After the publication of my Markwell “datematic” review in 2024, I was excited to see what the brand would release next. John from Markwell alluded to something that was like a field watch, but also playful. Well, fast forward into 2025, and I got a sneak preview of the watches. Come a few more months, and I’ve got the whole range of pre-production models to test. The new series is the “Hard Candy Enamel” line, which features 5 watches in colors that emulate flavors of candy. Are these just a sweet treat, or do they have some substance too?
Who is Markwell Watches?
Markwell Watches is comprised of two fellas, John and Allen. Both have been watch nerds for longer than I’ve been alive, and they decided to launch their own watch microbrand in 2023.
I’ve reviewed their “datematic” which, (as Bruce Williams called it), was the Go Anywhere Dad Accessory. The “datematic” had classic flair with modern features, and was a hit for me. The Hard Candy Enamel is built with the bones of the “datematic”, but with a different dial and movement.
While new, the Hard Candy retains much of the great wearability of the “datematic”. The Telford case is still being used, and the water resistance is still at 100m with the crown pushed in. The bones are the same, but the design is a lot more “field watch-y” to me. We’ve lost the date complication with the new dial, but have gained a lot of glow-in-the-dark lume. The movement is changed too, with the Hard Candy using the Miyota 9039 dateless automatic movement. We’ll touch on the movement before too long, but this is a great movement, and is much less costly than the previous Swiss Sellita movement.
Retail price for each of the Hard Candy watches is $579 ($150 less than the “datematic”), which ship with a contoured FKM rubber strap. These are assembled in the US, with Japanese movements and parts ethically sourced from Asia. There are 5 colors offered, with either a black or white strap. What are these colors?
Colorways, Dimensions & Strap Options
The big draw of the Hard Candy Enamel series are the dials. John came up with 5 “flavors”, and they’re all really attractive.
- Green Apple
- Black Cherry
- Blue Razz
- Lemon Drop
- Grape Jelly
Each colorway features a fumé dial, which means that you’ve got a color gradient from dark to light on the dial. The dials are really quite unique, and we’ll touch on them in more detail down below.
While companies provide their measurements, I prefer to take my own. These were done with a pair of digital calipers, and weighing via my scale:
- Case size: 37.11 mm
- Case size including the crown: 39.73mm
- Lug width: 20.01 mm
- Lug to lug: 43.69 mm
- Thickness (including crystal): 10.16 mm
- Strap width (close to the case and taper before end of strap): 19.90mm, down to 18.20mm
- Weight of watch with rubber strap: 71g
- Weight of watch without strap: 44g
- Water resistance of 100m (with crown pushed in)
For your strap, you’ve got either a black or white FKM rubber strap, with quick detach springbars. Markwell also sells leather straps (same as the one from the datematic), which will fit on the Hard Candy watches too.
Before hopping into the review proper, I do want to mention that the watches that I tested were pre-production samples. They’re 90% the same as the production models, however, the hands will be differently shaped (rounded at the ends), have different paint on them (solid border rather than stainless), and the lume will be a little more colorway specific.
The Hard Candy Enamels are powered by the Miyota 9039. How well does that movement work in this watch?
The Movement
The powerplant for the Hard Candy Enamels is the Miyota 9039. The Miyota 9000 series movements are held in high regard by watch nerds (me included), and have been showing up in more microbrand watches over the last few years. The Islander Port Jeffersons that I reviewed both used 9000 series movements (the 9015, the three hander with date, and the 9075, the GMT), and I had great luck with them.
On the Hard Candy, we’ve got the 9039. This movement has three hands (seconds, minutes, & hours), and hacking seconds. It has no date, and as such, actually has a proper crown too. Many no-date watches use movements that had dates, but don’t have them shown. The Markwells don’t, which means the crown only has two positions (closed and open), so no ghost position here.
