What watch do you wear to the Grand Canyon? Something that speaks to its nature in the American Southwest. For me that means something rough, tough and made with the materials at hand. I chose my Maranez Layan in brass with an Agate dial on a Genuine Python strap. OK, I know that Green Agate is not found at the Grand Canyon, nor are there any pythons running around in the Colorado River. However, it fit the bill perfectly and looked totally at home doing it.
It’s true, I really love my Brass/Bronze watches! They are the kind of watches you almost want to beat-up. Between the scratches and marks from wear and the naturally forming patina, each one starts to tell its own story. My Agate Dialed Layan’s story is one involving lots of polish. This poor guy ended with the dressy role among my brass watches and gets polished about every 3-5 months. Why else would you own a cordless Dremel Tool? The photos from the Canyon are about near the end of his polish cycle, probably closer to 6 months since the last polish. I think it looking pretty good, so I’m going to leave him alone for a while. Besides I have a new Orbis Morgan Nautilus that’s going to take over some of the dressier duties from the Layan. (Future post here)
I have several pin cushion style cased watches and have always found the shape to be comfortable, classy and a little bit sporty at the same time. The Layan is no exception, it wore great all day in the hot sun, wandering the “Trail of Time” path along the southern rim of the Canyon. My son especially loved this trail, at about the 100 millions year into the trail, he made the formal proclamation that we would find year 0! And we did, (SPOILER ALERT) as the years get closer to 0 the increments in the markers go from a million years per foot to one year per foot, so it was a little longer than expected.
The Maranez Layan is a great watch and has a permanent place in my Brass/Bronze watch case. I especially like the Green Agate Dial as it has a glassy depth to it that is truly unique. The python strap from StrapCo was super comfortable all day and has been on this watch for a long time (unfortunately it is no longer available on their site.) It seems that once I find a strap that works perfectly with a watch, they tend to stay that way for a while.
We had a great afternoon at the Grand Canyon, I remember seeing it in my early twenties and it was cool and neat, but coming back after 30 years and seeing it again, it really impressed upon me the magnitude of this Canyon. It is really immense. A lot of my watches probably will not be with me for 30 years, let alone will they get passed on to my son. But, I think the Maranez Layan stands a pretty good shot at sticking around. If fact, I think the only thing that might boot it from the collection is if it gets replaced with a Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic Bronzo, or something similar.
Keep on a Watching!
Edward
Maranez Layan, Brass
Maranez Layan, Brass
The Layan’s unique Agate dial really makes this watch. When combined with the Brass case and a comfortable strap it’s a hard deal to beat for $299.00 (I paid $350.00ish for the stone dial, still a great deal.) In fact, I liked the stone dial so much I contacted Maranez and asked if they could add a stone dial to their Bangla 47mm dive watch. Unfortunately, they can’t because of the thickness of the stone dials. Giving this watch 4.75 stars for being a great value, looking great in any situation and has one of the coolest dials I have on any of my watches.
