MAT Kalahari, a field watch the colour of sand

On 3 November 2026, at 3 p.m., MAT opened sales of a watch the colour of sand. The Kalahari, which takes its name from the desert, is the latest arrival from a house known for its military-looking tool watches, one that has also found a way to time the cooking of an egg with the utmost seriousness. A 39 mm automatic, produced in a first run of 100 pieces. This time the small French independent is taking on the field watch, a genre the biggest houses ploughed long before it, and it comes in through the colour nobody expected, one that happens to suit it beautifully.

Sea, air, land

The brand’s name fits in three letters, those of Mer Air Terre, French for sea, air and land. Fabrice Pougez, who founded it, has made it a house of tool watches, sports models with a frequently military look. The tonneau case is its signature.

The brand tests its models far from the shop windows. Philippe Bourseiller, photographer, explorer and a longtime friend of the founder, has been taking MAT watches on expeditions for twenty years, from Lake Baikal to the Arctic at minus 40°C, and on to deserts where the thermometer climbs above 40°C. Over the course of his expeditions, he passes his observations on to the team. The Kalahari, named after the well-known desert, lays claim to that spirit.

When MAT boils an egg

The same house also knows how to have fun. With ASOM, the Association de sauvegarde de l’œuf mayonnaise, a society devoted to preserving the egg mayonnaise, it produced a first Egg Master. A sequel followed, the Egg Master II, whose 39 mm steel Picobello case carries a bidirectional bezel with coloured markers to time four styles of egg, poached, soft-boiled, medium-boiled and hard-boiled, worked out with chef Fabien Pairon. It runs on a decorated, customised Soprod M100 and comes, like the Kalahari, with three straps, the tool to change them and a travel case. These are funny watches, made very seriously.

Where the field gets crowded

The field watch, sober and legible, is a genre where everyone jostles for room, and a small independent cannot step into it without the risk of looking like all the others.

MAT respects its grammar. The hands and markers are luminous, the date slips in at six o’clock, the crown screws down and water resistance reaches 100 metres. The watch arrives with three straps, natural leather, sand canvas and khaki canvas, stored in a travel case along with the tool that lets you swap them.

The black dial of the MAT Kalahari Black Sand in the dark, with luminous numerals, markers and hands — The Kalahari Black Sand in the dark © MAT

It departs from that grammar where the eye lands first. The case, to begin with. Where one expects a round case, MAT sets down its tonneau in 316L steel, with lugs machined from solid and a moustache-shaped element linking the strap to the case. Then the dial, a sector dial inspired by the 1930s, with two circles, the hour markers radiating at the centre, minutes and seconds on the outer ring. Its Sand version, a sand beige rarely seen on a field watch, is the Kalahari’s gamble. It tunes the watch to the tones of leather and canvas, and legibility rests on the black numerals and the blued steel hands. The Black Sand, with its black dial and ivory luminous markers, stays in the most classic register of the genre.

The MAT Kalahari Sand worn on the wrist on a khaki canvas strap — The Kalahari Sand on the wrist, on khaki canvas © MAT

It is powered by a Swiss automatic Soprod P024 calibre, running at 4 Hz with a 38-hour power reserve. The watch is assembled in Morteau.

What this reveals

The egg timer and the sand dial spring from the same state of mind. You have to be sure of your craft to allow yourself that kind of daring. A brand that doubts itself does not venture there, for fear of being judged on it. MAT allows itself the liberty, each time on one precise point, leaving intact what makes the watch, and that is where it succeeds.

A microbrand does not always have the budget or the history to impose or reinvent a genre. It can, however, carve out a place for itself through the right stance, provided the execution follows. Here the execution is very much there, with a 2 mm domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, blued steel hands crafted by La Pratique in Morteau and a travel case in the box, all for 1,090 euros at launch. With the Kalahari, MAT once again maintains an excellent standard of rigour and quality, in line with the rest of its catalogue.

MAT subtitles the Kalahari “Built for places you don’t plan to go”. The line holds for the brand itself, which readily goes where nobody expects it.

Sources: MAT press kit, “MAT Kalahari, Built for places you don’t plan to go”, October 2026, French and English versions, technical specifications and preorder details; MAT presentation text for the Egg Master II.