Farer Barnwell Pilot Series II Brings Warmth to the Classic Pilot’s Watch

The Farer Barnwell Pilot Series II is a pilot’s watch that doesn’t lean on costume drama.

It keeps the essentials of the genre, including a Type B layout and clear minute-first reading, but softens the mood with warm colour, compact sizing and a titanium case that looks far richer than its weight suggests.

For anyone who likes the utility of a flight watch but not the oversized nostalgia that often comes with it, this is the interesting middle ground.

At a glance

• Farer’s Barnwell Pilot Series II is a compact aviation-inspired watch named after Scottish flying pioneers Frank and Harold Barnwell.
• Key details include a brown layered Type B dial, orange luminous hands, a grade 2 titanium case with burnished brown PVD and 100m water resistance.
• It uses a Sellita SW300-1 Elaboré movement with 56 hours of power reserve and is priced at £1,350.

Aviation cues without the theatre

The Barnwell name refers to Frank and Harold Barnwell, brothers associated with early Scottish aviation and powered flight in 1909.

Harold later became chief test pilot at Vickers and was killed while testing the Vampire prototype in 1917, while Frank designed aircraft including the Bristol Fighter, Bulldog and Blenheim before dying in a crash in 1938.

That background gives the watch a more convincing aviation link than simply enlarging the crown and borrowing a military dial.

The Type B layout remains the clearest nod to traditional pilot’s watches, with an outer minute track and a smaller hour scale set inside it.

The hands follow the lozenge shape associated with mid-century pilot’s watches, here treated with orange lume and matched by the orange-tipped seconds hand.

A layered brown dial with real contrast

The dial is where the Barnwell moves away from the more familiar black-and-white flight-watch template.

Its brown tone is muted and warm, paired with hot orange hands that stand out cleanly against the darker surface.

A raised, angled minute track in sky blue runs around the outside, while the hour markers sit within the dial on an indented inner scale.

The central dial plate uses a 12-segment three-dimensional pattern, with each wedge sloping anti-clockwise.

Farer says the motif takes inspiration from jet engine fan blades, adding depth to a dial that otherwise could have been much flatter.

The result is still legible first, decorative second, which is the right hierarchy for this kind of watch.

Titanium that reads like bronze

The case may look bronze at a glance, but Farer uses grade 2 titanium with a burnished brown PVD coating.

That choice gives the watch a warm, aged tone without the changing patina, added heft or skin staining that can come with bronze.

The bead-blasted matte finish keeps the watch understated, with a restrained coin-edge detail appearing where the bezel meets the case rather than around the full bezel.

At 40mm across, 43mm lug-to-lug and 10.9mm thick, the Barnwell sits on the more wearable side of the pilot’s watch category.

The conical crown is large enough to suit the genre, though not oversized, and it carries a bronze end cap with Farer’s “A” logo.

A suede strap completes the softer, more casual feel.

Anti-magnetic protection for a flight-watch idea

The screw-down caseback is engraved with Farer’s anti-magnetic marque, pointing to the soft iron Faraday cage around the movement.

Farer rates the protection to 500 Gauss, a useful detail for a watch that draws on cockpit instrumentation, where magnetic exposure is part of the practical conversation.

Inside is the Sellita SW300-1 in Elaboré grade, adjusted in four positions and offering a 56-hour power reserve.

The SW300-1 also helps keep the case relatively slim, which matters on a watch trying to balance tool-watch character with daily wearability.

Water resistance is rated to 100m, enough to make the Barnwell feel robust without pretending to be a dive watch.

Details & Specifications

The Barnwell Pilot Series II works because it understands restraint.

It has enough aviation detail to satisfy the brief, but its colour, proportions and material choices make it feel more like a daily watch than a period prop.