Review: The Ten Eleven Nine Researcher

The label ‘elegant tool watch’ is a bit of an oxymoron when you think about it. Objects we’d traditionally refer to as tools are generally far removed from any context under which they could possibly qualify as elegant. A few bar tools come to mind, a restored felling axe perhaps, but definitely not that wrench set you got on sale at Wal-Mart. Yet, it’s a description we find ourselves faced with in regards to many watches that walk a fine line between tool and jewel. The Rolex Explorer immediately comes to mind as just such an example, the Monta Noble another. A new brand hailing from Berlin called Ten Eleven Nine is aiming to enter these ranks with three new watches being funded through Kickstarter. We got our hands on a prototype of the Researcher model to see just how close they get.