My Weekend EDC

I recently posted what I carry at the weekend to everydaycarry.com and they were kind enough to feature it on their front page.

Here's the lowdown on the best bits:

The watch

Orient Blue Ray

It feels like everything I own these days needs charging. Beautifully, this doesn't. The standard advice when looking at getting a first automatic watch is to go for the Orient Mako or one of several Seiko models. I much prefer the look of the Ray, particularly in this blue that looks pearlescent under natural light.

It feels solid but not too heavy, it's easy to read and, since it's a diver, can be used as a timer. As an automatic it never needs charging, and I enjoy having to manually change the date when we get past a month with fewer than 31 days - no smart watch can give you the satisfaction of interacting with something so physical or so intricately engineered.

The wallet

Gryphen Hoxton

I have a larger, thicker wallet that I carry during the week since it needs to hold office building passes, business cards and the all-important coffee shop loyalty cards. On weekends I can ditch that and only need to carry a few cards and cash. This wallet is slim enough to fit in a front jeans pocket, but can still hold more than half a dozen cards. It feels nice to the touch, and I like the worn look that it's developing.

The knife

Victorinox Compact

There are such a large number of swiss army knives available, and they make a great EDC choice, particularly in the UK where only non-locking two-handed folders are legal to carry in public. I spent a long time looking for the perfect SAK (Swiss Army Knife) for this EDC, and settled on the Compact since it is so thin (only two rows of tools) yet still manages to contain a knife, full-size scissors, bottle and can openers, and even a pen! I also have a SwissChamp, but that almost never leaves the house now that I have the Compact.

The flashlight

ThruNite TC12

I wanted a torch (flashlight for those of you in the U.S.) that wouldn't need a separate charger, but that could still put out 1000 lumens and had both strobe and firefly modes. It was a toss-up between this and the Olight S30R II, but the ThruNite won due to the inbuilt USB port. It's super bright, the battery seems to last forever and the firefly mode works great when you don't want to lose your dark-adjusted vision. On full power it's about as bright as my car's headlights.

The headphones

August EP650

Wireless headphones are now a thing, and I don't think I'll ever go back to having wired headphones when I'm out of the house. The sound quality isn't as good as some cheaper wired headphones I have, with a narrow soundstage and a lacking top end. However, it's liberating to not have any untangling of cables, ever. For me, the sound quality is plenty good enough when I'm commuting. Plus, they are a small UK company so it feels good to support them.

Alex