Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Norqain is just a few steps away from making a watch that I will really, really like. There’s 12 more hours left to join the It’s About Time F1 fantasy league.

In this issue

• Citizen Takes Their Already Super Popular Series 8 Collection And Shrinks It Down

• Norqain Updates The Adventure With New Case, Size, Dials And Colors

• De Rijke & Co. Teams Up With Illustrator Guy Allen For A Trio Of Adventure Watches

• Lebois & Co. Add A Sector Aventurine Dial To Their Heritage Chronograph

• The New Mauron Musy Architect Golden Cosmos & Golden Oasis Are Very Special Watches

👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Takes Their Already Super Popular Series 8 Collection And Shrinks It Down

I’m getting repetitive, but Citizen is currently on a generational run of success. They have cleverly identified the space left open by Seiko moving upmarket and are filling it fast and hard, with often spectacular watches. The Tsuyosa dominates the low-budget watch market. But I’m partial to the Series 8 collection, which takes a lot of inspiration from legendary integrated bracelet sports watches. And while I can easily wear a Series 8 with my gorilla wrists, many people have complained that they are just too large. The smallest Series 8 watch starts at 40mm wide and 11mm thick. Well, that’s changing now with the release of the NB608 Collection, a smaller and thinner Series 8.

The main attraction here will be the case, or rather, its size. The new NB608 watches measure 39.3mm wide and 10.4mm thick. That doesn’t sound like a huge shrinkage, but thanks to the integrated bracelet, the watch already wears a bit smaller than the numbers would suggest. But other than the new size, you still get the sharp edges of the Series 8, with an octagonal bezel that has a circular flat brushed top. You still get a sapphire crystal, a transparent caseback and 100 meters of water resistance.

There are four variants of the new collection, three permanent additions and one limited. Starting with my favorite, the one pictured above, the NB6080-51W comes in a steel case with a green dial. The NB6084-50A gets a yellow gold colored bezel and crown guard, paired with the steel case, and a silver dial. The NB6085-57W gets a fully yellow gold colored case with a brown dial. Last, there’s the limited edition NB6086-54E which is the most bold of them all, with a dark grey coating on the case, paired with gold bezel and crown guards and a forged carbon dial. It’s quite something. Apart from that carbon dial, the rest of the dials have a central part featuring a pattern that’s supposed to mimic Tokyo’s night-time skyline. That’s surrounded by a sunray-brushed chapter ring and a snailed minute track.

Inside the watch is the Cal. 9051 automatic movement, which is based on the Miyota 9015. It beats at 4Hz and has a power reserve of 42 hours. Accuracy is rated at -10 to +20 seconds per day. All of the watches come on H-shaped integrated bracelets closed with a folding clasp.

The new Citizen Series 8 NB608 Collection goes on sale in March, with three watches joining the regular collection and the NB6086-54E being limited to 1,200 pieces. Pricing varies based on finishing. The NB6080-51W goes for $1,300, the NB6084-50A for $1,350, the NB6085-57W for $1,450, and the limited NB6086-54E for $1,600. See more on the Citizen website.

2/

Norqain Updates The Adventure With New Case, Size, Dials And Colors

I’ve really been trying to get into Norqain, but it’s not working for me. Something about them just rubs me the wrong day. But hey, I might be changing my mind pretty soon. And the watch that could make me change my mind is the new Norqain Adventure, which gets a new, smaller case, a simpler look and some great colors.

The new Norqain Adventure is a bit of a middle ground. It slots in between the current Adventure Sports at 42mm and the Adventure at 37mm, by measuring 40mm wide. OK, it also seems that the 42mm version is exiting the collection. The new case measures 40mm wide, 12.5mm thick, with a 48.3mm lug-to-lug. New for this case are the more pronounced crown guards, with a crown that has a colored ring matched to the dial. On top of the case is a domed sapphire case surrounded by a unidirectional bezel with a knurled edge. The insert is made out of aluminium instead of ceramic, which is right up my alley, and it’s color matched to the dial. What remains the same is the brushed finish with polished details, the plaque on the left side of the case and the water resistance of 200 meters.

More changes can be found on the dial, where the base gets an embossed mountain pattern. Very cool. The two colors available are grey and dark green. There’s also a lumed ring under the sapphire crystal, matching the light blue or light grey lumed inserts on the faceted and rhodium plated hands and markers. The hands are partially openworked and the date is moved to 6 o’clock and it now has a circular aperture.

Inside, no major change. It’s still the Norqain Calibre N08, which is just a rebadged Sellita SW200, beating at 4Hz with a 41 hour power reserve. It is COSC certified, however, which I think is a novelty for the model. The watches can be had on either a stainless steel bracelet with a folding clasp or on a very cool rubber strap with the same mountain pattern and color matched to the dial.

The new Norqain Adventure 40mm is available now, but with a pretty significant price increase over the previous model. While the 42mm version was priced at €2,270, this new one comes in at a whopping €3,200 on rubber and €3,450 on steel. See more on the Norqain website.

3/

De Rijke & Co. Teams Up With Illustrator Guy Allen For A Trio Of Adventure Watches

There’s a couple of very interesting independent watchmakers in the Netherlands. Grönefeld makes some eye watering beautiful stuff, Christiaan van der Klaauw is as classic as it gets and Bataavi is an extremely strong entry into the microbrand space. But my favorite? Without a doubt De Rijke & Co. This small indie has made a name for itself with an incredibly cool rotating case and a prolific collaboration with Miffy, the cartoon character I remember from my childhood. But their hidden gem has been the Amalfi Series which pairs their driver’s watch with jaw-dropping illustrations rendered in champlevé enamel. They’ve done them twice so far, and now we’re getting a spiritual successor to those watches, made in partnership with Guy Allen who did the original Amalfi illustrations. And these are my favorites of the bunch for a very personal reason — when I was a kid, outside the school where I went for French classes, someone parked and practically abandoned a Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy edition. And that’s the exact car we get on the Amazon. Ooof!

In most watches, I just ramble on the case details as quickly as I can just to get to the more interesting stuff, the dial. But here, the case deserves a kudos. De Rijke has been using a similar case for a while, but now it gets small updates. It measures 38.2mm wide and 11mm thick, but the most impressive part is the two-part ceramic case construction. It allows you to rotate the internal part of the case, the one which houses the movement and the dial/crystal by 90 degrees opposed to the outer case that is attached to your wrist. This allows the watch face to rotate to face you while you are driving. Pretty cool. The case has sapphire crystal and the lugs have been modified from the original Amalfi watch to allow for regular spring bars and straps. Two come with untreated cases, while the Amazon model gets a black ceramic case.

The dials are continuations of the Amalfi watches and the land, sea and air style, once again illustrated by Allen. These dials are made using the traditional champlevé technique, with solid 925 silver dials etched and then filled with grand feu enamel by hand and fired at high temperature by a craftsman in the UK. The lower half of each solid silver dial features engraved detail with subtle variations in depth, encased in a polished layer of transparent grand feu enamel. The Amazon model features shades of green for the background, and a Land Rover in the top part, the Sahara has deep reds and yellows, as it depicts the Porsche 911 racing in the desert, and the Turini comes in shades of blue, featuring a beautiful Lancia Stratos.

Inside is nothing special, but also not a bad movement. It’s the reliable and sturdy automatic Sellita SW300 high-grade. It beats at 28,000vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. Each of the watches gets its own shade of rubber strap closed with a steel pin buckle.

The De Rijke & Co. x Guy Allen is limited to 50 pieces per dial and is priced at €4,495, without taxes. See more on the De Rijke website.

4/

Lebois & Co. Add A Sector Aventurine Dial To Their Heritage Chronograph

Tom van Wijlick is a Dutch entrepreneur with a seemingly simple idea that drives his business decisions - make incredibly cool, vintage-inspired, watches that sell for an accessible price and meet pretty much every demand the market has. And he’s doing good. One of the brands he owns, Airain, is developing new models in close collaboration with its fanbase and the other, Lebois & Co. is recreating some of the best designs of the past. Actually, that’s not true. Lebois has been making a wide range of watches, from modern to avant-garde, and only a couple of years ago did they launch their Heritage Chronograph which thrust them into the limelight of vintage-revival. The Heritage Chrono came with a bi-compax setup and a number of fantastic retro colors, including the coveted salmon. Most recently, the company made a step into the very high end of chronographs with a souscription sale model and an incredible coquille d’œuf dial. While this new variant is not as exclusive as the coquille d’œuf dial, at least not in price, it still brings an incredible amount of style to the already stylish chrono. This is the new Lebois & Co Heritage Sector Chronograph Aventurine.

The stainless steel case remains the same, which is a good thing. Because it’s a simple but beautiful case. Made out of stainless steel, with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces, with a thin beveled bezel. The pushers, which look amazing, and the angled lugs have a strong and pronounced bevel to them. The case measures 39mm wide and 13.9mm thick, but a lot of that thickness is used up by the hugely domed sapphire crystal on top. Without the crystal, the case drops down to a very svelte 10.5mm. Water resistance is 50 meters.

New is the dial. First, it’s made out of aventurine, the glass, not the stone. That means that it has the deep, deep blue base, with copper-colored metallic inclusions. The very cool thing is that this dial is assembled out of two aventurine layers, which means that the two sub-dials (30 minute counter at 3 o’clock and running seconds at 9) can be sunken into the aventurine dial. A subtle touch, but oh so good. On the dial you get white printing for sector-style dial that includes the tachymeter, the minute railroad track and hour markers with numerals on the even numbers.

Inside, and visible through the caseback, is the calibre LC-450, which is essentially a manual wound La Joux-Perret L100 series column wheel chronograph movement made for Lebois & Co. The movement beats at 28,800vph and has a great power reserve of 60 hours. Decorations are on point, as well - a blued column wheel with polished column tops and blued screws, perlage and Côtes de Genève. The watch comes on a blue leather strap.

The new Lebois & Co Heritage Sector Chronograph Aventurine goes on sale March 10, with deliveries starting in July. Price is set at €3,850. See more on the Lebois & Co. website.

5/

The New Mauron Musy Architect Golden Cosmos & Golden Oasis Are Very Special Watches

I had to double check if I was right and I was — I have never written about a Mauron Musy watch. And that’s an incredible shame. Sure, I, perhaps just like you, didn’t pay much mind to the brand, seeing them as an interesting but a bit puzzling brand. But that all changed in September in Geneva, when I met with them for the first time. What followed was the best presentation I have ever seen, with their PR rep not just mastering knowledge of every single detail of design and production, but also having one of the best props I have ever seen. On a thin wooden board with cutouts in the shape of case components, Mauron Musy laid out every single part of their case. In a brief but impressive demonstration, the rep then takes each piece of the case, assembling it before your eyes, demonstrating both its simplicity and complexity. And in a perfectly directed script, you are then asked the question: where are the gaskets of the case that guarantee the 300 meters of water resistance? There are no gaskets. Not a single one. You see, Mauron Musy aren’t just interesting looking watches. They are perhaps the best engineered watches in the entire industry, with finishing so precise and execution so smart, the steel pieces sit together in such a way that it’s just their flatness and orientation that keeps the water out. Incredibly cool.

This turned me into an instant fan. I just didn’t have watches of theirs to write about. Well, now I do. Back in 2025, Mauron Musy teamed up with architect Arturo Tedeschi to create the Architect, a 10 piece limited edition. That watch disappeared in minutes, and the two decided to give more people to own similar creations. These are the new Architect Golden Cosmos & Golden Oasis and they’re fantastic.

Both watches share the wild case we’ve seen on previous Mauron Musy models, including the Architect. As shown on that model, it’s a complicated case made out of 29 pieces that slot together before they are clamped down with eight screws. Again, no gaskets, just their registered nO-Ring mechanical water resistance system that gives you 300 meters of water resistance. The case is made out of grade 5 titanium, with two different finishes — Golden Cosmos has an overall microblasted finish and select polished details, while the Golden Oasis has polished, finely microblasted and satin finishes. It’s not a small watch, measuring 44mm wide and 13mm thick. Front and back are sapphire crystals.

While there are slight color differences in the dials, they share the same basic setup as the original Architect. The dial is less a platform to convey information and more an architectural sculpture. It’s made out of two layers, with a bottom part made out of either meteorite on the Golden Cosmos or a sunray brushed blue dial on the Golden Oasis. However, even that bottom part is not a full dial, with partial skeletonizations on various parts. But more impressive than the lower parts are the hand-cast 18K gold sculptures placed above them and designed by Tedeschi. Around the perimeter is a flange in grey for the Cosmos and blue for the Oasis. To play agains this complexity of the dial, the display is relatively simple, with openworked white centrally mounted hands and a small seconds at 9 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the Caliber MM01-SK, an automatic movement equipped with a Swiss lever escapement, beating at 4Hz, with a 55 hour power reserve. Interestingly, Mauron Musy says they are not a Swiss Made watch, but rather Swiss Crafted. The Swiss Made label has been perverted with brands using the value threshold to make components in Asia and then finishing them in Switzerland. The Swiss Crafted guarantees that 100 % of each component of the watch is designed, developed, and manufactured in Switzerland. The watches come with two rubber straps closed with deployant clasps.

The new Mauron Musy Golden Cosmos and Golden Oasis are limited editions — 27 for the Cosmos and 10 for the Oasis. Price is set at CHF 32,000 for either. See more on the Mauron Musy website.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• With apologies to the novel, It, Andy Hageman removes the ventilation grille and takes us deep into the Stephen Edwin King Archive for Los Angeles Review of Books. There, as a part of his close reading of the original manuscript of The Dark Half, complete with the author’s handwritten notes and marginalia, Hagemen tries to piece together the perspective King used while writing. Was it King? Was it his alter ego, Richard Bachman, or a combination of those two identities?

• Are we ready for iPod nostalgia already? Why yes, yes we are. For Dirt, Molly Mary O’Brien fondly recounts purchasing a fourth generation iPod at the age of 14, and the joy of being able to create a music collection that you could take anywhere. “Maybe this is the essential blessing of the iPod: the software gives you the potential for an unlimited musical library, but the hardware’s limits still lock you into a committed relationship with the songs you choose,” she writes. “Developing my expansive taste was obsession; tending my library was devotion; actually listening to it was true love.”

• In 2019, over several months, Alexander Friedmann repeatedly disguised himself and entered a maximum-security jail, where he hid an arsenal of weapons within cinder-block walls around the facility. Friedmann, who spent years in jail for an armed robbery conviction before becoming a vocal advocate for criminal-justice reform, was caught, and convicted on a vandalism charge. “Friedmann’s plot, extraordinary in its audacity, had the trappings of a major criminal undertaking,” writes James Verini. And yet the plot itself—as well as the mind behind it—is more complicated, and confounding, than it first appears.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’m jealous how good but simple Speeed’s videos are.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Kind of a slow day today, but I’m very much a fan of that titanium Hanhart. A reminder that you have a day to join the It’s About Time F1 fantasy league.

In this issue

• Seiko Pays Homage To Shohei Ohtani With Two Limited Edition Prospex Divers

• The New Serica Ref. 6190 TDM Has A Very Cool Take On A California Dial With Thai Numerals

• Hanhart Does Their 417 Pilot’s Chronograph In Two Sizes Of Titanium Cases And Sand Colored Dials

• Depancel Celebrates Iconic French F2 And F3 Team DAMS Lucas Oil Partnership With New Série R01

• The Very Cool Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Gets A Ruby Stone Dial

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 66: The Audacious Design of the Wittnauer Futurama Jump Hour

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko Pays Homage To Shohei Ohtani With Two Limited Edition Prospex Divers

I know nothing about baseball. Despite my American friends trying to get me into the game several times, it’s just a completely incomprehensible mess. So, when I learn of a baseball player, it must mean that they are a pretty impressive player. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Derek Jeter and Shohei Ohtani. That’s about where my knowledge stops. It’s Ohtani that people are saying will be, or maybe already even is, the greatest player of all time. Ohtani was born in Japan and famously needs an interpreter, so it makes sense that Ohtani would pair up with another Japanese legend — Seiko. And this is not the first time that the two came together. Early last year, Seiko released a duo Prospex GMT divers in the colors of the Dodgers, Ohtani’s team. Now, Seiko is releasing a duo of Prospex Diver’s 1965 Heritage models with Ohtani, the SBDC222 and the SBDC224.

The cases here are very familiar, having already appeared in dozens of other iterations, but with a slight tweak. Like other Prospex Diver’s 1965 Heritage models, it measures 40mm wide, 13mm thick, with a 46.4mm lug-to-lug. It’s made out of stainless steel, with a bezel that is gold-plated, just like the crown. Speaking of the crown, it’s engraved with “17” to nod at his jersey number, and the caseback is inscribed with “SHOHEI OHTANI LIMITED EDITION” and an individual serial number. The insert on the bezel is done in a bright Dodgers blue with a white dive scale inside, and that surrounds a domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is the same at 300 meters.

The main difference between the two watches are the dials. The SBDC222 comes with a grey dial and the SBDC224 gets a blue dial, both of which come from the Dodgers’ visiting uniform. Both dials have vertical grooves on them, alongside gold hands and indexes filled with lume. At 4:30 is a circular date aperture that shows a white date disc on the grey dial and a blue date disc on the blue dial.

Inside, you’ll find the 6R55 automatic movement that beats at 3Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a three-link stainless steel bracelet that has the same hardening coat as the case does and it’s closed with a folding clasp with dive extension that’s engraved with Ohtani’s signature.

The new Prospex Diver’s 1965 Heritage Shohei Ohtani SBDC222 and SBDC224 will go on sale in April, limited to 1,700 pieces in each color, priced at ¥286,000. That’s about $1,800. Yeah, this is a Japanese exclusive, but I assume there won’t be much issue getting this in other parts of the world. See more on the Seiko Japan website.

2/

The New Serica Ref. 6190 TDM Has A Very Cool Take On A California Dial With Thai Numerals

For years now, the French independent brand Serica has been creating something pretty special. They somehow manage to create retro designed watches unlike anything you’ve seen before, almost if they exist in a parallel universe and are referencing historical watches on a slightly different timeline. And for years, all of their watches so far have been rugged tool watches — divers, field watches and GMTs. They stepped away from the genre for just a second to introduce the Parade, their spectacular dress watch. But since then, we’ve been getting more of these rugged pieces, to great response. New now is the Serica Ref. 6190 TDM, their iconic field watch with a very interesting take on a California dial, using Thai numerals.

