Boderry Landmaster – Exceptional Components Relative to Price
Tested on a 5 Day Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon
For the purposes of this Boderry Landmaster review, we took the watch out on a five-day backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon to see how it performed in the field. In large part, Landmaster lived up to expectations- excellent components and impeccable value make for a rugged and accurate timepiece. But it was not without flaw, and in addition to pros, this review will also cover a couple of issues we ran into along the way.
- MSRP/Common Price: $139 | $129
- Movement: Automatic, Seiko NH35A
- Diameter: 38.0 mm
- Reserve Power: 41 hours
- Case & Crystal: Titanium, Domed Sapphire
- Water Resistance: 100m
- Lume: C1 Super-LumiNova
- Primary Competitors: Boderry Voyager, Seiko 5 Sport
- Pros: Great value, durability, timekeeping. Lightweight. Proven accurate Seiko automatic movement. Rugged titanium case. Lume tubes prolong visibility.
- Cons: Only 100m water resist. Newer watch, newer brand, long term reliability/quality unproven. Crown protrudes excessively, popped open when watch overheated in direct sun/high heat. Lume not particularly bright.
Compare this to more great timepieces in our guide to the best field watches.
SEIKO Movement, Accurate Timekeeping
Boderry Landmaster, like its sibling the Voyager, is an automatic watch built with Japanese SEIKO NH35A movement, a caliber that has proven accurate and effective time and time again. In case that sounds like gibberish, automatic watches power themselves based on the movement of your wrist; simply keep wearing the watch it and will never run out of juice.
And like all mechanical watches, it can also be wound by unlocking and twisting the crown, and benefits from seconds hacking to resync as -needed. It has a 41 hour power reserve, meaning you can take the watch off overnight without issue, or for nearly two full days before it stops ticking.
Based on our testing, it gained 5 seconds per day. Over the course of seven days, including five days of non-stop wear and hiking in the backcountry, it gained five seconds per day. Considering the changes in pressure, temperature, and frequent movement, and the fact that it’s factory rated to +/- 20 seconds per day, we think that’s a pretty good result. That level of accuracy is usually found in significantly more expensive models.
Dial, Crystal, and Lume
How Good Are Boderry Landmaster’s Lume Tubes?
Dial: Specced with a black dial and white numerals, the Boderry Landmaster is a highly legible time keeper with a large face relative to its small 38mm case diameter. The minute numerals and second indicators are both easy to read, and you even get date-keeping. The dial doesn’t feel crowded, busy, or distracted.
Crystal: The domed sapphire crystal proved excellent in our testing, enhancing legibility at all angles while providing slight magnification. Sapphire rated crystal is best-in-class for resistance to scratching, and despite numerous encounters with sharp desert rocks in the Grand Canyon, Landmaster’s crystal remains unblemished.
Lume: One standout and highly unique feature of the Landmaster are its “Lume Tubes,” filled with C1 Super LumiNova paint. It gets tiny versions of these tubes at the minute indicators, as well as larger tubes on the minute and hour hand. C1 Super LumiNova is the base level version of one of the most prolific and well-regarded lume series in the world. While not as bright as C3, it is a good starting point. We found it be better more luminous than Boderry Voyager, but significantly less luminous than SEIKO’s LumiBrite as found on the 5 Sports.
The idea behind the lume tubes is that the 3-dimensionality of them (compared to most watches, which receive 2d paint-on lume coats), can absorb more light, with a greater surface area that ultimately yields greater lume output. It’s a really cool idea, but in practice, we weren’t all that impressed. The lume output was never particularly bright (despite prolific charging in direct sun), and significantly less bright than more premium lumes.
Where it did seem to help was in relation to lume output over time. Checking the watch from inside of my tent at 9pm, 1am (had to pee), and again at 5am (woken up by a gust of wind), the lume hardly got any dimmer over the course of eight hours. That being said, it wasn’t all that bright in the first place, and higher quality, brighter lume remains more desirable and effective than greater/3D tubed quantities of lower quality lume.
We’d call the tube experiment a minor success that did not live up to the hype. If you’re looking for a luminous all star, we refer to you watches with C3 Super Lumi Nova, Seiko Lumi Bright, or anything with tritium.
Case, Crown, & Band
Case: Titanium is the best material in which to encase a field watch, and we’re glad to see it used here. Compared to stainless steel, titanium is lighter weight and stronger.
