Vaer C4 Tactical Field Solar
Review
If you spend a minute or two on Vaer’s website, it becomes immediately apparent that field watches are their bread and butter. Their lineup features dozens of watches based on historical military pieces, but the C4 Tactical Field Solar is a unique departure from their standard layout. To understand why this modern piece stands apart, we’ll first look at the history and evolution of the field watch.
The Field Watch Legacy
Credit: DBG Militaria
When you hear the term “field watch,” images of models like the Hamilton Khaki likely come to mind: a simple, compact, and highly legible three-hander. No date, no bezel, no frills. Just lumed Arabic numerals and hands. The design is one of function over form, with its lineage tracing back to the trench watches of World War I. These early wristwatches were essentially field-expedient conversions built using parts from pocket watches.
As the need for reliable timekeeping among troops grew, so did the development of more dedicated field watches by established American companies such as Elgin, Bulova, and Waltham. These watches, referred to in military literature as the A-11, became standard issue for U.S. military personnel and are sometimes called “the watch that won the war.” Similarly, the British Ministry of Defence contracted a very similar design to twelve Swiss firms. These watches are affectionately referred to as “the dirty dozen.”
Photo Credit: Watches Of Knightsbridge
The Dirty Dozen watches remained in circulation up until the mid-sixties or seventies - a true testament to their build quality. Staying true to the legacy of these rugged workhorses, Vaer offers a range of Dirty Dozen style watches (C3, C5, and S5) in various sizes with either an Ameriquartz (a US-assembled quartz movement) or a solar movement. They also offered a more historically accurate Swiss-made model, sized at 36mm and featuring a Sellita SW260-1 movement. While these A12 models appear to have been a limited run and are sold out, it demonstrates that Vaer is no stranger to bringing classic military designs back for the modern user.
A Clandestine Origin: The MIL-W-50717 Specification
Photo Credit Isaac Wingold/Lessons In Wristory
The C4 Tactical Field Solar, however, takes its inspiration from a different, more clandestine military specification. In the early seventies, the U.S. government requested a completely sterile watch for use by the CIA, Navy SEALs, and Green Berets operating in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This specification, officially known as MIL-W-50717, spawned the Benrus Type I and Type II.
Built with the same large, angular, and asymmetrical case (measuring a hefty 43mm with fixed springbars), these watches were a significant departure from standard-issue field watches, using a design more akin to a dive watch with a screw-down crown and rotating bezel.
Type I: Featured a standard dive watch dial layout with round indices and ample lume.
Type II: More interesting, it featured a standard field watch layout with Arabic numerals and a separate 24-hour scale for quick conversion to military time.
Both the Type I and II used a 12-hour bezel insert for tracking a second time zone, but they also included a triangular pip and 20-minute graduations to allow for timing dives - an important feature for SEALs and UDT operators.
Very few of these original military-issued Benrus watches exist today, with survivors fetching anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000 on the collectors market. While Benrus has recently reissued both models, which retail for about $1,795, the price is a hard pill to swallow for many enthusiasts, especially since the Vaer C4 retails for only $479.
Vaer as a Brand
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Venice, California, Vaer is the largest 'independent' producer of US-assembled watches. The 'independent' distinction is important: Vaer is a small business with no big corporation watching over its shoulder. While they may not be manufacturing cases in the states, they do have several models in their lineup that are sitting at 64% US-sourced components, which is extraordinary, especially at their price point.
A few emails back and forth with co-founder Ryan Torres painted a picture of their US manufacturing operations, and it’s a good one. While they aren't assembling all of their watches in-house, they offer a wide range of watches featuring US Assembly, with the average price of one of those watches sitting at $259, which is incredibly reasonable in today's market.
The Vaer C4 Tactical Field Solar
Initial Impressions
Enter the Vaer C4 Tactical Field Solar: a watch purpose-built to be used and abused. This 41.5mm cushion-cased field/diver mashup is incredibly refreshing, to say the least. When I first saw the C4 on the website, I was a bit confused; it looked familiar, but wrong. It took me a decent amount of staring to realize what I was seeing: Vaer found a way to shove the Type II into a much more practical case style and somehow push it even further into the realm of hard-use military tool watches.
Case and Wearability
The case is one of the more interesting aspects of this watch. Though listed at 41.5mm, the C4 seems to wear smaller than its specs suggest, similar to the Seiko Turtle line of watches. My wrists are not what you would call big, and usually, watches over the 40mm mark look a bit gigantic on me, but these cushion-case watches always seem to look much smaller than their specs suggest. Honestly, this watch wears better than most of the watches I own.
The lug-to-lug measurement is 48mm, and the lugs turn down slightly, allowing the watch to hug the wrist extremely well. The lug width is a standard 20mm, which also helps keep the overall appearance of the C4 more compact, as does the 12.8mm overall thickness. The crown is positioned at 4 o'clock and has incredibly smooth threading. While the solar movement means there's little need to use it, the quality is apparent. The caseback is a simple screw-down affair that features a fun Easter egg referencing its military DNA: it's engraved with the NATO phonetic alphabet. Every surface of the C4 is finished with a matte bead-blasted texture, keeping reflections to a minimum and hiding scratches and scuffs incredibly well.
The Epson VS-42 Solar Movement
Next up is something that I was a bit apprehensive about, though quickly realized was a non-issue: the Epson VS-42 solar movement. While spending time in the hobby can lead you to believe that quartz means low quality and mechanical means high quality, quartz definitely has its place, and here it excels.
