I  Am now concerned about writing a review because the last watch I did this for, I sold six months later as it gradually gathered dust. Anyway, here's a B&R Type Marine:

First impressions, it feels smaller than its 40mm (actually 39.5mm) diameter suggests. The crown is at 4 so doesn't need big protectors, and the crown is quite small as it is. It's very functional, almost minimalist. It's flat, too, the 12mm depth is mostly due to the almost bubble-backed caseback. The case itself is maybe 7mm at most. Still, when it's on, it starts to feel like a 40mm watch after all as there's not so much visual "break" between the black dial and the black bezel.

The design is quite unusual; a '70s-style angular case originally designed by Sinn in the '80s, dropped by the original manufacturer in the '90s but picked up by B&R, and still for sale in the '00s. AIUI this was one of the watches that B&R "cloned" from Sinn when it started out marketing watches, and after developing its own facility to make its own watches it took on this one after Sinn pulled it from its own line-up. Even the bracelet is the same. B&R did give it some anti-magnetic properties, though, and their own bezel/dial/hand treatment.

Anyway, this one is light (120g, half of which is the bracelet itself) and very low-profile. The flat crystal is fractionally proud of the slightly sloping bezel, and is AR-coated inside with some sort of hardening treatment on the outside, according to B&R.

I like the white-on-black date wheel and clear numbering. The bezel has 60 steps, not 120l quite Submariner-ish, as are the hand shapes. IMHO the white-painted hand set is a bit austere, and I'd probably put silvered Demineur-type hands on, if it was me.

The bracelet is very well made with a lovely clasp of just the right size and heft. The downside though is that the lug links (20mm lug width, flaring to 24mm, and tapering to 18mm at the clasp) already have some burring in a straight line where they rub against the case when the watch is taken off. The thing to do here would have been to change the shape to prevent the link from rotating "up" so far. A bit of a shame, as the burring started straight away and there appears to be no way of avoiding it unless you never take it off. The lugs are drilled, at least, but don't leave much room for thick straps.

FWIW timekeeping is excellent. It's not a thermocompensated movement but currently behaves like one, not having gained more than a second in the last month. The second hand hits the markers spot on, although as always there's occasionally a bit of backlash which throws it out by 1/5th of a second before it catches up a few seconds later.

IMHO it's not quite worth the £700/800 list price as there simply isn't that much to it. It's quartz, small, an old design with minimal finishing - although what there is, is very good. The brushing, for example, is as fine and as even as you could reasonably expect. However it is cheaper than any entry-level quartz Omega, Breitling and no more than a Tag diver, and with a 20-25% discount it makes much more sense. It's not easy to recommend a watch as unconventional as this, but IMHO it's certainly a more imaginative set-and-forget choice and technically at least the equal of anything else in the price range.

review and photographs belong to a tz-uk member