Every once in a while a watch comes along that just makes sense. No hype, no limited-edition nonsense, just a solid, honest piece you can throw on whether you’re heading to the office, fixing the truck, or meeting the guys for a beer. The new Cimier 47° North feels exactly like that kind of watch.
Most folks have never heard of Cimier, and that’s part of what makes the story interesting. The company started back in 1924 when Joseph Lapanouse set up shop in Hölstein, Switzerland, turning out tough little pin-pallet watches that regular working guys could actually afford. They kept that same spirit through the decades. In the 1960s they built the Cimier Sport – the world’s first mass-produced pin-pallet chronograph – and moved more than twenty million movements. Then the quartz crisis hit everybody hard, and Cimier went quiet for a while. They came back in 2003, celebrated their 100th birthday last year with a sharp heritage chronograph, and lately they’ve been having fun with bright POP models that caught a lot of new eyes.
Image credit: Cimier
Now, for 2025, they’ve rolled out the 47° North collection – five compact field watches named after the exact latitude that runs through their hometown of Biel/Bienne. It’s a nod to the lakes, mountains, and forests that surround the place where these watches are made.
The size is spot-on for most wrists: 38 mm wide, 46 mm lug-to-lug, and only 11.25 mm thick. That means it slides easily under a shirt cuff but still has enough presence on a bigger arm. The case is brushed 316L stainless steel with polished edges that catch the light just right. Up top there’s a box-shaped sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the inside, so glare is never an issue. Screw-down crown, screwed sapphire caseback, and a legitimate 100 meters of water resistance round out a package that can handle real life without babying it.
Image credit: Cimier
Open the caseback and you’re looking at the tried-and-true ETA 2824-2 automatic. It’s the same workhorse movement you’ll find in watches that cost three or four times as much. Beats at 28,800 vibrations an hour, gives you about 38 hours of power reserve, and has a stop-seconds hack so you can set the time dead-on. Cimier dresses it up with rhodium plating, Geneva stripes, blued screws, and their own rotor that has a signature orange cut-out peeking through.
The dials are where things get interesting. They’re domed and have a fine grained texture that looks different depending on how the light hits. Big Arabic numbers and a railroad minute track make telling time quick and easy, even when you’re not wearing your reading glasses. Everything that needs to glow is filled with old-radium Super-LumiNova, and a bright orange seconds hand with its own lume block sweeps around the dial, giving the whole watch a shot of personality.
Image credit: Cimier
You get five colors to pick from:
- Classic black if you want it to go with everything
- Clean white for a crisp, vintage-military feel
- Gradient pebble grey that shifts tone as you move your wrist
- Moss green that looks right at home in the woods
- River blue that’s bold without being loud
Cimier pairs each dial with a matching strap. Black or cognac smooth calf for the more traditional looks, and suede in grey, green, or blue for the others. All straps are 20 mm, have quick-release spring bars, and close with a simple pin buckle. Changing from leather to a NATO or something else down the road is dead easy.
Image credit: Cimier
At CHF 850 before taxes – call it around $950-$980 depending on the exchange rate when it lands in the States – this is the kind of price that makes you stop and think, “Wait, a real Swiss mechanical with sapphire, 100 m water resistance, and this kind of finishing for less than a grand?” That’s getting harder and harder to find these days.
Image credit: Cimier
The 47° North isn’t trying to be the flashiest watch on the block, and that’s why a lot of guys are going to end up wearing it every single day. It’s built by a company that’s been doing this for a hundred years, sized the way field watches used to be before everything grew oversized, and finished with just enough color to keep things interesting. Sometimes the best tool is the one you never have to think about – it just works, looks good doing it, and doesn’t empty your wallet.
If you’ve been waiting for a no-nonsense Swiss automatic that can take whatever you throw at it and still clean up nice for the weekend, the Cimier 47° North is worth a serious look. Head over to cimier.com and see which color speaks to you. At this price, more than one might end up in the watch box.
