News · Trafford Watch Co.

Trafford's Touring GMT splits day from night, and starts the brand's first permanent collection

Trafford's first permanent collection leads with a GMT that splits its scale into a day half and a night half, midnight sitting at the bottom.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 7 August 2026

Trafford Watch Co. Touring GMT from the Core Collection — Image: Trafford Watch Co.

I still do the sum. The hand lands on 19, my brain stalls for a beat, works out that it's seven in the evening back there, and decides yes, ringing is fine. A second and a half, every single time, on a watch designed to save me the trouble. Trafford has taken the sum away.

The Touring GMT splits its 24-hour scale into a daylight half and a night half, and drops midnight to the bottom. One look and you know whether anyone at home is up. It's a small change and a properly good one, because it answers the question a traveller actually has rather than handing over the raw number and wishing you luck.

The Trafford Touring GMT dial, cream with printed numerals and a teal arc across the lower half marking the night hours — The night half of the scale, with midnight at the bottom. Image: Trafford Watch Co.

US$899, with the Daytripper alongside it

The Touring GMT is US$899. It arrives next to the US$799 Daytripper, and the pair of them are the Core Collection, the first permanent line-up Trafford has committed to. Both are pre-order. Shipping is pencilled in for early October, and orders get filled in the order they land.

The Trafford Touring GMT in low light, the whole dial glowing turquoise — Image: Trafford Watch Co.

A true GMT that clocks off after 42 hours

Inside is the Miyota 9075, a true GMT, the sort people call a traveller's or a flyer's movement depending on who they read first. The local hour hand jumps on its own while the GMT hand stays put on home time, which is the right way round when you're the one doing the moving. 24 jewels, 28,800 vph, 42-hour reserve, and Trafford regulates every one in-house to within ten seconds a day.

The 42 hours is the catch. There are 70-hour movements going at this price, and of all the watches you'd pick to nod off overnight, the one built around travel is the one most likely to be sitting on a hotel bedside table when it happens, with you working out the home-time setting again over breakfast.

The Trafford Touring GMT worn on a wrist on a brown leather strap — Image: Trafford Watch Co.

Sapphire both ends, and a US$149 bracelet

The case is 316L steel with a hardening coating, sapphire at the front with the anti-reflective coating on the inside, sapphire again at the back, 10 ATM. It ships on leather.

The bracelet is US$149 on top. Same 316L, same hardening coating, quick-release end links, a taper from 20mm to 16mm, and on-the-fly micro-adjustment you can work without tools. That's rare at this price and I'd pay for it without much thought. Nobody has ever enjoyed sizing a bracelet on a hotel desk with the wrong pin pusher.

The standing collection is the actual news

The bigger story sits behind both watches. Microbrands mostly run release to release. A batch appears, it sells, it's gone, and by the time you act on a mate's recommendation the watch has stopped existing. A permanent collection means holding stock, keeping a design alive across runs, and being able to service something you sold two years ago. It's harder and it costs more, and it's roughly the line between a brand and a run of projects.

One thing worth flagging. The Time+Tide piece announcing the collection sits in that outlet's "In the Shop" section, which is commercial placement. The prices and specifications above come from Trafford's own site.