Crown: The crown is perhaps Boderry Landmaster’s greatest design flaw, and where we ran into the most trouble. It is larger-than-average relative to the overall watch size, protrudes more than is welcome without any extended casing along the sides, and has deep textured grooves. While all of those traits make it easy to grip and twist, they also have significantly increased potential for scraping up and bruising the back of the wearer’s hand. At this point, we’re prepared to say that all field watches should have 4:00 crowns, and that any 3:00 crown is an obvious concession towards style that degrades functionality.
One saving grace with the crown is that the watch overall is very lightweight and doesn’t move around on the wrist as much. This prevents it from slamming into the back of your hand as you move your arm, and reduces the potential damage it could have caused to a minimum.
Crown popped open in heat and direct sun: Beyond crown sizing and placement, an even greater issue we experienced while testing was that the crown popped open three times over the course of the five day hike, without ever once being intentionally unscrewed. This is almost certainly due to pressurization of the inner chamber because of high heat and direct sunlight exposure. Temps reached over 90F while hiking along the Colorado river, and the lack of shade made it even worse for the black dial which absorbed extra heat. At time of publication, it’s unclear if other field watches would have been affected in the same way (nobody else in the group of five hikers was wearing one) or if this is a unique flaw distinct to Boderry Landmaster, or even just my copy.
Notably, it’s easy to screw the crown back into place when this happens, and it only happened on extremely hot and exposed afternoons. It’s probable that most people will never experience this issue, but it is definitely worth noting if you expect to wear it in hot/exposed conditions. If this has happened to you, please drop us a line and let us know the watch and conditions in which it happens. But until we collect more experience, to know if the issue is specific to my copy, those conditions, or all Landmasters, we’ll assume this is an isolated incident.
Boderry Landmaster’s large, textured 3:00 crown is it’s worst feature, and we strongly prefer the rounded 4:00 crown of Boderry Voyager.
Band: The elongated nylon, NATO-style band is light, functional and comfortable. The majority of its strap length is below the watch, with keepers on the outside of the wrist which prevents it from interfering with whatever you’re handling. However, those with narrower wrists will have to double back the tip and tuck it into the top keeper to prevent it from sticking out. That’s a bit annoying but not a major issue. We have not tested the titanium bracelet version.
L to R: Boderry Voyager, Boderry Landmaster, SEIKO 5 Sports
Boderry Landmaster vs Voyager vs SEIKO 5 Sports
Boderry Landmaster vs Boderry Voyager
The Boderry Voyager and Landmaster are two very similar watches. Both are built with titanium cases, sapphire crystal, NATO bands, 100m water resistance, C1 Super Lumi Nova, and SEIKO NH35A movement. While the Voyager has a larger diameter, they have a similar face measurement. The advantages of the Voyager are that it’s $30 less expensive, has a 4:00 crown (major advantage), and a recessed bezel if you’re worried about scratches. The advantages Landmaster are that it is slightly lighter weight and slightly easier to read due to the domed crystal and lume tubes, but has an inferior crown. Read more in our complete Boderry Voyager Review.
Boderry Landmaster vs SEIKO 5 Sports
Boderry Landmaster is also similar to the much more famous and popular SEIKO 5 Sports, and both watches are made with SEIKO-brand movement, and rated to 100m of water resistance. The advantages of the Landmaster is that it is ~$100 cheaper, is lighter weight due to a titanium case instead of stainless steel and slightly smaller diameter, and more scratch resistant due to sapphire vs Hardlex. The Seiko 5 Sports is manufactured by a more trusted and reliable brand, has a smaller crown, superior movement in the 4R36 rated to +/- 7 seconds per day (vs +/- 20 for Landmasters NH35A), a more impact resistant Hardlex crystal, and much much brighter lume in Lumibrite.
Compare Boderry Landmaster to more great options in our complete guide to the best field watches.
Boderry Landmaster Review Conclusion
The bottom line is that Boderry Landmaster has a great set of components and desirable features for a price well below what other brands would sell it for. The case, weight, crystal, dial, and movement are all phenomenal. The lume tubes improved longevity of output but not brightness and seem over-hyped. The crown size/texture/placement is poor, and the primary reason we prefer Boderry Voyager with its 4:00 crown. Nonetheless, we’re impressed by the overall value proposition of Landmaster, and give the watch a solid thumbs up, assuming the crown popping was an isolated incident.
