Hot Take: Oak & Oscar Olmsted Matte Watch Review

We take a quick look at the new Oak & Oscar Olmsted Matte, a thoughtful variant on the brand’s field watch.

It’s hard to believe that it was almost a year ago when I caught up with Oak & Oscar founder Chase Fancher in person. He visited Frankfurt and was kind enough to host a cocktail event at my favorite spot in town. Aside from the fantastic refreshments, Chase brought the brand’s newest release: the Olmsted 38. I still recall taking pictures of these new watches in the Autumn weather on Berger Straße and I came away wanting one in my collection. I added the white dial version and picked it up on my last trip to the States way back in February. Now, here we are in late 2020 and Oak & Oscar has released the new Olmsted Matte.

The Olmsted Matte and a recap

To refresh your memory, the Olmsted 38 is a stainless “field” watch that comes in three different dial colors. Buyers can choose between white, navy, and grey on leather or one of the best bracelets I’ve encountered regardless of price. The watches all have sandwich styles with some typical Oak & Oscar touches like a sweep hand with barrel-shaped counterweight and sevens with a hash line. Orange makes a cameo on the details because Chase has a strong family tie to the University of Virginia. These watches are all normal production and feature an ETA 2892A2 with date function. I really enjoy mine and it has a very Explorer like feel. It’s the kind of watch you put on and it sort of melds to your wrist. The Olmsted Matte should give the same satisfaction and it brings some changes.

Slight, but meaningful differences

The Olmsted Matte immediately differs from the normal Olmsted 38 due to its case. The cases are bead blasted, hand coated, and heated at extremely high temperatures to create the hard ceramic coating. Chase sought out an American company to do the coating work and was able to find a firm in California. Apparently, the company had never tried its hand with watches, but was up for the challenge.

The result is an even look that’s less shiny than typical DLC or PVD coatings. The other news here is a modified ETA 2892A2 sans date function and “stop” to change the date. For the record, this is the first dateless Oak & Oscar. The watch is available solely with a black dial with white Super-LumiNova and an orange sweep hand.

Additional points

Like it’s naked cousin, the Olmsted Matte is also a regular production watch. However, the ceramic coating isn’t the fastest operation or most open, so production will be limited due to the process. The watches ship on a brown Horween strap with black coated hardware and an olive drab nylon strap with coated hardware. As always, a useful waxed canvas watch wallet ships along with a strap changing tool.

Final thoughts and pricing

Normally, black-coated watches aren’t my thing, but the contrast works really well here on the Olmsted Matte. The watch looks focused and clean, but it doesn’t look like a chintzy G.I. Joe military special. With Oak & Oscar, it’s always worth noting that these aren’t your everyday $500-600 micro-brand watches. The quality of finishing is on a far different level and the price reflects this accordingly. At $1,550 ($1,475 during the pre-sale period), the Olmsted Matte is meant for someone who will wear and enjoy this watch with regularity. Size and form wise, I think that owners should be more than happy to do that.

Visit the official Oak & Oscar site for ordering information.