The 9039 runs at 4 Hz, which means we’ve got a smoother sweep to the secondhand. It’s an automatic movement (powered by winding the watch with either the crown or by movement), and has 42 hours of power reserve when fully sprung. From Miyota, these are regulated to -10 to +30 seconds a day. However, Markwell has theirs regulated stateside, and as such, all of my examples ran between -2 to +6 seconds per day. This is really quite good.
I think one of the best parts of the 9039 is the cost. With using this less expensive, non-Swiss movement, a large part of the cost has come down. As an enthusiast, the movement being Swiss does not really matter to me, and I’d much prefer a good Miyota in a watch if it means saving a good chunk of cash. This will be an inexpensive movement to service too!
Now, the movement may power the watch, but the dial is the reason to buy.
Dials
The enamel dials on these Hard Candy watches are the reason to buy one. They are stunning, and each one deserves it’s own section. However, I want to cover some universal elements first.
All of the watches have the same design to their indices, hands, and structure of their dials.
We’ve got big blocky indices (which are lume blocks), with numerals the mimic the lug shape at the cardinal directions. For the two hours between each of those, we’ve got circular lume indices. Keeping the theme, the hands are all different length, and are easy to identify when telling the time. For me, I’ve found the watch to be very legible, even with the vibrant colors. The lollipop second hand is a nice touch too. Compared to the datematic, I think this is certainly a more legible watch, albeit that the datematic was not bad in that sense.
Each dial is a fumé gradient dial, with darker tones on the outside, turning lighter as it comes in. Each dial has the 4 quadrant cross, and the Markwell name & logo. We’ve also got “automatic” on the dial, which gives a nice, classic look. Oh, and I should point out that these do use real enamel for the dials. It isn’t faux, it’s actually enamel. As such, you’ll get some neat reflections with lighting!
Well, lets hop into the colorways themselves!
Blue Razz
Up first is the “Blue Razz”. Now, I’ve never seen a blue raspberry in the wild, but if it looked like this, I’d want a taste.
The gradient of color looks fantastic, and when paired with the white strap, I think it’s among the best looking of the bunch. I’m a sucker for a good blue dial, and this watch does not disappoint.
The text on the dial is white, which is a good pairing for the color. I appreciate the contrast, as with black text on this one, I think it would look off. The pop of baby blue on the second hand is a nice touch too.
Black Cherry
Next up is the Black Cherry. Unlike Blue Raspberries, I have seen Black Cherries out in the supermarket.
We’ve got a black outer color, leading into the reds of the center. This watch “pops” the most to me, and photographs extremely well (it’s why you’re seeing it so much here). I’ve never been drawn to red watches all that much, but this one is certainly bringing me in.
The white text brings some contrast to the dial, and the light red-almost-pink second hand is great too.
Grape Jelly
Grape Jelly is a candy that I always wished that I liked more. Well, when the candy fails, this watch does not.
The Grape Jelly dial might be my favorite. It has excellent contrast like the Black Cherry, but also has a sheen on the enamel that is understated. The cool tones of purple just have a great reflective quality and it just does something for me.
Again, great color contrast on the text, and the light purple second hand looks fantastic too.
Green Apple
Green Apple flavor has always been one that I loved. That sweet and sour taste is hard to beat!
The Green Apple is quite distinct, at least when it comes to green watches. Most green dialed watches favor a dark green, but I the light green here just looks so much more distinguishable. You won’t be mistaking this watch for another one.
The text is black here, rather than white. It gives a lot of contrast, but I’m a little iffy on it. With the 4 line quadrants still being white, I think it just looks a little off. If those lines were black, I think there’d be a more congruous color palate here. That said, I still dig the dial.
Update Note: The center lines were meant to be black, but there was an error coming from the actual dial producer. John and Allen are trying to correct that for the production run of the Green Apple, but it’s up in the air right now as to it being ready in time for the launch.
Lemon Drop
Lemon Drop is a sweet and sour candy, like Lemon Heads. However, it’s also an alcoholic beverage for people that generally want to get sh*tfaced. This is the only dial that I’m not really a big fan of.