The 6190 is Serica’s take on the field watch, and it’s one of my absolute favorites on the market. It’s a stainless steel case that measures 37.7mm wide, 10.4mm thick and has a 46.5mm lug-to-lug. It has wonderful twisted lugs, a double domed sapphire crystal, surrounded by a broad brushed bezel that has a polished sloped edge and a discreet crown on the right side. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The new dial is a continuation of a California dial. If you’re unsure as to what the California dial is, legend says it was developed for Panerai dive watches. To make it legible at a glance, the top half would use Roman numerals, while the lower half would use Arabic numerals. This is the same principle that Serica uses here, with Roman numerals on the top half, but in a very fun twist, they use Thai numerals on the bottom half. The numerals are done in Super-LumiNova C3, while the hands are white and also filled with lume.

Inside, you’ll find the SoProd M100 automatic movement and you’ll have a tough time finding such a thin automatic watch at any price point, let alone one this low. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve and has Côtes de Genève finishing. The watch comes on Serica’s fantastic stainless steel Bonklip bracelet.

The new Serica Ref. 6190 TDM will be twice limited — only 100 pieces will be made, and they will be available for the Thai domestic market, hence the name. Price is set at €1,190. The watch is still not on the Serica website, but that could be because I’m not in Thailand.

3/

Hanhart Does Their 417 Pilot’s Chronograph In Two Sizes Of Titanium Cases And Sand Colored Dials

Starting off as a maker of Swiss stopwatches and moving to Germany in 1902 to start making watches, Hanhart has made some of the most significant military watches in German history, finding their place on the wrist of German pilots and naval officers for decades. In the 50s they made the 417, the first pilot’s chronograph for the German Armed Forces, but only a few years before it was retired. Recently, Hanhart revived the 417, which quickly became one of their better selling watches. And it’s clear why. it’a looker. Now, however, they might have released the best variant of the 417, the 417 TI Desert Pilot Flyback with, you guessed it, a titanium case (in two sizes) and a really cool sand colored dial.

The steel 417 comes in two sizes — 42mm and 39mm, and Hanhart gives us this new titanium version in both of those sizes. The larger one measures 42mm wide, 13.6mm thick, with a 49mm lug-to-lug, while the smaller one comes in at 39mm wide, 13.6mm thick, with a 46mm lug-to-lug. The case and fluted rotating bezel, which still has the iconic red hash at 12, are made out of grade 5 titanium, with a sandblasted finish. The watches have an anti-magnetic inner case, and on top is a heavily domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters, which is great considering the vintage piston-style pushers that operate the chronograph.

The dial has a lot of similarities to previous versions, including the bi-compax layout of the original, numerals, fonts, hands and markers. The hardware here is now done in all black, as are the numerals, and the pencil-shaped hands are filled with sand colored Super-LumiNova. According to Hanhart themselves, the luminescence is weak due to the black colour of the numerals and the sand colour of the hands. The base of the dial gets a matte sand color, which seems to be a pretty hot color this year.

Inside both watches is the Sellita AMT5100 M, made by Sellita’s AMT division dedicated to premium movements. It’s based on the SW510, manually wound, beating at 4Hz, with a 58 hour power reserve. The movement is regulated by Hanhart to give you accuracy of 0 to +8 seconds per day.

Inside is the Sellita SW510M, a familiar, robust and easily servicable manually winding movement which beats at 28,800vph and has a decent power reserve of 58 hours. The watch comes on a brown calfskin strap with white stitching or on a metal bracelet. You get a choice of sand colored or black rubber straps closed with a titanium pin buvkle.

The new Hanhart 417 TI Desert Pilot Flyback 39 and 42 watches are available now and seem to be part of the regular collection. Price is set at €2,990 for either size. See more on the Hanhart website.

4/

Depancel Celebrates Iconic French F2 And F3 Team DAMS Lucas Oil Partnership With New Série R01

Following the success of the French indie brand Depancel has been quite the pleasure. From a brand that makes quirky square watches that drew inspiration from the best of automotive design, to now a brand that is sponsoring the DAMS Lucas Oil, an iconic French Formula 2 and Formula 3 team. To celebrate that partnership, Depancel is releasing the limited edition Série R01 Depancel × DAMS Lucas Oil.

The case of the Série-R might look familiar, almost like the TAG Heuer Monaco with its slab sides, but there are some obvious differences. First, this is a rectangle, one that’s supposed to mimic the look of a radiator grille (hence the curved top of the case and the straight bottom). The dimensions are interesting. Depancel says the size is 43mm x 36mm, which I would interpret as being 36mm wide and 43mm long. But this is a measurement without the lugs, as they state the lug-to-lug to be 50mm and the thickness is 12.9mm, including the glass. The finishing on the steel case is brushed with nicely polished facets and a beautiful rectangular sapphire crystal sits on top. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial gets the familiar Série-R tri-compax layout, but with a few key changes. You get two sub dial at 3 (the month indicator) and 9 o’clock (the day indicator), and there’s a date aperture at 6 o’clock. The base of the dial gets a sunray brushed blue base, with a light blue, white and red stripe down the dial on the left side. Above the date aperture is the DAMS Lucas Oil logo.

Inside, you’ll find the Miyota 9122, which is not a movement we see all that often, which is a shame because it’s super interesting to have this calendar setup. It still beats at 4hz and has 40 hours of power reserve, just like all 9-series Miyota movements. The watches come on a choice of an FKM rubber strap or bull leather strap, both done in blue.

The new Depancel Série R01 Depancel × DAMS Lucas Oil is limited to 200 pieces and priced at €850. See more on the Depancel website.

5/

The Very Cool Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Gets A Ruby Stone Dial

The resonance in the name of the new watch from Armin Strom, the Mirrored Force Resonance doesn’t refer to a sound a watch might make, like in a chiming watch. But any confusion might be excused because resonance is a term originally derived from the field of acoustics. It occurs when two close vibrating frequencies synchronize, mutually absorbing each other’s energy and eventually arriving at the same frequency. It is also one of the most elusive phenomena in watchmaking, one that Armin Strom is very well known for making use of. It was Armin Strom co-founders Serge Michel and master watchmaker Claude Greisler who invented a way of connecting two independent balance wheels to have them synchronize, as a way of protecting from gravity, temperature and motion disruptions. This system was first introduced in 2016, and further refined with the Mirrored Force Resonance in 2022. Now, following an icy-blue dial version, and a black guilloché dial version, and a retro futuristic version, it’s getting a stone dial.

The watch comes in a stainless steel case that measures 43mm wide, 11.5mm thick, with a 49.60mm lug-to-lug. The case has polished tops of lugs, beautiful polished facets and a polished plain fixed bezel, while the sides of the watch have a vertically brushed finish. On top is a domed sapphire crystal that extends all the way to the edges, while out back is a flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial keeps the same setup with the offset dial for the hours and minutes and the resonance mechanism, two balance wheels oscillating in opposite directions, connected by Armin Strom’s patented resonance clutch spring on the left side of the dial. On the right side of the dial is a smaller time dial that’s made out of a slice of real ruby that shimmers from pink to red. The dial also has a white railroad track with white-printed Roman numerals for the hours, pointed to with skeletonised hour and minute hands. The two sub dials also feature ruby tracks.

Visible from front and back is the manually wound Caliber ARF21, which beats at 3.5Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. It has two independent oscillators, each equipped with its own balance wheel and hairspring, synchronized via the brand’s patented clutch spring. To show this off, the movement has twin seconds counters, which can be reset with the pusher at 2. You will then get to witness them synchronize once again. The watch comes on a grey Alcantara strap.

The new Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby is limited to just five pieces and priced at CHF 82,000, without tax. See more on the Armin Strom website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 66: The Audacious Design of the Wittnauer Futurama Jump Hour

How Wittnauer turned time into 1970s Sci-Fi theater. Read it here. 

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• In Trump’s kaleidoscopic America, Jeffrey Epstein’s files shatter into a grim mosaic: corrupt elites, lenient justice, predatory power. The scandal suggests that everything awful we’ve ever believed is true. Millions of documents expose a global web of enablers—from princes to presidents—while victims cry foul and the hive mind spins dark theories. Are we living in the age of Jeffrey Epstein?

• Kids spear a Musk piñata on Boca Chica Beach as Starbase votes to incorporate—SpaceX’s 500 employees handing the world’s richest man a rocket-fueled fiefdom. Launches shatter windows, scorch wildlife, and choke bays, but jobs flow amid eminent-domain threats. Locals split: pioneer dream or predatory takeover?

• Lidar peels back Guatemala’s jungle canopy, revealing a Maya lowlands teeming with 16 million souls—five times Rome’s density—in sprawling urban webs of canals, terraces, and causeways. Far from collapse, resilient innovators thrived for millennia, their descendants now demanding sovereignty amid genocide scars and land grabs.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’ve been a bit busy and haven’t had time to keep up with new music. Oh, what a mistake that has been. Gorillaz released a new album and this is the best thing since Demon Days. The variety of features that Albarn can get onto one album is incredible. You have Black Thought from the Roots, Mos Def, Trueno, Johnny Marr from the Smiths, Paul Simonon from the Clash, the IDLES, the Sparks… If that wasn’t enough, how about Omar Souleyman, a legendary Syrian crooner, and Asha Bhosle, a 92-year old iconic Indian singer who left a deep mark in Bollywood and was the subject of the Brimful of Asha song? Still not impressed? You also get spots from the actor Dennis Hopper, Tony Allen who was musical director of Fela Kuti’s band and legendary D12 rap group member Proof. And those three have all been dead for years! It’s an absolute banger of an album and the song Orange County is easily in the top 5 songs Gorillaz have ever done.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Just a quick reminder that the F1 season is starting soon and I started the It’s About Time F1 fantasy league if you want to make this season interesting.

Every headline satisfies an opinion. Except ours.

Remember when the news was about what happened, not how to feel about it? 1440's Daily Digest is bringing that back. Every morning, they sift through 100+ sources to deliver a concise, unbiased briefing — no pundits, no paywalls, no politics. Just the facts, all in five minutes. For free.

Read the newsletter trusted by 4.5 million fact-seekers.

In this issue

• Ming Brings Back The Destro Monopusher Chronograph With The 57.04 Phoenix

• Benrus Revives One Of Their Coolest Vintage Watches, The Sky Chief, And Keeps Them The Same Size

• Dennison Goes On Safari With Tiger And Zebra Themed, Diamond Studded ALD Capsule Collection

• Tutima Gives Their Slick Titanium Patria A Light Blue Textured Dial

• Gerald Charles Limits Their Matte Integrated Bracelet Masterlink To Just Their Boutiques

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watch School Wednesday: The Full Spectrum of Calendar Watchmaking

👂What’s new

1/

Ming Brings Back The Destro Monopusher Chronograph With The 57.04 Phoenix

For a couple of years now, every time a Ming watch comes out, I keep thinking how far they’ve come from the times of the simple 17.09 watch. I fell in love with those fantastic looking watches the moment I saw them. But it’s very clear that modern Ming has nothing to do with that Ming any more. Sure, you can see the evolution of the design language, but modern Ming is a step up in quality, a step up in price and a step up in design. These are now bona-fide masterpiece watches and I could easily argue that they are undervalued for what you get. Despite this obvious split in generations, I love Ming overall. And I love their new watch, the Ming 57.04 Phoenix, a more subdued version of the 57.04 Iris, which was the watch that introduced the brand’s fifth-generation design language.

The case, their take on an Art Deco watch, remains the same. I love the signature Ming lugs, but these are a whole new level. They keep the pagoda-style shape, but give them a stepped construction like you might find in Art Deco architecture. Additionally, the lugs have alternating brushed and polished surfaces, which is just damn cool. The watch measures 40mm wide, 11.85mm thick — almost shockingly thin for a chronograph — with a 47.8mm lug-to-lug. You get sapphire crystals on top and bottom, while the crown sits at 9 o’clock, making for a destro configuration. That crown also has an integrated chronograph pusher, which is always a fantastic option. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The Iris dial was quite something to process, with many sunray cutouts and a multiphasic coating over a brass base, producing colour shifts that can look turquoise, purple, green, or orange. The Phoenix keeps things much simpler. The cutouts are now fewer on the dial and wider, creating a more dramatic look, and they are cut into a sunray-brushed anthracite base of a dial. The sub-dial at 6 o’clock is a 30-minute chronograph counter and is also simpler than on the iris. What hasn’t chenged is the fact that the main hands, chronograph hands, sub-dial and the hour track cut into the underside of the crystal are all filled with Ming’s luminous Polar White and Super- LumiNova X1.

Inside, you’ll find a movement made by Sellita, but heavily modified for Ming. The SW562.M1 is a hand-wound movement based on the Valjoux architecture. It beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve, with really nice finishing that includes an anthracite mainplate with a rhodium-coated main bridge. The watch can be had on either a grey FKM rubber strap or Ming’s absolutely brilliant Polymesh 3D printed titanium bracelet.

The Ming 57.04 Phoenix Monopusher Chronograph doesn’t appear to be an overall limited edition, but 150 pieces will be made in 2026. Price is set at CHF 6,250 on the rubber and CHF 7,250 on the Polymesh. See more on the Ming website, and you can now buy Ming watches from Ace Jewelers.

2/

Benrus Revives One Of Their Coolest Vintage Watches, The Sky Chief, And Keeps Them The Same Size

Look through vintage dealer websites and eBay auctions long enough and you’ll start to realize that the 1940s and 50s Benrus Sky Chief is one of the better deals in vintage chronographs. You might be even tempted to buy it. But owning a vintage chrono might be more trouble than its worth. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but keep in mind that these are delicate movements that might not stand up to as much abuse and will likely have to be serviced more often. If you think a vintage Sky Chief is not for you, Benrus has your back! They just released a modern recreation of this classic and they did it the right way. Not only does the watch look fantastic, just like the vintage variants, it also comes in a case that is just 1mm wider than the old watches. That means that Benrus will sell you a 36mm chronograph. And wait till you hear how thick it is.

One of the biggest issues plaguing automatic chronographs is their size. To be able to fit the chrono movement and the winding mechanism, modern auto chronos often break the 14mm thickness mark. The new Sky Chief turns this whole idea upside-down. The stainless steel case measures 36mm wide, just 1mm wider than the original, and 11.9mm thick. Now, I assume that this measurement doesn’t include the double-domed box sapphire crystal, but I’ve seen it reported that it does include the steep bezel and the sapphire caseback. Whatever the final size ends up, this is looking pretty good, especially thanks to the 42.5mm lug-to-lug. The case is made out of stainless steel with brushed and polished finishes. On the side is an oversized flat crown, flanked by two rectangular pushers for the chronograph. Water resistance is 100 meters, which is certainly not something you would get in a vintage Sky Chief.

Two dials are available, and they both have strong vintage inspiration. One is called Stratus Grey, which is a glossy lacquered black, and the other is Cirrus White, a silver with a sunburst finish. Both versions get snailed sub-dials, beige Super-LumiNova on just the indices and beautiful Arabic numerals. At 3 o’clock is a running seconds, at 6 o’clock is a 12 hour counter and at 9 o’clock is a 30 minute counter.

Inside, you’ll find the ETA 2894 automatic chronograph. It beats at 4Hz, has a 42 hour power reserve and it’s COSC certified. The watches come on grey leather straps with a polished pin buckle, with an additional black leather strap available as an additional option.

The new Benrus Sky Chief is available now, priced at $3,950. This is a very, very nice watch, can’t wait to see one. See more on the Benrus website.

3/

Dennison Goes On Safari With Tiger And Zebra Themed, Diamond Studded ALD Capsule Collection

Dennison absolutely dominated last year. In April, they were the talk of the town in Geneva during Watches and Wonders, with their stone dial watches. A couple of months later, they did it again, but also kind of sent online watch fans into a frenzy with their dual time ALD model. Just a few months after that, they went back to the original ALD and gave it wonderful mother-of-pearl marquetry dials. To top it all off, they won the GPGH Challenge prize, beating out way more expensive and established models. This year might be just as interesting, because their first watch duo this year is anything but ordinary. This is the new Safari Capsule Collection and it’s pretty clear what’s going on.

The watches come in the same ALD cushion shaped case that Dennison is known for. It’s a wonderfully whimsical case designed by renowned designer Emmanual Gueit and measures 37mm x 33.65mm, and just 6mm thick. New for these two models are the cases set with 1.79 carats of natural VS-SI round-cut diamonds all around the perimeter, in places stacked in two rows. Kill me, but I love the look. The case is made out of stainless steel and here comes uncoated, with a small crown on the side and integrated straps. Water resistance is a modest 30 meters, but it really doesn’t matter.

But even more impressive than the diamond-studded case are the two new dials. Both are made out of mother-of-pearl, but made to look like tiger and zebra stripes. They are loud and brash, but incredible. The Tiger MOP is made of orange mother-of-pearl, hand inlaid with black enamel stripes. The Zebra MOP uses the same black enamel stripes, but pairs it with a a white MOP dial. Both dials feature a faint Dennison logo printed on the underside of the flat sapphire crystal, and you get the signature polished ALD hands.

Inside, you won’t find a mechanical movement. Instead, the watch is powered by the Swiss Ronda Quartz 1062. Since I’m a big advocate of brining back quartz movements, I welcome this choice. The watches come on either orange or black epsom leather straps.

The first 10 pieces of each model in the Dennison ALD Safari Capsule edition will be available through Dennison, after which a limited number will be offered through retailers. Price is set at €4,200 for either watch and you can see more on the Dennison website.

4/

Tutima Gives Their Slick Titanium Patria A Light Blue Textured Dial

Tutima, a heritage watch brand from the iconic city of Glashütte in Germany, is one of those brands I wish would put out way more watches so that I can write about them more. They have a wide range of styles, from vintage to modern fliegers, dress watches and sporty chronographs. I’m particularly fond of their pilot’s watch they developed for the German Air Force and NATO back in the 1980s, the M2 Chronograph. But their dressier watches also shouldn’t be ignored. Stuff like the Tutima Patria, which now gets a wonderful light blue dial to complement the cool titanium case.

The watch uses the same case as a recently introduced titanium version of the Patria, made out of polished grade 5 titanium, with an elegant shape and soft and swooping lugs. There’s something cool about titanium being used on a dress watch with a polished finish. The case measures 41mm wide and 11.2mm thick. That width might seem substantial, but from all the photos, it seems to wear smaller than the numbers might suggest. On top is a domed sapphire crystal that extends to the very edges of the case, with a discreet bezel around it. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is also similar to other Patria dials, with the same base that has a tiny pyramid pattern, a grooved smalls seconds display at 6 o’clock and diamond-cut indices, paired with manually finished hands. What’s new is the light blue color of that base that works fantastically with the titanium case.

