Breaking news: we don’t need watches anymore! So why not have fun re-imagining a style of watches we no longer need? Why not see it more from a design perspective and less from a functional one? That’s the beauty of being a watch designer today as it is possible to create watches which, first and foremost, bring us joy looking at them instead of helping us do something better. I’m not being facetious here, quite the contrary. I think it’s truly a beautiful thing to be a watch person in 2024 as we find ourselves with a multitude of options for tool watches at a myriad of prices. Do you like chronographs? Good. Do you like silver dials? Excellent. Do you like originality in design? Awesome. We’ve got you covered today and you and I are meant to be horological best friends. 

The brand we’re going to be talking about is Beaufort which hails from New Zealand, the latest hotspot for microbrand horology, and its most recent release called the Pulsatimer. As its name indicates, the Pulsatimer can be used to check a human pulse, although I would argue this model is more about an exercise in design than one in creating a useful tool watch. And that is absolutely fine because we need a bit of everything in life to be happy. The Beaufort Pulsatimer is for those of you who like the dual-register layout of a chronograph and the elegance of a restrained tool watch. Yes, this combo is possible and the Pulsatimer is a prime example of it. 

Specifications

So, the Beaufort Pulsatimer is indeed a mechanical chronograph. It is powered by a manual-wound Sellita SW510M BH B, a mouthful of a nomenclature to say that it’s been tweaked. Indeed, unlike regular chronographs where the hand of the minute totalizer jumps one hash mark at a time, here it jumps two and, consequently, the scale on this register was modified so that where we should see “10” minutes we find “5.” No, it doesn’t make the chronograph function quite useful, however it looks great. The left sub-register is therefore for the running seconds, this one being appropriately graduated. By the way, the Sellita SW510M BH B beats at 28,800 BPH (4Hz) and comes with a whopping 63 hours of power reserve. (The latter is neat given the manual-wind setup of the movement.) 

Besides knowing what ticks inside the Pulsatiner, what drew my attention the most to this model are its dimensions. Because when I generally think of mechanical chronographs, I tend to pair this idea with larger-than-ideal dimensions for me. But here we find a svelte chronograph coming in with a diameter of 39mm, a lug-to-lug of 47mm, a total thickness of 12mm, and a lug width of 20mm. Therefore, the Pulsatimer wears great on my 6.5”/16.5cm wrist. And it is a comfortable watch to wear thanks to one of the four options to attach it to the wrist: an Italian leather strap, a TPU rubber tropic strap (meaning a synthetic material which is highly resistant to heat, sweat, and tear,) a flat-link stainless steel bracelet or, finally, a superb 11-link beads of rice bracelet. The latter is my absolute favorite. 

The dial is crowned by a boxed double-dome sapphire crystal with inner anti-reflective coating, underneath which we find a discreet application of C1 SuperLuminova on the hour, minute, and chronograph hands. No, the Beaufort Pulsatimer was not created to be a lume monster but more—as mentioned in the introduction—as an elegant tool watch. But the brand did bother to put some lume on the hands which is quite a nice touch. And elegant the Pulsatimer is indeed thanks in part to the aforementioned beads-of-rice bracelet and a cameo of polished surfaces on the chamfers of the case as well as on the chronograph pushers. I find this to be the ideal amount of reflective surfaces to make the Pulsatimer elegant. (I will talk about the polished hands a bit later.) 

Being a chronograph you’d expect the Pulsatimer to come with a moderate depth rating and you’d be right: 50 meters of water resistance thanks to a screw-down case-back and a push/pull crown, the latter being welcomed given that the Sellita SW510M BH B is of the manual-wind variety. (Although I don’t mind having to unscrew a crown to wind a movement everyday, I know that some of you folks do mind.) 

Design

Between you and I, the design of the Beaufort is the second element that drew me to this model. The Pulsatimer comes in four color variants—Silver (reviewed here,) Black, Salmon and Jet Black (DLC case.) If you know me a little you wouldn’t be surprised to see that I wanted to review the Silver version. By simply looking at the photos of all four versions, I found the Silver one to be the best looking of all of them and the better model to support my claim that it’s alright to re-imagine tool watches to make them look more urban chic and less race-tracky. So, there are four elements of the design which, according to yours truly, make the Pulsatimer elegant: the hands, the sub-registers, the dial-to-case ratio, and the hour markers. 

