I decided around the end of 2020, after months of covid related lockdowns and changes to working practices taking its toll, to take my first small paddle into the vast ocean of micro-brands. The range of styles, mix of quality, not to mention my very limited watch budget, have kept my feet dry up until now but I have had a hankering for something from the left field for a while now and when I saw some comments about a Kickstarter wandering hours complication on the Fifth Wrist Slack Group (you should join in, it’s fun! Send an email to contact@fifthwrist.com or use the ‘slightly unusual’ contact us form on this very website) I looked into it more seriously. After some procrastination, followed of course by some man-maths to justify the purchase, I decided to take the plunge, paid my money and chose my options and then several months later my Angles Three Kings watch arrived.

First the basic details: the round case is polished 316L steel, 41mm diameter and 12.5 mm high with quite long, non-drilled lugs that measure 49mm tip to tip. It has a small bezel so wears a little larger to show off its 36mm dial. It came in a leatherette box with two leather straps (black fitted and a spare brown one) that fit nicely in its 20mm lugs. Its screw down display back reveals a workhorse Miyota 9039 (automatic plus manual wind with hacking seconds, +/- 10spd and 40hr reserve) with a custom stamped rotor showing the Angles logo.

The Angles Three Kings claims 50m water resistance but doesn’t have a screw down crown so I for one won’t be risking it, and a wandering hours isn’t the most suitable for swimming anyway. The Miyota 9039 is a 24-jewel base and this watch has 3 additional jewels on the dial side to improve the action of the wandering hours complication. The dial itself is a nice deep scarlet red, fading almost to black at the edge. The blurb says it has luminova but I think they may have forgotten to put that on mine! It didn’t bother me, so I didn’t make any noise about it. Several other colours were available, as were both movement and case upgrades, but I stuck with what I chose. So, let’s get the fun part…

How the flip do you tell the time on this Angles Three Kings anyway! Wandering hours watches are unconventional for sure and make it so you have to stop and think at first how to tell the time. The wandering hours display is believed to have been invented by the Campani Brothers for a clock they created for Pope Alexander VII in the 1650’s, and of course more recently used to great effect by Urwerk in their amazing watches. Like many new things, after a few goes it becomes pretty much second nature. On the dial itself, there is what looks like a conventional minute track around the circumference of the dial, but don’t be fooled – that’s for the seconds only. A separate short track runs along the right hand side of the dial where a more conventional watch would have the 1 to 5 hour markers. This is actually the minutes track. And the hours? Sets of four numerals rotate on each of three transparent rotating discs, one mounted on each of three arms that move around the dial. To read the time, you look at the hour on the arm that is sweeping down the minute track on the right and read across form where the hour line is to read the minute. The picture probably shows it better.

Impressions? Well, the Angles Three Kings is certainly a talking point, with watch-nerds delighting in its playfulness and my non-watch friends thinking I’ve lost the plot. The cost was less than most wandering hours (and less than 1% of some Urwerks) which fit my small budget well. The quality feels ok… not amazing but alright. I don’t know why they bother with display backs on cheap movements but at least this one shows a custom rotor. In short, it’s a fun thing and I’ll be keeping it.