Design Philosophy
OUTCAST started with a simple problem: I couldn’t find a watch that did what I actually needed it to do, while I was racing sled dogs in a 6 heat stage race in far Eastern Siberia, back in 2007. I needed a watch with a countdown timer to get me to the line, then I needed an elapsed timer after I left, that I didn't need to touch, when the launch timer went to zero, and we exploded out of the chute... and my Sea Dweller, wasn't cutting it.
For that reason, all my bezel designs (at least so far) incorporate those two functions - a countdown timer that terminates in an elapsed timer. Because if all you have is an elapsed timer, you can't use it for 1/2 the events you actually need to time, in real life.
...In short, I spend a lot of time thinking about gear—how it’s used, how it fails, and what makes something worth carrying day after day. That’s the lens everything here goes through, and a few principles run through every design:
Function leads. Form follows.
Every watch begins with a real use case: reading wind, tracking tides, following a countdown, lining up a bearing, or running a second time zone. If a feature doesn’t solve a specific problem, it doesn’t make it into the design. The aesthetics grow out of those functions, not the other way around.
One tool, many jobs.
If a single piece of gear can quietly replace three or four others, that’s a win. OUTCAST watches are built to be that kind of tool. The bezels, dials, and markings are there to earn their keep, not to decorate the watch.
Tested in the field, not just on the bench.
Prototypes don’t live in a display case. They get worn, knocked around, taken into bad weather, and put through the same situations they’re meant to handle. Anything that doesn’t hold up gets redesigned, not explained away.
Lean operation, honest value.
There is no big marketing machine behind this. Parts are ordered in small batches; builds are done with care; prices are kept tied to real costs. Movements are serviceable anywhere. If something fails, it gets fixed. Simple as that.
Built for people who actually use their gear.
OUTCAST watches aren’t meant to sit in a safe or be collected for their logo. They’re meant to be worn by people who hike, hunt, shoot, travel, fish, work outside—or just appreciate a tool that’s been thought through.
In short: OUTCAST designs are driven by use, refined by experience, and kept as straightforward as possible. No drama, no mythology—our watches aren't made in Switzerland by magical elves - we just have watches that are built to be used hard and trusted, by guys that actually 'do stuff', not just wear their watch to the office just to sit at a desk, and count the minutes until they can go home.
