Allow me to introduce to you the newest member of the Boldr family, the Coral Black bronze Odyssey. A bit about Boldr from their website:

“BOLDR Supply Company is an outfitter brand for the adventurers of the world. Based out of Singapore, we manufacture watches and gear that’s super-tough, stylish, functional, and built to be used and abused every day. Because watches are worn on wrists and your wrists follow you everywhere, you’ll need a companion that can handle any environment on your path. Strap on a BOLDR and step out of your comfort zone, comfortably.”

Straight out of the gate I am already impressed with this bronze beast of a beauty. I have grown quite fond of bronze over the past two decades and it’s one of my absolute favorite case materials. When I looked at this watch, immediately the bezel and the crown jumped out at me saying “look at us! We are beautiful and badass!” Boldr’s Odyssey case design is so recognizable and so incredibly well designed. It’s designed with ASA in mind. For those of you unfamiliar with ASA, it’s an abbreviation for adventure sustained abuse. The strong geometrical shape of the large lugs, the robust oversized crown and the crown guards, were all designed with the idea that the Odyssey line was going to be abused by the wearer. Purpose driven design is always something that gets me excited.

Every Tuesday on my social media, I talked about this watch leading up to this review. Those who tuned in definitely got some bronze spam.

I listed the specs below.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Case: 45.5mm CuSn8 Bronze case + helium escape valve
Movement: Swiss Sellita SW200-1 Automatic movement
Water Resistance: 500m (1650ft) / 50ATM
Crown: Triple lock screw down crown with custom embossed BOLDR logo
Dial & Hands: Matte dial & hands with high precision Lumicast® pieces made with Swiss Super-LumiNova®
Bezel: 120-click Unidirectional bezel in CuSn8 Bronze
Lens: High double dome sapphire crystal with inner side AR-coating
Strap: Druber® fluoroelastomer rubber strap
Case Thickness: 16.8mm
Lug size: 22mm
Lug to lug: 52mm
Case Back: Single-piece screw down caseback with embossed limited edition artwork
Limited to 100pcs, individually serialized from 001/100 to 100/100

I also included the Boldr Woodsman III snake wood knife in some of the pics. It’s been my daily carry knife for the past few months. It has easily become one of my favorites in my knife collection. Why?!? The knife is easy to carry, sharp and is made with great quality, both the blade and the handle.

The large, industrial/geometrical angles of the lugs are what I appreciate the most on their Odyssey cases. They add so much not only to the profile of the watch, but they also add a major degree of ruggedness to the watch. There is no denying the wrist presence of a Boldr Odyssey watch and this Coral Black is no different.

The crown and crown guards are some of the other recognizable details that share that same aesthetically pleasing design. Rest assured though, it’s not all about the looks, it is also has rugged functionality that I appreciate so much. I love that I can count on the crown to be one that I can grip no matter what the environment is throwing at me and that it will also function smoothly. The unscrew/screw action is extremely fluid, as is manually winding the watch & setting the time/date as well.

Boldr always delivers on their casebacks too! I love the Kraken design on this watch. It’s so menacing but also quite beautiful especially when it catches/plays with the different light. It just adds so much personality to this watch, not that it needed any help in that department.

The bezel and the crystal are two details that were hard for me to ignore. The raised markers on the bezel add to the depth of the design. These are going to look so damn good when the patina really begins to set in. The markers are easy to read as well. Thanks to the size and details on the edge of the bezel, operating the bezel is a thing of ease.

We already established what a beast of a beauty this bronze Odyssey case is, which is quite appropriate considering this dial on the Coral Black model is also a beast and a beauty in its own regards. This dial is everything that you want a dial to be. It’s extremely legible…..both in the daytime and thanks to the serious lume treatment, it’s also extremely legible at night too. The hands and the markers received a more than generous helping of high precision Lumicast® made with Swiss Super-LumiNova®. Boldr took the legibility as a top priority by giving us large hour markers and large hands, all of which are proportioned perfectly to this dial. The raised markers have been masterfully casted in a process that combines ceramic parts with Swiss Super-LumiNova®, which allows for lume that is some of the best/brightest that I have experienced.

The black dial is exactly how I prefer my dials to be, large, matte finish and has a uniform flow. What do I mean by uniform flow? Well let me explain, there isn’t a detail on this dial that hasn’t been meticulously planned out and sized appropriately. The Boldr name and logo isn’t this huge billboard sized eyesore that takes up a large portion of the dial under the 12H position. It’s tastefully done and it is printed in a nice contrasting white. I can say the same thing about the information printed above the 6H position on this dial. The model name and the water resistance is appropriately sized and is also printed in white.

Boldr even considered that flow with their choice of colors for the date wheel. The date wheel is black with white printed numerals. The shape design of the bronze hands are quite lovely and Boldr didn’t stop there either. They added a red tip to the second hand, giving it increased legibility, that comes in quite handy when using the Odyssey to time right down to the second.

I love that there is patina is already beginning to form quite nicely on this watch. There’s something undeniably sexy about a CuSn8 bronze case. Add in Boldr’s industrial geometry of their case design and you are in for one hell of a treat! We have already talked about the crown side of the case and usually there’s not much of anything to talk about on the 9H side of the case. Thankfully Boldr wanted me to talk a bit more than usual so they gave us a helium release valve on that side of the case.

