hoangbre@gmail.com
British independent brand Farer is heating up the summer scene with a new line of dress watches: the Lissom collection. The result is fun, classy, and beautifully true to the brand’s bold design language. I had the purple dialed “Lindley” in for review, but there are five total watches in the Lissom collection, offering a great mix of bright color combinations and more traditional neutrals.
Every watch in the Lissom line has unique characteristics, but they have one thing in common – each reference shares a name with influential figures in the fields of botany and the natural sciences. I learned that my review sample was named in honor of John Lindley (1799 – 1865), an English horticulturist whose research, botanical illustrations, and championing of a natural system of plant classification were influential in his field.
The emphasis a first impression should have on watch purchase history should be studied. In my own collection, I have an array of watches with varying degrees of “love at first sight” influence – it doesn’t ultimately sway me one way or the other when deciding to purchase a watch. However, very few watches I’ve handled have elicited the audible gasp that accompanied my unboxing of the Lissom Lindley. In the name of science, much like its namesake, I’ve attempted to deconstruct why I was so immediately taken with this watch.
At 38mm in diameter with a thickness of 7.95mm, the Lindley is svelte, sharp, and downright dreamy on the wrist. Much of the low profile is owed to the movement: the La Joux-Perret D100, a manually wound, Swiss made caliber, has a height of just 2.5mm. The Lindley is the first manually wound watch I’ve spent any significant amount of time with, and it became quickly apparent how much I’ve become reliant on automatic movements and their ability to self-power. My daily routine hasn’t involved winding a watch each day, so this part took a little getting used to. Fortunately, the 50 hour power reserve makes the Lissom collection more forgiving of the forgetful than some other hand-wound options out there.
The case is crafted from 316L marine-grade stainless steel. Angled 20mm lugs make the watch feel very well-proportioned and fit the overall sleek design; they also aid in closely hugging the wrist. Instead of the smooth lug curve common on many dress watches, the Lindley achieves the same effect through three distinct bevels that have been highly polished. This contrasts remarkably well with the satin brushed finishing on the sides of the case. The flat sapphire crystal – doubly applied with anti-reflective coating – keeps the whole profile thin.
The dial is captivating. The Lindley is a rich shade of satin brushed purple, a color not frequently associated with the dress watch category. The brand seems to double down on circumventing color tradition in more ways than one – the subdial at 6 o’clock is a powder blue hue with a pink seconds hand bordered by a black railroad seconds track. The Lissom Forrest and Arber colorways are teal and raspberry red, respectively. However, the Balfour and Solander provide neutral options, white and black, for those wanting a more traditional color scheme. Four out of the five references in the Lissom collection feature white radially mounted Arabic numerals and white tapered hands. The Balfour, which has a white dial, has electric blue hour markers and hands. Each colorway provides extreme legibility and offers a crisp visual, where every piece knows its place.
Much to the brand’s credit, these shockingly contrasted elements made me question the nature of what it means to be a dress watch and how I’ve historically defined this category. Often, when I’m conjuring up an image of a dress watch in my mind, legibility is a factor that doesn’t receive much attention. Of course there are notable exceptions, but I tend to think of swirling script and generally fragile features. Elegance is a priority, but clarity is not. Farer seems to subvert expectations by extending a throughline of legibility that runs the entire gamut of their collections.
Lume also isn’t high on my list of specs when considering a dress watch, but the Lindley has worked to change my mind on this. The hour markers and hands are coated with Grade X2 Super-LumiNova, which offers a beautiful blue glow that allows for easy nighttime viewing.
The Lindley has a water resistance of 50m, which makes sense for its category and size, and is on par with similar watches by the brand. What the watch gains in aesthetic by being very thin, it sacrifices in robustness. The push/pull crown at 3 o’clock doesn’t provide the same level of security against accidental disengagement when underwater that a screw down crown might, but – in my opinion – it’s not really the job of a dress watch to play that role.
Instead, my only qualm with the crown is purely a matter of aesthetic preference, not function. Farer’s inclusion of a bronze cap with an embossed “A” logo is part of the brand’s identity and I think it looks great on the majority of their watches (especially their field and GMT lines). However, the lack of bronze anywhere else on this very stainless-steel-forward watch makes the cap feel a bit out of place. Without another bronze tie-in (even something as simple as the screws on the caseback perhaps?) I can’t help but feel the uniformly dressy nature of this watch is somewhat disrupted when viewing the Lindley from its profile. Again, this really is a personal preference that could serve as a selling-point to someone else considering the Lissom line. It might even enhance the watch’s ability to more closely bridge the gap between “everyday wearer” and something purely formal.
The brand provides a handful of options for strap pairings that the wearer can select in the checkout process. My review sample came on a royal purple suede strap that matched the dial, but the denim blue suede matched to the subdial provides a bit more visual variety. If someone wants the vivid dials to take center stage, the brand provides brown, gray, black, and tan strap options – some suede and some leather – all with color-matched stitching down the side. The quick-release mechanism on the straps adds a touch of convenience and will be helpful for those wanting to experiment with multiple color pairings. If you’re looking for a metal option, a milanese bracelet can be selected for a slight upcharge.
Ultimately, the Lissom collection offers enthusiasts a dress watch that’s exciting, bold, and incredibly Farer. I can see this line being a good fit for someone who doesn’t often dabble in the dress watch game and values legibility and lume, or someone deeply entrenched in the formal world who is looking for something to shake it up a little. I can confidently say the finishing on this watch – the applied indices, the slightly sunken subdial, the depth of the dial hues, and overall richness of the wearing experience – is something I associate with watches double the price point. That Farer is able to deliver this level of quality in the sub-$1,300 range is, frankly, boggling to me. With five colorways offered in this collection, coupled with the quality the brand is known for, many will find these watches deserving of serious consideration in their next dress watch purchase.
The Lissom collection is priced at $1,295 on an OEM suede strap. The watches are available for pre-order now on the brand’s website with an estimated ship date of mid-July 2025.
