I have a complicated relationship with Day displays. So often, they’re crammed onto the dial, take up too much space, they don’t add much to the functionality of a watch — I frequently don’t know the date, I very rarely don’t know what day of the week it is — and throw everything out of balance. My… distaste for day-of-the-week displays (and frankly the complication as a whole) is why I prefer the Datejust to the Day-Date and have never kept an SKX for longer than a few months.
Still, every so often, some brand comes along and does something so clever I can’t ignore it. Here, with the new Fire Exit Watch from William Wood Watches, we find clever in full supply. Those familiar with William Wood Watches will know that the brand draws heavy inspiration from the history (and materials) of firefighting, and the brand supports a number of firefighting charities.
While most William Wood Watches draw their firefighting inspiration from firefighters and their equipment, the Fire Exit Watch draws from an oft-overlooked piece of fire safety gear, the emergency exit sign. Specifically, the Fire Exit Watch is based on the globally ubiquitous ISO standard (yes, they standardize more than dive watches!) green “Fire Exit Man” signs.
Those of us who spend most of our time in the United States may be shocked to discover that, as with the metric system, most of the rest of the world has gotten on board with a single style of exit sign. With the Fire Exit Watch, William Wood has not only used the iconic green found on these signs, but they’ve taken the Fire Exit Man and given him a life beyond fleeing from buildings.
Instead of a traditional date wheel, the Fire Exit Watch features seven rotating images of our blocky friend’s weekly experience. Over the course of the week, you will see Fire Exit Sign Man (really need a shorter name for this guy) at work, commuting, working out, partying, and even nursing a hangover. The date wheel is finished with luminous material and is visible through a green glass dial that is an exact Pantone match to a fire exit sign.
But that’s not where the connection stops. There are plenty of other nods to fire safety signs around the watch, including the use of the sign’s arrows as the marker at the cardinal positions, and a rather entertaining case back, which not only offers a luminous caseback engraving reading “Fire exit” (I’m a sucker for lume in unexpected places) but also a spinning animation of the Fire Exit Sign Man running. Our bold hero also makes an appearance in his most classic position on the crown, which also has a pop of the signature green on the stem.
Looking past these special touches, what you have is a pretty handsome dive watch. The stainless steel case is finished in gunmetal gray and fully brushed, and is water resistant to 100m. Per the brand, the Fire Exit Watch comes in at a reasonable 41mm across, 49.5mm lug-to-lug, and 13.5mm thick.
The Fire Exit Watch is powered by a Sellita SW-220, whose day-date function makes this watch possible. Oh, and there is still a date on this watch — but some of you won’t like it, the color-matched date wheel is visible through a round cut out at 4:30, though it’s about as innocuous as a 4:30 date execution can be.
The Fire Exit Watch comes on a British Racing Green two-piece rubber and fire hose strap. The recycled fire hose comes from the UK Fire & Rescue Service and is reportedly a relatively uncommon shade for fire hoses. A luminous arrow buckle comes fitted to the buckle. The watch also comes packaged with a thematic green three-watch case.
The Fire Exit Watch is available from William Wood Watches in a limited edition of 300 for £1,495. William Wood
