Watch Review: Monta’s Affordable Triumph Watch Triumphs (prices)

Every once in a while, a watch brand comes along that surprises us. Especially with today’s spate of affordable new micro-brands emerging onto the market. Monta Watches is one such company.  Inspired by vintage traditional watches that are highly functional tool timepiece, the founders of Monta wanted to release a timepiece that offered value, quality and substance for today’s consumers. Two years in the making, the brand emerged on the market in 2017 and has been making quiet yet continually strong inroads ever since. Recently, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with the Monta Triumph. I wore the watch for several weeks, including on a trip out of the country, and I was impressed by its utilitarian nature, as well as by its precision and appeal.  Here we offer a complete review of the Monta Triumph watch.

To begin with, let’s call it what it is. The Monta Triumph is a field watch, inspired by military and field users and offering a clean, crisp, easy-to-read dial.  From there, it actually is a really nice looking, and nice fitting watch. The version I borrowed had a black dial (the watch is offered in a choice of blue, green, silver or black dials) and I wore it with a stainless steel bracelet, which I was able to size for my wrist thanks to the screwdriver included in the beautiful blue box.

Monta offers a great system wherein buyers can customize their watch choice if they want, and, after picking a dial color, the buyer of the Triumph can pick between the steel bracelet, or choose from its strap options – which include four vegetable-tanned Italian leather straps (tan, chestnut, chocolate and black) or vulcanized rubber colors such as blue or black. Additionally, every watch is sold with an added fabric NATO style strap in the same color as the dial and with the spring bar tool to change the bracelet

The Triumph measures 38.5mm in diameter and 10mm in thickness, a great size for both men and women. I wore it and it seemed to fit like a glove. Even though the watch has thicker lugs – after all that’s inherent in a field watch – it still wrapped around the wrist nicely. Crafted in 316L stainless steel, the watch has multiple polished and matte surfaces, giving it a very wearable look.

The dial of my watch was also matte black (the blue, silver and green dials are sunburst) and offers both Arabic numerals and applied markers with SuperLuminova coating.  The large Arabic numerals at 3:00 and 9:00 are a nice touch. The logo is at 12:00 and the date aperture – a generously sized date indication – is well balanced at 6:00.  The crown is a nice onion-style crown indicative of field watches in the past, and is slightly recessed, which I appreciated because I didn’t have to worry about damaging it in my travels.  Fitted with a sapphire crystal with seven layers of anti-reflective coating, this watch is easy to read outside on a sunny day without any glare.

The Triumph’s sword-shaped hands are diamond cut and polished and are large enough for easy readability. They are coated with SuperLuminova for a luminescence that makes reading at night or in the dark easy. I especially like this feature because I sleep with my watch on at night and I like to be able to see the time at a glance when I wake up in the middle of the night.

Because Monta is offering reliability to its wearers, it turns to the Sellita SW 300 mechanical movement to power this watch.  The movement is tuned to a chronometer lever (-5/+5 seconds per day) and vibrates at 28,800 beats per hour.  I found the watch to be totally accurate. The only downside for me is the 42 hours of power reserve. I have always loved a watch that could offer at least 72 hours – but that is a personal preference.  Thanks to the screw-down crown, the watch is water resistant to 150 meters.

My overall impression of the Monta Triumph is that it delivers exactly what it says it will: quality, value, performance and looks.  I liked wearing this watch and I actually got a question about it when I was at the airport security. One security person commented on the great field look – from a distance, when he saw it, he said he was impressed by the profile, the strong lugs and the matte-and-polish look. Naturally, he asked the brand and the price – which was great because this watch is nicely priced at  $1,550 on the steel bracelet and at  $1,385 for leather strap, and $1,375 for rubber strap. It comes with a two-year warranty.