MEET THE WATCH: Victorinox Swiss Army Lancer 200 – “Home Plate” Bezel

Some readers may wonder why I am referencing American baseball’s “Home Plate” in the title of an article about a Swiss Made watch. It might seem ridiculous to non-watch people, but watch collectors like to make up nicknames to describe watches because there are just so many of them to keep track of. We usually target a distinguishing characteristic of the watch that sets it apart from other watches. One glance at this Swiss Army Lancer 200 should make the connection to the home plate obvious. This shape should be familiar to sports fans. I could have just as easily used the nickname Lancer 200 Irregular Pentagon Bezel, but maybe that is not as catchy. haha

Swiss Army Lancer 200 watches

In my defense, I wanted a more literal way of differentiating Swiss Army’s Lancer 200s from the related Lancer 100 collection. Thus I am coining the Swiss Army Lancer 200 “Home Plate Bezel” nick-name… at least until something better comes along. I’m open to other options so leave suggestions in the comments. The Lancer 200 “Home Plate Bezel” has unique bezel features unlike other watches that Swiss Army produced, which makes it worthwhile to take a deeper look. To see how it compares to the other members of the Lancer family, make sure to check out my upcoming article on those colorful Lancer 100 Submariner-style watches. The blue watch below on the left is a Lancer 100 and has the more typical bezel style.

A colorful Lancer 100 next to two Lancer 200s

While not an overly expensive purchase in the 1990s, $350 was not a dime-store watch either. Obviously, there was enough production budget for Victorinox to produce one of my favorite dive bezels to date. The so-called “Home Plate Bezel” shows Swiss Army’s typical bang-for-the-buck quality. In my opinion, this 3-dimensional bezel is a more interesting design than the flat bezels found on the blue Lancer 100 seen above. The Lancer 200 also was rated for an extra hundred meters of water resistance. That is what 100 and 200 stand for in the Lancer names.

Victorinox Swiss Army Lancer 200’s coin edge and pentagon bezel

In my opinion, the Swiss Army Lancer 200 is a work of industrial art rendered in cold stainless steel, particularly that bezel. I suspect that the bezel was an expensive part to make requiring multiple machining steps to create the coin edge, circular brushing, polished and engraved pentagons, and dots that seem to rise from the surface. Every 10-minutes is marked with the aforementioned pentagonal “home plate” shape, which breaks the outline of the circular bezel in a number of ways. First, they are highly polished, which provides a contrasting finish to the circularly grained lower part of the bezel. The shiny pentagons reflect more light than the brushed surfaces so they really stand apart from the rest of the bezel. In between the pentagon shapes, there are small, rounded humps that are also polished. Coin-edge texturing make the 60-click bezel a joy to turn. During this time Swiss Army also polished the insides of their cases to a mirror finish so make sure to look for that feature in the video below.

The best way to experience how this watch really looks is to see it in real life, but the video gives some indication of what you can expect. Out of all the watches that I own, this one exhibits the greatest ability to reflect the colors of the surrounding environment. The grey dial appears to change colors and the brushed metal finish, especially on the bracelet, acts as some sort of responsive camouflage that might appear in a science fiction movie. This is likely due to the surface brushing that diffuses reflections of the environment from distinct shapes to indistinct fields of color and tone. See for yourself below.

It took me a while to acquire my Swiss Army Lancer 200 “Home Plate Bezel” watch. I literally bought three of them before I got a good one. This was just dumb luck and should not reflect on the quality of the watch. The story of why I bought three Swiss Army Lancer 200s might be helpful to those who want to buy one. The first Lancer 200 “Home Plate Bezel” that I bought showed up dead-on-arrival from eBay. This can happen to any watch over 20 years old. I could not get it to work with several new batteries so it had to go back. Many of the photos seen on this blog are of the first broken watch, scratches and all. It is probably a more honest representation of what you can expect an average Lancer 200 to look like with normal wear applied.

Swiss Army Lancer Mid-Size (32mm)

It only took 2 weeks to buy another Lancer 200 on eBay. This one was listed as a unisex mid-sized Lancer 200, which sounded perfect to me. The price was even better than the first one, and it looked unworn that was good too. I soon had the delivered watch in hand, but I was surprised when I opened the box to see that it was only 32 mm. Jeez! That thing was small and obviously a woman’s watch.

Victorinox Swiss Army Lancer 200 Mid-Size (32 mm)

The smaller dimensions of this second watch confused me because the first broken Lancer 200 was larger at 39 mm. As you can see from the comparison photo below, 7 millimeters can make a big difference. I’ll say in advance that the seller was not trying to mislead me in any way because “unisex” was how it had been described to him when he bought it. Thankfully for me, the seller agreed to accept the return because it did not really fit the term “unisex”, which means that men or women can comfortably wear it. Anyone in their right mind would know the tiny 32mm Lancer 200 was intended as a woman’s watch… right? Well, as it turns out, that is not exactly as clear as I originally thought.

