Ingersoll Oklahoma IN2802BK Review

The Ingersoll watch brand has its roots in classic Americana; lending an antique flair to a modern, globally sourced timepiece. Recently, we took a look at the Buffalo III and came away impressed with the aesthetic and price point. Today we will look at one of its brothers, the Oklahoma, a thoroughly classic looking timepiece even when compared to the rest of the Ingersoll brand.

Ingersoll IN2802BK

• 45 x 14.5 mm
• Stainless steel case
• Mineral glass crystal with glass caseback
• Leather Strap (22mm lugs)
• Day, date, year, 24hr.
• Automatic movement (30 hr power reserve)
• 30m WR
• 3 year warranty

The Ingersoll brand is operated by Zeon Ltd, a London based retailer that produces a number of watches under varied brands (Bench, Ed Hardy, Mini and Lambretta to name only a few). Ingersoll as a brand was purchased by Zeon and much of the manufacturing seems to be done in Asia. The Ingersoll aesthetic and appeal has been preserved while the manufacturing process allows for Ingersoll watches to be available at an entry level price. That said, the Oklahoma does not feel like a department store brand. The included leather strap (usually a weak spot in entry level brands) is very nice, soft with an aftermarket feel. The movement, while not swiss, keeps time within +/- 20 seconds a day and it is brand new and should break in over the coming year. The watch its self feels like a new-old-stock of some antique brand. The cathedral hands, shors lugs and nicely engraved bezel are only a few of the well thought out details on the Oklahoma (as seen in the accompanying video review).

The Oklahoma features a movement that tracks time, day, date, month and 24hr time. The glass case back allows you to see the inner workings of the Asian sourced movement. The top pusher advanced the month register at one o’clock while the lower pusher advances the year register (will only track the year to 2021). At three o’clock there are separate apertures for the day and date, both of which are well executed with black text on a white background. The sides of the case are brushed while the back is polished. The hands and markers are painted in orange luminous paint, a very cool and modern  touch that almost looks like patina if it weren’t for the clean and un-aged dial and glow of the paint. The dial is rather busy and much of the information it brings you is generally unnecessary – it definitely would have been nice to see a chronograph version given the tachymeter scale along the outside of the dial.

That said, I love the way it looks, almost steam-punk in some ways. The small markings around the large dial registers is an especially nice touch and helps in the legibility of the dial. The large orange hands are incredibly easy to read and the pin tip on the end of the second hand reaches to the very outside of the dial and minute markers, an excellent and increasingly rare touch. As an added flair, you get an oversized onion crown that is very simple to operate and looks funky between the stop watch style pushers. Both the crown and the pushers are finished to match the details in the bezel. While this a no showy high end swiss watch nor a tough dive watch, I still loved wearing it, it is in many ways different from anything else we have reviewed at Watch Report.

If you have a boney wrist the large crown may dig in from time to time and I did find myself wearing it a little higher on my wrist than normal. It would have been nice to get a sapphire crystal upfront and a mineral in the display back, currently the display back is standard glass and may not hold up over the years. Outside of the glass back there is little to complain about with the Oklahoma even as an everyday watch its very good for the price. Ingersoll lists the MSRP of the Oklahoma at $270 which is a fighting price given its competition and the multitude of quartz options at this price point. If you’re looking for a little old world charm to contrast your sportier watches, or simply want to wear something interesting and uncommon, the Ingersoll Oklahoma should be up to the task without breaking the bank.

By James Stacey