I’m not anti-yellow dials, but it’s really hard to do a fumé gradient in yellow. It is there, but outside of the photography lightbox, it looks like a flat yellow. To my eyes, it looks a lot more like banana yellow, and in the sunlight, it’s still not really showing the gradient.
The black text looks great here, and my gripe with the lines being mismatched on the Green Apple is not present. I want to like this color, but it’s just not hitting for me. In my opinion, I think a sunburst orange would have been a better pick to round out the bunch, but alas, here we are.
We’ve got 4/5 winners for dials here, and even with the Lemon Drop not being my cup of tea, it’s still not bad looking. Regardless of color that you pick, you’ll be looking at it through the crystal.
The Crystal
Like the datematic, the Hard Candy Enamels use the same boxed sapphire crystal. It’s a handsome look, will be durable, and helps to magnify the dial a bit.
Boxed sapphire is very classic looking, and I’ve always liked it. It sits proud of the case, adding a little height overall. It’s not much, and it really helps to magnify these great dials. There’s a layer of antireflective coating (AR) on the underside of the crystal, so no concerns of scraping it off.
One element of the boxed sapphire here is the distortion. Around the edges of the sapphire, there is slight distortion with how our eyes perceive light that passes through. It leads to a cool look when peaking at the watch while not looking at it dead-on. I think it looks really cool, and reminds me of looking at things through water.
Sapphire crystals are pretty standard these days, but an interesting one is certainly worth some merit. The Telford case is pretty interesting too.
Case, Lugs, & Crown
John’s Telford case brings classic styling to the modern era. It is a very classic round case, but with angular lugs.
I really like how simple the case is. Markwell is all about classic inspiration without imitating something, and this case is that to the letter. I loved it on the datematic, and I love it here too. The case is brushed on the caseback, the sides, and parts of the lugs. It’s got some great high polish on the top (near the crystal), and on the leading edges of the lugs.
I’m a sucker for unique lugs, and the Telford case provides that. Angular, cool, and short. I’ve still got my minor gripe that drilled lugs would be better for tossing a bracelet on, but it’s still just minor.
The crown features an engraved Markwell logo, which is lumed. The scalloping makes it easy to pull out, and to adjust the time, or to wind the movement. This is a simple push-pull crown, so no threads to worry about! With the crown closed, we’ve got 100m of water resistance.
The caseback is nearly the same as the datematic, aside from the “Japan Movement” engraving. A simple, screwed in caseback, featuring the Markwell logo. While it is engraved, it’s not sitting proud of the flats on the caseback, so you won’t look like you’ve been branded on the arm if you wear the watch for a long period of time.
How’s the lume?
The Lume
I was not a big fan of the lume on the datematic. It was thinly applied, and did not last long. However, John and Allen listened, and the Hard Candy Enamels have a lot of lume.
The lume is not the brightest, but it lasts a pretty long time. On the samples I was loaned, I’ve gotten about 4 hours of useful lume out of the watches, which is really good for this style of watch. I expect divers to do excellent, but am always happy to see a field-style watch do well too.
On my samples, the hands had different color lume than the indices. That may be changing on the production models, but I like how it is now. A greenish-glow for the indices, and blue for the hands gives some good contrast.
Is the lume enough for me? Well, I could always use more, but I can’t complain here. How is the included FKM rubber strap?
Straps – OEM & Aftermarket
I love a good FKM strap. I recently wrote an article over at The Escapement Room about my love for FKM, as it’s a really comfortable material. The strap that ships from Markwell is really nice, but I’m not totally in love with it.
These straps are well made. The material is even, there are no massive seam lines or marks, and the holes are the right size. We’ve got two keepers for the excess strap length, and a retainer for one of them too. Like the datematic, there’s a Markwell branded buckle too.