Inside, you’ll find the in-house Tutima 617 manually wound movement which beats at 21,600vph and has a 65 hour power reserve. It’s a beautiful and impressive movement, with the iconic three-quarter-plate with Glashütte ribbing, beveling by hand as well as its ruby bearings set in screwed gold chatons. The pallet fork, specially manufactured in the Glashütte atelier, transmit the energy of the gear train to the balance, providing the heartbeat of the movement. The watch comes on a grey sheepskin leather strap with a titanium pin buckle.

The new Tutima Patria with a light blue dial is available now, as part of the regular collection, priced at €8,600. See more on the Tutima website.

5/

Gerald Charles Limits Their Matte Integrated Bracelet Masterlink To Just Their Boutiques

Some two years ago, Gerald Charles, which up to that point has been making very characteristically-shaped cases, decided to jump on the integrated bracelet trend. They did it with their Masterlink collection that heavily referenced the Maestro case, designed by Genta himself, and the chin was supposed to look like a smile, but with a bracelet bolted right to the case. I’m not sure the watch has been a huge hit for the brand, as we haven’t seen many updates to come to the collection. Until now, when Gerald Charles is pushing to get more people into their Geneva and Nagoya boutiques, so they produced the new Masterlink Boutique Edition with a matte finish.

The case remains largely unchanged from the original Masterlink, which means that it comes in a deceptively simple case that measures 38mm wide and 38mm long, with a thickness of 7.9mm. I say deceptively simple, as there’s much more to it than the square case, as it’s made out of 31 parts. The whole things has a new Darkblast finish which gives it a dark matte appearance. Being a sports watch, it has a screw down crown and 100 meters of water resistance.

The dial keeps the monochromatic theme going, with a sandwich layer dial that has a vertical sunray finishing. The top part also has vertical cutouts revealing the bottom level. The baton hands (with skeletonized counterweights) and indexes get lume inserts, and around the perimeter of the entire dial is a white minute track.

Inside is thecalibre GCA1000, a proprietary 2.7mm-thin micro-rotor automatic movement designed by Gerald Charles and made by Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier. It beats at 3Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. It’s highly decorated with a sandblasted rotor and vertical Côtes de Genève stripes on the bridges. The watch gets an integrated bracelet that has the same finish as the case.

The Gerald Charles Masterlink Boutique Edition will be available only in the brands Geneva and Nagoya boutiques, but getting one might be a pain. You need to apply in the boutique and pricing is available only upon application. The regular Masterlink is priced at €19,500. See more on the Gerald Charles website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watch School Wednesday: The Full Spectrum of Calendar Watchmaking

Exploring simple dates, triple calendars, annual calendars, perpetuals, and IWC's eternal innovation. Read it here.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• How do you approach the gargantuan challenge of profiling your personal writing hero? This is the central tension John Hendrickson grapples with as he spends time with Tom Junod, famous for stories such as the pivotal post-9/11 piece, “The Falling Man” and “Can You Say…Hero?,” his profile of Mister Rogers. (Junod is perhaps infamous for profiles of Nicole Kidman and Kevin Spacey.) For Esquire, Hendrickson spends a few days with Junod in advance of the publication of Junod’s memoir.

• Perseverance rover unearths leopard-spotted Martian rocks—potential fossils from an ancient watery world—begging the question: life beyond Earth? NASA’s $11 billion heist to haul them home crumbles under ballooning costs and congressional cuts, stranding samples in Jezero Crater. Meanwhile, China’s Tianwen-3 rockets toward victory by 2031, rewriting the space race.

• A LinkedIn ad lures desperate games writers to GamesHub, a once-respected Aussie outlet now churning crypto casino lists and AI bylines. Behind it: Clickout Media, snapping up legacy sites like Videogamer and The Escapist, stuffing them with parasite SEO and fake profiles, while freelancers toil in secrecy, unpaid and uneasy.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The crazier things get, the better Stewart becomes.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. What do we think about open heart watches?

Every headline satisfies an opinion. Except ours.

Remember when the news was about what happened, not how to feel about it? 1440's Daily Digest is bringing that back. Every morning, they sift through 100+ sources to deliver a concise, unbiased briefing — no pundits, no paywalls, no politics. Just the facts, all in five minutes. For free.

Read the newsletter trusted by 4.5 million fact-seekers.

In this issue

• Hamilton Updates The Jazzmaster Open Heart With Twelve New References

• Beda’a Adds Stone Dials To Its Classic Angles 37 Collection

• Nodus Brings Back The Obscura, Their Photography Tool Watch, Now Non-Limited

• Pequignet Gives Their Royale Paris An Icy Blue Dial And Some Fun Complications

• The H. Moser & Cie. Skeleton And Smartwatch Streamliner Duo For Alpine F1 Is Back, Now In Pink

👂What’s new

1/

Hamilton Updates The Jazzmaster Open Heart With Twelve New References

Open heart watches, those that have a gaping hole in their dial to expose parts of the mechanisms, are a divisive topic. For example, watches on the lower end of the pricing scale, like those from Orient Star can often look a bit cheap and gimmicky with an open dial. But on the other end of the spectrum, a Zenith El Primero with a peek through the dial can look quite nice. Somewhere in the middle are brands like Rado, Seiko and Hamilton, which can fall on either side of that spectrum. One of those brands, Hamilton, is now updating their Jazzmaster Open Heart line with new dials, new straps and in three sizes.

The updates to the Jazzmaster Open Heart collection come in three sizes — 36mm, 40mm and 42mm, so there really can’t be that many complaints that they don’t fit a wide variety of wrist sizes. The thickness ranges from 10mm to a hair over 11mm, and the cases are all made out of steel, with brushed surfaces and polished accents. On top of all the sizes is a sapphire crystal and all of the watches have 50 meters of water resistance.

The dials also look familiar, with their signature apertures that reveals the balance wheel, with a bit of a stylized cutout. The new colors are all rendered in a smoky gradient, with five different colors — silver, gold, deep blue, turquoise, and brown. You get applied indices and faceted hands, both lumed, and available in either silver or gold tone.

Through the dial you can see the calibre H10, which is Hamilton’s version of the Swatch Group’s Powermatic 80, the familiar movement known for its 80 hour power reserve. It’s not a particularly pretty movement, but in combination with the aggressive cutouts, it looks nice. The larger watches come on either a 5-link stainless steel bracelet or a brown calf leather strap, while the smaller one comes on a a stainless steel bracelet with a butterfly buckle.

The new Open Heart Jazzmasters are available now and are not limited in any way. Price is set at CHF 920 for the smaller 36mm version and the larger versions on leather, while the larger watches on the bracelet are priced at CHF 1,075. See more on the Hamilton website.

2/

Beda’a Adds Stone Dials To Its Classic Angles 37 Collection

When a brand gets a hit on their hands, you can surely expect it to go hard on every possible variant of the watch. And there’s nothing wrong with that. This is exactly what Beda’a, a Qatari independent watch brand, is doing right now with their Angles collection, a very cool angle-cased dress watch. And not just that, they are jumping on the stone dial trend just in time. Interestingly, they’re not doing it with their currently very popular Angles Mecaline collection, which is powered by a mechanical movement. Instead, they are using their original Angles 37 collection which comes with a quartz movement.

The case of the Angles Mecaline remains very recognizable. There’s a lot of stepped layers here, a sharply angled steel case middle topped by an octagonal bezel, with alternating brushed and polished surfaces. This model is thinner than the mechanical version, but not by much. It’s a small watch, 34mm wide, just 5.8mm thick (while the mechanical is 6mm thick) and with a 37mm lug-to-lug, but it doesn’t wear that small. I guess thanks to the many angles. There’s a sapphire crystal on top, a closed caseback and you get 30 meters of water resistance.

There are four stone dials to choose from — malachite, blue aventurine, African hawkeye and tiger’s eye. There are no surprises here, as the dials look exactly what you would expect. There are no hour makers — in fact no markings other than the logo which is done tone-on-tone — and all you get is the pair of dauphine-style hands.

Inside, you’ll find the Ronda 1062.1 Slimtech movement, a Swiss made quartz movement. The watches come on togo leather straps, closed with a pin buckle.

The new Beda’a Angles 37 Stone Dial collection is available now and Beda’a says that these will be a permanent part of the Angles lineup but limited in production. That said, the African Hawk Eye and Tiger Eye are currently out of stock. Price is set at CHF 700. See more on the Beda’a website.

3/

Nodus Brings Back The Obscura, Their Photography Tool Watch, Now Non-Limited

Almost a year ago, California-based Nodus teamed up with Juan Martinez, founder of the photography meet-up and gear review site Beers And Cameras to release the Obscura, one of the rare watches that’s made with taking photographs in mind. According to Nodus, the concept behind the Obscura was first conceived over five years ago and officially patented in June 2024, and the Obscura is the first watch to bring this complication to market. But more on that later. The problem with the Obscura was that it was a limited edition. Well, now we’re getting the Obscura II, which gives us the same functionality, but as a regular addition to the collection.

The watch is based on the Nodus Sector II models, meaning that the brushed stainless steel case measures 38mm wide, 12mm thick and has a 47mm lug-to-lug. The Obscura II comes in two variants, a silver case and a black PVD case. On top is an oversized rotating bezel with a black PVD coat that measures 40.5mm wide for easier operation and it holds the key to the calculations. The crown gets the same black treatment. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is where we see the most of the change. First, there’s a new dark fumé dial, drawing inspiration from film by incorporating a grainy texture that mimics the silver halide crystals of film grain. They also removed the “B&C” Beers And Cameras logo at 6 o’clock for a cleaner look. The blue-and-white seconds hand takes the pattern from the practice of exposing slide film sprocket holes and the shade from depth-of-field markings on zoom lenses from the 1980s. The orange-colored “+1” markers represent ISO 200 and ISO 800 on the dial.

So, what’s the bidirectional bezel all about? It’s what they call an Exposure Gauge bezel and it’s used to calculate the “Sunny 16 Rule” developed by Juan Martinez which allows you to see the ISO, f-stop and shutter speed triangle on a sunny day, if you don’t have a built-in light meter. So, you twist the bezel to match the lens aperture with the corresponding value on the chapter ring; then find the correct ISO marker on the dial’s chapter ring based on the film speed — ISO 100 or +1 (ISO 200) or ISO 400 or +1 (ISO 800). The chapter ring’s ISO indicator will then point to the corresponding shutter speed on the bezel.

Inside is the familiar TMI (Seiko) NH38 automatic which beats at 3Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. Nodus regulates the movement in-house and claims an accuracy of +/- 10 seconds per day. The watch comes on a tapering three-link bracelet that closes with their latest Nodus Extension Module clasp which allows for one-button adjustment.

The Nodus Obscura II is available for order now. While the first Obscura was limited to just 100 pieces, this will be available for everyone. Shipping begins late March. Price is set at $650 for the silver version and $725 for the black DLC. See more on the Nodus website.

4/

Pequignet Gives Their Royale Paris An Icy Blue Dial And Some Fun Complications

It’s my fault that I haven’t been following Pequignet that much over the years. But I’m fixing it now, as I have grown to appreciate this very interesting French watch brand. Not just a brand, but a true manufacturer that makes its own movements. Right now, it seems that Pequignet might be the best bang for your buck in the four digit range you can get. For example, their recently introduced Royale Paris Manual 39.5mm is a beautiful watch at a pretty unbeatable price for an in-house movement. Now, they’re expanding the Royale Paris collection with a very cool ice blue dial and a playful quartet of complications that are very well integrated. This is the new Pequignet Royale Paris Icy Blue.

Interestingly, this case remains the same size as the one with the small seconds, which is quite the feat considering the fact that this adds three more complications to the movement. That measures that the case measures 39.5mm wide, 11.5mm thick, with a 47mm lug-to-lug measurement. With the thin bezel surrounding the domed, box-style sapphire crystal, and elongated lugs, it passes off as a a dress watch. But the almost completely satin finish (and polished bevels) give it a much more interesting, somewhat sporty, look. The crown doesn’t screw down, but you still get 50 meters of water resistance.

The graining of the case is carried onto the dial, which is now a very light blue with a really subtle texture to it. The dial has a wide groove cut around the perimeter, with bevelled indices connecting the two parts of the dial. Above the centrally mounted hands is a day-date, while right below it is a trio of displays — a fluted small seconds subdial at 3:30, a double moon phase at 6 o’clock showing the moon’s phase in Northern and Southern hemispheres, and a power reserve at 8 o’clock. Time is indicated by polished hour and minute hands with TC1 Super-LumiNova inside.

Inside, you’ll find the pretty fantastic Calibre Royal, an automatic beating at 21,600vph, with a 96 hour power reserve. The movement is developed and manufactured in Morteau with components sourced within an 80km radius, and looks great, with a large balance with compensation screws, a decorated oscillating weight and beautiful finishing overall. The watch comes on a grey nubuck leather strap closed with a folding clasp.

The new Pequignet Royale Paris Icy Blue goes on sale in April, priced at a pretty great €8,000. See more on the Pequignet website.

5/

The H. Moser & Cie. Skeleton And Smartwatch Streamliner Duo For Alpine F1 Is Back, Now In Pink

Last year, as the Formula 1 season was getting heated, H. Moser & Cie. and the Alpine Formula 1 released another collaborative watch. But this wasn’t just a Moser with a new paint job. It was a duo called the Streamliner Alpine Drivers Edition and the Streamliner Alpine Mechanics Edition. Moser claims that each of the two models has been purpose built — the Drivers Edition is built for legibility under race conditions, while the Mechanics edition is a connected tool. The former was a skeletonized dial Streamliner, while the latter was a Moser with a smart-watch module inside. I was openly skeptical of the concept, and even dumb enough to call the display on the smart-watch Aliexpress-level. Then I saw the watches during Geneva Watch Days, and I can say I was wrong. These are an incredibly cool artifact in the sea of F1 collabs, especially since the Alpine F1 team actually uses the Mechanics Edition during the race to deliver vital data to everyone in the box. Very cool. Well, now, ahead of the new season (If you will be following this season and want to make the viewing experience a bit more interesting, how about you join my super simple F1 fantasy league?) the two brands are coming together again to release the Streamliner Alpine Drivers and Mechanics Pink Edition to reflect the new livery of the BWT Alpine Formula One Team.

Since both of these watches are Streamliner models, they come in very similar cases. They both measure 42.3mm wide, with the skeletonized Drivers Edition measuring 14.2mm thick, while the digital Mechanics Edition is, surprisingly, thicker at 14.4mm and both get an untreated steel case with a fine radial brushing on top of the case. A major difference can be seen in the setup of crowns and pushers. The Drivers Edition features a crown at 4 o’clock with a white rubber ring around it, and two pushers at 10 and 2 o’clock. The Mechanics Edition doesn’t come with a traditional crown, instead you get three flat pushers on the right side and a special button on the left marked Sync. Both cases feature the signature cushion shape with no lugs, a domed sapphire crystal and sapphire casbeacks. Both also get 120 meters of water resistance.

Even more differentiation can be found on the dial side. The Drivers Edition features a fully skeletonized dial. Chronograph minutes and seconds are also centrally displayed, so there are no sub-dials. While last year’s edition was a sea of grey, this one gets pink globolight inserts on the hands and as hour markers, giving a bit more legibility. Visible through the dial is the calibre HMC 700, a fully skeletonized column wheel and a two-stage horizontal clutch automatic developed with Agenhor. It beats at 21,600vph and has a a 72 hour power reserve.

Then, there’s the Streamliner Alpine Mechanics Edition, a connected watch co-developed with Alpine F1 engineers. The Mechanics Edition integrates mechanical and digital systems, offering motorsport-centric functions such as race countdowns, pit alerts, GMT, perpetual calendar, and a split-seconds chronograph. It features a hybrid movement with a one-year power reserve (in time-only mode) and connects via Bluetooth to iOS and Android.

The Streamliner Alpine Drivers and Mechanics Edition is limited to just 50 pieces (while the previous version came in 200 pieces) and comes only as a boxed set of the two watches. Price is set at €74,500. See more on the Moser website.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• While tabloids mocked him as a grandstanding do-gooder, Sean Penn was quietly bankrolling safe houses, hiring ex–special forces, and rehearsing an exfiltration straight out of a thriller. When a Hasidic rice investor vanished into Bolivia’s brutal prisons, the Oscar winner spent a year plotting his escape — by convoy, fake marriage, and a shaved-off past.

• On Colorado Boulevard, Jason Lee’s camera shop looked like another tasteful outpost of New LA: analog film in the fridge, donuts on the counter, the skater-turned–cult actor-turned–photographer holding court. But inside that minimalist hangout, a reporter walks into a collision between privacy and curiosity — over a controversial faith Lee insists he’s left behind, and a profile he’ll fight to bury.

• A black Jaguar, a shaved head, amber eyes like a big cat: in 1990s San Francisco, Anton LaVey, self-made Black Pope and author of The Satanic Bible, holds court from a gloomy Richmond manse. As satanic panic grips America, a reporter shares midnight steaks, pea sermons, and underworld confessions with the misanthrope who insists he merely opened Pandora’s box.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I hesitate a bit posting this interview because LaBeouf is clearly either not doing well or is the greatest actor of all time and will surpass Andy Kaufman in living performance art. But it’s still a fascinating a watch. Just be warned that it’s a rough watch.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. All I’m going to need from you today is to come together and buy the Krayon Anyday for me. Thank you.

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In this issue

• IWC Uses Black Ceratenium To Create A Pitch Black Portugieser Chronograph

• Raymond Weil Gives Their Millesime Small Seconds 39mm A Trio Of Tuxedo Dials

• Sinn Teams Up With German Non-Profit Sporthilfe For A Very Different 144

• The Kudoke 3 Nocturne Gets A Sandblasted Dark Case And A Black Gold Dial

• The Krayon Anyday, Which Gives You A Full Month At A Glance, Now Comes In Rose Gold

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 69: An Affordable Omega, My Perfect Rolex; A Groovy Bulova; And An Impeccable Movado

👂What’s new

1/

IWC Uses Black Ceratenium To Create A Pitch Black Portugieser Chronograph

Despite really trying to like them, I could never get into the IWC Portugieser. I am equally as uninterested in the vast majority of black cased watches. And yet, here we are, looking at an all black IWC Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium IW371631 that has me thinking — maybe I do like Portugiesers and black watches?

