, and the polished bezel that separates them. The brushing is fine – as in small grain – and shallow, which creates a smooth appearance. The polished fixed bezel has a mirror-like finish that, while not to Grand Seiko level, is commensurate with the Day-Date’s $1,849 price. The only quibble I have with the case is the termination point of the lug tips, which don’t extend to the same plane as the low point of the caseback. That variation creates some strap gap between the wrist and the turndown point for the bracelet. The gap isn’t so great as to be unsightly, and it may not be an issue for the members of the Squatch-wrist club whose wrist diameter exceeds my own (7.5” for reference).
The bracelet that nestles into those 20mm-spaced lugs tapers fluidly to 16mm where it meets the fold-over clasp. The three-link design is a classic touch, and Jack Mason’s excellent 7-link is also offered if you want a bit more bling. The three-link isn’t short on flash, though, with polished center links framed by vertically-brushed outer links that have their own touch of polish on the bevels of their upper outboard edges. The design is comfortable to wear, with comfort furthered by the tool-less microadjustment in the clasp. The mechanism used isn’t the most advanced compared to the various push-button mechanisms on the market, but it is simple, reliable, and effective. And if you tire of the bracelet, or want a different aesthetic, quick-release springbars make removal and reattachment a simple affair.
The aforementioned Selitta 240-1 used in the Day-Date is top-grade, meaning it is adjusted in five positions, and is rated to between +/- 4 and +/- 15 seconds per day. The sample I had for review beat that mark at – 3 seconds/ day, which would meet certain official chronometer standards if said standards weren’t exclusionary marketing tools for Swiss manufacturers. Interaction with the movement and its multitude of functions is made easy by a 6mm crown that is easy to grip and screws in smoothly thanks to a decoupling mechanism. Once screwed in, the Day-Date is water resistant to 150 meters, which is more than enough for aquatic activity, presumably yachting given the classy nature of the Day-Date’s design. Another benefit of the top-grade 240-1 is that it is pretty to view, with perlage-finished surfaces, golden gears, and in this application, a customized gold rotor. This is the type of view that justifies a see-through caseback.
I’ve made no secret of my appreciation of Jack Mason’s watches. As they have moved upmarket, the quality of their wares has kept pace, continuing to provide value to consumers. The Canton Day-Date represents that value, as it is not inexpensive, yet it still provides a level of design and finishing quality that exceeds its price. A 41mm dress-sports watch won’t appeal to everyone, nor will a day-date function, and that’s fine. The Day-Date isn’t a safe bet, but it is an exceptionally executed offer, and it continues a run of great releases from the brand.
