Hands-On: The Straum Expedition

If wearing the Straum Expedition on and off for the last few weeks has reminded me of anything, it’s this: It’s been a little too long since I last had a good outdoor adventure. For me, 2025 was a year all about getting outside. So far, 2026 hasn’t been. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — I’ve sated my need for adventure in other ways this year, and I have found a few days here and there to climb a small mountain or two — but it is a thing, and the new Expedition from Straum has been a definite reminder of that, because this is a watch that’s all about getting outside.

To me, a watch’s success comes down largely to intent. Put another way, does the execution of a watch line up with the story it’s trying to tell? It’s a harder needle to thread than you might expect, but when a brand gets the balance right, it’s magic. Still, I do recognize that wearing a watch, especially a mechanical watch, in 2026 is largely an emotional affect, and most people don’t actually need their watches to live up to the promise on the tin.

That might help explain why there are so many “dive watches” on the market with minimal water resistance, or why I see so many people on the subway wearing fashion watches with fake pushers and subdials that seem to do nothing. And that’s what makes a watch like the Straum Expedition so special—it is exactly what the brand claims it is.

A (Very) Brief Primer On Straum

If you already know Straum, it’s probably thanks to the Jan Mayen. While the Jan Mayen wasn’t the first collection from Straum (the now-retired Opphav and its limited-edition sibling Rastarkalv claim that honor) it was the one that put Straum into a broader realm of the collective enthusiast consciousness.

Straum was founded in 2017 when Øystein Helle Husby and Lasse Roxrud Farstad — two friends who had earlier met in design school — reconnected and set out to start a brand that was definitively Norwegian. With the Jan Mayen, Øystein and Lasse started using their watches to tell stories about Norway’s incredible outdoor spaces. Today, the Jan Mayen collection is a wide one, with dials drawing inspiration from the northern lights to glaciers; they’ve even made watch dials from rock collected on a trip to climb Beerenberg, the northernmost active volcano in the world, and a fixture of the island.

The watches have been justifiably popular, but while the Jan Mayen has done a brilliant job of evoking the rugged beauty of Norway’s wild spaces, it’s never quite been the watch you’d want to take to explore those spaces. That’s where the Expedition comes into play.

Inspired By… Or Built For

It’s worth noting that Øystein and Lasse aren’t guys afraid to get outside. They are consummate outdoorsman, and spend their time out of the office hiking, climbing, sailing, and otherwise exploring their own backyard (so to speak). So it’s not really surprising that the two would eventually turn their attention away from the nature-inspired watches they built their name on, and towards, well… a different sort of nature-inspired watch.

Okay, what do I mean by that ridiculous sentence? Well, everything is still inspired by nature, but it starts to factor in how you’re interfacing with nature in a given context. Basically, it gets down to a distinction that Straum is calling “Inspired By” vs. “Built For.” All the watches we’ve seen from Straum so far — from the Opphav to the Jan Mayen or Frozen Metal Titanium — fall into the first bucket. These are watches meant to remind you of nature when you’re living your everyday life. With the Expedition, Straum is now launching in full force its “Built For” line of watches, meant to go with you when you get out and go, and for a first attempt, they’ve knocked it out of the park.

To put the new Expedition up against the Jan Mayen, it’d be easy to say this is basically just a re-skinned version of a watch that already exists. I won’t deny there’s something to that — the overall shape of the new Expedition is recognizably Straum, and very similar to that of the Jan Mayen — but to lean on that is to ignore a lot about what makes the new Expedition special. Because, despite the similarities — both real and perceived — the character of the Expedition is wholly other from that of the Jan Mayen, and in all the ways that matter, this new watch feels unlike anything the brand has done before.

That’s not to say we haven’t seen glimpses of this before, though. Introducing rubber straps to the Jan Mayen line offered hints of what a more functional Straum could look like, and the brand has been dabbling with titanium more frequently. I recognize that for some, that will muddy the line between the watches, but I applaud them for making sure they had the necessary competencies in place before taking what amounts to a serious leap. Too many brands skip that step, and the quality that comes with Straum taking its time in getting to this watch shows through in the final product.

The Expedition, Explored

So, what exactly is different here? Well, for one thing, the case, while visually similar to the Jan Mayen, is thoroughly refined. At 39.5mm x 45.7mm x 11mm, it shares a lug-to-lug with the Jan Mayen, but is otherwise a touch thinner, a little bit smaller, and fits really well. This is only emphasized by the use of Grade 5 titanium for the case (and bracelet, if you go that way). The balance of dial to case is also improved (to my eye) and leans more toward dial on the Expedition than the Jan Mayen. The stepped bezel, which rises to be flush with the ever-so-slightly domed sapphire crystal, gives the watch a more robust feel and also helps the crystal feel less like it’s protruding.