The base of the watch remains unchanged, with the shape and size I always found a bit awkward. The case still measures 41mm wide, 13mm thick, with a 48m lug-to-lug. It’s not a gigantic watch, but it appears larger thanks to the thin, unmarked bezel that allows the domed crystal to extend all the way to the edges of the case. On the side you get mushroom pushers and a simple crown. The novelty for this case is the material.. The case, crown, pushers and caseback are all made in matte Ceratanium. This is IWC’s proprietary material that is a special titanium alloy that is fired at high temperatures in a kiln, giving it ceramic-levels of scratch resistance. It also gives the watch a very dark look. Water resistance is pretty miserable at 30 meters.

The darkness of the case continues on the dial, which has not just a matte black base, but also black sub-dials, hour markers, printing and hands. The hands and the hour markers have a polished finish, to make them at least a bit visible on the black background. At 12 o’clock is a 30 minute counter and at 6 o’clock is the running seconds display. I have to be honest, I barely managed to read which is which on the photo, which certainly means that this will not be the most legible dial in the world. Must be why i like it so much.

The all-black design of the Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium continues on the dial, with its matte black base and black printings. Even the hands and hour markers are black – thankfully with a polished finish, to bring a bit of contrast in certain angles. Indeed, while visually consistent with the rest of the watch, this all-black dial isn’t the most practical as there is not a single touch of contrasting colour. Sure, this watch looks cool, but legibility isn’t its main strength.

Inside, also nothing new, it’s the calibre 69355, which beats at 4Hz and has a 46 hour power reserve, with a column wheel and vertical clutch system for the chronograph. It’s made by ValFleurier and features a double-pawl winding system. The watch comes on a black rubber strap with a Ceratanium pin buckle.

The new IWC Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium is limited to 1,500 pieces, priced at €14,800. See more on the IWC website.

2/

Raymond Weil Gives Their Millesime Small Seconds 39mm A Trio Of Tuxedo Dials

It could be due to the fact that it’s a relatively new collection — despite the huge number of watches already in it — but the Raymond Weil Millesime isn’t mentioned enough when it comes to cool dress watches that are relatively affordable. They make it in two sizes, chronograph setups, moon phase complications and a small seconds options. Now, expanding the collection, we might have gotten the best version of the Millesime Small Seconds 39mm — three watches with fantastic tuxedo dials.

On the outside, there is zero change. It’s still a stainless steel case with a brushed and polished finish, measuring 39mm wide and 10.25mm thick. Sure, not the smallest of watches, especially for one going for a dressy look with a Calatrava-like case, but a lot of that thickness is due to the box-shaped sapphire crystal, so it should appear thinner. The crystal is surrounded by a stepped bezel, out back is a sapphire caseback and you get 50 meters of water resistance.

What’s new are these fantastic dials. They are all tuxedo-style, drawing inspiration from the Art Deco period, with contrasting chapter rings that hold the lumed Arabic numerals. Around the perimeter is a minutes railroad track. There are three color options — a cream with a black ring, a blue with a black ring and a pretty fantastic deep red with a white hour ring. You get the classic Millesime crosshairs, but it’s not painted on. Instead, it’s engraved into the dial. The central hour and minute hands are brushed and filled with lume, while at the 6 o’clock is a small seconds.

Inside is a very familiar movement, the Sellita SW261-1, which is just a SW200 with a small seconds display. That means it beats at 4Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve, and the movement is customized with a W-shaped weight. The watches come on leather straps that complement the chapter rings, and there is a steel bracelet option.

The new Raymond Weil Millesime Small Seconds 39mm Tuxedo Dials are available now, priced at €2,250. See more on the Raymond Weil website.

3/

Sinn Teams Up With German Non-Profit Sporthilfe For A Very Different 144

While there are plenty of Sinn watches that we might lust after, it’s the 144 that will certainly be one of the more recognizable ones. That’s because it uses the same hooded-lug case as the 1970s Orfina Porsche Design Chronograph I, with the same black treatment, black dial and 7750 chronograph movement sub-dial setups. It’s an iconic look that Sinn still makes to this day. But, when you see a watch like this Sinn 144 made in partnership with the Deutsche Sporthilfe, a Germany non-profit foundation, established to support elite and up-and-coming athletes, you see how radically a watch can change with just some color tweaks.

It starts with the case, which is no longer black but silver, with a bead blasted finish. It still has the hooded lugs and measures 41mm wide and 14.1mm thick. You get sapphire crystals on front and back, and on the side is a screw-down crown. The watch is water and pressure resistant to 200 meters, and like many Sinn watches, it’s also low pressure resistant, since it’s supposed to be used by pilots.

The dial is where this version stands out the most. It is extremely rare to see a 144 with a non-black dial, and when it’s given a stark white dial, it’s very much eye-catching. Surrounding the dial is a sloped flange with a 60 minute scale and the values of the Sporthilfe foundations written in the first quarter — "Performance. Fair Play. Togetherness." This has the familiar 7750 movement setup, which means a 12 hour counter at 6 o’clock, running seconds at 9 o’clock and a 30 minute counter at 12 o’clock. At 3 o’clock is the Sinn logo and date aperture, while right underneath it is the Sporthilfe pyramid logo. The hour and minute hands are black, filled with lume, the central chronograph hand and the two chrono counter hands are bright red, and the running seconds hand is gold colored.

And just like I said, inside is a movement that’s based on the ETA 7750, but it’s not the 7750. Instead, it’s the Concepto-made C99001, a clone of the legendary chronograph. It beats at 4Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. The watch comes on an H-link steel bracelet that has the same blasted finish.

The new Sinn 144 Deutsche Sporthilfe is limited to 300 pieces and it’s priced at €3,990. See more on the Sinn website.

4/

The Kudoke 3 Nocturne Gets A Sandblasted Dark Case And A Black Gold Dial

There are many independent watchmakers out there that are deserved of our attention and praise. So many. But I kind of try to keep a top 10 list of my personal favorites. And among possibly my top 5 indies, you’ll find Kudoke, the German indie brand led by Stefan Kudoke. The Kudoke 1 and 2 were very cool, but my favorite has to be the Kudoke 3, which splits up the dial into two halves and tells time with a triple-scale hour display. That lower plate of the dial always served as a great canvas for decorations, like it was done in the incredible Kudoke 3 Flakes. The new Kudoke 3 Nocturne gets and all black treatment, while keeping that very cool setup and textured black dial.

On the outside, things remain very familiar. You get the same stainless steel case that measures 39mm wide and 19.8mm thick. While previous versions came in either precious metal cases or polished steel, this case gets a fully sandblasted finish which gives it a dark look.. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a stepped bezel, and on the size is an onion style crown that’s also sandblasted. You won’t go diving with this, but the 50 meter water resistance is welcomed.

The setup of the dial is also very familiar — the three-scale hour display of Kudoke 3 is applied to the lower frosted level, while on top is an upper dial plate with a minute black gold treated ring on the periphery. The upper dial plate has a galvanic black finish. Time is still read via the three-arm hour hand pointing to its triple scale, with each arm of different length. Minutes are told via the polished steel hands with an infinity symbol tip, pointing to the chapter ring, while the hours are done with the two smaller hands.

Inside, you’ll find the Kudoke Kaliber 1 which is based on the very cool Habring2 A11. it beats at 4Hz and has a 46 hour power reserve. This version gets a rhodium-plated movement with the “Flakes” engraving, which gets tiny fragments cut out of the surface for an absolutely incredible look. Kudoke will offer this option across the HANDwerk range at an extra cost. Call me crazy, but the cost of €2,990 doesn’t sound crazy for a movement that looks like this. The watch comes on a black suede leather strap.

The new Kudoke 3 Nocturne is limited to just 20 pieces, priced at €12,574, without tax. The watch is still not up on the Kudoke website, but keep an eye out for it.

5/

The Krayon Anyday, Which Gives You A Full Month At A Glance, Now Comes In Rose Gold

I have criminally overlooked the very cool indie Krayon. In fact, in the past three years, I think I only mentioned it once, and that was with the fascinating Anywhere watch that allows the wearer to calculate sunrise and sunset times anywhere in the world. It is obviously a very complex, very expensive watch. In order to appeal to a broader audience, Krayon introduced the Anyday watch. Sure, it’s a bit more affordable, but it’s definitely not for the masses. Krayon’s idea of a simpler watch gives us an incredible pointer-date complication that gives you an overview of the full month at a glance, letting you know which dates are a weekday and which are the weekend. Deceitfully simple, but very impressive. Now, the Anyday comes in a rose gold case, with a two tone grey dial.

The case is simple and elegant, made out of polished 18k rose gold. It measures 39mm wide and 9.5mm thick, with sapphire crystal on top and bottom. The crystal is held down with a rounded smooth bezel, and the one character flourish comes from the stepped lugs. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial is also new for this edition and comes in a two-tone anthracite setup. The center is a darker grey with a y-motif guilloché pattern and applied Y-shaped rose gold indices that are faceted with brushed and polished finishes. Surrounding that is a lighter grey track that has cutouts for the date numerals, and this is where the special stuff happens. The date is indicated with the crescent-tipped hand that is hidden under the middle part of the dial. But you’ll also notice that you get five grey dates, followed by two gold dates. Oh, yeah, it does exactly what you think it does. It’s a complication that updates every month to show you the weekdays and weekends, basically giving you the whole month at a glance, if you need to tell on which days a particular date falls. Pretty cool. It will need some adjustment over the year, but only in the five months that don’t have 31 days.

All of this is possible thanks to the in-house calibre C032, a hand wound movement that has two cams that drive the complication: a smaller one that accumulates energy over 24 hours to enable instantaneous date jumps at midnight, which is always cool, and a larger snail cam that turns once every 31 days to change the month setup. The movement beats at 3Hz, with a 72 hour power reserve. Decorations include waves on the mainplate, bevels and mirror-polished edges. The watch comes on an anthracite lizard leather strap, closed with a rose gold pin buckle.

The new Krayon Anyday Rose Gold is available now and doesn’t seem to be limited. Price is set at CHF 98,000. See more on the Krayon website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 69: An Affordable Omega, My Perfect Rolex; A Groovy Bulova; And An Impeccable Movado

We continue with our exploration of watches we shouldn't spend our money on, but most likely will. Read it here. 

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• NASA plans to deorbit the International Space Station sometime around 2030, using a billion-dollar US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) to sink and position it above a remote part of the southern Pacific Ocean. The USDV will then move the ISS into the lower atmosphere. Most of it will burn, but some of it will fall into the sea. These steps, writes Rebecca Heilweil, compose the best-case scenario for this gargantuan task. In this piece, part of Wired’s “Things Fall Apart” series, Heilweil details what could go horribly wrong.

• Be warned: there is a disturbing video clip in this piece, of three orcas kidnapping a humpback whale calf. It’s an uncomfortable watch, but isn’t this what orcas really are—whale killers? Jason Colby, the son of a commercial fisherman and a former fisherman himself, has had many close encounters with orcas and is well-placed to confront that question. Yet the piece ultimately becomes less a study of the whales than of us. Killer whales or orcas? The answer depends on the era and culture doing the looking.

• Elsa Pearl explores our innate fear of snakes and the almost-always dire fate of rattlesnakes who pop up across American literature for Oxford American, as she recalls her own encounters with timber rattlesnakes on her Appalachian homestead. Feeling horrible after killing a large snake near a storage shed, she knew she needed to adjust her approach when three more appeared in its place, basking in the sun. Would it be possible, she wondered, to create an environment for peaceful coexistence with her deadly-but-docile storage shed denizens?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I love this dude, and I love beef jerky.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I don’t know why, but I just had a feeling I should check when the first issue of this newsletter came out. Well, it turns out that today is the third anniversary of the launch of It's About Time. Happy birthday to us!

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In this issue

• Citizen Introduces The Colorful Tsuyosa Shore With A Rotating Bezel

• The Mk2 F77 Nivada Grenchen Gets Their Signature Basket-Weave Dials

• Mr Jones Is Back With A Limited Edition Steampunk-Themed Monster Melter 1904

• Ressence Drops Jaws With The Incredible Dial On The New Type 9 IKE

• Chronoswiss Looks To The Skies For Two New Watches, The Lunar Chronograph Aurora And Space Timer Gravity

• IT’S ABOUT TIME PRESENTS THE TRTS PODCAST: Talking French Luxury And Manufacture Movements With Hugues Souparis, CEO Of Pequignet

👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Introduces The Colorful Tsuyosa Shore With A Rotating Bezel

Citizen has been quite successful in filling the void left by Seiko in the lower end of the price market. While Seiko has been going up in prices, Citizen has been killing it with their accessible sporty Tsuyosa collection. However, in their pursuit of lower prices, Citizen might have cut too many corners. The Tsuyosa has just 50 meters of water resistance and no rotating bezel. Now, ahead of the summer, Citizen is fixing those issues with the new Citizen Tsuyosa Shore collection.

There are a couple of things that remain the same, like the barrel shaped case, integrated bracelet, recessed crown at 4 o’clock, sapphire crystal on top with a cyclops over the date, brushed finish with polished facets and the 40mm width. The watch grows in thickness a bit to 12.5mm, but should be wearable with the relatively short lug-to-lug. On top are new unidirectional rotating bezels with a 60-minute scale on a metal insert available in four colors, matching the dial colors. Water resistance is now a much more respectable 100 meters.

The dials remain largely the same, with a sunray brushed finish, applied hour markers and lumed hands. The only writing on the dial is Citizen at 12 o’clock and Automatic at 6 o’clock. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture. There are four color combinations available. A navy blue and turquoise versions are paired with all steel cases and bezels, with matching inserts, while a burgundy red is paired with a two tone bezel. The moss green dial and bezel are paired with an all gold colored case.

Inside is the Citizen Calibre 8210 automatic movement which beats at 3Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. It has an accuracy of -20/+40 per day, but like most of these more affordable movements, it performs much better in real life. The watches come on steel bracelets closed with a folding clasp.

The new Citizen Tsuyosa Shore collection should be on sale everywhere now, priced at €329 for the steel case versions, €349 for the two tone and €359 for the all gold case. See more on the Citizen website.

2/

The Mk2 F77 Nivada Grenchen Gets Their Signature Basket-Weave Dials

Almost a year ago, Nivada Grenchen updated their F77, a remake of their integrated-bracelet sports watch that came out first in the late 1970s with the Mark II. It launched in a steel and gold plated case, with a black onyx dial. Since then we’ve seen the MkII in a couple of variations of cases and dials, but we haven’t seen them with the iconic basket-weave dials that the first F77 did so well. Well, alongside the stone dial versions they just launched, we got a quartet of basket-weave dials.

The quartet is unchanged on the outside, which is the standard second generation F77 with more streamlined and reworked for a better wearing experience, thanks to the angled lugs. The case here is made out of stainless, and it measures 38mm wide, 12.2mm thick, with a 46.2mm lug-to-lug. The case has brushed finishes with polished details and on top is a double-domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is as classic as can get, reaching back to the 1970s, with a basket weave texture. They come in four colors — grey, white, blue and black, which has white lume. The dials are paired with baton hands and silver applied indexes with lume inside them.

Inside the watches is the automatic Soprod P024 which is an alternative to the very familiar ETA 2824-2. It operates at 28,800vph, and has a 38-hour power reserve. The watches can be had on one of three strap options — an integrated stainless steel three-link bracelet, a black canvas strap that has a velcro closure or a black rubber strap.

The new Nivada Grenchen F77 watches are on sale right now, priced at €1,220 on the rubber and canvas straps, and €1,420 on the bracelet. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

3/

Mr Jones Is Back With A Limited Edition Steampunk-Themed Monster Melter 1904

OK, so by now we know that Mr Jones are the absolute masters at creating what can only be described as art watches. Watches that don’t necessarily do a good job at telling the time, but are incredibly beautiful, while keeping costs funny low. And we haven’t seen them since December. Good news — they’re back. Their latest release is called the Monster Melter 1904, designed by British artist Onorio D’Epiro, depicting a Steampunk-like scene of an epic battle between man and beast.

The watch uses one of Mr Jones’ new cases, which is a more substantial one than the previous one with the spindly lugs. This new case is much more traditional, with filled out lugs and made out of stainless steel. It measures 37mm wide and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. has a 50 meter water resistance. Inside is a single jewel quartz movement. The watch is mounted on a 18mm wide strap, in this case a brown leather.

If the name Monster Melter 1904 sounds familiar, that's because the same artist designed the cult Monster Melter 3000, which features an alien monster fighting an astronaut. This new dial has a web for a background, on which the alien is replaced by a chrome and copper colored spider, fighting a dude that seems to be dressed in steampunk-like attire.

To read the time, look for the position of the adventurer, who marks the minutes. The spider’s red, severed claw points to the hour.

The Mr Jones Monster Melter 1904 went on sale at 8AM GMT today, February 27th, with an order window open for just 12 hours, which means it closes at 8PM GMT. Price is set at £225. See more on the Mr Jones website.

4/

Ressence Drops Jaws With The Incredible Dial On The New Type 9 IKE

Regular readers of the newsletter know that Ressence is my all time favorite watch brand, without a doubt. I am deeply in love with both their designs and their technical achievements. And while I will forever be deeply in love with the oil-filled Type 3 — and will own it one day — I also feel weak in the knees when it comes to their more modern creations. The sand dial they made with Seddiki, or the canvas dials they made, are some of the coolest watches you could buy. However, this new Type 9 made with Japanese artist Terumasa Ikeda is just beyond words. This is the spectacular new Ressence Type 9 IKE.

The case, technically, doesn’t change much. You still get the sleek pebble-like shape that measures 39mm wide and 11mm thick. It’s made out of grade 5 titanium, with a black DLC finish. On top is a domed sapphire crystal and the lugs are super short. Out back is the Ressence special caseback that controls the entire watch, including winding and setting the time. The watch weighs only 39grams, including the strap, but there’s no water resistance, it’s only splash-resistant at 10 meters.

Ikeda is a contemporary Japanese lacquer artist known for using traditional techniques of raden (mother-of-pearl inlay) and urushi (lacquer) to create hyper-futuristic art. And that’s exactly what he did with this dial. The base is made up of layers of black laquer, with incredible mother-of-pearl strips cut and curved to match the curvature of the dial. The strips are also treated to glow in the dark and come in a bunch of different colors, creating an incredible effect, as the entire dial rotates and the nacre travels around it. Like other Type 9 dials, a domed dial rotates fully to indicate the time on the bezel with a long teardrop painted hand. The dial has a hour sub-dial which also rotates to point to a brushed hour ring. All of the hands are made out of MOP and blend with the rest of the inserts.