Quick research on the VS-42 shows some major positives over both traditional quartz and automatic movements, starting with accuracy. Seiko/Epson claim an accuracy of +/-20 seconds a month at normal operating temperatures. Compare this to a typical mechanical movement that might lose or gain several seconds per day, and the accuracy advantage is clear. My particular example isn't even showing a single second of deviation from month to month. I can leave it sitting on my nightstand for days and pick it up knowing it’s going to be dead accurate without needing to wind or fiddle with it.
The other benefit is the incredible efficiency of the solar cell. Just six hours of sunlight will get you six months of reserve, but the cell is sensitive enough to be charged with indoor lighting. The only slight negative is that the dial needs to be slightly transparent, which is noticeable in harsh sunlight; it just means that the dial is not a true black.
Dial, Lume, and Legibility
Vaer leaned heavily into the Type II design for everything from the numerals to the hands. The dial is a huge piece of real estate on the C4, but it manages to be interesting without any dead space. The numerals are massively tall blocks of solid green C3 Super-LumiNova. These 3D-printed markers provide excellent legibility against the slightly off-black dial and soak up a ridiculous amount of charge.
Another detail I absolutely love is the typeface Vaer uses for the numerals; they are styled like a military paint stencil, meaning the 2 and 5, and 6 and 9 are simply flipped upside down, adding a fun little pop to a mostly sterile design. The lume on this watch is bright enough to read by at night.
The handset (another design element pulled from the Type I/II), as well as the unidirectional 12-hour aluminum bezel, both feature generous helpings of that same C3 Super-LumiNova and glow at the exact same brightness as the 3D blocks - something that other watches using 3D lume occasionally struggle with.
The dial is minimally adorned with text, featuring the subtle Vaer logo up top and "USA Assembly" and the depth rating at the six o'clock. The only real pop of color is a bit of red paint on the tip of the second hand, adding some character over the original Type I/II. Finishing off the field watch aesthetic is a small 24-hour track around the inside of the dial and a slightly raised sapphire crystal. All of these details make for one of the most readable dial layouts I’ve had the pleasure of using. You can tell the time easily in any lighting without any glare or reflections, something that was critical in the original MIL-W-50717 specifications.
Quality Control and Minor Gripes
While my overall opinion on this watch is overwhelmingly positive, I do have some slight gripes I need to address. The first of which is a big one: quality control. The watch I am turning over in my hand as I type this is not the watch I received in that first hard case, nor is it the second.
The first watch I received showed up with the caseback slightly cross-threaded. The team at Vaer quickly got a replacement out to me without hesitation - a 10/10 customer service experience. The replacement unfortunately had some alignment issues that couldn't be ignored. Regardless, I was quickly shipped a new one, which happened to be perfect.
I am not bringing this up to attack Vaer at all, but it is worth mentioning, and it also gave me the opportunity to put both their 2-year waterproof warranty and workmanship guarantee to the test. I was also told that new procedures and quality control measures were put into place on this particular watch line to assure that these issues will not happen in the future. I think it's probably safe to chalk it up to being a new product and having a ton of hand-laid 3D pieces. Again, don't let this deter you. I have spoken with numerous others who ended up with stellar examples of the C4.
The other gripe is an incredibly minor and pretty niche one: I'd really love to see this type of watch feature drilled lugs. The included rubber strap does feature quick-release springbars, but it is still always nice to have drilled lugs, especially on a purpose-built watch such as this.
Specifications
Model: Vaer C4 Tactical Field Solar
Case Diameter: 41.5mm
Lug-to-Lug: 48mm
Thickness: 12.8mm
Lug Width: 20mm
Movement: Epson VS-42 Solar Movement
Accuracy (Claimed): -10/+20 seconds a month
Power Reserve: 6 hours of sunlight for 6 months of reserve
Crystal: Raised sapphire crystal
Case Finish: Matte bead-blasted texture
Water Resistance: 20ATM / 200m
Lume: C3 Super-LumiNova (numerals, hands, bezel)
Bezel: 120-click Unidirectional with 12-hour lumed aluminum insert
Conclusion
This review was supposed to be much more of a real-world durability test on the muddy mountain bike trails of my native Oregon (I believe I told the guys at Vaer that I planned to ride 500 miles with it on my wrist), but life has a funny way of getting in the way of plans. Though I was able to get on the trails a few times and the road a few more, most of what I put the C4 through was day-to-day life as a father of a young child. This included the good times - playgrounds, wrestling, Nerf wars, bath time, bedtime, and the game of tag - as well as the bad times: sick days, urgent care visits, tantrums, and everything in between. If a watch is designed for a combat zone, then you can expect that it will hold up to day-to-day life, and the C4 passed with flying colors.
Retailing at $479, the Vaer C4 Tactical Field Solar is one of the better value propositions today. Available in both bead-blasted stainless steel and a black DLC variant, both include a hard case, an FKM waffle-style tropic strap, and a choice of woven nylon NATO strap, as well as a spring bar tool and a vial of extra bars. There isn't a whole lot else on the market that can claim US Assembly and look and function as well as the C4.
Disclosure: The watch was provided at no cost for this review, but all opinions expressed are 100% mine.
-Kyler
Head on over to Vaer's Website and check out their story and Catalog