On my journey to healing, I have found a lot of help thanks to meditation, exercise, self reflection and Buddhism. All of these have been an extremely helpful formula for me personally. There are days when I still struggle with PTSD, anxiety and panic attacks, but thankfully these things no longer control me. I wear a Tibetan skull prayer mala bracelet every day as a physical reminder to help keep myself centered. In Buddhism, the skull represents emptiness, which is regarded as a quality of this world. This usually means that has no character by itself. It is essentially saying all occasions are impartial – but we opt to magnify them. This is partially the reason why I was interested in seeing Advisors new Ascent watch, with this particular dial.
Without a doubt for me the open-heart layered skull dial is the attention grabbing center of attention on the Ascent. The brushed skull is set against a black background adding to the dials 3-dimensional appearance. The open heart is perfectly placed within the mouth of the skull. I am typically not a fan of skeleton dials or open heart but it works brilliantly here on the Ascent. Advisor kept everything else on this dial simple to allow the skull to be the obvious focal point. The gold hands are great accent details to the Ascent’s dial and case. The hands are not only perfectly sized to the dial but they are also coated with BGW9 lume. Protecting this dial and adding to the legibility is the scratch resistant sapphire crystal that is treated with an anti-reflective coating.
Advisor could have taken this dial one step further by adding lume to either the eyes of the skull or to behind the movement in “the mouth” of the skull. The details of the hands were done extremely well in terms of shape and overall execution. Both of the hands are segmented, almost in a cathedral style which adds to the completed look on the Ascent’s dial. The triangular tip of the hour hand, the sword shape of the minute hand and the arrow shaped second hand, all these details all the three to nicely accentuate each other. This dial is kept pretty clean as the text was kept to a minimum with just the Advisor logo and name located just under the 12 o’clock position.
The only numbers that can be found on this dial are on the rotating inner chapter ring. The top crown is responsible for operating the bi-directional chapter ring. I’m a little disappointed that this crown isn’t a screw down style crown, but it is full of beautiful detail as you can see from the pictures. Both crowns are easy to grip and operate because of both generous sizing and because of the edges of each crown. The bottom crown is screw down style and as you figured is responsible for setting the time and for manually winding the watch.
The case itself is 316L SS with IP rose gold plating and is 42mm x 13.5mm with a lug spacing of 22mm. The majority of the case has a brushed finish but does feature polished accents around the fixed bezel. The angular shaped edges of the bezel allow for the polished accents to be more pronounced especially when they catch the light. The angular shape of the lugs adds uniformity to the Ascent’s case, matching the angles of the bezel. The Ascent has a good hefty feel to it not anything like that toy watch feel of some titanium watches.
I absolutely love and appreciate the case back on the Ascent and you can see what I am talking about in the picture below. I am so glad that Advisor went this route and not with a sapphire crystal case back. A solid, engraved case back is much more interesting in my opinion.
The Ascent comes on a dark brown top grain calf leather strap and attaches to the wrist via a standard matching finish/rose gold coated pin style buckle. The strap and watch both wear comfortably on the wrist in all environments/conditions.
Currently the preorder price for this model is $310 and if you prefer the more classic style dial, that preorder price is $280. What should you expect for that price? I think if you are spending your hard earned money on any product you should expect quality first and foremost and if the quality isn’t there, then save your money for a quality piece. I definitely understand and respect wherever a person may fall into the financial affordability for watches. Not everyone can drop “big name” price amounts on a watch. The Ascent has some very nice details and specs for its price point. It also has some areas for improvement, not deal breakers, but areas to give a more finished product.
This watch is done in what Advisor refers to as a compressor case. Please note that the Advisor Ascent contains none of the actual compressor “technology” which would make it a true compressor case. Check out my review of the OWC 6538 for an more in-depth explanation of how a true compressor case works. https://www.google.com/amp/s/timetoblogwatches.com/2017/08/07/watch-review-owc-ms-6538-james-bond-crown/amp/
Thanks for reading my review and thanks to Advisor for the opportunity to explore the Ascent watch.
https://www.advisorwatches.com
Case Design: Custom-Made Case
Case Material: 316L Stainless Steel(IP Plating with Rosegold)
Case Back: Screwed Down Embossed with Individually Numbered (limited to 150 pieces)
Case Diameter: 42mm
Height: 13.5mm
Lug Width: 22mm
Dial: Open-Heart Layered Skull Dial
Bezel: Bi-directional Rotating Bezel
Date: With Date Function Index & Hands: Applied Index (BGW9 Luminous)
Crystal: Scratch Resistant Sapphire with Anti-Reflective Coating
Crown: Screwed Down
Movement: Automatic 82S0 (Miyota)
Water Resistance: 200m / 600ft
Straps: Top Grain Calf Leather
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