Inside, things remain pretty much the same. It’s the rather pedestrian ETA 2892/2 which beats at 4Hz and has a 36 hour power reserve, the same you could find in all the other Ressence models. But what makes this watch special is the patented Ressence Orbital Convex System, which turns the central power of the ETA into a series of rotating rings and dials. The watch comes on a shiny black horse leather strap a titanium buckle.

The new Type 9 IKE is limited to 8 pieces, priced at CHF 32,000 without tax. See more on the Ressence website. 

5/

Chronoswiss Looks To The Skies For Two New Watches, The Lunar Chronograph Aurora And Space Timer Gravity

While early Chronoswiss watches were known to be more traditional in their design, over the past few years, maybe a decade, they have completely embraced their wild, colorful, often openworked, fluted and onion-crowned style. They are some of the most unique looking watches you can buy. And now, they're launching two new watches that are both inspired by celestial themes. These are the new Chronoswiss Lunar Chronograph and Space Timer Gravity edition.

Starting with the Chronograph, this is based on an old design from the founder of the brand, Gerd Rüdiger Lang, but thoroughly updated with a brand new chameleon look. A lot of Chronoswiss watches come in recognizable round cases with knurled bezels on top and bottom holding down curved sapphire crystals. The case measures 41mm wide and 15mm thick, with the recognizable oversized onion crown on the side and a polished finish with brushed sides and lugs. Water resistance is 100 meters. This version comes with an incredible CVD-coated dial that shifts colors from deep green to blue. The center of the dial has two different guilloché patterns: a chequered motif inside the sub-dials and a concentric one in the centre, and there’s a chapter ring that holds Breguet-style Arabic hour numerals. It features a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock, running seconds at 9 o’clock, and 30-minute counter at 12 o’clock. At 3 o’clock is a moon phase complication, and around the perimeter of the dial is a date scale pointed to with a centrally mounted hand that has a purple crescent-shaped tip. Inside, you’ll find the calibre C.755, an automatic chronograph based on the Valjoux 7750 with a proprietary moon phase and date module. it beats at 4Hz and has a 46 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a dark grey Nubuck leather strap and it's priced at €10,800. See more here.

Then, there’s something that feels like the Chronoswiss we got to know recently. It's a regulator setup, as Chronoswiss has been known to popularize. The new Space Timer Gravity edition, as the name suggests, takes the space-theme of the collection and focuses on the force of gravity. It comes in the familiar Space Timer stainless steel case that has quite a writs presence at 44mm wide and 15.2mm thick. Sapphire crystals on both sides, straight lugs, a knurled bezel and the signature crown are all well known. New is the matte grey finish for the entire case that gives it a stealth look. If you think that this dial looks complex, you wouldn’t be wrong. It’s made out of 63 parts, with some of them being hand-guillochéd, some laser-engraved, and some getting CVD coatings that shift between deep green and blue. The left side of the dial is laser-textured using NASA imagery to recreate a cratered lunar landscape. It has a slightly different take on the regulator display, with the hours moved off center towards 12 o’clock and the hours and minutes on the same central axis. At 6 o'clock is a date disc. Transparent rings made out of a high end composite ITR2 are used for the hour and date indications. Super-LumiNova ceramic cylinders mark the hours, and the moon phase globe is inside the date subdial ring. The watch is powered by the Calibre C.308, based on the ETA 2895 with an in-house regulator module. It beats at 4Hz with a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grey nubuck leather strap. The new Space Timer Gravity edition is limited to 50 pieces and priced at €23,400. See more on the Chronoswiss website.

IT’S ABOUT TIME PRESENTS THE TRTS PODCAST: Talking French Luxury And Manufacture Movements With Hugues Souparis, CEO Of Pequignet

I love Pequignet, even though I don’t know much about them. They are a luxury watchmaker, but they also make some incredibly interesting movements. That’s something I wasn’t expecting from them when I first learned about them. Still, there's much more to learn, as it seems. And the best way to learn more is by listening to the TRTS show interview Hugues Souparis, CEO Of Pequignet, which is exactly what we have here:

Talking French Luxury And Manufacture Movements With Hugues Souparis, CEO Of Pequignet - The Real Time Show

Follow the hosts on Instagram @alonbenjoseph, @scarlintheshire, @davaucher and @robnudds.Thanks to @skillymusic for the theme tune.

www.buzzsprout.com/2046020/episodes/18500662-talking-french-luxury-and-manufacture-movements-with-hugues-souparis-ceo-of-pequignet

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 65: Pierre Cardin’s Espace Watches At The Intersection Of Couture And Pop Industry

Why don't fashion brand make watches like these any more? Read it here. 

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• “I don’t carry a cult tailored to agree with me in my pocket, but I do carry Claude,” philosopher Lucy Osler tells Kristen French in this Nautilus interview. Together, they explore how personalized chatbots can become intimate echo chambers that place us at the center of a private, self-reinforcing world. This dynamic, Osler argues, can generate “mutual hallucinations”—shared fantasies that emerge from the conversation itself—raising new concerns about AI and mental health.

• Discovery is rarely a one-person enterprise. Newton and Leibniz formulated calculus more or less simultaneously. The telescope was invented, like, five separate times in various countries. And in 1872, two different German mathematicians independently figured out how to define real numbers. Those two men, Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind, struck up a fond friendship, but when Cantor reached out for Dedekind’s help with a nascent theorem, it set in motion one of math’s great controversies, one that finally seems to have been definitively settled.

• For HackerNoon, Bruce Li gives readers a detailed look into the systems of the Internet Archive, the San Francisco-based nonprofit tasked with preserving the digital history of human civilization. Li traces the evolution of its physical infrastructure as the web has become increasingly dynamic. Despite its legal and financial hurdles, the Internet Archive is “a technological behemoth, operating at a scale that rivals Silicon Valley giants, yet it is housed in a church and run by librarians,” writes Li. “It is a fragile institution . . . yet it is also the most robust memory bank humanity has ever built.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The F1 season is starting next weekend, which means that Netflix just released the new season of Drive To Survive. As you’re getting amped for the new season, you might consider joining the F1 Fantasy league I started.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. What a lineup of great watches today. Pretty much all things I would easily buy. Also a reminder, I’m starting an F1 fantasy league. You can read about it here.

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In this issue

• Studio Underd0g And Time+Tide Throw Another Pizza Party With Unique Flavors

• Sinn Starts Celebration Of 65th Anniversary With A Titanium Version Of The 903

• Circula Teams Up With Guilloché Legend Jochen Benzinger For A Mesmerizing Facet

• Unimatic Expands Their 600m Prodiver Collection With Classic Black And Blue Options

• Czapek Shows Two Very Different MOP Dials In The Promenade Midnight Pearl And Antarctique S Ice Cloud

👂What’s new

1/

Studio Underd0g And Time+Tide Throw Another Pizza Party With Unique Flavors

A bit over two years ago, the very well known watch news website Time + Tide was celebrating its 10th anniversary. To mark that occasion, they had a couple of interesting collaborations. The most popular of the bunch must have been the real life rendition of an April Fool’s Day — a pizza-inspired watch, made in collaboration with the crazy folks from Studio Underd0g. They turned the launch of the watch into a total event, with special instructions on how to order one, and Studio Underd0g founder Richard Benc or Andrew McUtchen from Time + Tide hand delivering each watch. Now, the two are teaming up again for Pizza Party 2.0 to mark the opening of the Time + Tide showroom in New York, the epicenter of good pizza.

Once again, the watch is based on the Studio Underd0g 01 SERIES Chronograph, meaning it comes in a stainless steel case that measures 38.5mm wide, 12.9mm thick and a 44.5mm lug-to-lug. The case has a brushed finish with polished accents, with squared and polished pushers. One is done in untreated stainless steel, while the other gets a black PVD coating. On top is a dramatically domed crystal and the watches are water resistant to 50 meters.

When the two call these pizza watches, they actually mean pizza watches, as the dials feature illustrations of tops of pizzas. There are two versions. The one that comes in the black PVD case is called Burnt Pepperoni and it has a gradient base going from a dark, dark red to a burnt orange. The toppings — pepperoni, mushrooms, and basil that we saw on the previous non-burnt Pepperoni model — are all a bit burned. The other is the Classic Cheese, appropriate for New York City, with a gradient from orange to yellow, standing in for melted cheese, with a slice missing at 3 o’clock. Both versions feature a tachymeter scale on the outside, an oversized 30 minute counter at 3 o’clock and a running seconds at 9 o’clock.

Both watches are powered by the Chinese-made Seagull ST-1901, their versoin of the legendary Venus 175 column-wheel chronograph calibre. It’s known for having almost no bridges, allowing you to see the entire movement, including the lateral clutch column wheel movement in action. Power reserve is a decent 50 hours. The two watches come on Epsom leather calfskin straps, black on the Burn Pepperoni and a tan on the Classic Cheese, made by The Strap Tailor.

Just like the previous version, it will be an ordeal to get one of these. They first went on sale yesterday at the Time+Tide NYC Launch Party. But they will also be available at the Time+Tide Melbourne Launch Party on March 5th, followed by British Watchmakers’ Day on March 7th. After that, the watches will be available from Time + Tide Studios. The price is set at $825 for the Classic Cheese and $925 for the Burnt Pepperoni. See more on the Time+Tide website.

2/

Sinn Starts Celebration Of 65th Anniversary With A Titanium Version Of The 903

The story of the Sinn model 903 is a great one, as you might already intuit just by their look, which is nearly identical to the Breitling Navitimer. Back in the 1970s, the Swiss watch industry was taking a trashing with the skyrocketing of sales of quartz powered watches. Many major brands didn’t survive this era and among them was Breitling, which shut down in 1979, with its assets sold off. Two Swiss companies, Sicura and Sinn, bought the rights to the Breitling Navitimer model, while Sinn, Ollech and Wajs and another company bought up cases and dials that Breitling held in stock. While Sicura continued to produce watches under the Breitling name, owning the rights to the names Breitling and Navitimer, Sinn bought the rights to the Breitling 806 and 809 Navitimer models as well as 500 cases and dials with the intent of making their own pilot’s watch with a logarithmic scale and slide rule function. This gave birth to the Sinn 903 ST B E Navigational Chronograph, a 41mm stainless steel cased pilot watch that reminds us so incredibly of the Breitling. Now, as Sinn is starting its celebration of their 65th anniversary, the 903 is one of the limited edition watches that gets to mark that occasion. This is the new Sinn 903 Ti II Anniversary. And yes, the Ti stands for titanium, which is just so cool.

The case of the 903 remains same in shape, but it’s now rendered in titanium, which is a great material for such a large watch. And it is large, measuring 41mm wide and 14,5 mm thick, with 22mm wide lugs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t track down an official lug-to-lug on the new watch is. I would love to know, as those lugs look like they could be on the long side with their pointy look. The case has a satinized and polished finish. On top and bottom are sapphire crystals, with the top one being surrounded by a silver-electroplated bezel that has a very pronounced coin edge to it. Rotate the outer diameter, and you’ll move the internal bezel that’s protected under the sapphire crystal. The crown screws down and you can get 200 meters of water resistance, which is quite nice for a chronograph without screw down pushers.

The dial of this special edition electroplated in blue, with a sunray brushed finish. It also has silver sub-dials in a tri-compax setup, while the hand applied indices, hands and the 12 numeral are made out of hybrid ceramic luminous elements which make up for some great lume shots. It also has the slide rule bezel with logarithmic scale that can be used to calculate times, distances or fuel consumption done in white.

Inside, you’ll find the La Joux-Perret L110, a column wheel automatic chronograph movement. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 60 hour power reserve.

Inside all three watches is the same movement, the La Joux-Perret L110, a column wheel automatic chronograph movement. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 60 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a five-link titanium bracelet.

Here's something curious. I got the email that the Sinn 903 Ti II Anniversary launched two days ago. It’s also limited to 500 pieces and priced at €3,980. So, with that price and such a large run, it would be reasonable to assume that it would take a while to sell out. Despite that, the Sinn website says that it’s out of stock. I believe that it’s just not on sale yet. See more on the Sinn website.

3/

Circula Teams Up With Guilloché Legend Jochen Benzinger For A Mesmerizing Facet

I still haven’t gotten over how sensationally good looking the ProSea collection from Circula is. They really know how to get the details right, and on the ProSea, it was the incredible texture on the dial that just grabbed my eyeballs and wouldn’t let go. Couldn’t stop thinking about it for months. Now, Circula is doing it to me again. About a year and a half ago, they launched the Facet line, a very serious, grown-up and good looking collection with a bunch of facets, as the name suggests. The watch was designed by Guy Bove, the former Creative Director of TAG Heuer and overall design legend. Now, they’re teaming up with another legend, Jochen Benzinger, recognized worldwide for his unique expertise and masterful command of traditional guilloché techniques. This is a very unique watch that only a few people will get to own because they are severely limited. This is the new Circula Facet Guilloche LE.

The case of the faced it mighty impressive. It measures an extremely pleasant 38mm wide and 10mm thick. But instead of using a curvy case, this is all about sharp angles and facets. On top is a brushed bezel surrounding a sapphire crystal and as you move towards the case you meet the first sets of polished facets. Moving downwards, the case has the same brushed surface on top with facets cuts into the sides that move towards the lugs and on to the bracelet and their highly polished surface seem to narrow down the look of the watch. While incredibly finished, it’s also a capable case with 100 meters of water resistance.

But oh, that dial. Somewhat surprisingly, it puts the date aperture at 6 o’clock. The tone-on-tone silver dial features a hand-guilloché moiré pattern that radiates wonderfully from that aperture. The more you look at it, the more fascinating the pattern gets, creating an almost hypnotic effect. It’s actually inspired by the three rivers that converge in Pforzheim. Around the dial is a brushed angled flange with cutouts for the faceted applied indices. The hour and minute hands are also faceted and filled with lume.

Inside, you’ll find the La Joux-Perret G100 automatic, which isn’t a clone of the ETA 2824 like the SW200, but rather an interesting alternative. It has the same beat rate of 4Hz, but also a much better power reserve of 68 hours, compared to the 38 hours of the 2824 clones. It has a palladium-plated tungsten rotor. The watch comes on a steel bracelet with strongly faceted sides that can be had on either a butterfly clasp or a tool-free micro-adjusting clasp.

The new Circula Facet Guilloche LE is seriously limited, with only 7 pieces being made, and price set at €5,340. That’s a significant jump from the rest of the Facet collection, but it features a hand made moiré guilloché dial, which makes it quite an attractive package. See more on the Circula website.

4/

Unimatic Expands Their 600m Prodiver Collection With Classic Black And Blue Options

Last summer, the very cool Italian brand Unimatic took a break from a great line of collaborations to go back to their roots and release another diver. However, while the divers they launched with had 100-200 meters of water resistance, the line they launched was the Prodiver 600. And you can imagine what that meant. It was a meticulously engineered watch made for actual diving, capable of going down to 600 meters. Since then, we got a bunch of cool collabroations again, but now, it’s time for new versions of the Prodiver 600, now in very classic colors — a black and a blue.

Both watches come in surprisingly compact cases. Not small, obviously, but relatively compact for what it is. It measures 41.5mm wide, 13.2mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 49mm. The case has a brushed finish, the lugs are drilled and on top is a 120-click unidirectional bezel with a ceramic insert in either blue or black. The bezel surrounds a domed sapphire crystal with an internal anti-reflective coating. Water resistance is, as the name says, 600 meters. Quite impressive.

There are two models available. The U1S-PD6-B gets a black dial, while the U1S-PD6-RB gets a blue one.They both have dual Super-LumiNova applications, combining white and orange glow for better contrast at night. At 6 o’clock is a small date window with color matched date discs.

Inside both watches is the very well known Sellita SW200-1 automatic that beats at 4Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. All of the watches come with TPU two-piece quick-release straps color matched to the dial, and you can add a stainless steel bracelet.

The new Unimatic Modello Uno U1S-PD6-B and U1S-PD6-RB are available now, limited to 300 pieces per combination, priced at €1,320 on rubber and €1,420 on the steel bracelet. Keep in mind that this is the price without tax. See more on the Unimatic website.

5/

Czapek Shows Two Very Different MOP Dials In The Promenade Midnight Pearl And Antarctique S Ice Cloud

While the entire industry is cranking out stone dial watches, Czapek is playing with something different. That doesn’t mean that Czapek hasn’t done its fair share of stone dials — they have, and they were early on in the trend. But it does mean that what they are doing is very, very cool. They’ve teamed up with GT Cadrans, a very well known Swiss dialmaker, to give their Promenade and Antarctique S watches very special mother-of-pearl dials. We’ve seen plenty of MOP dials, but very few done like this.

On the outside, nothing much has changed. The Promenade comes in a brushed and polished stainless steel case that measures 38mm wide, 10.8mm thick, with a 42mm lug-to-lug. On top is a sapphire crystal glassbox, while out back is a flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 50 meters. The Antarctique S is Czapek’s integrated bracelet sports watch, also made out of brushed and polished stainless steel, measuring 38.5mm wide, 10.6mm thick, with a 42.8mm lug-to-lug. Again, a sapphire crystal glassbox on top and a flat one out back, with a 120 meters of water resistance.

But we’re here for the dials. The Promenade Midnight Pearl has a sandwich construction with aventurine glass on top, with a Tahitian mother-of-pearl disc underneath. At 4:40 is a small seconds sub-dial and to keep the dial as visible as possible, the arrow-shaped hands and indices at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock are all openworked. The Antarctique S Ice Cloud uses a technique known as nacre brouillé, or scattered mother-of-pearl, which sees the white, polished nacre disc get hand applied varnish, creating random cloud patterns. The varnish is blue tinted to mimic the clouds over the Antarctic. You get the recognizable signature faceted indices and the central seconds hand has a red tip.

Inside both watches is the in-house SXH5 automatic movement, beating at 4Hz, with a 60 hour power reserve and wound by an off-centred platinum micro-rotor. The movement has seven bridges, five of which are openworked, decorated with hand-bevelled edges and straight-grained flanks. The Promenade comes on a dark blue Nubuck strap, while the Antarctique comes on an integrated steel bracelet, with an additional integrated rubber stra.