However, the lack of a taper throws me off. Many rubber straps taper down from the lugs on the watch, but these ones barely do (less than 2mm of taper). With the Hard Candy being a smaller watch, a big strap makes it wear pretty big. Is it a big deal? No, but shipping the watch with a strap that tapers down a bit more just feels like it would make more sense to me. If the exact same strap just tapered down to 16mm, I think it would be perfect.
Now, with 20mm lugs, that means that we can toss a lot of straps on there. What did I try that worked well?
Swapping Straps
When John loaned me the collection, he tossed in a few of the straps from the datematic. I really liked the leather, and I think that it works great here too.
A classic Tropic-style strap worked wonderfully too. Great taper, and made the watch wear thin. The Tropic-style is probably my favorite way to wear a watch, and I would highly recommend it if you decide to buy a Hard Candy Enamel.
While I’m not the biggest fan of the mesh bracelet, I think it really works well on the Hard Candy. Even with a $20 mesh deployant bracelet, the watch just really pops!
The last strap that I tried was a CNS Straps Para. This is like a NATO strap, but wears thinner, and has some elasticity to the material. It’s super comfy, and looks great!
With the 20mm lugs, you can really try out a lot with the Hard Candy Enamels.
Now, there’s one last style of strap that I want to touch on…
Stretchy Bracelets
When I borrowed the watches, John loaned me three stretchy bracelets that match the colors on three of the watches. I’m a big fan of the Speidel flex bracelet, so I was happy to try these out.
These function the same as a Speidel, but they’re not made by them. The have stretchy links, so no need to size them to your wrist. The color was a good match to the watches, and they were fairly easy to take on and off of the wrist.
I will say that they seem to wear smaller than the Speidel bracelets, as I found these to be a little more constricting. Not uncomfortable, but just a little tight. John doesn’t have these for sale with the watches yet, but it should be coming down the line.
How was the overall wearing experience?
On The Wrist
Much like the datematic, the smaller size of the Telford case really lends itself to comfortable wearing. It doesn’t matter if you have 5″ wrists or 8″ wrists, this watch should wear pretty comfortably.
I found the wearing experience to be wonderful. This is one of those watches that I could forget that I was wearing, both due to the small size and svelte weight. I would prefer some more taper to the FKM strap (like I’ve mentioned before), but the strap itself is extremely comfortable and soft. I did not find it to pool sweat or cause irritation to my skin either.
With getting 5 colors of the watches, I tried to wear them a fair bit. I did gravitate more towards a few of the colors, but I didn’t baby these borrowed watches.
EDC Wear
I’m wearing a watch for most of a day. For about 23 hours and 50 minutes each day (10 minutes off when showering), the watch is on my wrist. For the Hard Candy testing period, I had the watches for about a month, and wore them frequently.
I wore these watches while doing most of my everyday activities. That included:
- Lifting weights and doing cardio in the gym
- Landscaping work (cutting grass, endtrimming, laying dirt, and gardening)
- Working on gunsmithing projects (beveling and blending a 1911 magwell)
- Hanging wall art and mirrors in my house
These may sound like mundane tasks, but it’s pretty easy to damage a lot of watches in everyday use. That said, the Hard Candies held up fantastically.
I never had any concerns about the durability of these watches. They didn’t get magnetized during my testing (easy to do with laptops and tablet devices these days), didn’t accrue a ton of scratches, and never once had a movement failure. Can’t ask much more than that.
I don’t normally factor in what other folks’ think about something I’m reviewing, but that’s different for these watches.
Crowd Likes
I host a twice-monthly watch meetup here in Utah. Us nerds gather to talk about our hobby, and we also use it as a way to show off our new watches. Well, I brought the whole 5-pack smattering of the Hard Candy Enamels to a few of our meetups, and the reaction was worth talking about.
Generally speaking, everyone likes the watches. They’re playful yet utilitarian, and the colors really grab people. From the feedback that I got, the Blue Razz, Black Cherry, and Grape Jelly were the crowd favorites. They’re my preferred colors too.
