Praesidus Makes Its First Ana-Digi, And It's Exactly What I Want From An Ana-Digi

I am deeply in love with ana-digi watches, and I have been for years. Hands for the time, a screen for everything else, and a case big enough to hold both. However, ana-digi modules aren't exactly readily available off-the-shelf, so a lot of these watches are made by large watchmakers, whether on a lower budget like Casio, mid budget like Omega (although, they just discontinued the perfect X-33) or high budget, like H. Moser & Cie. You won't exactly see a small independent brand make one. Well, actually, you will. Praesidus, the company that has been riding the crest of the historic military-watch wave for years now, did exactly that. They just released the Montar, a perfect ana-digi for not a lot of money.

The case is 44mm wide and 13.5mm thick, in sandblasted steel with a black IP coating and 22mm between the lugs. That's a big boy. But other than the Breitlign Aerospace, and it's derivatives and precursors, I haven't met an ana-digi watch taht doesn't look cool in a massive case. The ratcheting bezel has a compass scale on one side of the markings and a dive-timing scale on the other, and every mark on it is lumed. The crystal is flat mineral glass with a sapphire coating, which is OK, I guess. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is built in two layers. At the bottom sits a negative LCD with two windows; on top are the hour markers and handset, all filled heavily with Super-LumiNova. The hands run independently of the display, so you always have the time no matter which function is active, and you can read it in the dark without pressing the backlight. There are four colorways. Graphite has white lume and a light green seconds hand. Cinder pairs beige lume with an orange seconds hand, an olive minute track and orange LCD digits. Flint uses beige lume and a red seconds hand, and Canyon gets yellow lume, a yellow seconds hand and orange digits.

Inside is the BJS052 multifunction quartz module, with an alarm, chronograph, dual time, calendar and hourly chime. Pushers at 2:00, 4:00 and 8:00 operate the functions, and the one at 10:00 turns on the light. Graphite and Cinder come on an olive canvas hook-and-loop strap, Flint and Canyon on tan.

The Praesidus Montar Ana-Digi is available now, in four colorways for $275. See more on the Praesidus website.