Oddities make the world, and life in it, more interesting. I have an affinity for the esoteric, especially when it expresses someone’s passion. Not all oddballs are lovable, but some creators have a knack for making endearing eccentricities. Xeric has produced several watches that struck such a chord, and some that haven’t, but through all their models, the brand has stayed committed to making watches that abjure popular trends in favor of self-expression.
The Halograph is one of Xeric’s most enduring models, and is the closest thing the brand has to a core range. There are currently five Halograph models, three quartz chronographs, and two automatic local-time models. The Halograph III is the newest manifestation of the range and is housed in a tonneau case rather than the flying saucer shape used for prior iterations. The case, and the addition of a central seconds hand, are slight moves towards horological convention without sacrificing the playful nature Xeric is known for.
Now, I have buried the lede, because the most obvious element of this particular Halograph III is its color scheme. Dubbed “CMYK” by the brand, the color palette refers to the primary tones used in color printing cartridges: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). I admit to not knowing the meaning of the moniker at first – one of the joys of acronyms is how inscrutable they can be until explained, and how painfully obvious they are thereafter.
The origin of the palette adds to the fun of the watch, but more importantly, the result is riotously cyberpunk, making the watch feel like it should be worn through an imagined version of underground Tokyo. There’s also a bit of Bauhaus to the design, particularly the use of blue and yellow. In a market oversaturated with safe, staid designs, the CMYK effuses quirky joy.
If you haven’t seen a Halograph before, permit me a brief explanation of how the brightly colored functions work. The cyan-tipped hand marks the hours, with the current hour or an intermediate position between hours, encircled by one end of the hand. As the day wears on, the hand completes a full circle, read across two semi-circle hour tracks. The two tracks aren’t an am/pm split; instead, they cover one full 12-hour cycle, with the numbers at their edges – 3 and 9 – duplicated to track the handoff from one track to the other. The minute hand works the same way and completes a full rotation every hour, marked by the outer two semi-circle minute tracks.
The arrangement takes a few moments to get adjusted to, but quickly becomes intuitive. It is also an ingenious design, as it makes the hour and minute indications simple to read, since the redundant points on both scales are the only instances where the uneven hands overlap both tracks. Far more conventional is the vibrant yellow and magenta seconds hand, which completes a full cycle over a 360° arc. I initially thought the cyan rehaut was blank, which seemed like an oversight given the seconds hand – once I got the watch in sunlight, though, the magenta-printed seconds scale came to life. Magenta-on-cyan isn’t the most legible contrast, but I also wouldn’t wear the Halograph III as such a precise timekeeping instrument.
There’s a surprising amount of contrast in low light, as the handset and time scales are completely lumed. The lume isn’t the brightest, but it is enough to read the time before it fades after a half hour or so. It is more of a fun party trick than an instrumental application, but the Halograph is meant to be fun.
Nested beneath the time-reading tracks is a vertically stacked day-date function, a new addition in this third iteration of the Halograph. I am a huge fan of day-date functions, but admit that they are often poorly integrated into the design of the watches that carry them. Not so here, as the function serves as a visual break between the yellow and magenta grilles that flank it. I wouldn’t usually advocate for grilles on a watch, but combined with the day-date stack, they fill what would otherwise be an unbalanced void at the lower half of the dial. The downside of this day-date design is its legibility, which is impaired due to how deep the wheels are recessed beneath the window that frames them, creating shadows that make reading the day and date text challenging.
To accommodate the diameter needed for the radial time display, the Halograph III is on the large side. The black-coated (Xeric don’t specify if the coating is PVD or DLC) steel case measures 42mm wide, 13.5mm thick, and 50mm lug-to-lug, and it wears true to those dimensions, meaning it feels hefty when worn. The impression of size isn’t just due to the heft of the case, but also the prominence of the dial opening, which is just over 39mm in diameter. Such dimensions aren’t uncommon for watches that use atypical time-reading functions – at the far higher end of the price scale, you’d be hard-pressed to get into an Urwek that is under 42mm wide. It is a tradeoff for the quirk of the display format, but if large-wearing watches aren’t your thing, the Halograph III may not be for you.
To Xeric’s credit, the case shape somewhat minimizes its vertical scale, with a downward-sloping chamfer that runs the full length of the case, flowing from the bezel and flaring as it approaches the lugs. So while the midcase isn’t severely arced, the chamfer gives the impression of a curved case profile. The chamfer’s polished surface further distinguishes the vertically brushed midcase from the radially brushed upper surface. An additional bevel on the underside of the case flanks (where they transition to the caseback) also reduces the case’s slab-sided appearance. The transitions between the various surfaces are soft, particularly the line that separates the case flanks from the upper chamfer. Don’t take their softness to suggest poor quality, though, as the precision of the transitions, along with the finishing of the case, dial, and handset, more than justify the Halograph III’s $499 price.
On the underside of the Halograph III, the screw-in caseback carries an embossed racecar motif with the model name and its limited-edition designation. It fits the watch’s playful design and is soft-edged so it won’t scratch when worn. Functionally, the screw-down case back, along with the push-pull crown, affords the Halograph III 50 meters of water resistance, more than sufficient for the watch’s intended use.
The crown, which at 6mm is a bit on the small side in proportion to the case, operates the Seiko NH36, which is the beating heart of the Halograph III. Playing on the watch’s automotive motif, the NH series is the small-block Chevy V8 of the watch world – reliable, available, tunable, and ever-present. It has 42 hours of power reserve, is rated to +/- 20 seconds per day, and can be replaced at low cost should it ever malfunction. Not that I’ve ever encountered such an issue with the many NH-powered watches I’ve owned or reviewed.
The CMYK comes affixed to a rally-style black leather strap, decoratively stitched with magenta and cyan yarn. The leather is unpadded, which I prefer for its pliability, and it quickly loosened up after a few minutes of being worn. If your preferences differ – particularly if you’re able to find a cyan or magenta fabric single-pass with black hardware – the leather strap has quick-release spring bars to make the change easy.
The ballooning growth of the microbrand market over the past several years has been more of an abundance than a plethora. Far more referential dive and field watches than I can keep track of, and while many of them are good, I admit to feeling a bit fatigued by the oversaturation. While quirky entries like the Halograph III – and truly, everything Xeric makes – will not garner mass appeal, they eschew market safety for individual expression. There are some sacrifices for the sake of design, such as the Halograph III’s large proportions and slightly-legible day-date function, that keep it far from being a one-watch contender. But as a watch lover who has no interest in only owning one watch, the Halograph III is a palette-cleanser, something to put on when I’m bored of the sensible choices and want to wear a watch that feels exciting.
The Halograph III range, including the CMYK LE, is available at watches.com.
