Graham Fortress Monopusher Chronograph
Check out the Graham Fortress Monopusher Chronograph, a typical Graham watch but fine-tuned to improve its chances. For many of us, Graham is characterized by his large chronograph pushers, like triggers, using novel colors and materials, large proportions, and unmatched build quality. High prices, and frankly, some controversial designs often cartoon borders. The Graham Fortress Monopusher Chronograph tweaks many of its noisy components to support some unpretentious military classic vibes, matching the branding and build quality, and putting a hefty price tag on it. Reminder, there is still no such thing as a free lunch in the realm of luxury watchmaking.
Is Fort Still a Proper Graham? It’s definitely the same from near to far. From a distance, it was still loud and reminded me of a Morgan tricycle, with all the women wearing thin clothing and stickers that were almost military paint. If you have one of these, you must get a Fort Graham.
The crown and its integrated monopod are on the left side of the watch – I still wear it on my left wrist because I really appreciate that the giant onion crown doesn’t extend all the way to the tip of my wrist. I. But hey, if you’re left-handed and wear the watch in your right hand, this watch will still look “correct”. On a related note, shouldn’t there be more great left-handed luxury watches? I think there should be.
Fort Graham cheap should definitely feel and look expensive, and—despite its luxurious style—feel and look expensive, and it does. It’s big and shiny and shiny, but the case feels solid, and looking at it again, it’s well made. The details shown on the dial are only found on fairly expensive watches, but more on that later. The straps, especially the oversized clasp, are beautifully crafted: cheap without external components.
Powered by what Graham calls the G1750 movement, the case houses a modified ETA/Valjoux 7750. It’s not a Sellita: with near-sharp vision or just weak sunglasses, you’ll notice it’s marked ETA under the balance wheel. Even the unobtrusive will notice that it is mounted “upside down” in order to bring the crown from the right side to the left side of the case. As a result, the continuously running seconds sub-dial now sits at 9 o’clock and the date at 3 o’clock – and frankly, all of that.
As I said, the pusher is in the center of the crown. It’s big, easy to find and easy to hit. First impressions are remarkable: compared to the smoothest and simplest mechanical chronographs out there, it takes some extra force to start the chronograph. It is a single chronograph, start, stop and reset are done by three pushers on the same pusher. The first push requires the most force, stopping is easier, and resetting is relatively easy. Anytime I’d put more emphasis on flimsy machines, but honestly the initial force required was more on a piece of equipment in the cockpit of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress than on the watch itself. Your usual luxury. Come to think of it, a butter-smooth press doesn’t belong in this fake luxury watch,
At 47mm in diameter, the Fort Graham is still a popular watch even without the unique color combination or the grenade-like buttons on the crown. Following traditional watch size guidelines (that is, the tips of the lugs should not extend beyond the edge of the wrist), the Fortress is optically too large for my 6.75-inch (17.2-cm) wrist. However, the strap has enough holes for me to be able to fit and wear it really comfortably. Pairing it with long sleeves is a way to tone down its oversized shape. Between you and me, I’d say I wish I could pull these watches out of their short sleeves.
The Chronofighter Prodive I used to have had a large thruster and I really liked how it looked and worked. That said, despite the live/pilot watch theme, somehow the trigger-like pusher never really clicked (see what I did there?) in the previous fort. This built-in putter is a more elegant solution. Water-resistant to 100 meters, another proof that Graham doesn’t cut corners at the expense of long-term practicality and practical durability. Every lovely luxury watch should have at least a 100m WR – but many don’t, and I’m glad I did.
The bezel is concave and satin-finished, a detail that contributes to the fort’s uniqueness. It would be easy and convenient to tap the polished and domed bezel in there, but that’s how such an expensive watch can and should stand out from the rest. Both the strap and lugs are polished, which makes me wonder if the full satin-brushed look would be a better fit for the theme. But then again, if Graham cheap wants to reach a wider audience, I should prefer those (rather) shiny expensive watches.
Wearing a 47mm watch is rarely a prudent or forgettable thing—at least not when you’re on the move. This is especially true on my narrow wrist, which is not designed for watches 45mm and above. Even so, Graham seems to have done a good job designing a large watch, as evidenced by the deep integration of the strap between the lugs. The holes and spring bars are close to the case, and there is almost no gap between the straps – further enhanced by the curved spring bars. All of which is to say that the strap can swivel down directly next to the case without any protruding hardware and add to the size of the lugs. The large buckle also contributes to wearing comfort, which is a regular occurrence in my experience. Although large and made of steel,
The dial looks like the most delicate and expensive part of a watch. There’s no way around it – the large, intricately shaped raised hour-markers and thick polished bezel look stunning as they reflect light back to you. They make any dial look expensive because producing them at this level is very expensive and challenging. Each index must be placed on the exact same plane; minimal deviation means that only some indexes will reflect to you and others will not. Needless to say, it’s still possible – but it has more to do with the light source than the balance of stats. best fake watches site
The background is almost microscopic particles that look rough and not rough. The sub-dial is sunk below the plane of the grain and finished somewhere between the concentric rings and the circular finish – indistinguishable to the naked eye. Appreciating the best of them will resonate well.
To my surprise, day in and day out, the readability is very good. The yellowish glow on the watch tends to be much weaker than the regular off-white Super-LumiNova. In this case, when I first entered the stairs from the sunny outdoors, I was amazed at the uniformity and brightness of the lumens on the hands and hour markers. It’s easy to say that these details certainly should be perfect on a tall four-figure watch, but just because they should be perfect doesn’t mean that’s the norm. In fact, far from it. The interior of the sapphire crystal is coated with an anti-reflective coating to reduce glare and further improve the legibility of the rhodium hands.
Well-made and fun to wear for lovers of this kind of stuff, the Fort Graham is an expensive, high-quality version of a unique paramilitary watch. You can get the same vibe for less money – a theme that’s been trending in recent years – but the quality of the case, dial and other accessories, as well as the movement that turns the quirky single button upside down, puts it in the luxury men watch category .