Which are the activities you never would subject your precious mechanical watches to? Rock climbing? Diving? Hammering nails into the walls? Or digging out your stuck car from the sands of the Sahara desert? But, hey, often the advertising of certain watch manufacturers does suggest that their products are solid enough for these tasks, so why should we hesitate?

When we planned our expedition through the Sahara desert in Southern Algeria, a true watch freak like me naturally had a slightly different equipment checklist than my companions: "Water? - Check! Spare parts for Diesel engine? - Check! Spring bar tool for strap changing? - Check!" The idea surfaced, to test mechanical watches under a manifold of rough conditions in one of the most life-threatening regions of the Earth. The test watches should be sturdy, with common movements, rather inexpensive, but well finished. A brief search resulted in the choice of two watches, produced by the German watch brand LIMES.

Better known for its beautiful, rather elegantly styled and finely finished watches, LIMES also offers some sturdy 'beaters', especially a nice chronograph and a standard automatic watch, dubbed the "Outback 2" series. Thus, this is the

1.) First Impressions:

At first sight, the two watches are not a very spectacular sight: They do not follow the common trend towards oversized sports watches, which is by no means bad: In their dimensions they are nearly identical (chronograph: 38.5mm diameter, 13.5mm height; self-winding watch: 38.5mm diameter, 10.5mm height), and keep the balance between substance and comfort. Their dials are conventionally styled, with white numerals and hands on a black background. Nonetheless, both watches appear very solid, perfectly apt for the task that lies before them. Before the journey begins, let us study the two watches in detail:

2.) Cases and Crystals:

Despite its very brief history, the LIMES brand has already earned an almost legendary reputation for the quality of its cases. This is not astonishing, given that the LIMES brand is registered by the German company Ickler, a well-respected watch and case manufacturer located in Pforzheim. Ickler is developing and producing watchcases in many materials, and some of the most prestigious brands in the watch business belong their customers. Thus it is clear, that we anticipated a higher quality level on the "Outback 2" cases as we would with other watches of this price group. And we weren't disappointed:

The cases are very heavy and feature brushed surfaces, which makes them less prone for visible scratches. The lugs are integrated into the case design, the screwed-down crowns are protected by massive crownguards, and the two pushers of the chronograph, although not screwed down, are partially inset into the case.

Generally, the case design has something in common with a tank: All main surfaces are sloped, and it has been avoided to leave any spots apparently vulnerable to damage. Only the slim bezel ring protrudes rather prominently from the case, and could thus be damaged more easily than the rest.

The flat sapphire crystals have no anti-reflective coating. I know that the issue of coatings on a sports watch's crystal is quite disputed. It is a well-known fact that the metal oxides, constituting the anti-reflective coating, are much softer than the synthetic sapphire of the crystal itself. Therefore, scratches can damage the coating a lot easier. As a consequence, many fans of sports watches disapprove the use of coatings on the crystal's frontal side. However, the effectiveness of a coating applied only at the crystal's back is rather doubtful, since the most apparent reflections originate at the front. Especially with black dials, a coating on the crystal's front decidedly improves the legibility, and in my experience, damages to the softer coating are very small and not apparent even after a long time of steady use. Consequently, I am convinced that the advantages of coatings outweigh their disadvantages, and therefore I would like to have the Outbacks' crystals coated.

After we removed the solid steel case backs, which are screwed onto the case with full threads, the positive impression got further weight: Apparently the case had been tailored to tightly house a Valjoux 7750 chrono movement. No spacing ring is needed to fit the movement. The smaller ETA 2824 movement of the automatic watch, however, is held in place by a steel spacer. Large gaskets protect the cases from humidity, allowing a water tightness rating to 100 meters.

ETA 2824 movement of the automatic watch. A metal spacer ring is needed here to safely accomodate the movement, which is smaller than the Valjoux 7750 chronograph movement: The case is tailored onto the latter.

3.) Movements:

Sturdiness and reliability at a rather low price also dictated the movements that are used in the "Outback 2" series: The chronograph uses a Valjoux 7750, while the automatic watch is powered by an ETA 2824. Since both movements are hidden behind the solid case backs, they are completely undecorated, not even a rotor engraving informs about the brand using them. However, all moving parts of the chrono mechanism are very well polished, thus they ensure a reliable and smooth chronograph operation.

