Introducing the Bravur Geography Series, a Minimalist GMT from Sweden

Since arriving on the scene in 2011, Bravur has carved out a well-deserved niche for its own brand of clean Scandinavian design. The Swedish firm is looking to expand that niche with its newest offering, the Geography series GMT. The GMT complication is a first for the brand, and the overall design is crisp, confident, and very much Bravur.

GMTs can often feel cluttered or over-designed, but the Geography manages to seamlessly integrate the complication without sacrificing any legibility. The overall package is a mix of unique cues and previous Bravur elements, including the skeletonized hands from the BW003 along with applied Arabic and baton indices from the BW001 and BW002. These borrowed elements are housed in a slim, 39-millimeter case design and arranged on two different bespoke dials for the Geography series. 

These two dial colorways—silver/white and sapphire blue sunburst—provide completely different tones for the watch. The silver/white is by far the more traditionally minimal of the two. Far from being soulless, however, this colorway is fun and dynamic courtesy of a silvery metallic contrasting finish for the inner dial and index ring, and the skeletonized syringe GMT hand and 24-hour index rendered in a vivid robin’s egg blue. It’s a color that’s distinct without being shouty or overbearing, pairing well with the airy, clean design ethos of the Geography. 

The blue dial, on the other hand, comes off as far more luxe. The terraced layering of the main dial and raised outer index ring become far more apparent here, and the depth and richness of the sapphire tone is further accentuated by the use of gold accents for the GMT hand and 24-hour index. On a less deftly managed dial, this combination could come off as overindulgent or gauche, but the light weight of all the elements allows the combination to work far better than one might expect.

While the dial is certainly handsome, the case back deserves equal attention. The printed display window features the traditional 24-hour world time scale with major cities in each time zone surrounding the Bravur logo. It’s a cheeky way to integrate this information without it taking up valuable real estate on the dial—although it might be a minor annoyance if you need to check you current time zone relative to Cairo in a hurry.

Inside that display window is the rock-solid Sellita SW330-1 automatic movement, which goes through considerable custom decoration. The full laundry list includes full rhodium plating, a mix of snailing and perlage finishing, and a unique winding rotor.

Bravur pairs the Geography with a textured vegetable-tanned leather strap in black, tan, or tobacco brown.

At first glance, it’s difficult not to be entranced by Bravur’s latest Scandinavian design beauty. The watch made a soft launch at this year’s Windup Watch Fair, but our UK friends looking to get their hands on these watches should visit Bravur at SalonQP in London at the end of November. Pricing is $1,650. Bravur