Impression: Jackson Flyback Chronograph from Oak & Oscar

If you tuned into today’s episode of The Worn & Wound Podcast, you’ll have heard Oak & Oscar’s Chase Fancher discuss his latest watch—the Jackson, a manually-wound flyback chronograph powered by Eterna’s Cal. 3916M. We had a chance to briefly check the watches out in person and, as you may have already heard on today’s show, we were really into the new collection. The Jackson, from the overall design to the movement within, is a huge step up for the fan-favorite Oak & Oscar, and for us, it’s exciting to see a micro-brand push the envelope and create a unique product. To that end, Fancher partnered with a new Swiss team to bring the watch to fruition.

Since I only spent a few hours with the watch I’m not going to do a full-on review, but I’m excited to share my impression based on the time I had with the collection.A bit about the movement. The Eterna Cal. 39 family is built around numerous iterations, and the 3916M is a modular, manually-wound flyback chronograph with a column wheel and a stacked register at three. Further specs include a 60-hour power reserve and a beat rate of 28,800 vph. One interesting tidbit: the Jackson is the first watch to feature a manually-wound version of the 3916.

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One of the coolest things about the Jackson is the stacked chronograph counter at three o’clock that tracks both the elapsed minutes and hours. The sub-dial itself is incredibly legible, with all the element’s appropriately color coded (the charcoal hand coordinates with the black minute markers, and the white hand with the white hour markers). Furthermore, the sub-dial features alternating five-minute interval blocks in grey and orange to make tracking elapsed time super intuitive since you can gauge the position of the hand relative to the different color blocks for a quick sense of the time.

Stepping away from the sandwhich dial approach of past Oak & Oscar releases, Fancher opted instead for applied brushed indices with Super-LumiNova BGW9-filled innver grooves. Personally, I feel that this was the right approach as it makes for a cleaner overall dial. And for fans of the font used on the Burnham and Sandford, fret not—the Jackson carries it over to the printed numerals. That’s also the case with the custom, color-matched date wheel at six.

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The case of the Jackson measures 40mm wide (nice) by 46.4mm lug-to-lug (even better). It’s 14.5mm thick, which isn’t too uncommon for a modern chronograph and a modular one at that. When worn, the case dips into the wrist, which tempers the height a bit and makes it a comfortable fit. The case finishing is a fine brushing all around, and it’s available in stainless steel and stainless steel with charcoal PVD (the latter looks especially cool). A double-domed sapphire crystal with AR sits atop the case.

The Jackson is limited to just 400 units divided between three SKUs: 150 of the navy blue dial, 150 of the grey dial, and 100 of the charcoal PVD with the grey dial. The pre-order price is $2,650 (with a final MSRP of $2,850) for the two stainless steel variants and $2,850 (with a final MSRP of $3,150) for the PVD case. Rounding out the package are two Horween-leather watch straps and a modular watch wallet with suede pouches and a strap tool.

Altogether, this is an appealing watch from a brand with a proven track record of producing great things. Some might balk at the price coming from a one-man shop, but there’s a lot of quality packed inside the Jackson. And from the size to the dial, this is a very wearable piece. Oak & Oscar

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