Fears Celebrates Its (Re-)Birthday With The New Brunswick 39 — The Brand’s First Perpetual Calendar

This year, Fears celebrates 180 years since its founding and 10 years since its revival by Nicholas Bowman-Scargill. Over the past decade, the British brand has established an understated and elegant collection, with the Brunswick as its most recognizable reference point. Now, the watch, with its signature cushion-shaped case, onion crown, and pipette hands, gets an impressive overhaul. That’s not all, though., as the new Brunswick 39 also becomes the brand’s first perpetual calendar.

The Brunswick is one of my favorite Fears watches. Its cushion case is elegant, but it also has impressive wrist presence. Up until now, the watch was available in 38mm and 40mm sizes. The new Brunswick 39 we’re discovering today seems to sit right in between those two. But there’s more to talk about than just a simple change in width. Let’s take a closer look at the new Fears Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar.

The new Fears Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar

The first thing I immediately noticed when I held the new Fears Brunswick 39 was its updated case design. On previous iterations of the Brunswick, the cushion case was just as wide as it was long. That’s no longer true for the new Brunswick 39. While the stainless steel case is indeed 39mm wide, it’s only 37mm long, excluding the lugs. That means the cushion case looks a bit more like one of those older wide-screen TVs.

The thing is, though, because of the updates to the Brunswick’s case, it looks a lot less bulky than before. Whereas the Brunswick 38 with a display case back measured 11.69mm thick, the Brunswick 39 has a modest 9.4mm profile, with the mid-case accounting for only 5mm of that. The other thing that makes the Brunswick 39 look both sharp and slender is the new finishing. The circular-brushed case has polished bevels on the left and right sides. Finally, there’s a polished, concave bezel instead of the convex one on previous iterations.

The polished lugs, which span 45.5mm from tip to tip, remain very similar, and the push-pull crown retains its elegant onion shape. It is, however, a tad smaller than on previous Brunswick models. This new case also has a 50m water resistance rating.

A clean dial for a perpetual calendar

All right, on to the dial. It all starts with a frosty Silver Mink color, which is a great, serene base for all the information on display here. At 12 o’clock is a sub-dial for the months and the leap-year cycle. At 3 o’clock lies the sub-dial for the date, and on the opposite side is the day indicator. And for the first time on a Fears watch, there’s a moonphase complication at 6 o’clock, featuring a silver moon. Nearly all the printing, including the railroad minute track, is black. The sub-dials also all feature a refined concentric texture.

Atop the dial sit quad-beveled, diamond-polished, and black-gold-plated indexes. The signature pipette Fears hands feature similar beveling. The central seconds hand is absent, though, to avoid distracting wearers from the rest of the information on the dial.

A nice detail is in-house-designed typeface used on the dial. It’s called Bristol, after the brand’s UK hometown, and adds a sophisticated touch. An Easter egg on the dial is the number 31 in bright cyan blue. All in all, with that much information on the dial, Fears has done a great job of keeping it clean and legible.

Sellita and Dubois Dépraz inside

This is certainly not the first time that Fears has experimented ventured into complications and high-end mechanics. Together with Garrick, the brand released watches with tourbillons, for example. And alongside Christopher Ward, Fears developed a jump-hour complication. However, the Brunswick 39 is the first watch to feature a high complication and bear only the Fears name. The company doesn’t make its movements in-house, though, so the perpetual calendar caliber does come from an external party.

Inside the new Fears Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar is a Sellita SW300 automatic base with a Dubois Dépraz module on top. It runs at 28,800 vph and has a 47-hour power reserve. Through the case back’s sapphire display, you can see the hand-finished bridges and plates featuring frosted surfaces, hand-polished anglage, and a dark rhodium finish. The custom solid 18K gold rotor features the Bristol Flower and is the cherry on the cake.

If you set the watch correctly and keep it wound, which is a lot easier with the included watch winder, the movement shouldn’t need any adjustment until the year 2100, except for summer and winter time and periodic servicing, of course.

Sharp and slender on the wrist

I was very curious to see how the new Fears Brunswick 39 would fit my 17cm wrist. Size-wise, it’s right between the previous 38mm and 40mm models, of which I preferred the former. But since the new case is 37mm long without the lugs, it fits my wrist quite neatly. The 45.5mm lug span is also quite modest for a 39mm-wide watch and makes the Brunswick wear comfortably.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the new case construction and finishing. With its polished bevels and slim profile, the Brunswick 39 appears so slender and sharp on the wrist. This look matches the understated, elegant Fears image. I also think the perpetual calendar and moonphase fit the theme perfectly here.

The only thing I’d change is the size of the crown. In my opinion, an onion crown should be a little oversized. I guess Fears went for a more understated look here with the smaller variant, but it might actually be a little too small. However, that’s a minor detail on what I otherwise consider a complete home run in terms of design.

Available now as part of the regular collection

The new Fears Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar is available now directly from the new Fears Boutique in Bristol, the official Fears website, and via select Fears stockists across the UK and around the world. It costs £26,950, comes with a complimentary watch winder, and joins the brand’s regular collection.

What do you think of the new Fears Brunswick 39? Let us know in the comments below.