Starting with the hands we find fully-polished leaf-style hands which are indeed quite spiffy. The hour hand reaches the edges of the hour markers while the minute and chronograph hands the edges of the dial. I find the hands (I need to come up with a better way to refer to them) to be particularly well-proportioned to the rest of the dial as they appear a little “beefy” which endows  them with a sporty character. Conversely, the sub-registers are small and as such, they are discreet. On the Silver variant, the two sub-registers have a silver finish on which the numerals are printed grey. (I love this combo.) As mentioned in the introduction, this means that the chronograph is not practical but oh damn beautiful to look at. 

I continue to support my initial claim.

The dial-to-case ratio is also totally up-my-alley as the dial opening is rather small which aids in making the Pulsatimer appear smaller on the wrist. Furthermore, I appreciate how the dial looks next to the white/silver pulsometer scale printed on the rehaut and the impressive width of the step fixed bezel. All of this put together is what I believe makes the Beaufort Pulsatimer look sporty and elegant; in other words, making it the type of chronograph many would love to wear. Moreover, I find the design of the hour markers to be quite clever. They are hollowed out and all connected to a silver ring that runs alongside the rehaut. Paired with a vertically brushed silver dial, this model is visually stunning. 

But there is more to be said about the design of this watch. As mentioned earlier, I love the 11-link beads-of-rice bracelet which is elegant and comfortable to wear, and it comes with a couple of tricks which I find particularly well thought out: how the end-links are attached to the main links by way of two small female elements (which aids in making the bracelet contour the wrist,) as well as a short double-pusher deployant clasp. The links of the bracelets are short so getting a good fit is quite easy. Of all four options of straps and bracelets, I find the beads-of-rice to look the best here as it enhances the everyday elegant nature of the Pulsatimer. 

The Heart of the Matter

There are two hearts of the matter here today. First, the fact that Beaufort took a risk by creating a chronograph that is more of a beautiful exercise in design than a functional tool watch. This very fact might prevent some of you from clicking the “Add to Cart” button on the brand’s website, while it might encourage many of you to indeed click that button. If you were to consider adding the Beaufort Pulsatimer to your collection, you might be pleased to know that this model can be had for $1,300 USD on pre-order (running through the end of August 2024) and $1,450 USD thereafter. “Pleased” because $1,300 USD is a reasonable price for a mechanical chronograph—at least, it is so in my subjective book. 

The second heart of the matter here is the Pulsatimer’s exquisite design. Granted, it might not be your thing, but it is mine so I will say so. I’m not a chronograph type of watch collector but I really appreciate how the brand decided to go about laying out the dial and case of this model. As mentioned earlier, I love the fact that the dial opening is small and how the beefy hands, paired with the massive bezel + rehaut ensemble endow this model with an elegant, sporty vibe. Obviously, one would buy the Pulsatimer for its looks and mechanics, not solely for its relative functionality. (I say “relative” because this model is indeed equipped with a solid chronograph caliber.) 

In other words, Beaufort came up with its own interpretation of a mechanical chronograph in 2024, an era in which such watches are no longer needed or deemed necessary by 99.99% of the human population. So, since we don’t need chronographs, might as well have some fun with the design and create something unique and different. Because if you want an ultra-legible, purpose-driven chronograph, you won’t feel cheated by the enormous amount of options that are currently available on the micro/independent watch market. 

Conclusion 

You know me, I like to write about mom-and-pop brands because they offer highly personalized visions of horology. As I was told by a designer once, what is cool about creating a watch brand today (2024) is that watch enthusiasts can share their own vision for certain watches with us. This is what we have here with the Beaufort Pulsatimer as the brand owner, Robert Kwok, is making it possible for us to get in this world by strapping this chronograph to our wrists. Although it is not the most functional of tool watches, I appreciate the Pulsatimer for being visually striking and for offering something different. Because why create something that we’ve seen so many times before? Exactly my point. 

I will therefore encourage you to check out Beaufort’s website to learn more about the brand and the four versions of the Pulsatimer. Also, sign-up for their newsletter to know when, exactly, the pre-ordering campaign will end and when the watches will ship. 

Thanks for reading.