The Promenade Midnight Pearl is limited to 38 pieces, priced at €20,300, while the Antarctique S Ice Cloud is limited to 10 pieces, priced at €25,900. See more on the Czapek website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 65: Pierre Cardin’s Espace Watches At The Intersection Of Couture And Pop Industry

Why don't fashion brand make watches like these any more? Read it here. 

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• Jane Ruffino’s reported feature for Wired opens with what is, so far, my favorite piece of magazine art this year. From there, you’re quickly aboard the Maasvliet, the diesel electric ship whose crew is tasked with hauling up thousands of kilometers of TAT-8—the first fiber-optic cable to span the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean, a feat that Ruffino describes as “practically tantamount to human galactic expansion.” An absolute showcase of explanatory writing, Ruffino’s story goes deep on the history and afterlife of the cables that enable digital communication, and grants the many people who manage such infrastructure some welcome visibility.

• “Some people are quiet because they’re afraid of things,” John Danaher, Helena Crevar’s Brazilian jiu jitsu coach, says. “She was quiet because she was industrious.” At 18, Crevar’s diligence and ferocity have made her a formidable opponent, a fighter who has won 98 percent of her matches, many against higher-ranking opponents. In Laura Mallonee’s profile, the same qualities make Crevar a corrective to those in the jiu jitsu world who fixate on the sport as a last bastion for “masculinity.”

• In this weed detective story, Lester Black goes on a year-long hunt for the legendary Big Sur Holy Weed. Did a monk named Perry really create the strain in the 1960s? Black clearly wants the myth to be true, but the world of weed is a hazy one. While it seems the Big Sur Holy weed may be more mythic reputation than a reliably preserved strain, in his fascinating search Black does uncover some plausible contenders — now themselves threatened by heavy-handed modern legislation.

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One video you have to watch today

Anyone want to buy this newsletter for a few million? I really need this Kimera in my life right now.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

As a kid, I was wild about Formula 1. I vividly remember being on a lake ferry somewhere in Germany or Austria, probably 10 years old, huddled around a single tiny TV on the boat with a bunch of grownups. I’m fairly certain that it was the Belgian Grand Prix, and you could hardly see the cars screaming around one of the greatest races of all time in a downpour that made everything invisible. The star of the race was, of course, Schumacher who was crushing everyone else on track, until he spectacularly smashed into Coulthard who was a lap behind him. What a cool time for Formula 1.

Quickly after that, maybe four years later, I kind of lost interest. I haven’t even followed the results for decades. Until Drive to Survive. A lot of people hated on the Neflix series for bringing new fans to the sport — I still struggle to see how this is a bad thing — but it should also be credited for brining in people like me who left the sport and the series peaked my interest once again. So, the more I watched it, the more my interest for F1 grew. Last season, I even started watching the races again.

But now, I would like to share that passion with you. At least those among you that also like Formula 1. Despite studying in the US, I never got into fantasy sports. I just couldn’t understand how the worked. And then something happened a few weeks ago. One of the readers of this newsletter, Daniel, reached out to me and told me he started Motospro, an app that was fantasy F1, but actually fun. This was intriguing. Daniel told me he’d been running his own F1 fantasy league for years — just a spreadsheet shared among friends and family — and the response was so good that he decided to turn it into a proper platform.

Well, check this out. I’m starting the first It’s About Time F1 Fantasy League. Traditionally, F1 fantasy was so complicated, I didn’t even want to look at this. This one is super simple. Here’s what’s going to happen:

1. Before each race, pick one driver and one constructor.

2. Watch them perform.

3. Earn points if they outperform expectations.

There are 24 races on this year’s calendar, which means 24 chances to call an underdog right, to gamble on rain in Spa or a Ferrari comeback in Monza, and to talk way too much about it in between. Points are earned based on real race results and how well your picks exceed expectations inferred from Vegas odds. By season’s end, the player with the most points takes the crown.

Neither Daniel nor I make any money from this. We just want to have some fun while watching Formula 1, and I would love it if you could join us. In fact, there’s going to be a small prize for the league winner.

So, here’s the plan. You can download the app from Motospro. But hurry up because the season starts next weekend!

Set up your account and then join the league. The name is It’s About Time and the password for the league is formulaleague.

This is going to be cool, can’t wait to get this rolling. If you want to get into a WhatsApp group for the league, email me and we can set that up.

-Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I told you I’m launching something on Wednesday. And it’s not for everyone. I’ve been a huge Formula 1 fan for years but then my interest dropped off. Now, I’m trying to get back into it, and it just happened that one of my readers, Daniel, made a Formula 1 Fantasy app. Neither of us are asking you for any money, we just want to have a bit of fun while watching races. In fact, there’s going to be a small prize for the league winner. Check out the announcement here.

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In this issue

• Breitling Expands The Navitimer Collection With A Silver Panda Limited Edition For North America

• The Seiko 5 Sports SRPM11 and SRPM13 Are Dedicated To Winter Sports

• Zodiac Teams Up With Cult Knifemaker GiantMouse For A Super Sea Wolf and Dive Knife Set

• Trafford Welcomes Season Two Of Their Everyday Daytripper Collection

• Habring2 And SJX Watches Team Up On Two Versions Of The Chrono-Felix Medicus

• JOIN ME: I’m Starting A Formula 1 Fantasy League To Make Sure I Don’t Miss A Single Race This Season

👂What’s new

1/

Breitling Expands The Navitimer Collection With A Silver Panda Limited Edition For North America

Breitling is having a good few years. But where they’re certainly doing best is in North America. Just last year, I think they released three watches exclusive to NA, as well as two rounds of NFL Collection watches in which they did 32 unique watches, all in very limited quantities, each with branding of one of the 32 NFL teams. So it was only going to be a matter of time before we get another North American limited edition. And this is it, the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 with a silver panda dial.

While the first Navitimers limited to North America came in a very North-American-sized case, their larger 46mm version, the couple of recent ones come in the more manageable 43mm format. The stainless steel case measures 43mm wide, 13.69mm thick and has a lug-to-lug measurement of 49.07 mm. Despite the smaller size, it still has a large 22mm lug width. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, that’s surrounded by a notched bezel. Don’t expect much of water resistance here, you get just 30 meters.

The dial of this edition gets a silver to off-white base, with black sub-dials at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, which would make it a panda-style dial. The 6 o’clock sub-dial has an integrated date window and there are red details all over — on the central chronograph hand, as well as part of the blue and darker anthracite slide rule bezel that surrounds the dial. The hour and minute hands, as well as the sub-dial hands and the applied hour markers are all made out of red gold.

Inside the watch is the Caliber B01 automatic chronograph, a familiar movement equipped with a column wheel and a vertical clutch. It beats at 4Hz, has a great 70 hour power reserve and is COSC certified. The watch comes on a brown alligator leather strap with white stitching.

The new Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 North American Limited Edition will be limited to North Armerica, but I’m not sure if it’s limited in number. Price is set at $10,300. See more on the Breitling website.

2/

The Seiko 5 Sports SRPM11 and SRPM13 Are Dedicated To Winter Sports

OK, this is a weird one for me. Not only am I wickedly late on these (they were announced in December), but they’re also heavily geographically limited, aside from being limited in number. I’ve had the watches on my write-about list for a while, and I really, really like their look. So much so that I will write about them now, so sue me. This is the new Seiko 5 Sports collection maid in collaboration with Thong Sia Group (TSG), which has been Seiko’s retailer for decades in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, and Macau. The SRPM11 and SRPM13, available only in these TSG territories, are dedicated to winter sports and they have great colors.

On the outside, you know these watches. They are the familiar 5KX model, with a guarded crown at 4 o’clock, made out of stainless steel and measuring 42.5mm wide, 13.4mm thick, with a 46mm lug-to-lug. On top is a domed Hardlex crystal, surrounded by a bidirectional rotating bezel. Those bezels have colored inserts in brown or purple, with the first 20 minutes in white. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dials have a very faint grid-pattern, with the SRPM11 done in purple and the SRPM13 done in brown. Both versions have the classic Seiko 5 Sports layout with lumed applied markers, broad hands and a day-date display at 3 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the mediocre but well known 4R36 which beats at 3Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. It will tell the time, as well as the day and date, but keep in mind that Seiko rates the accuracy of this movement at +45/-35 seconds per day. of course, this is often much better in real life, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow. The watches come on a three-link bracelet closed with a fold-over clasp.,

The new Seiko SRPM11 and SRPM13 are doubly limited — 1,000 pieces of each color will be made and they will only be available through Thong Sia Group–authorized retailers. So, even though the Seiko website says that the watch is sold out, I see that the watches are still available all through Asia. Price is set at SGD 473, which translates to about €317. See more on the Seiko website.

3/

Zodiac Teams Up With Cult Knifemaker GiantMouse For A Super Sea Wolf and Dive Knife Set

Collaborations are not a stranger in the watch world. Most of them happen between publications and watches. Maybe two huge brands will come together, like Seiko and Pepsi did. But the collabs I adore the most are the ones that brands like Zodiac pull off. Previously, they teamed up with eBay, which is quite the unusual pairing. Now, we have another unexpected collaboration from Zodiac and I love it — they are working with Danish-American knife specialist GiantMouse who has a massive cult following. They’re putting out a duo of a Super Sea Wolf Pro-Diver and a corrosion-resistant dive knife. Very cool.

Being a Super Sea Wolf Pro-Diver, you know what to expect here. It’s a big diver that measures 42mm wide, 14.3mm thick and has a 50mm lug-to-lug measurement. Part of the size can be attributed to the fact that Zodiac wants this to be their performing diver, but also to the fact that it’s water resistant to 300 meters and has ISO 6425 certification. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, surrounded by a bezel with a light blue insert that’s paired with orange markers.

More orange can be found on the dial. The base of the dial is black, but surrounding it is a bright orange chapter ring, with orange-framed markers that are filled with lume. The hands are equally blocky and also filled with lume, while the minute hand is done in orange. Inside is the STP 1-21, which is to be expected as Zodiac and STP are both owned by the Fossil group. The 1-21 is a new version of the STP 1-11 and it beats at 4Hz and has a 40 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black rubber strap.

The watch is paired with the GiantMouse x Zodiac Dive Knife. It’s intended for underwater use, with a blunt tip to prevent accidental puncturing when handling it with gloves. Structurally it’s made from N360 Satin Steel, which is particularly corrosion resistant for use in salt water. The handle is made from black anodised aluminium with perforated holes to allow water to pass through it. The blade is partially serrated to make it easier to cut through net and rope and there’s a line-cutting slot.

The Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Pro-Diver x GiantMouse Watch and Knife set is available now, priced at $2,295. See more on the Zodiac website.

4/

Trafford Welcomes Season Two Of Their Everyday Daytripper Collection

I had to go back into the archives of this newsletter to remind myself when the last time is that I wrote about Trafford watches. And, quite shockingly, it seems that I never have. I did share a few reviews of these watches, but I never wrote about their releases. What an incredible oversight on my part. If you don’t know about Trafford watches, they are an Austin, Texas brand led by Nathan Trafford that “embody the spirit of Modern Americana with bold, distinctive designs”. I hardly ever quote brand websites, but this is the perfect description, as Nathan is very much an expert in use of color. If you don’t believe me, just look at Season 2 of their Daytripper collection that is launching today. It also has a pretty fantastic trick up its sleeve.

The Daytripper is imagined to be an everyday watch, with comfortable dimensions and some pretty thought out details all around. The case is made out of stainless steel with a hardening coating applied to it. It measures 39mm wide, 12mm thick and has a 46mm lug-to-lug, which means it will fit a wide variety of wrists. On top and bottom are sapphire crystals, with the top down surrounded by the thinnest of bezels. That allows the crystal to extend all the way to the edge, giving you a great look of the dial. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Speaking of the dials, they are quite something. Let’s start with what the four have in common. They all have a white chapter ring, fully graduated with a 13-24h scale printed in colors that either match or contrast the dial colors. That chapter ring is fully lumed on all four, giving a fantastic effect at night, especially when paired with the applied Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. The rest of the positions have applied lume dots. All four dials also have deeply brushed radiating finishes and the colors, inspired by the changing light of the open road, are sensational. There’s the Eos, which captures the first light of the day, fades from teal on top to apricot at the bottom of the dial. The Solaris catches the wide open sky, with a saturated blue at the top to a lighter blue at bottom. The Eventide look like the last hour before dark, with a maroon at the top and a fiery red toward the base, and bright orange accents at the hour markers. Last, there’s the Vesper, named after the first star that shows up in the night sky and going from an almost black on top to a dark emerald green toward the base. Sensational work.

Inside is the very familiar Miyota 9075. But wait, you might say, isn’t that the cool GMT movement that brought a flyer-style GMT to the masses thanks to its low price? Yes, it is. But where’s the third hand and the GMT scale, right? Well, that’s the trick it has up its sleeve. Trafford simplifies the GMT function and uses the jump-hour function of the GMT and applies it to the regular hour hand. That means that you can set the hour hand without affecting the minutes. Very cool. The movement beats at 4Hz, has a 42 hour power reserve and is regulated by Trafford to ±10 seconds per day. The watches can be had on leather straps that have incredible colors, or you can opt for a three-link metal bracelet that has a quick release and a tool-less micro adjust on the clasp.

The new Trafford Daytripper Season 2 collection launches today and is priced at $799 on leather straps or $948 on the bracelet. See more on the Trafford website.

5/

Habring2 And SJX Watches Team Up On Two Versions Of The Chrono-Felix Medicus

How can you not be madly in love with Habring² watches. Not only are they one of the rare watchmakers to be based in Austria, and not only are they drop-dead gorgeous, and not only are they largely hand made and in-house developed, they are also surprisingly affordable. Not cheap, but affordable for what they are. They should easily be selling for at least 3x the price. They are also great friends to have in the watch industry, it seems, as they often partner with watch media to release special editions of their great watches. The latest collaboration happens with the Singapore-based SJX Watches blog. This is the new Habring² x SJX Chrono-Felix Medicus, a very good looking duo of monopusher doctor’s watches.

As the name suggests, the collaboration is based on the Chrono-Felix, which has a very classic 40s and 50s shape with thin lugs, a stepped bezel and a box-shaped sapphire crystal on top. The proportions are also quite appealing, measuring 38.5mm wide and 11.2mm thick. The cases have two different finishes, depending on the dial you get — the silver dial comes in a brushed case with polished accents, while the grey dial gets sandblasted finishes. Both cases have a crown at 3 o’clock and a monopusher at 2 o’clock. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dials, where the collaboration is most evident, is the result of a group of physicians, among them the owner of the first Habring² × SJX collaboration, approached the blog and watchmaker with a request for a true doctor’s watch. And it really is one. It has a multi-scale chronograph, which helps doctors. Around the periphery is a snailed flange with a pulsometer scale, followed by a respiration scale from 5 to 25, while the center of the dial has a snailed tachymeter scale. You get Breguet numerals and dot hour markers, polished leaf-shaped hands and a sub-dial at 12 o’clock to track 30 minutes. Love that detail. As mentioned, you get either a silver dial with blued hands, while the other has a grey dial and rose gold-plated accents.

Inside, you’ll find the in-house calibre Habring² A11C-H0 which Habring developed on the iconic Valjoux 7750 base. It’s a hand-wound monopusher chronograph with cam-lever architecture. It beats at 4Hz, with a 48 hour power reserve. Decorations include polished edges, perlage, and steel chronograph components finished by independent watchmaker Pöhlmann-Bresan. The watches come on a grey or blue leather strap.

The new Habring² x SJX Chrono-Felix Medicus is limited to 25 pieces per color and deliveries begin in May. Price is set at €7,750, of which €700 will be donated to children’s medical charities in Singapore and Austria. See more on the SJX website.

JOIN ME: I’m Starting A Formula 1 Fantasy League To Make Sure I Don’t Miss A Single Race This Season

As a kid, I was wild about Formula 1. I vividly remember being on a lake ferry somewhere in Germany or Austria, probably 10 years old, huddled around a single tiny TV on the boat with a bunch of grownups. I’m fairly certain that it was the Belgian Grand Prix, and you could hardly see the cars screaming around one of the greatest races of all time in a downpour that made everything invisible. The star of the race was, of course, Schumacher who was crushing everyone else on track, until he spectacularly smashed into Coulthard who was a lap behind him. What a cool time for Formula 1.

Quickly after that, maybe four years later, I kind of lost interest. I haven’t even followed the results for decades. Until Drive to Survive. A lot of people hated on the Neflix series for bringing new fans to the sport — I still struggle to see how this is a bad thing — but it should also be credited for brining in people like me who left the sport and the series peaked my interest once again. So, the more I watched it, the more my interest for F1 grew. Last season, I even started watching the races again.

But now, I would like to share that passion with you. At least those among you that also like Formula 1. Despite studying in the US, I never got into fantasy sports. I just couldn’t understand how the worked. And then something happened a few weeks ago. One of the readers of this newsletter, Daniel, reached out to me and told me he started Motospro, an app that was fantasy F1, but actually fun. This was intriguing. Daniel told me he’d been running his own F1 fantasy league for years — just a spreadsheet shared among friends and family — and the response was so good that he decided to turn it into a proper platform.

Well, check this out. I’m starting the first It’s About Time F1 Fantasy League. Traditionally, F1 fantasy was so complicated, I didn’t even want to look at this. This one is super simple. Here’s what’s going to happen:

1. Before each race, pick one driver and one constructor.

2. Watch them perform.

3. Earn points if they outperform expectations.

There are 24 races on this year’s calendar, which means 24 chances to call an underdog right, to gamble on rain in Spa or a Ferrari comeback in Monza, and to talk way too much about it in between. Points are earned based on real race results and how well your picks exceed expectations inferred from Vegas odds. By season’s end, the player with the most points takes the crown.

Neither Daniel nor I make any money from this. We just want to have some fun while watching Formula 1, and I would love it if you could join us. In fact, there’s going to be a small prize for the league winner.

So, here’s the plan. You can download the app from Motospro. But hurry up because the season starts next weekend!

Set up your account and then join the league. The name is It’s About Time and the password for the league is formulaleague.

This is going to be cool, can’t wait to get this rolling. If you want to get into a WhatsApp group for the league, email me and we can set that up.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watch School Wednesday: Understanding the Free‐Sprung Balance and Why High‐End Brands Swear by It

What makes a free‐sprung balance different—and why it matters on the wrist. Read it here.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• Non-Japanese athletes have competed in sumo, but no nation has swept the sport like Mongolia. Since the early ’90s, Mongolian wrestlers have succeeded at the highest levels, even becoming yokuzuna—grand champions—at disproportionate rates. Meanwhile, Japan has seen the rise of its own version of MAGA: the far-right Sanseito party, buoyed by fervent nativism (and young, extremely online voters), has gained increasing power in Japanese parliament. Tokyo resident and sumo fan Joshua Hunt sets out to trace these converging paths.