Swiss Army Lancer 200 watches. 32mm “mid-size” on the left and 39mm “large” on the right

I’ll confess that I had an epiphany when buying these  Swiss Army Lancer 200’s. It took me a while to realize why I was initially confused. Ironically, the answer was printed right on the Swiss Army box, but the explanation took some thought. As I was packing the watch to return it, I read the “mid-size” label on the display box. Huh?! That label confused me because this 32mm watch was clearly “small” by all modern standards, and it looked like it was designed for a woman’s dainty wrist.

Two-Tone Lancer 200

I had a genuine “ah ha!” moment when I realized that the term “mid-size” is a relative term and not a specific term to describe watches. In other words, it is not an exact measurement like “40 mm” would be considered. I realized that back in the 1990s, “mid-size” could very easily have meant a 32 mm watch… a size that we would consider “small” today. By comparison, the 39 mm Swiss Army Lancer 200 was considered a “large watch” back then, but today we would consider it a “mid-size” watch.

This was an interesting realization that marketing terms and relative size descriptors can change meanings depending on the era in which the product is made. After all, what is considered an acceptable watch size has constantly changed since the invention of the wristwatch. Fashion is trendy.

The moral of this story is always ask the size of the watch in millimeters so that there is no confusion. Millimeters don’t lie. To my knowledge, there were four models of the Lancer 200 “Home Plate Bezel” and the sizes are not easily determined by just looking at photos. Two were the 39 mm “large size” and two were the 32 mm “mid-size”. There were two all-steel versions and also two gold and silver two-tone versions, which is the one I want the most.

All Lancer 200 “Home Plate Bezel” watches had the same blue-gray dial, which can look different in photos. I have seen this model’s dial appear as blue, grey and black. The truth is, it is all of those depending on the light you view it in. The dial appears to be semi-gloss so that it has its own color and reflects the environmental color as well. It is a cool effect, whether this was the intent of the watch designers or not.

This watch inherits color depending on what is near it. Note how the links seem to be different colors.

The dial markings are printed with semi-metallic silver ink. This included the 12-hour and also a 24-hour scale in smaller numerals closer to the center of the dial. The Swiss Army logo was an applied metal shield. Using silver ink instead of white ink ensures that the numerals reflect more available light because silver shimmers slightly more than flat white. This means the dial is readable even in dim light. The silver ink matches the case color and I believe that the dial has more life because of this design choice.

Victorinox Swiss Army Lancer 200 with matching date wheel

The slightly radioactive tritium used on the hands and small round pips has long since faded. Only a black light reveals the configuration and hints at what this Lancer 200 might have looked like when it still glowed. Tritium lume has a half-life of 12 years. I believe that this watch could be almost 30 years old so that lume is very dim! The lume has a light minty color that I find appealing. The ticking second’s hand is a bright yellow and my specimen has hands that hit right on the markers, which can be the sign of a good quartz movement.

The Swiss Army Lancer 200 has a no-nonsense dial. The crystal refracts light on the dial in an interesting heart shape

The date window appears at the 3:00 position. I had assumed that the date wheel is black with white numbers because custom color date wheels are not often found on $350 quartz watches. However, examination under the 10x loupe and magnifying glass suggest a different story. The date wheel appears to be color-matched to the grey dial and silver paint is used for the numbers instead of white.

Another distinctive element of the Swiss Army Lancer 200 is the flat-link bracelets reminiscent of geometric plate armor. I’ve never seen another watchband like it. The links are also thin, extremely flexible at the joints and have a little lateral “give”. The square edges of the links look sharp, but this watch wears comfortably. This might be because the watchband tapers from the short lugs to the deployant clasp.

Even if the links look sharp, they are incredibly flexible and feel great on the wrist.

The underside view of the Victorinox Swiss Army Lancer 200’s bracelet

The Swiss Army Lancer 200 has a tapering geometric bracelet

The Swiss Army Lancer 200’s watch band taper goes from 21mm at the lugs to a very comfortable 18mm at the locking-clasp deployant bracelet. The deployant clasp is a standard stamped part and about what you would expect for this time period, in this price bracket. It has a stamped steel locking mechanism, a diver’s extension, and micro-adjustments. You’ll need a pin tool or toothpick to change those, however. Just head to your local diner to steal one.

A standard stamped deployment clasp on a Swiss Army Lancer 200

You can really see the thinness of the links from the side. From this angle, you can also see the short lugs that are made solely for the bracelet. Good luck getting a NATO strap between the spring bar and case. It’s an impossibly tight fit, which proves that Swiss Army intended this watch to always have this bracelet and not a strap.

The thin bracelet of Swiss Army’s Lancer watches is flexible!

It is the small details that make this watch worth more than the $60 I paid for it. Swiss Army produced a memorable design that stays true to their mission of simple, and classic military watches. The style of the Swiss Army Lancer 200 does not look like any other watch that I know of and it wears so comfortably that you will have to check under your sleeve to make sure it is still there. Instead of buying one of the thousands of Rolex submariner clones, you could make a less predictable choice… and not spend a lot doing so.

Who knows how long the current fad of collecting vintage watches will go. I personally think that this is the “new normal” and that older analog watches will continue to be celebrated into the future. As time passes, they will only become more scarce and rare. There are millions of relatively cheap watches to collect out there and this model proves that you don’t have to break your bank account to participate. So, what are you waiting for?

The Victorinox Swiss Army Lancer 200 is worth collecting