Hands-On With The Astor+Banks Sea Ranger M2 Black
We all love talking about GADA (“go anywhere, do anything”) watches. They represent an ideal for collecting and living — that one watch can handle all situations, just as we can. Along with this comes the notion of pairing down what we own and the goal of simplifying our daily lives. If we own just one watch, we get closer to that goal. Doing so has benefits, such as saving money and time and allowing us to be more adaptable to any situation. Or maybe we don’t care about any of this. We might simply like owning a watch that we know can handle whatever we do.
Regardless of why we lean toward GADA watches, there are plenty to choose from, including options from long-established powerhouses of the watch industry to the youngest of brands. Two of my new favorites are the Oris Divers Date that Daan wrote about last October and the Doxa Sub 200T that Henry took diving. For several options from the micro/independent world, you can check out my 2024 Top 20. Today, though, we’ll take our first look at Astor+Banks, an American brand specializing in GADA-style watches. Its latest release, the Sea Ranger M2, checks many boxes for this type of watch and makes for a compelling option at US$1,299 on a bracelet or $150 less on a strap.
Designed for the land, sea, and air
I don’t know what, technically, makes a watch adapted to these three planes of human existence. I do have an idea of what a dive watch needs to have — good lume and water resistance, which benefits field watches too. That’s because, in both cases, the watch is legible and protected against water and dust ingress. I’ve also read that pilot’s watches need to be legible but protected against magnetism and shocks. But field watches also need to be protected from shocks, right? All of this has become theoretical to me as we live different lives today than we did decades ago. Flying a plane must be less hazardous than it used to be, and we have comfortable cars to explore the earth. So it seems designing a watch for the land, air, and sea, in theory, has to do with both specs and design.
From a visual perspective, the Astor+Banks Sea Ranger M2 is a hybrid of many things. Or one could see it as the brand’s bespoke design. The semi-triangular hour and minute hands have a classic appearance, though their matte treatment evokes utilitarian horology. The ever-so-slightly tapered seconds hand is adorned with an orange tip, generating similar feelings, and the semi-rounded and classic-looking applied hour markers also bear a matte texture that cancels light reflections. In their shapes, then, the hands and markers look traditional, but it is their treatment that emphasizes the tool-watch aspect of the Sea Ranger M2. Similarly, the matte black dial and red date numerals are legible and purposeful. So we begin to see that from a design perspective, the Astor+Banks Sea Ranger M2 can indeed work in many situations.
A healthy spec list for all adventures
Perhaps it is by going through the spec list that we will realize what we’re dealing with. First things first, the Sea Ranger M2 has a 300m water resistance rating, partly thanks to a screw-down crown and a screw-in case back. That’s substantial WR, even for serious divers. There are also generous applications of Super-LumiNova C1 X1 on the hands, markers, and the internal bidirectional bezel. In fact, this bezel is entirely coated with lume. Movement-wise, we find a 4Hz La Joux-Perret G100 caliber with a 68-hour power reserve. This movement is regulated in-house to run at ±8 seconds per day. The G100 has been popular among micro/indie brands as of late for its generous power reserve (and, I suppose, for its manufacturer’s prestige).
Thus far, the Astor+Banks Sea Ranger M2 comes with specs appropriate for land, air, and sea adventures. But there is more that will perhaps explain the claim I made earlier that this watch makes for a compelling GADA timepiece. First, soft iron plates protect the LJP caliber from magnetic fields of up to 20,000 A/m (a watch is considered paramagnetic at 33,000 A/m). Then, the case and bracelet have a scratch-resistant coating equaling 1,200 HV, eight times the hardness of naked stainless steel. Additionally, the crystal is a piece of flat sapphire with several layers of antireflective coating, and the two screw-down crowns have a dual-locking mechanism to prevent wear and tear on the threads. Shipped on a steel bracelet with quick-release spring bars and an on-the-fly micro-adjustable NodeX clasp, this watch does indeed offer GADA-style specs.
The Sea Ranger M2 on the wrist
This is personal, but a watch needs to fit my 16.5cm (6.5″) wrist well and be comfortable to be a GADA piece. Luckily, the Sea Ranger M2 does just that with its 40mm diameter, 45.5mm lug-to-lug, and 12.5mm thickness. The lugs have a convenient 20mm spacing, and the bracelet has a 4mm taper to the clasp. What aids in making this watch comfortable is the mostly flat case back, the case shape, and the finishing. A 45.5mm lug-to-lug is great for me as it makes the watch sit right in the middle of my wrist. The case sides have a rounded profile, which is smooth to the touch and comfortable when I bend my wrist. In other words, the case doesn’t dig into it. Furthermore, the placement of the crowns at 2 and 4 o’clock has the same result, which, again, makes the watch very comfortable to wear.
A watch packed with functionality
Lastly, we should take a quick moment to appreciate the great functionality this Astor+Banks offers. With its 300m depth rating, anyone can safely wash the dishes, swim, and dive (I’m being slightly sarcastic here). Having screw-down crowns and a screw-in case back also means no dust or sand can enter the case. The plentiful lume on the hands, markers, and bezel makes it easy to read the time in the dark, whether you’re diving deeper than you should or flying across the world. Although I haven’t mentioned it yet, the internal rotating bezel has a 12-hour scale to track time in a different time zone, which, to me, is more useful than a diver’s scale. Moreover, having a quick-adjustment clasp means being able to adjust the comfort level of the bracelet. I find this handy when wearing the same watch for extended periods.
Final thoughts
Perhaps when you started reading this review, you thought US$1,299 (on the bracelet) / US$1,149 (on an FKM rubber strap) was a lot to spend on a watch from an “unknown” brand. I get that. But even if you didn’t know about Astor+Banks, perhaps you agree that what you saw today is rather compelling, whether you like the way it looks or how it’s made. Arguably, there’s a lot to like about the Sea Ranger M2. Astor+Banks has been around for a few years, and, in my experience, each model is solid. So if you are looking for a GADA watch, I suggest taking a closer look at the full lineup and all four colors this model comes in. As always, please share your comments below!
