As you found your way to The Time Bum, you must have heard of Vaer. The brand is excellent at marketing, so much so that it is one of the few microbrands my non-watch-nerd friends are familiar with. Prior to receiving the subject of this review, the C4 Tactical Field, I had not experienced any of Vaer’s watches in person. It was an opportunity to answer a question I’d had for a few years: is Vaer’s success built on their marketing prowess alone, or do their watches stand on their own merit?
What has always stood out to me about Vaer’s watches is their reminiscence of popular designs. The brand’s design language is built on the greatest hits of the greatest hits – lyre lugs, sword hands, and, in the case of the G2 Apocalypse and Dirty Dozen, direct inspiration from famous historical models. To Vaer’s credit, even in their most on-the-nose callbacks, the details are modernized, resulting in watches with their own design language, even if their sources of inspiration are readily evident. Vaer’s design ethos is modernized reverence, and they execute it well.
The C4 Tactical Field is the brand’s newest distinct model, and is inspired by historical milspec field watches like the Marathon Navigator, and Benrus Type II. True to form, though, Vaer have deviated from the format of those forebearers in a few meaningful ways, particularly with the design of the case and handset. The former is more aligned to the C-shape you would expect from a skin-diver, but with a preference for heavy lifting over lean toning. Not that it is an unreasonably large case at 41.5mm x 48.6mm x 12.7mm, but there is an intentional visual heft to the design that conveys a rough and tumble intention.
That heft isn’t blocky, though, as the case is sculpted with long arcing curves connecting the lugs, with multiple beveled surfaces – four in total – that break up the visual height of the case flanks. The bevels were a surprise to me, as the case’s matte finished surface obfuscates their presence in photos. In person, especially in bright light, the bead-blasted surfaces of each ribbon interact with light differently, making their separation easily discernible. The construction and finishing of each surface, including the upper planes of the case that slope into the topmost chamfers, are surprisingly well done for the $479 purchase price ($499 for the DLC version). The most impressive example of the finishing quality is the aligned angles at each lug tip, an area that many brands overlook or surrender to the complexity of.
Thanks to this thoughtful approach to case construction, the C4 wears very comfortably despite its visual prominence. The arced profile is smartly shaped to sit along the wrist, avoiding awkward gaps at the lug tips, even with the rather long lug-to-lug dimension. I assume folks with wrists smaller than mine, let’s say 7” and under, may have a different experience, while the Sasquatch wristed cohort should have a similarly amenable experience to my own.
One of the benefits of the larger size of the case, and the horizontal thinness of the bezel, is that the dial has space to carry a lot of detail without looking overstuffed. At 33.5mm across, the dial aperture is over 6mm larger in diameter than that of a Doxa Sub 300. The prominent hour markers, and their outsized dimension compared to the rest of the dial markings, further the maximalist effect. These qualities make the C4 exceptionally legible, so much so that it is challenging not to read the time when looking at it, which is a good trait for a field watch.
The can’t-miss hour markers, and their companion rectangular markers around the dial’s perimeter, are 3D printed Super-LumiNova resin blocks. Such markers have quickly proliferated following their introduction a few years ago, and with good reason – they substantially improve lume performance, and add dimension to the dial. I can’t recall a watch with better lume performance than the C4, and Vaer has done well to ensure that the applied blocks don’t outshine the hands or lumed markings on the bezel.
The remainder of the dial is fairly simple, with an outer track comprised of dual-length hash marks, a printed inner 24-hour scale, Vaer’s wordmark logo, and minimal braggadocious text below the pinion denoting the C4’s US construction and 200 meters of water resistance. There are a few choices in these elements that I find interesting. First, the shorter lines in the outer track don’t serve a timekeeping purpose on a quartz watch that moves only once per second, though I suppose they could be used to determine each third of a minute if you have a peculiar preference for doing so. No, I presume the use of the sub-second/ minute markings is to make it less obvious when the seconds hand doesn’t accurately hit its mark, which I didn’t find necessary with my review sample.
The second choice I found interesting is the positioning of the 24-hour time scale, which is a bit too close to the primary hour markers. For the most part, the positioning doesn’t create any issues, but the inner markers for 22:00 and 23:00 crowd their counterparts at 10:00 and 11:00. This is a challenge inherent to watches with a Type B layout, and in this case, could be alleviated by bringing all the inner printed elements slightly closer to the pinion. As is, there’s no functional issue present, and the tight spacing stopped grabbing my attention the more I wore the C4.
For the handset, Vaer has deviated from the Benrus and Marathon milspec archetypes, and has instead utilized syringe hour and minute hands that harken to more classic field watches like the Hamilton Khaki Mechanical Field. The seconds hand is a more unique design that trades the common arrowtip’s triangular lume plot for an elongated hexagon, a dash of modernity amidst classical elements. Like the rest of the C4, the hands are easily legible thanks to their white paint, which contrasts with both the black dial and the black bases of the hands where they attach to the pinion.
Visually enveloping the dial is a 120-click unidirectional bezel with a 12-hour insert that incorporates a 20-minute timing scale, again picking up on a hallmark of Type I & II tactical watches. The bezel clicks are firm and accurate, yet light enough to be actuated when the watch, or your hands, are wet. Vaer doesn’t specify the material for the bezel insert, but I assume it is a matte-finished metal on which the dual-function scale is printed. A flat sapphire crystal with a beveled edge sits within the bezel, affording excellent clarity for reading the dial.
The C4 is powered by the Epson (Seiko) VS-42, a solar movement with a 6-month power reserve achieved with only 6 hours of light. It isn’t the most accurate movement at -10/+20 sec/month, but the accuracy is a worthwhile tradeoff for the ease afforded by the solar function. These are also robust movements that you won’t have to worry about ruining if you wear the C4 during sporting activities. There is a position for the date function that is absent from the dial, but its presence is barely noticeable given the minimal crown interaction required to operate the watch.
The C4 ships with two straps, a ribbed fabric pass-through, and a two-piece waffle rubber. The single-pass can be had in black, green, or khaki, while the rubber is Model-T spec: black only. The fabric strap is on the stiff side, but should break in with regular wear, and looks great with the watch. The rubber strap was my preference: it is substantial enough to hold the C4 in place but very pliable and comfortable to wear. The punch-hole venting and texture on the strap’s underside work together to prevent the rubber from overheating your skin. With 20mm lug spacing, it’ll be easy to find your preferred strap pairing.
The C4 represents what Vaer does so well – take elements of proven winners, and remix them into attractive, well-built, and accessibly priced designs of their own. The results may not push the bounds of design, but Vaer’s popularity speaks to the success of their methods. Yes, I have minor quibbles with the dial’s spacing, but minor quibbles are in my nature, rather than a reflection of poor design and execution. I expected to appreciate the C4 in a logical manner, but was surprised by the emotional response it generated. I didn’t just appreciate the C4; I liked it and wanted to wear it not only to study it as a review subject but to admire it.
The C4 Tactical is available directly from Vaer.