The Valjoux 7750 movement of the Outback chronograph. Note the absence of a spacer ring, which is unnecessary, since LIMES produced the case exactly to house this movement.

Typically for the lever-operated 7750, the pushers have to be pressed with differing force, whether to start or to stop the chronograph. However, unlike encountered in most other 7750-equipped watches of this price class, the Outback 2's pushers work rather smoothly; without doubt this is the result of the polished parts. Unfortunately, the chrono second hand is 'stuttering' noticeably. This is a behaviour normally shown by modular chronographs, but I have seen it quite often with integrated movements, too. Also typical for the Valjoux 7750, is the distinct play of the minute hand when setting the time. Even one of the most expensive watches today, IWC's Destriero Scafusiae, does not fare better in this respect.

4.) Dials and Hands:

While both "Outback 2" watches are available with white dials and black numerals and hands, too, this particular version does not feature any luminous elements, which excluded it already from our test. Legibility in adverse lighting conditions and at night was an indispensable criterion. Therefore, the two watches have standard pilot's dials, with white, luminescent numerals on a black background. Additionally, the chronograph has the ubiquitous tachymeter scale printed onto the Rehaut. This is somewhat irritating on a watch named after the unpopulated region in Australia. Without milestones, a tachymeter scale is useless. For any activities remote from the civilization, a pulsometer scale would be much better, since controlling one's heartbeat frequency can be essential in extreme climates, such as the desert.

The hands are straight and have the correct length, so the minute hands do reach far enough to make an exact reading of the minutes possible. Readings of smaller intervals, however, are effectively sabotaged by the wrong subdivisions; as so many other manufacturers, LIMES subdivided the seconds into five parts. This is traditional, but works only for watches with second hands that move in five or ten jumps per seconds; that means that the movements must have a beat frequency of either 18,000 bps or 36,000 bps. Most modern fast-beating movements, such as the Valjoux 7750 or the ETA 2824, used in the "Outback 2" watches, work at 28,800 bps. Consequently, their second hands move with eight jumps per second. Therefore, the dial should have subdivisions into fourth seconds, to be correct. The watch's overall design, however, could benefit from a greater simplicity, and I suggest the subdivisions to be entirely deleted.

The three chronograph hands (second, 30 minutes counter, 12 hours counter) are not white, but coloured in a very bright red; 'Artic Red', to quote the correct designation. That is because the U.S. Air Force in the 50s and 60s partially painted their planes, which served in arctic regions, with that shade of red. That enhanced the conspicuousness of the plane's parts in case of an accident. And the colour does this job also on the "Outback 2" chronograph's hands: They can be read already at a very brief glance. The chrono's legibility could be further enhanced by adding half-hours-subdivisions to the 12 hours-counter.

5.) Strap/bracelet and clasps:

Because of the case design with the integrated lugs, the lug distance on both watches is only 18mm. If one uses standard straps at this width, these look somewhat anaemic on the massive watches. Therefore, LIMES delivers the "Outback 2" watches with special straps, which have edges cut into them, so that they fit between the lugs, while themselves being considerably broader. The same system is used on the steel bracelet.

The latter is already the only issue that really compromises the positive impression of the watches' overall quality. While the individual links are not made of folded steel sheets, but from solid material, they nonetheless seem cheap and flimsy. The bracelet is also too light to counterbalance the heavy watch. Its links are held together with standard pins, and the deployment clasp, which features an extension for diving suits, is simply stamped and sharp-edged; a menace for neoprene suits. The fact that LIMES offers bracelet and leather strap versions at the same price, should be explanation enough: No good steel bracelet can be made at the price of a leather strap.

This leads us to the strap, which is the exact contrary of the bracelet: Made of thickly padded calfskin, it has a soft leather lining, exactly set white stitching, and a very well made double folding clasp, which is opened by means of two pushers. That high quality black strap certainly is worth every cent LIMES charges for it.