Duckworth Prestex Broadgate 40mm GMT Automatic Watch Review

Fun, colourful watch brands have defined our homegrown take on horological design as to be somewhat of an eclectic uniform. Classical shapes updated with bright colours and idiosyncratic aesthetic tweaks, it’s something we can be proud of, especially at the uber-accessible end of the spectrum. Case in point, the Duckworth Prestex Broadgate GMT.

While they’ve yet to hit the heights of Studio Underdog, Farer, or Fears, Duckworth Prestex are firmly in that new aesthetic tradition of British watches. In fact, like Fears, they’re a heritage name (at least, the Prestex part is) revived by a member of the original family and best known for their cushion cases.

Lovely as the Verimatic is however and it is lovely, 1 happen to own the fume orange version one case shape does not a watch brand make. Duckworth Prestex began to break out of that cushion-shaped cage with the Art Deco rectangle of the Centenary and now are entering the rarefied realms of, erm, circles, with the Broadgate GMT.

Named after Broadgate in London and shaped like its well-heeled shopping area, Broadgate Circle, the new watch is essentially a different format of the Rivington GMT. It shares the same accessible workhorse movement in the Miyota 9075, the same 200m water resistance, and in one variation has the same fume orange dial. But the orange isn’t the one we have here and while the two watches may share a specs sheet, they’re visually worlds apart.

First off, the dial. The colour here is a gorgeous mint green. It’s a relatively flat, matte colour and with its white Arabic numerals is a lovely, calming twist on that spring-ready look. It’s elevated slightly with a bit of sunshine from the bright yellow GMT hand and together the mix of colours offers something inoffensively charming. Basically, it’s nice and as soon as you unpack your summer linens, you’ll want something like this on your wrist.

That yellow second time zone can be read off the fixed 24-hour bezel, which is the part of the Broadgate I like the most. It’s always tempting to add a rotating version so that you can, technically, keep track of three timezones. But there’s something retro about the Explorer II-style fixed number, particularly when like that legendary watch, it’s in simple engraved steel. It just feels more solid, and I always love a case-matched bezel. It would be a bit easier to read if the numerals were black instead of white, but it’s a lot easier in the metal than it appears in images. This is yet another instance where you really need to try the watch on to see what I mean.

It’s not just the bezel though; solid is a good word for the Broadgate GMT as a whole. At 40mm across and 13mm high, it’s a little taller than it feels like it should be, but no issue to slip under most sleeves. That size however does help it sit with just the right amount of heft, especially on the rubber strap, a level of heft in fact that belies just how accessible this watch is, which we’ll get on to. The fact that it has that 200m water resistance, making it a typical GADA (go anywhere, do anything) watch, is the pastel icing on the cake.

The other colours in the Duckworth Prestex Broadgate GMT collection are equally seasonal, with a pale blue and white rounding out the summer shades and that aforementioned orange gradient, a Duckworth Prestex signature. The one I really want to see in the metal is the black and red, which swaps calming pastels for an eye-catching, high-contrast palette. They’re all lookers though.

That said, they tread the line between classical and modern a little too lightly for my taste. The Verimatic nailed it, taking a dress watch case and making it fun and modern. I don’t feel like the Broadgate goes quite far enough in that modernising aspect. The mix of railway minute track and classical numerals feel a touch too old fashioned for me. It’s a shame because in the world of uber-accessible British watches which has grown into a respectable sub-genre of the watch industry there’s a lot of competition.

The thing is, some of that competition is coming from Duckworth Prestex; their limited-edition California absolutely nails the entire aesthetic, with a similar palette of colourways. The difference is that it’s not a GMT, but that just makes me realise that a California GMT is something I never knew I needed in my life before now. With a California 24-hour bezel, perhaps?

If the negatives here sound nitpicky, that’s because they are. When it comes down to brass tacks, the Duckworth Prestex Broadgate GMT is a great looking, solidly built watch that feels like it’s worth more than its price tag. To put that in numbers, this is a handsome automatic GMT for £795. If you find yourself approaching spring in need of a wristwear refresh, you could do a damn sight worse than this.

More details at Duckworth Prestex.

​Oracle Time 

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