MR Jones “The Silent Thief”

About two weeks ago, we reviewed here on this website the watch ‘A Perfect Useless Afternoon’ by the British microbrand watchmaker Mr Jones. In our review, we noted that it is a light, summery watch that is simply cool. If this review makes you think that Mr Jones only produces cool watches, then allow us to update you that Mr Jones also has elegant watches, which also come with unique names, like the watch in our review today – ‘The Silent Thief’. You are invited to get to know this additional watch that we received from Mr Jones for review with us.

Let’s start with a bit of background. While the previous watch we reviewed here on the site was designed for Mr Jones by the Belgian artist Kristof Devos, ‘The Silent Thief’ watch was designed for Mr Jones by the British artist Andy Wilx. While the dial of ‘A Perfect Useless Afternoon’ displays a cool scene of a man sailing in a pool, ‘The Silent Thief’ presents a much more elegant dial, with a rook at its center, on whose name or rather, in tribute to its thieving nature, the watch is called ‘The Silent Thief’.

The Dial design is gorgeous. The bird rolls his eyes and watches us all the time, waiting for the right moment to surprise us and strike!

The hours and minutes are shown on the beautifully designed discs, and as the discs turn, the design generates a kaleidoscope of color and pattern.

The Silent Thief has been plated with pure palladium, creating a lovely shine on the watch face. 

The Artist explains his inspiration for this design –

“I’m intrigued by the idea of taking something as beautiful as a bird and making it more beautiful with gold and jewels. By giving the bird a simple piece of jewellery you instantly create a narrative:

A robin perched on a fence, is just that; but a robin wearing a necklace perched on a fence is the beginning of a story. The bird is no longer part of the scenery but becomes an actor, centre-stage.

This isn’t to anthropomorphise the bird as much as to give the viewer an intriguing reference and provoke curiosity and stir our imagination.

The design for this watch is part of a series of works that I’ve created, which collectively form the Adorned Series. These works are all thematically linked by the idea of adornment – that is to make more beautiful or attractive.”

But it isn’t all. “Our small team printed the individual colors in the design one by one, applied the metals by hand, before cleaning and backing them with a varnish for protection, and then each watch was assembled, all in our London workshop,” Mr Jones says.

The stainless steel case measures 45mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness. It’s not a little watch, but it’s light and fits well on your wrist, since it feels somewhat smaller than 45mm. The watch is water resistant to 5ATM (50 meters), but as you can see on Mr Jones’ website, it comes with a leather band that will wear quickly when exposed to water.  

The watch comes with the Swiss watch industry workhorse calibre, the Sellita SW200. The SW200 is an automatic movement, beating at 28,800 vibration per hour while offering a 38 hours power reserve. 

The Caliber is visible through the watch’s glass caseback, albeit Mr Jones did not go to great lengths to make this calibre look appealing. This is done for two reasons: the first is economical; if you invest effort into making the calibre visually beautiful, it will cost more to make and will also take longer to produce. The second reason is that, at the end of the day, you’re usually wearing your watch on your wrist, or at least that’s what you’re supposed to do, so why bother improving the calibre if no one will see it…? 

The watch is priced at £ 595, which is comparable to the prices of other Mr Jones watches. Given that you’re receiving a superbly produced exquisite dial with such an astonishing impact, as well as the fact that it’s an automatic watch, this watch represents excellent value for money.

The watch is presently sold out, but Mr Jones expects that it will be available again by the end of June, so if you want to buy one, you shouldn’t have to wait too long. 

The only disadvantage we could see with this watch is its size. Although Mr Jones designated this watch as a Mens watch, we would like to see a smaller version of this watch, as 45mm may be too large for certain watch enthusiasts. Furthermore, a smaller size would make this watch suitable for women, as this dial may be worn by both men and women. 

We’d like to thank Mr Jones for allowing us to review both of their watches and get a firsthand look at two sides of this company: the cool, young, and fresh side represented by the “A Perfectly Useless Afternoon” watch, and the beautifully elegant side represented by the “The Silent Thief” watch. 

Despite our best efforts to take nice images of these watches, we must say that we hope we were able to show you how lovely these watches are and that you were able to see the fine craftsmanship Mr Jones puts into these watches for this price. 

So, if you’re looking for a new dress watch and don’t have a small wrist, and you want an interesting dial that, to be honest, looks like it belongs to a much more expensive watch, the “The Silent Thief” from Mr Jones is a great option you should consider, and the best part, it’s inexpensive. 

For more information about this watch at Mr Jones website.