This Adventure-Ready Titanium Sports Watch Boasts a “Lightsaber” Seconds Hand

If you aren’t familiar with Straum, then it’s high time you started paying attention.

The Norwegian microbrand has only been around since 2021, but it has already established itself as one of the most exciting brands in the indie space thanks to its unique combination of affordability, adventure, innovation and, perhaps most notably, its show-stopping dials.

The brand’s flagship sports watch, the Jan Mayen, has quickly become a bona fide hit, and now the brand has launched what may be its most appealing version yet.

Straum

A storm is brewing

Straum’s latest Jan Mayen is the Stormy Seas, a collaboration with weekly watchmaking podcast The Real Time Show. Most of the brand’s watches take inspiration from the real-life Scandinavian adventures of Straum’s adventurer founders, and the Stormy Seas adds an additional muse to the mix: Rob Nudds, the Real Time Show co-host who’s had his own fair share of adventures.

The Stormy Seas was inspired by the podcaster and watchmaker’s own frightening excursion to the Arctic island of Jan Maven with the Straum Explorers Club in 2022, when their boat was caught in a Force 9 gale in the Arctic Ocean.

The dial takes on an “ominous gray blue” color inspired by Rob’s recollection of the eponymous stormy sea during his adventure — and it really does look like an angry ocean, if you ask me — while the fluorescent orange seconds hand takes its color from the immersion survival suits worn by the adventurers to get through the ordeal and live to tell about it.

Straum

The dial’s striking texture is a familiar one to Straum fans, as it’s seen across the Jan Mayen line. Its design is meant to evoke the landscape of Jan Mayen and is produced via multiple levels of stamping, with several layers of painting used to achieve its signature fumé effect. The bright seconds hand, which Straum has nicknamed the “lightsaber,” glows so brightly that it almost appears as if it’s lumed. It isn’t, but its fluorescent paint is reactive under UV light.

Apart from the head-turning dial, this watch is the same as the rest of the Jan Mayen Titanium collection. And trust me, that’s a good thing.

Straum

The Grade 5 titanium case measures just 38.7mm across, 11.5mm thick and 45.7mm lug-to-lug, which are about as close to perfect as measurements can get. It’s bead-blasted with some polished bevels and is water-resistant to 100m with a screw-down crown — a must for those Jan Mayen expeditions.

Most impressive of all is the ingenuity that Straum packs into its watches. For example, the case features the Straum Coupling system, a proprietary push-button quick-release mechanism designed in-house at Straum (in addition to being adventurers, Straum’s founders are also industrial designers).

Straum

The watch includes an FKM rubber strap that, in addition to working with the Coupling system, also features a raised profile to improve ventilation and, more uniquely, a curved tail that keeps the excess strap close to your wrist and prevents it from flapping around.

Powering the watch, as usual, is the Swiss-made La Joux-Perret LJP G101 automatic, which is a no-date movement with an impressive power reserve of 68 hours. It’s lightly decorated with some Geneva striping and is visible behind a sapphire caseback.

Pricing and availability

The main reason for picking up the Stormy Seas over another variant of the Jan Mayen Titanium is that you prefer the way it looks, and for me personally, I think it’s the best-looking version of a watch that was already very attractive.

The blue dial with its bright seconds hand reminds me of one of my grail chronographs, the H. Moser Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic Frozen, which costs 30 times more than this watch. It also brings to mind Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with the “lightsaber” seconds hand gliding across an intimidating backdrop reminiscent of Ahch-To’s “stormy seas.”

But you don’t have to pay a premium for all this coolness. The Stormy Seas is priced at $2,500, the same as other rubber-strapped versions of the Jan Mayen Titanium. It’s available to preorder now on Straum’s website, but act fast; the preorder window closes on November 20 at noon EST.

Straum

Straum Jan Mayen Titanium Stormy Seas

Specs

Case Size	38.7mm
Movement	La Joux-Perret Cal. LJP G101 automatic
Water Resistance	100m

• $2,500 at Straum

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