Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus Review: The Chicken Sandwich Watch

Few watches will be as near and dear to me as my Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus. I mean, what’s not to love – it’s the #chickensandwichwatch! Need some context? Collinsville Watch Co. has been a friend of the Two Broke Watch Snobs podcast ever since the early days. Even back then Mike and I recognized the type of good work that Frank (the owner and operator of CW) was doing – making quality watches with great specs and design motifs that were significant and special.

The first Collinsville Watch Co. piece I ever had my hands on was part of the Nautilus Collection. Very quickly a bond was formed – this was a couple of years ago so I was still finding myself and my personal taste as a collector. So on days where I was just facing decision paralysis (or that ever-constant #horologicalEnnui) in front of my watchbox, I would just throw on my Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus in Sinister Blue and go about my day. In it’s very essence, this watch was my first grab-and-go quartz.

That’s when I realized it: this is my chicken sandwich watch.

Let’s say I’m at a restaurant. I’m staring down the menu and the menu is staring back up and laughing at me. I know I need to eat, but honestly I’m just so apathetic that I can’t figure out what to choose. Enter: Chicken Sandwich. If that menu has a chicken sandwich on it (or something closely related), that’s what I’m ordering. It’s my go-to menu choice in the same way that my Collinsville Nautilus is my go-to watch in moments of indecision. Hence, #chickensandwichwatch.

But my whimsical nostalgia and sandwich kinks aside, is the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus really for everyone? What type of quality and value are we really talking about here for a watch like this? After almost a year and a half I decided it was time to review the watch.

The Case

The Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus case is an exercise in timeless design that will always feel fresh. The main structure of the case is a classic cylinder shape. The top of the case is rounded while the bottom portion near the case back is beveled to accommodate the screw-down case back. While the main portion of the case sets itself flat on your wrist, the curved lugs offer that extra bit of support to foster a really comfortable and seamless wearing experience. It’s one of those really simple design principles that just works. That’s also most likely why the same case design was used on the very cool Limited Edition Kore II from Collinsville that I reviewed a while back.

Probably my favorite feature of the case is the simple contrasting juxtaposition of the brushed lug-tops and the high-polished fixed bezel. The brushed lugs help ground the case’s profile while the polished bezel helps set the stage by keeping the focus of your eye on the dial. The case back is high-polished as well and features the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus Collection Logo.

The crown for the case could be construed as possibly too small. However, since the piece is quartz I can’t imagine a need to utilize the crown very often. I’ve only had to use the crown a handful of times and I’ve had the watch for a long time now. Plus, the goal of the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus is to highlight the dial and a larger crown would have detracted from that focus in my opinion.

At 40mm the watch is sized just right. However it’s also available in 36mm and both sizes feature a flat sapphire crystal.

The Dial

I’m a huge fan of a watch with dial texture, and that’s one of the main draws of the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus. Styled in a similar fashion to its namesake, the dial of the watch features a spiral shape intended to evoke the inside of a nautilus shell. The quality of the texturing is really commendable in regards to how it captures and controls light. The dial texture is deep enough to cast shadows and accentuate the design; however the texture is also not too deep so as to look cheap or clunky.

The spiral design also balanced enough to not impede the actual legibility of the watch. It would have been way too easy to blast nautilus curves all over this thing and call it a day, but luckily Collinsville Watch Co. has more sense than that. The inner diameter of the dial is where the nautilus lines are featured while just outside this circle is where the watch’s legibility elements are featured.

The polishing and subtle rounded shape of the applied markers catches and rolls light in a way to make them visually pop. The effect is pretty cool and is a nice complement to the other visual features of the dial. The markers are a mix of Roman Numerals and tri-sided spear tips. Just outside the perimeter of these elements are the seconds and minute ticks.

The minute and hour hands are alpha-type watch hands. I find this style very appropriate as their straight lines bring legible contrast through the curvature of the dial texture beneath them. The seconds hand is a simple baton style. The ticks and the hands feature lume, but it isn’t going to hold a charge in the same way that a dive watch would. One could complain that the lume could leave something to be desired, but for a watch in this price point and given the fact that it’s primarily positioned as dress watch, the lume strength isn’t a deal breaker for me.

The Strap

There are actually a lot of fun strap options available for all Collinsville Watch Co. pieces. However for my 40mm Nautilus I opted for this brown leather quick-change strap with alligator detailing. The quality of the strap is appropriate for a watch in this price range. I actually found that it conformed to my wrist pretty quickly – it wasn’t too stiff or rigid to work with. In fact even about a year into owning it, the strap is still holding up really well – no flaking, no rips, no weird creases – none of that. Plus the combination of this brown color with the Sinister Blue dial is just on point for me. The lug width is 20mm, so it’s also entirely likely that you’ll have lots of straps to pair it with anyway (you’ll just need to make sure you have springbars of your own since the stock strap is quick change).

However, I can totally see how some folks may want more from their straps – Frank over at Collinsville Watch Co. recognized that also. That’s why he’s teamed up with @ealeathergoods (funnily enough, another longtime friend of the TBWS Podcast) to offer high-quality, handmade leather straps specifically for the Nautilus Collection. There are two types of custom straps from @ealeathergoods being offered: a light brown oil tanned leather and a custom distressed black leather – both are backed with tanned Hermann Oak. Check out the photos below of the straps that @ealeathergoods made for the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus. Photo credit for the following 4 shots goes to ealeathergoods.

The Movement

A Miyota 2105 quartz movement powers the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus. The movement features a day and date wheel and offers approximately 3 years of battery life. The reality here also is that as a quartz movement, it’s going to be very reliable and very accurate. For a watch in this price range the Miyota 2105 is absolutely an appropriate choice. One could make the argument that a “nicer” movement could have been used, however that would inevitably drive up the cost of the piece. Besides, in all the time I’ve had the watch I haven’t experienced any issues related to the movement.

Final Thoughts:

I’ll close with a question I ask for basically all microbrands: Who is this watch for? Who is the target audience?

At the risk of sounding whimsical I’ll say that if you’ve ever looked down in your watchbox and felt that slow, lingering grip of indecision put his hands on your shoulders, the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus may be for you. If you’re like me and you sometimes just feel like you need to step out of the horological rat race of wrist-envy, worrying about what’s in, and coordinating wristshots with stupid topical hashtags, the Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus may be for you.

Is this watch for everyone? No – very few products actually appeal to everyone. But what I’m confident in stating is that this watch was integral very early on in how my view of watch collecting evolved. The Collinsville Nautilus taught me that you can get a high quality watch for a great price. But most important of all, this watch taught me that sometimes the best parts of your collection are the ones that are just fun for the sake of being fun. Sometimes the best pieces are the ones you can throw on and not have to worry about taking yourself too seriously with.

I mean, come on, guys – it’s the #ChickenSandwichWatch. If fun isn’t in the equation for your watch collection you got some soul-searching to do.

The Collinsville Watch Co. Nautilus is actually on sale right now for $99 (marked down 40% from $149). Or if you want a Collinsville Nautilus with one of those amazing @ealeathergoods straps, its $149 (marked down 40% from $199). Both can be checked out on the brand’s Nautilus Collection page.

The discount ends on May 31st, which means if you’re like me and you’re looking to get something amazing without spending a lot of cash, then it’s worth checking out the Sale Page on the brand’s site. If you have any questions about the review or the watch please totally let me know what’s up in the comments.