• A dark horse competitor takes on the “LeBron James of College Excel.” A crowd member raises a sign that reads trust your cells. While competition propels Jesse Dougherty’s whirlwind tour of this year’s Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge, he keeps close tabs on an engaging crew of competitors as they throw down.

• For Jon Tattrie, it all started in 2020 with a mysterious email about a larger-than-life former colleague from the Halifax Daily News. Tattrie hadn’t connected with Charles Saunders since they were both laid off from the tabloid back in 2008. Suddenly, a stranger, Saunders’s friend, had written Jon to learn anything they could: What had happened to Charles Saunders? In this excerpt of his new book, To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy for The Walrus, Tattrie digs in to discover a whole new side of a man he thought he knew.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

For a millisecond there, I thought Daft Punk got together again and put out a new song. Still, good video.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I’ve noticed that recently there’s been an influx of women subscribers to this newsletter and that’s great. We need more watches that women can wear and that aren’t just smaller and pink/diamond studded. There has to be a better option out there.

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In this issue

• Seiko Welcomes A Warmer Season With The Presage ‘Springtime’ Cocktail Time In Pink Mother-of-Pearl

• Nivada Grenchen Gives The F77 A Couple Of Really Nice Stone Dials

• Orient Updates The Relatively New Stretto With A Bunch Of Colors

• Ulysse Nardin And Gumball 3000 Rally Team Up For The Second Time With A Carbonium Dial

• Panerai Will Take You Back In History With Their New Radiomir Viaggio Nel Tempo Experience Set

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko Welcomes A Warmer Season With The Presage ‘Springtime’ Cocktail Time In Pink Mother-of-Pearl

There’s a lot of talk about Seiko lately that could be described as not as complimentary. Prices have shot up, and some models seem to be loosing features, which is extremely rare in the watch business. However, despite it’s somewhat clumsy size, the mineral glass and objectionable bracelet, the Seiko Presage Cocktail Time remains one of their best watches, mostly because of the spectacular dials the line comes with. They really shoot way above their price point. And a new example of this is the new Presage ‘Springtime’ Cocktail Time SRPM06 with a pink mother-of-pearl gradient dial.

Technically, Seiko markets this as a woman’s watch, and I believe that this newsletter needs to have more watches aimed towards women, but this could easily work as a unisex watch. I’ve seen pictures of it on wrist, and it doesn’t look as flashy as it does in the press photos. And despite a lot of people, me included, pointing out that shrinking and pinking is not the right way to go about making a women’s watch, this works very well. The watch comes in the smallest of the Pressage cases, measuring 30.3mm wide and 10.9mm thick. The case has a polished finish and on top is a hardlex crystal, surrounded by a plain concave bezel.

The dial is perfection. Made out of pink mother-of-pearl, it’s not just a uniform pink color. Instead, there’s a vertical gradient with a brighter pink at the bottom, and a lighter shade on top. The pink of the dial is paired with rose gold colored dauphine hands and indexes. At 4:30 is a circular aperture for the date, but the date disc is white. Unfortunately.

Inside, you’ll find a smaller Seiko movement, one that’s not often used, the 2R05. It beats at 3Hz and has a decent 40 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a five-link bracelet that has the two middle links done in the same rose gold.

The new Seiko Presage ‘Springtime’ Cocktail Time SRPM06 is on sale now and it’s a limited edition. But in Seiko world, limited editions aren’t that limited. 9,000 pieces of this watch will be made. The price is set at about €620. See more on the Seiko website.

2/

Nivada Grenchen Gives The F77 A Couple Of Really Nice Stone Dials

Stone dials are obviously all the rage over the past few months, and I’m very much in favor of the trend. I could live without onyx and tiger eye, but I love it when brands go off-script and find interesting stones. Baltic had a run of several lesser known stones used as dials and those looked amazing. Nivada Grenchen, the revived defunct brand with a simple mission — recreate their most legendary designs with modern specs — has had a couple of really nice stones in their catalogue as well. Now, the stones are making their way to the F77, a remake of their integrated-bracelet sports watch that came out first in the late 1970s.

This quartet is based on the second generation F77 which is more streamlined and reworked for a better wearing experience, thanks to the angled lugs. The case here is made out of stainless, and it measures 38mm wide, 12.2mm thick, with a 46.2mm lug-to-lug. The case has brushed finishes with polished details and on top is a double-domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dials are stand out and there are four versions available. The two darker options are actually made out of black meteorite and a dark, dark blue aventurine that shimmers in the light thanks to the copper-toned inclusions. The other two options feature dials made out of lapis lazuli which has brownish striations, and green aventurine which is very dramatic and looks almost eroded. Of course, since these are cut out of actual stone, they are all unique. The hands are faceted and dauphine shaped, and the indexes are silver with lumed dots above them.

Inside the watches is the automatic Soprod P024 which is an alternative to the very familiar ETA 2824-2. It operates at 28,800vph, and has a 38-hour power reserve. The watches can be had on one of three strap options — an integrated stainless steel three-link bracelet, a black canvas strap that has a velcro closure or a black rubber strap.

The new Nivada Grenchen F77 Stone Dial watches are on sale right now, priced at €1,445 on the rubber and canvas straps, and €1,645 on the bracelet. Do note that the lapis lazul is sold out, so you might want to act quickly if you don’t want to lose out on one of the others. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

3/

Orient Updates The Relatively New Stretto With A Bunch Of Colors

Now that we’ve established that Orient is getting better at communication, with their new website and PR onslaught, we can cover a few more of their releases. Today, we have an expansion of the Stretto, which launched last year when the brand was celebrating their 75th anniversary. Introduced into the Contemporary Collection, the Stretto came as a regular Date, a Semi Skeleton and the most interesting of the group, a Day and Night. Now, Orient is releasing five new versions of the Day and Night and it seems like they’re heaving a lot of fun with it.

While Orient might have fixed their communication issues, they haven’t done much to shrink down their watches. The Day and Night still comes in a stainless steel case that measures 41.5mm wide, 13mm thick and has a 48mm lug-to-lug. All of the cases have brushed surfaces with broad polishings on the side and fixed brushed bezels that hold down sapphire crystals. While three of the models have silver bezels, one has a gold colored one, and one has a bronze colored one. Out back are mineral crystals that give you a look at the movement inside. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The Day and Night model is special for its two sub-dials that sit stacked over the middle — the pointer-day display extends towards 10 o’clock, while the day/night indicator that looks like a moonphase stretches out to 4:30. It’s an interesting visual. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture. Then we have the five colors. The standout of the collection is the RA-AK0316L which gets a dark blue base of the dial, orange and turquoise sub-dials and an orange track that sits underneath the silver colored wedge shaped indices. The RA-AK0312S, which is the model with the gold colored bezel, gets a white dial, the RA-AK0313Y is the one with the bronze colored bezel and that gets gets a brown dial, the RA-AK0314E has a green dial and the RA-AK0315L has a blue dial.

Inside, you’ll find the Orient in-house F6B24 movements which beat at 21.600vph and have a 40 hour power reserve. They are all rated to +25/-15 seconds per day. The watches all come on classic three-link bracelets, while the RA-AK0312S gets gold colored details on the bracelet.

The new Orient Stretto Day & Night models go on sale in March. The multi-colored RA-AK0316L is a limited release that will be available only through the spring and summer of this year, and it’s priced at €480. The bronze bezel model has the same price point, the gold one sits at €510, and the rest of the collection will set you back €460. See more on the Orient website.

4/

Ulysse Nardin And Gumball 3000 Rally Team Up For The Second Time With A Carbonium Dial

The Gumball 3000 was my first experience with hyper-luxurious, wild-partying, rallies. It’s a race started by Maximilian Cooper in 1999, who was inspired by the mythical Cannonball rally across the United States, as a way to get together with a bunch of his rich friends, travel at high speeds and party. A lot. Since then, it has become one of the most famous races in the world, taking on board celebrities and people with incredible wealths, creating a spectacle wherever they show up. Almost 20 years ago, I was a journalist and they were traveling through Zagreb on one of their more notorious rallies. They offered me a chance to spend some time with Cooper and his wife, the wonderful rapper Eve, and boy did I learn a lot about rich people in that short time. Having met the type of person that participates in the Gumball 3000, it came as no surprise last year that Gumball 3000 teamed up with Ulysse Nardin to release a special edition of the Freak X to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the rally. Now, they’re coming together again for the second time. This is the Freak X Gumball 3000 Edition 2.

Just like the previous version, this one is also based on the regular Freak X. That means that it comes in a 43mm wide case made out of titanium that has a black DLC finish. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, the back gets a special Gumball 3000 caseback, and you get a personalized side plate with your Gumball team number in orange. Water resistance is 50 meters.

While the previous version used the standard base dial of the Freak X done in black, this one has the base hour disc is made out of Carbonium, a composite material of carbon fiber infused with orange epoxy resin that makes the dial look like it’s cracked revealing orange underneath. For the first time on a Freak X, the minute wheel is framed by an orange Super-LumiNova ring, while the indexes and bridges keep the same white Super-LumiNova as the previous edition.

Inside, and on top of the dial, is the recognizable UN-230 calibre with automatic winding, which is actually used to indicate the hours, while the baguette-shaped one-hour carrousel indicates the minutes. The movement beats at 3Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black rubber strap closed with a black DLC titanium folding buckle.

The Ulysse Nardin Freak X Gumball 3000 Edition 2 is limited to 150 pieces and will be offered to Gumball participants first. If it doesn’t sell out and makes it to the public, price will be €41,000. See more on the Ulysse Nardin website.

5/

Panerai Will Take You Back In History With Their New Radiomir Viaggio Nel Tempo Experience Set

There are a couple of brands out there that try to make the buying experience something special for the customer. On the higher end they will offer an impeccable boutique experience. On the lower end, they will meet you at fairs and give a very personal touch to the purchase. There are even some brands that will attach an activity or experience to the purchase. But no brand does it as well as Panerai. Just over the last year or two, we’ve seen them sell watches that will get you food and wine tours of Italy, training with military units and a spot on an expedition in Bhutan with explorer Mike Horn. The latest experience they are offering to customers is the Radiomir Viaggio nel Tempo Experience Set, which will take you back in time. Not actually, obviously. But the they will take you to places in Italy that have historic significance to the brand. And it’s a pretty great trip. First, you’ll visit the Florentine boutique which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, after which you’ll follow the route of Italian Navy Frogmen to their coastal training facilities and finally a yacht tour along the Ligurian coast.

But it’s not all about the experience, as you get two watches in this set. Two very substantial Radiomir models. They both measure 47mm wide, they both have the same wire lugs and the same diamond-shaped crown. That’s where the similarities stop and things get really cool. The Radiomir Viaggio nel Tempo Experience PAM01729 comes in a bronze case made of an alloy of pure tin and pure copper to get a distinct patina for each wearer. But even crazier is the Radiomir Viaggio nel Tempo Experience PAM01730 made out of Platinumtech, their proprietary alloy made out of 95% pure platinum with an alloy treatment to increase its hardness and scratch resistance. It’s also a hefty watch that’s 33% heavier than the same version in 18K gold. I can’t even imagine what that feels like.

Each of the models comes with its own dial design, as well. The PAM01729 has a black grained dial with a California setup that sees Roman numerals used on the upper half of the dial and Arabic numerals below. The PAM01730 has a classic Panerai dial with a sandwich construction. The top part has a sunburst texture and cutouts for the Arabic numerals and indexes, with a lumed disc underneath. Speaking of lume, it’s beige on both models, playing on the historic theme of the set.

Even the movements inside are technically different. The PAM01729 uses the P.3000 while the PAM01730 uses the P.3001/10. Sure, they are the same watch with twin barrels that give you a 72 hour power reserve, but the P.3000 has huge plates visible through the caseback and the P.3001/10 is very dramatically skeletonized. The PAM01729 comes on a brown leather strap with beige stitching and a bronze buckle, while the PAM01730 comes on a brown alligator strap with beige stitching and a white gold buckle.

The new Panerai Radiomir Viaggio nel Tempo Experience is only sold as a pair, delivered in a special mahogany case, and they are limited to 30 sets. The watches go on sale in June, the experience will take place between September 15th and 18th, and price is set at €145,000. See more on the Panerai website.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• In California's desolate Mojave, a young airman pried open a buried drum of yellow poison, igniting decades of agony, nosebleeds, and VA denials. Frank Vera III's obsessive FOIA crusade uncovers radioactive secrets at shuttered George Air Force Base, rallying sick veterans against a government that dumped toxins—and discarded its own. Hero or conspiracy theorist? The truth lies buried deep.

• In an era of doomscrolling and $1,000 Broadway tickets, a hidden circuit of 20‑seat rooms and bubble-wand miracles is turning close-up magic into the most intimate luxury experience in town. From Brooklyn basements to Midtown shops, world-class magicians are selling not shock twists or high art, but something rarer: paid, collective, childlike wonder.

• Cary Grant and Randolph Scott shared beachside bungalows, late-night feasts, and cheeky fan-mag profiles for a decade—bachelors pooling rent amid whispers of deeper bonds. As Hollywood's queer underground buzzed, their coded domestic bliss sculpted Grant's suave screen icon, blending joy, codependency, and era-defying love. Hidden in plain sight.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

You just have to love Sam Rockwell.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I just got off a great call with one of the readers of the newsletter and we’re launching something super cool this week. If you like Formula 1, don’t miss the Wednesday issue of this newsletter.

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In this issue

• Yema Gives Their Wristmaster Slim Small Seconds CMM.29 A Full Snow Camo Treatment

• Orient Star Revives A Cult Japanese Diver With The 75th Anniversary M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m

• MeisterSinger Breaks Their One-Hand Schtick With A Jump Hour Complication

• Baillod Tells A Very Personal Story With The Chapter 8 Family Legacy Special Editions

• The Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale Is A Very Impressive Watch

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 67: A Great Deal On A Piaget; A Duo Of Vintage Chronographs; A Fantastic Ana-Digi Omega; And A Stunning Rolex Dial

👂What’s new

1/

Yema Gives Their Wristmaster Slim Small Seconds CMM.29 A Full Snow Camo Treatment

Over the past few years, Yema has been recreating some of their best watches from the archives, but now more robust, often with proprietary movements, and at some decent prices. After a couple of years where they slipped up a bit on customer support and quality control, Yema seems to have gotten things together and are now on an upward trajectory that is quite impressive. Last week, they unveiled a couple of new versions of their Wristmaster Slim CMM.20, a watch that was added to the regular lineup late last year. The most impressive of the releases is the new Wristmaster Slim Small Seconds CMM29 Limited Edition that comes with not just a camo case, but also a full camo case and bracelet.

The proportions of this watch are pretty fantastic. The untreated stainless steel watch measures 39mm wide, just 9mm thick, and with a 43.5mm lug-to-lug. The L2L is short due to the fact that the watch has no lugs, thanks to the integrated bracelet. On top is the signature bezel with a slight octagonal shape and six internal scallops. Those cutouts on the bezel remain brushed, while the rest of the case, as well as the bracelet, is laser engraved to create a camo effect in light and dark grey tones. Water resistance remains 100 meters.

The same pattern is applied to the dial, in the exact same color, which is then paired with polished trapezoidal markers with black outlines and lumed inserts. The hour and minute hands are faceted, polished, and with the same lumed inserts. There’s a small seconds display at 9 o’clock which is a great position and it continues the pattern from the rest of the watch.

Inside, you get the Oliver Mory-designed manufacture CMM.20. It’s wound with a tungsten micro-rotor, beating at 4Hz and with a pretty great 70-hour power reserve. It’s also quite accurate at -3/+7 seconds per day.

There are also two other versions of the Wristmaster Slim CMM.20 regular being released, with a brushed case and a purple/blue and green dial, now rendered without the rippled pattern on the dial. The camo version is limited to 100 pieces, while the other two are part of the regular collection. Price is set at €2,399 for the camo and €2,249 for the other two. See more on the Yema website.

2/

Orient Star Revives A Cult Japanese Diver With The 75th Anniversary M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m

Orient Star, the higher end variant of Orient, is fixing a lot of their issues. One of the biggest gripes I’ve had with the brand is their inistance to not have a website, let alone sell their watches online. Even worse was their communication strategy in which they never told anyone when they launched new website, and the only way to figure out new watches came out was by closely monitoring a website that must have been built by an intern in the 1990s. Recently, we got a new website and we’re in the midst of their onslaught of new releases, as part of their 75th anniversary celebration. Their latest release is a upgrade of their vintage 1964 Olympia Calendar Diver with what has to be the worst name in watches. This is the new Orient Star M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m. I guess there’s more work to be done, but in the meantime, the watch is quite decent.

Technically, this isn’t an all new dial, since Orient Star already makes a similar diver. This one gets a new dial, but more on that later, but also a new solid steel brushed unidirectional rotating bezel with a coin edge. The steel case measures 41mm wide and 14.5mm thick, which is quite significant but also includes the sapphire crystal. Still, could have been thinner. Water resistance is pretty appropriate at 200 meters.

The new dial has a gradient steel blue finish, darker on the outside and lighter towards the middle. Orient Star says it’s inspired by the deep sea and night sky. You get their signature power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock, love it or hate it, as well as a date aperture at 3 o’clock, a board-arrow style hour hand and applied rectangular indices.

Inside is the Orient Star F6N47 automatic movement. Interestingly, Orient makes their own movements in-house and this exact movement has been used in the first edition of the 1964 Diver in 2021. It beats at 21,600 bph and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a five link stainless bracelet.

The new Orient Star M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m is limited to 700 pieces, goes on sale in March and is priced at €1,300. See more on the Orient Star website.

3/

MeisterSinger Breaks Their One-Hand Schtick With A Jump Hour Complication

OK, MeisterSinger will forever have a special place in my heart. They are just hilariously consistent with their releases that are all based around their one driving force — make single-handed time telling the universal norm. At least that’s what I think they are doing, because what other reason would there be for dozens and dozens of quirky watches that use just one hand. And good for them, I support them in their fight for one hand dominance. However, we have a plot twist right here. While I’m not a historian of MisterSinger and I allow that they made non-one handers before they got on my radar, it seems that the one-hand supremacy is over. MeisterSinger is celebrating their 25th anniversary with the Panthero Jumping Hour which adds a jump hour aperture to the one hand display.

