Farer Introduces the Integra, their First Integrated Bracelet Sports Watch
It’s perhaps a little surprising that it’s taken this long for Farer to enter the integrated bracelet sports watch scene. Not because the brand seems like a particularly likely prism through which to interpret the genre, but because the integrated bracelet sports watch has simply become a category unto itself over these last few years, and a brand that commits to variety of any kind needs to have one in their catalog, just as they need to have a diver, a dress watch, and so forth. The fact that so many small brands have carved out space in their collections for what was once a fairly niche and, if we’re being honest, not even very desirable style of watch says a lot about the state of the watch industry, more in fact than the purview of this article, which is to introduce the new Farer Integra lineup.
The Integra is what Farer calls their “urban sports watch,” a moniker that upon hearing it you think you know what they’re getting at, but then you realize one of these new references features a malachite dial, and another has one in mother of pearl, and suddenly confusion begins to take hold. Farer is a brand whose aesthetic is borrowed from nautical themes, and “gentleman driver” culture, so their take on “urban” was always going to be filtered through a very particular sensibility. In any case, it makes me wonder why any brand feels they need to fill these invented micro-niches. Can’t we just call it an integrated bracelet sports watch? Or a sports watch? We all kind of know what it is when we see it, right?
The Integra is a 38.5mm watch (10.3mm tall) in stainless steel with a case featuring alternating satin brushed and high polished elements. There are four dial variations available at launch: Viridis (malachite), Perlarum (mother of pear, seen in our photos), Tenebris (dark blue), and Cuprum (salmon). Each dial shares a motif of etched horizontal lines, which Farer says is meant to echo the horizontal bracelet links, but we’d remiss not to mention it’s also a design idea featured in perhaps the most iconic integrated bracelet sports watch of all time, and has also been used to evoke the deck of a ship in watches Omega’s Aqua Terra collection. Of course, no brand has a lock on any single aesthetic choice, and it’s hard to argue that the look of the Integra isn’t coherent, even if it’s not particularly adventurous. The mother of pearl dial distinguishes itself by having markers made from glowing Lumicast material that have been covered on the top surface by black paint, creating what the brand calls a “backglow” effect.
Farer is particularly proud of the bracelet design for the Integra, which tapers from 24mm at the lugs to 16mm at the butterfly clasp. Farer has added a clever microadjustment feature to the clasp, which allows for up to 3mm of adjustment on either end. This, of course, will be a welcome feature for just about everyone, and it’s worth acknowledging how uncommon it is for microadjustment to be available on a butterfly clasp.
Powering the Integra is a Sellita SW300 with a 56 hour power reserve. Farer is using the “Top Grade” variation of this movement, which is adjusted for accuracy across 5 positions. It also features a fully circular custom winding rotor that has been skeletonized to mimic the lines formed by the dial and bracelet. The Integra is water resistant to 100 meters (it has a screw down crown) and each watch ships with a rubber strap in addition to the steel bracelet.
The Tenebris and Cuprum models are each priced at $1,650, while the Viridis and Perlarum have a retail price of $1,765. Farer
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