Folks like the OEM strap, but had the same minor gripe as I, that it needed a little more taper. Some of our bigger wristed folks thought the watch was too small, but that really falls under preference. For me, it’s the perfect size for a daily watch.
What are my favorite things about these watches?
My Likes
Well, this is going to be quite positive:
- Excellent dials (for the most part)
- Great lume and legibility
- Excellent sizing, as it fits small and large wrists
- Great build quality
- Excellent movement
- Price is very fair for the amount of value present
When it comes to fun and classy, this is going to be a hard watch to beat. They look stellar, wear great, and are really well made. For the $579 price, I think that Markwell will be selling a lot of these.
For colorways, I’m conflicted as to which is my favorite. My brain says Grape Jelly and the Blue Razz, but the Black Cherry just looks so good.
Well, I really like the Markwell Hard Candies, but they aren’t perfect. I’ve talked about some of my gripes, but my personal preference plays a part too.
Complaints & Preferences
My list of complaints is rather short. I would like to see more taper on the strap, and think that the Lemon Drop colorway just doesn’t have the same pop as the other 4. I’d like to see more contrast on the Green Apple too, as the sector lines on the dial seem like the wrong color, at least to me.
I don’t think any of those complaints are dealbreakers, but I’d probably avoid the Lemon Drop color. For my personal preferences, I do have one that would limit my wearability of these watches.
I am a date fanatic. Every watch that I personally own has some way to display the date on it. With the Hard Candies not having that, it does limit how often I want to wear it. I use the date complication daily, as I’m constantly scheduling things, signing documents, or reminding myself what day it is. When polling our meetup attendees, I’ve found it to be about 70/30 split, between not needing the date, and needing it. I know most people don’t care about having it, but I really do.
While that factor does limit the watch for me, I don’t think it changes how I feel about it.
The Verdict
I love these watches. The dial sells it for me, and then the rest of the watch makes me content with it. Great size, great colors, and made well. The price is really quite reasonable too, and I think that the change from the Swiss to the Japanese movement is a great choice.
I’d have liked a date complication, but I can live without it on this watch. This is a fun, warm weather timepiece to me. A carefree, on the patio with a class of scotch and cigar type of timepiece. If you’re looking for a fun field-y watch, I think it’s hard to go wrong with the Markwell Hard Candy Enamel.
Video Work
While the article here is comprehensive, I’ve also got a video review too.
While writing is my primary way to provide you with information, I’m also making videos over on YouTube. You can find that work over at my channel, linked here.
Additional Reading, Thanks & Patreon Link
If you liked this review, check out some more of my watch articles:
- Casio F91W-1 Review – A Timeless Classic [2022]
- Timex Expedition Scout 40 Review – In The Field [2023]
- Casio AE-1200 Review – The Casio Royale [2023]
- Invicta Pro Diver Quartz Review – Rolex-ish [2023]
- Islander Watch Port Jefferson Review [2023]
- My Top 5 Budget Casio Watches [2024]
- Casio DW5600E-1V – A Classic G-Shock [2024]
- Glycine Combat Sub 42 Review – A Field Diver [2024]
- How To Buy Vintage Watches Online [2024]
- Islander Port Jefferson GMT Review [2024]
- Markwell “datematic” Review [2024]
- Seiko Arnie (SNJ025) Review [2025]
- Signum Cuda Titanium Full Lume Review [2025]
I’d like to thank John and Allen of Markwell watches for loaning me 5 watches for the testing and review process. They’re proper watch nerds, and just want an honest take on what they’re making!
If you’d like to support me on Patreon, I’ve got the link for that here. Nearly everything that I do on Primer Peak is paid for out of my own pocket, and my content is not shilled or driven by manufacturers or companies. If you decide to donate, I’d really appreciate it, as it would allow for me to continue to bring you quality work.
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