The Odyssey CB comes on a soft & pliable Druber® fluoroelastomer rubber strap. There is no denying that this is a quality made strap. I personally am not a fan of rubber straps so I put this watch on this Varioeveryday strap because the hardware matches this case quite nicely. I’ve been wearing a 53mm bronze piece a lot lately, so this 45mm case seems so compact to me. That’s not saying that this watch doesn’t have awesome wrist presence. It just means that it’s a cool illusion that wearing the 53mm gives the 45mm a much different feel. A watch doesn’t have to have what people consider a large case in order to still have awesome wrist presence. What helps is a great case shape/design and a great looking dial. Even if this Odyssey was in 40mm, it still would have banging wrist presence.

Boldr definitely accomplished a win with the design of this watch from the case to the dial. I love the high double dome sapphire crystal on this watch and I love how Boldr did a treatment of AR-coating to just the inside of the crystal, allowing you to have a crystal clear look into the beautiful coral black dial. The high crystal adds appeal to the profile to this watch.

I was out getting some wave assisted patina with the Coral Black, and it handled itself brilliantly. The patina on this watch developed more and more over each week I spent with this watch and that patina just adds to the Odyssey’s charming character. The Odyssey case design is so well planned out that it almost seems like it is asking for a dish full of ASA. If you are the opposite of a patina lover, you can easily keep this case quite clean & shiny, thus allowing you to dress it up a bit more. I could easily see this watch being a good companion for all you desk divers out there.

I personally appreciate that Boldr made this watch rugged tough for outdoor adventures. Like I mentioned before, you never know when that accidental drop might happen. Having a watch that gladly accepts your ASA, eliminates that unnecessary “what if I hit my watch on something?” worry. I greatly appreciate that peace of mind.

I added a second video clip at the end of the first video because I wanted to show how nicely the hands on this watch play with the natural light…..after I focused the camera 🤪

Such a magnificent piece from the team at Boldr. What always impresses me about Boldr is that their quality for sub 1k watches. Quality control that exceeds that of the quality control I experienced with certain hype brands. I’ve heard the argument but Boldr only produces a few hundred watches per model and those big brands produce HUGE amounts of watches per model. What’s that mean other than an excuse. So just because a company produces more watches, it allows lack of quality control? And that attitude is exactly why the big companies can get away with shit quality control.

I appreciate Boldr and like brands, because they are still driven by passion. Passion for their watches, passion for their customers and passion for philanthropy. I have nothing but respect for Boldr. Does this give me an excuse to go easy on them with my reviews?!? Absolutely not. There will always be jealous, bitter, lap dogs that will say otherwise, but every litter needs little bitches. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The Coral Black is Boldr’s most impressive release to date in my opinion. It has such a commanding presence. The combination of bronze with the strong angular design of the case and the menacing dark dial, all works so damn well together in a cohesiveness that makes this watch nerd drool with absolute delight.

The newest bronze beast in the Odyssey arsenal is making quite the splash in my opinion. We know that Boldr makes a case that is definitely reliable and thankfully Boldr housed the case with a reliable movement. Beating away inside of the Coral Black is a Swiss Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. It’s a movement that has become one of my favorites over the past few years. This Odyssey has been keeping excellent time without gaining or losing anything over 5 seconds per day.

This is easily a watch that I would grab and go on one of my outdoor adventures with because I know that Boldr’s Odyssey watches are made for adventures. Whether you are an adventurer that goes on big adventures or small adventures, Boldr’s lineup of Odyssey watches are designed to handle them all. I love that once I strap this watch onto my wrist, there is no need to worry about it.

It can handle the abuse of being smacked around by the waves, being hit against rocks, and it certainly can handle the sand, mud and rain.

The industrial design of this case is deliberate and purpose driven. The thick, angular lugs are designed specifically to accept those unforeseen impact abuses that happen even in our everyday lives, like door frames and doorknobs.

I love the stormy waves, the cold wind, and the sounds of gulls. I should have been a pirate. Taking this watch to the water on multiple occasions and it was like having a piece of pirates treasure.

I decided to highlight the nature like I highlight the watches, because without the nature my watch pics would be boring. The nature around me needs to have the same loving treatment that I show my watches. My very first instagram shot was when I was on a hike in nature. I do believe it was the Bremont S500. In my 10 years of my blog, I experimented with different style of photography/setting, but I always came back to nature. Watches and nature are my sanity.

My photography was complete shit though for probably the first 4 years or so of my blog and instagram. My OCD tendencies were always pushing myself to improve, and they still are but at least now every once in a while I take a shot that I think “this isn’t half bad.”

It’s been an amazing journey over the past 10 years. I have met some amazing people, experienced a ton of watches, from a ton of brands and have devoted myself to delivering content that I am proud of. I love this hobby. I love watches. I love photography. I love nature. And I love the watch fam.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for Boldr because their vision is full of great promise. I posted Boldr’s vision below.

https://www.boldrsupply.co/collections/odyssey-bronze/products/odyssey-bronze-coal-black

Thank you all for reading and thanks to Boldr!

VISION

Design: Building tough, adventure-ready watches that inspire you to take action.
Giving Back: We support communities in need and endorse inspirational individuals from all walks of life.
Environment First: We’re actively moving towards using 80% sustainable, environmentally-friendly materials in our products and packaging.

Every piece is built with features that define our brand; a blend of modern and classic design elements incorporated with horological technologies and tough, quality materials. Our materials are handpicked for their durability and resilience, because we got tired of capitalistic consumer goods that value quantity over quality.