It’s an interesting contrast to the Jan Mayen, which boasts a thinner case than the Expedition, but is overall thicker, thanks to the protruding crystal on that watch. The bigger crown on the Expedition also changes the look of this watch more than you would expect. Functionally, it’s great and does exactly what Straum hoped it would (although I have yet to try to operate it with gloves), but I also find it to be more in proportion to the crown guards, slightly de-emphasizing them in a way that makes them feel like part of the case rather than an addition to it. All that to say, basically, I think it looks better.

The biggest change, though, comes with the dial, which drops the highly detailed, colorful, and beautiful options available on the Jan Mayen for a highly legible and fit-for-purpose look, with block numerals and markers, bright pops of fluorescent orange, and a sector layout straight off a field watch, with hours 13–24 marked on an inner ring on the dial. Three pre-order options are available.

The first of these (which I haven’t seen in person) is a “Midnight Blue” option that is limited to 200 pieces. The standard production offering comes in two specs. The one I think will grab the most attention off the bat is the “White Lume” colorway. It’s undoubtedly a wicked watch, and with the high-contrast black numerals and rehaut, it’s a killer look, but for my money, the way to go is the third option: “Titanium Gray.”

I know, I’m just as surprised as you. I was sure the one I would reach for is the lume dial Expedition, but the Titanium Gray is just too good, and there are a few niggles came up for me with the lume dial that just don’t exist on the Titanium Gray, which, by the by, isn’t just a color — it’s actually a bare bead-blasted titanium dial. It’s sick, and on the navy rubber strap, it was my favorite configuration of the watch, scratching a lot of the same itch as something like the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Deep Stream watches.

My main point of complaint with the White Lume was that the black “6” sits too close to the black rehaut of the watch. On all models, the “6” sits into a cutout in the rehaut, but on the White Lume, not enough dial shows through at the bottom of the numeral to clearly separate it. That’s not a problem on the other models, where the dials and rehaut are dark, and the numeral itself is made of a three-dimensional lume compound. Still, especially on the dark green rubber strap, the lume-dial Expedition was great, and I genuinely don’t think you can go wrong.

That said, I’ve now mentioned something in each of the last two paragraphs that is probably worth addressing: Straps. I credit Straum for keeping these new watches compatible with the quick-release bracelet and strap system from the Jan Mayen. Their inclusion in that pretty built-out system immediately makes these new watches into a more compelling, more personalized offering, and it’s awesome that the optionality that comes with a robust strap infrastructure exists from day 1. That said, I cannot for the life of me understand why, at least for now, the watches can only be ordered on either a black rubber strap or the matching titanium bracelet.

True enough, both options are great. I haven’t had the chance to wear the Expedition on the titanium bracelet during this loan, but I have tried their titanium bracelet on other watches and can say it’s absolutely worth the upcharge if that’s the route you’re inclined to go. And the rubber straps are great too. They’re incredibly comfortable and well-made, and I love how they’ve introduced a cut-to-size element while sticking with a pin-buckle design.

But neither of the models I have in front of me looks its best on a black strap. Straum provided the Expeditions to me with a decent-sized collection of rubber straps to choose from, and I can say with certainty that, while my choice of colors may not be everyone’s favorite, with the breadth of options available, buyers should be able to choose what color rubber strap comes on their watch. Okay? Diatribe over.

The one other pain point that came up with these watches was the movement. Now, the two samples of the Expedition I was provided are pre-production watches, and the team at Straum has assured me that the movement issues I encountered are being worked through and won’t be a problem come shipping time in March. With that caveat in place, I need to say that the implementation of the La Joux-Perret LJP G100 in these watches needs some refinement.

In each case, the samples provided had very loud rotors, slightly grainy winding, and—in one case—a date that refused to center itself in the date window (made all the more obvious by the fluorescent printing on the date wheel). Now, Straum has been using La Joux-Perret for a while, and I haven’t experienced the same issue in the Jan Mayen, so I’m choosing to believe that by the time these watches launch in six months, these issues will be sorted, but still — consider yourself reasonably warned.

Where Does This Leave Us?

Now, as I hope is clear at this point, I really like the Straum Expedition, but that’s not to say it’s without competition. While I’m not going to directly compare it to watches like the Vacheron Deep Stream (the spiritual predecessor to the Cardinal Points, which trades for many multiples the Straum’s $2,750 price tag), it’d be hard not to look at watches like the Laventure Marine Type 3 Chronometer (which is both 4,200 CHF and functionally not available at the moment); the recently launched Benrus Type 3X, which at $2,950 and with a GMT is hard to ignore; and let’s not forget watches from brands like Micromilspec, which offer a very similar aesthetic. 

Any of those watches would make excellent outdoor companions, but I think the Straum Expedition, even with stiff competition, has a unique voice and appeal. That it’s a trailhead for Straum rather than a summit is also a compelling mark in the Expedition’s favor, and something that should get us all very excited.

For more, visit Straum’s Website