While a lot of MeisterSinger watches come in similar, if not identical, cases, this one gets a brand new case. Made out of steel, it measures 40.5mm wide and 11.25mm thick, with a super thin bezel that gives you a full look of the dial. The flanks of the case have recesses for a bit of interest and the case has brushed, blasted and polished surfaces. On the right side is a cool spiral crown and on top and bottom are sapphire crystals. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Three dials are available — a lacquered white or black, and a hand-guilloché silver dial that’s truly beautiful. But despite the difference in looks, they all have the same setup, one that stands apart from what they usually do. While the recognizable style of a MesiterSinger is a single hand that indicates both the hours and minutes, this one has an aperture at 12 o’clock that shows the jumpin hours. In the top half of the dial is a minutes ring indicated by a single hand, and right below it, overlaping it a bit, is a wheel that looks like the brand’s fermata logo and indicates the seconds.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre MS-JH-01, which is the Sellita SW300 automatic that’s paired with a new proprietary jumping-hour module, developed in collaboration with Dubois-Depraz. Being the SW300, it beats at 4Hz and it has a 47 hour power reserve. Decorations include an anthracite rotor and a base plate with perlage. The watches come on crocodile-embossed calfskin straps in black and white for the matching dials, and a brown one for the guilloché dial.

The new MeisterSinger is available now, with the black and white part of the regular collection and the guilloché dial limited to 25 pieces. Price is set at €6,990 for the black and white and €7,990 for the guilloché dial. See more on the MeisterSinger website.

4/

Baillod Tells A Very Personal Story With The Chapter 8 Family Legacy Special Editions

I have long been a fan of BA111OD watches. Their whole thing has always been offering Swiss-made watches, whether with or without complications, at pretty unbelievable prices. That doesn’t mean that they make cheap watches. Far from it, despite them covering pretty much the entire price band. They just make watches that are not available at that price point from other Swiss brands. And that's pretty cool. I’ve liked them even more ever since I met Thomas Baillod, the founder of the brand, in Geneva. The passion was instantly recognizable and he carried with him a pocket watch that was signed “Charles Baillod, Locle”, a part of the Baillod family name history that dates back hundreds of years in the region. It was a great presentation at the time, so it’s fantastic to see that the pocket watch is making a visible impression of the current collection. BA111OD is launching the Baillod Family Legacy Special Editions, two watches that pay homage and are styled after the very pocket watch Thomas showed me last year.

The watch is made out of stainless steel and there are two versions available of the watch, one completely untreated and one with a soft gold PVD treatment. The case has a very elegant shape, with rounded lugs, a concave bezel, with satin brushed and polished finishes. The size might sound a bit large, but I’ve found them to wear a bit smaller. Plus, this seems to be the size that sells to masses. It’s 41mm wide, 12.75mm thick, including the domed sapphire crystal, with a 48mm lug-to-lug. The crown sits at 4 o’clock, with an almost onion-like look that mimics the look of the pocket-watch crown. Water resistance is 50 meters.

While the cases have different colors, the dials are practically identical. They both have a sector style display, with a central guilloché style disk and peripheral Roman numerals. There’s also a small seconds sub-dial at 7 o’clock. This very much looks like the pocket watch, with very similar Breguet-style hands with circular tips. The steel version comes with blued hands, while the gold PVD one comes with black hands.

Inside, you’ll find a movement from Soprot, as BA111OD has been known to use their movement quite successfully. Here, it’s the Soprod C110, and automatic that beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watches come on black leather straps with crocodile-style embossing, closed with double-folding deployant clasps.

The new Baillod Family Legacy Special Editions are available now, with both watches priced at €1,500. See more on the Baillod website.

5/

The Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale Is A Very Impressive Watch

You will never walk into a watch store and just buy an Andersen Genève. That’s because they only make limited edition watches, usually already spoken for by collectors, that are incredible display of traditional hand craftsmanship. One of their specialties over the past 30ish years that they’ve been around have been world time watches, and now they’re pairing the world time display with a split-seconds chronograph in the new Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale.

The case of this beauty is made out of platinum, measuring 38.8mm wide and 11.95mm thick. It’s a wonderfully curvy case with a hand-polished mirror finish and a domed sapphire crystal on top and a sapphire exhibition caseback. You’ll want that caseback to see the wonderful movement inside. The crown with the integrated pusher and the chronograph pushers are located on the left side of the case. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial is even more breathtaking. Fully made out of white gold, it’s finished with vertical brushing. That surface is left untreated in the center, surrounded by a blue enamel track and applied indexes. In the center is a bi-compax setup that has a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and a small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock. Around the entire central part of the dial is a sapphire disc with city names for the 24 time zones printed on it. The alpha-style hands are polished and faceted, while the two central split-seconds chronograph hands are blued.

Inside, you’ll find the very cool manually wound Venus 179 calibre, modified by Andersen Genève with an ultra-thin world time mechanism. The movement beats at 2.5Hz and has a power reserve of 42 hours. The watch comes on a blue handmade suede strap closed by a platinum pin buckle.

The new Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale is limited to just 8 pieces, priced at CHF 184,000. I would say see more on the Andersen Genève website, but they’re really not up to date on there.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 68: A Couple Of New Rolexes; A Vintage Omega They Need To Remake; And A Complete Banger Of A Seiko

We continue with our exploration of watches we shouldn't spend our money on, but most likely will. Read it here. 

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• YouTube baker Rosanna Pansino stares down AI slop flooding her feeds—gummy rings smeared impossibly on toast, fake bunnies trampolining into virality. She recreates the fakes with butter molds, peach oil, and grit, pitting human ingenuity against algorithmic spam. As slop drowns real creators in politics, deepfakes, and dead internet, one woman's kitchen rebellion sparks a fight for authenticity.

• A former Nickelodeon star turned #MeToo activist discovers a vicious anonymous site accusing her of blackmail and marrying a predator—then learns she’s not alone. The same crude smear formula links sex-trafficking trials, Hollywood feuds, K‑pop power plays, and a hard‑charging crisis PR machine, raising a queasy question: when reputations are weaponized, who’s really on trial?

• Joe Rogan channels the midnight-radio ghosts of Long John Nebel and Art Bell into the world's biggest podcast—a three-hour sprawl of weed-fueled wonder, martial arts lore, and unfiltered rants that now sways elections. Once a marginal comic dodging his violent dad and fearing loserdom, he's morphed into America's swing-voter kingpin, hosting presidents, provocateurs, and conspiracy whispers with gleeful, guileless curiosity. But as power floods his zone, does hospitality become complicity?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’mma need you to hit that upgrade button and go for the annual subscription. I need about a million of you to do so, because I need a house just like this.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Had to cut things short today because I have to run, but there are some pretty amazing watches here today. The Alpina is my next watch, and that Horage is super cool.

In this issue

• Alpina Releases Their First Solar Watch And It’s A Better Looking, More Affordable TAG Heuer Solargraph

• Mido Has A Two Tone Variant Of The Recently Introduced Multifort 8 One Crown

• Orient Finally Releases A Coveted No-Date Version Of The Bambino

• Horage Does What They Do Best On Their New Molokini GMT Diver

• H. Moser Introduces their First Ceramic Watch, the Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic

👂What’s new

1/

Alpina Releases Their First Solar Watch And It’s A Better Looking, More Affordable TAG Heuer Solargraph

For quite some time, I’ve been looking at the TAG Heuer Solargraph. I love the look of the watch. I dig the idea of a solar movement in a chunky sports watch. I just couldn’t get over the price. Especially in the titanium package, which crosses the $3k line. I’m no stranger to expensive quartz movements, especially if they are ana-digi, but this was just a bit too much. Then in September, at Geneva Watch Days, I saw a watch that would replace the Solargraph itch for me. It was the Alpina Alpiner Extreme Solarmetre. Built on their cool and rugged Alpiner model, it used the exact same movement as the TAG Solargraph, both made by La Joux-Perret, but at a fraction of the price. They told me the watch was going to come out by the end of last year, but that was postponed a bit. And Alpina didn’t make a big enough deal of this watch, when they quietly launched it a few weeks ago. Even I, who want one, missed it. So, here is the new Alpina Alpiner Extreme Solarmetre, a banging sports watch with a great movement and a competitive price.

On the outside, this is a very familiar Alpiner Extreme, with the angular lines, symmetrical bumps on the sides and vertically brushed bezel secured by six exposed screws engraved with the brand’s mountain emblem. Of the three available sizes, this one comes in the mid-size one. That means 37.5mm wide, 10.19mm thick, with a 38.9mm lug-to-lug thanks to the very compact lugs with an integrated bracelet. The case is made out of stainless steel, with a brushed finish and polished bevels. Alpina makes the Alpiner Extreme in titanium as well, so I expect this to come down the line, which would more closely match the more expensive TAG Heuer. Water resistance is 100 meters, which is in line with the rest of the collection.

The dials are sensational. They come in five colors — burgundy, light green, light blue, navy blue, and white — and all of them have a slight translucency to them. I particularly dig the light green and light blue, which have an almost pastel appearance. All of the dials have a 3d textured mountain motif pattern. You get applied hour markers, lumed hands and a date aperture at 3 o’clock. Exclusive to the Solarmetre models is the blue-outlined triangle at 12 o’clock, paired with a matching blue triangular counterweight on the seconds hand.

Inside is the AL-140 solar quartz caliber, developed in collaboration with Swiss manufacture La Joux-Perret. It is essentially the same movement that shows up in the TAG Heuer Solargraph. You get 10 months of battery life with 40 hours of charging in sunlight and the battery needs to be replaced every 15 years. The burgundy and light green dials come on stainless steel bracelets, while the other three come on color matched rubber straps.

The new Alpiner Extreme Solarmetre is available now, priced at €995 on rubber and €1,195 on the bracelet. You might think this is a lot for a quartz movement, but I’m a fan. See more on the Alpina website.

2/

Citizen Teams Up With seconde/seconde/ For A Very Sharp Tsuyosa

If you don’t know who seconde/seconde/ is, his name is Romaric André and he is a banker-turned-watch-customizer. There was a period of a couple of months about a year or year and half ago when seconde/seconde/ watches were coming out almost weekly. He almost overdid it with the collaborations and we got a bit desensitized by them. Now, seconde/seconde/ is spreading out his releases once again, and they are becoming exciting again. Recently, we got the very cool Raymond Weil Toccata Heritage collaboration. Now, seconde/seconde/ is returning to his roots with a watch that uses the pixelated sword hands he used when he was breaking out. The iconic sword hands now shows up on the new Citizen Tsuyosa x seconde/seconde/.

On the outside, this is a classic and unchanged Tsuyosa. That means you still get the barrel shape that measures 40mm wide and 11.7mm thick. The case is still made out of steel, with a brushed finish and polished details, and the crown is still recessed at 4 o’clock. On top is a sapphire crystal with a cyclops over the date, while the caseback uses mineral glass. Water resistance remains 50 meters.

Where the collaboration happens is on the dial. seconde/seconde/ replaces the minute hand with a pixelated katana. As the minute hand made its way around, it has cut everything in its way. There are bright blue gouges in the beautiful blue sunray brushed dial, but even cooler are the applied hour markers that have been sliced in half, with the cut off part being offset as if it was just flying off the dial. This is a very good look, perhaps one of the best seconde/seconde/ has done.

This doesn’t come with the updated Tsuyosa movement, but that’s not that huge of a deal. Inside, you’ll find the in-house calibre 8210, beating at 3Hz, with a 42 hour power reserve. It features an openworked rotor and silver-toned bridges and plates. The watch comes on a brushed and polished 3-link steel bracelet that closes with a folding clasp that has the Citizen and seconde/seconde/ logos and engraved sword slashes.

The new Citizen Tsuyosa x seconde/seconde/ is a limited edition of 3,600 peices, available now and priced at €449. This will go fast. See more on the Citizen website.

3/

Orient Finally Releases A Coveted No-Date Version Of The Bambino

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, then you must know my love-hate relationship with Orient (and Orient Star). On one hand, they make great looking watches that fit pretty much every scenario, with in-house movements to boot, and sell it at an unbeatable price. On the other, they have the most infuriating business model in which they never tell anybody that they released a new watch and their websites are just a mess of new and old models with no indication what’s happening with the brand. But they’re fixing that with a new website (but still no online ordering). They’re also fixing their watches by listening to the wishes of their customers. Ever since the Bambino came out, people were asking for a no-date version of it. And here we go, we’re getting the 38mm Orient Bambino, now with no date.

OK, technically, this isn’t a 38mm Orient Bambino, because that’s no such thing. This one comes in a stainless steel case that measures 38.4mm wide, 12.5mm thick and with a 44mm lug-to-lug. Those are some pretty good proportions. On top is a domed mineral glass which I wish they would change out for a plexiglass one if they won’t spring for a sapphire. It would have way more character. Water resistance is 30 meters.

Five color are available right now: white, ivory, green, brown, and grey, which is a limited edition of 3,300 pieces. You get the Roman numerals that the dials are so well known for rendered in either silver or gold color, depending on the dial color and also depending on the dial color you get either blue or gold-colored hands. There’s no date aperture, of course, which makes for a cleaner look.

Inside is the well known and in-house made F6524 automatic, same as the regular Bambino but without a dial. It beats at 3Hz, has a 40 hour power reserve and is rated to +25/-15 seconds per day. The watches come on either a 20mm brown or grey calf leather strap.

Four of the new colorways of the Orient Bambino 38mm are parts of the regular collection, while the grey one comes in 3,300 pieces. Price is set at €340. See more on the Orient website.

4/

Horage Does What They Do Best On Their New Molokini GMT Diver

I love Horage. They are one of those if-you-know-you-know brands. They create incredible movements, including one of the most affordable Swiss-made tourbillons, as well as the very advanced silicon-filled K3 and the wild MicroReg which brings impossibly precise regulation to the masses. Everything they do is very intentional, measured and well made. So, when they set their sights on a dive watch, you knew it would be special. And it really is. Powered by their fantastic K2 micro-rotor movement, and named after the popular diving spot in the Molokini Crater in Hawaii, this is the new Molokini GMT Diver.

The dimensions of the 904L stainless steel case are pretty perfect for a diver, especially one with so much functionality. It’s 38mm wide, 9.65mm thick and has a pretty amazing 44.6mm lug-to-lug. On top is a domed sapphire crystal while out back is a flat sapphire that gives you a look of the fantastic movement inside. The top crystal is surrounded by a thin, unidirectional, rotating bezel that has a 60 minute scale with the first 15 minutes fully graduated. Water resistance is 200 meters.

There are three dial colors available, each with its own finish. The Sand colorway gets a grained surface, the Coral gets a sunray brushed finish, while the Ocean has a subtle vertical brushing. All three versions have printed Arabic numerals filled with lume, and it’s a surprisingly legible thing, considering the impressive amount of complications the watch has. Aside for the central hours, minutes and seconds, you get a fourth hand for the GMT, a date at 6 o’clock, a day/night indicator at 9 o’clock and a power reserve display at 10 o’clock. It’s a unique but great look.

Inside is the K2 caliber, a micro-rotor automatic that the brand has used before. It’s incredibly cool for its thinness of just 2.9mm, beats at 25,200vph and has a modern 72 hour power reserve. The micro-rotor is made out of tungsten and then gold plated. It also has the hairspring, escape wheel, and anchor done in silicon. They use a screw-balance system for regulation and the movement is COSC certified. The watch comes a matching stainless steel bracelet fitted with HMAC (Horage Micro Adjustable Clasp) folding clasp, and you get an additional OTAN fabric strap in white/black, white/sand or white/coral.

The new Horage Molokini is available for pre-order until February 28th, after which the price will increase. And the price will take a bit of a double take if you don’t know Horage. The pre-order price is CHF 5,990, after which it goes up to CHF 6,490. But if brands like Norqain and Bremont can charge similar prices for much more generic watches, this almost starts looking like a deal. See more on the Horage website.

5/

H. Moser Introduces their First Ceramic Watch, the Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic

In an gigantic ocean full of integrated-bracelet luxury sports watches that all kind of look the same and draw on Genta designs from the 1970s, the one that really stands out is the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner, inspired by a subgenre of Art Deco, the Streamliner Moderne period of the 1920s and was marked by fluid, rounded and aerodynamic shapes. This style is perfectly translated on the Streamliner, with a cushion shaped case and fluid links on the integrated bracelet. Now, the Streamliner is also the first Moser model to get a full ceramic treatment. This is the new Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic.

The case of the Concept Ceramic remains almost exactly the same as the steel version, only now it’s made out of dark grey high-tech ceramic. The case is given a brushed finish applied by hand with polished bevels on the edges. It measures 40mm wide and 12.8mm thick, including the heavily domed sapphire crystal. The Streamliner is also a sports watch, which means that the 120 meter water resistance is appropriate.

While the case is quite subdued with it’s brushed and grey finish, the dial is much more expressive. It’s a fumé Grand Feu enamel dial done in a pretty wonderful shade of red that fades to black around the edges. Contributing to the drama of the dial is a subtle hammered pattern done on the white gold base. Like other Concept Moser watches there are no markings at all, and the only thing breaking up the textured base is the large aperture at 6 o’clock for the flying tourbillon. The hands are recognizably cool with their chunky Globolight inserts.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre HMC 805, an automatic movement that has a double-hairspring flying tourbillon, visible through the dial at 6 o’clock. It beats at 3Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. The two hairsprings instead of one improve its accuracy. Decorations include an anthracite finish on the bridges and mainplate and Moser’s signature double stripes. The watch comes on Moser’s recognizable single-link bracelet that is done in the same grey ceramic.

The new Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic is, surprisingly, part of the regular collection and priced at CHF 89,000, without tax. See more on the H. Moser & Cie. website.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• Three innocent Jeff Epsteins—a Sinatra crooner, warehouse boss, flooring king—endure endless jabs, blocked calls, and wary glances, all thanks to the financier's crimes haunting headlines. From doctor visits to open mics, they dodge the stigma, craving resolution amid partisan file fights. When notoriety poisons a common name, who reclaims their identity?

• If you’re of a certain age, you may recall the thrill of receiving actual snail mail, of opening the mailbox to find a letter addressed to you. In this piece for The Dial, Anna Juul mulls the end of mail delivery in Denmark. There are no more red postboxes, no more mail carriers, no more physical correspondence—except through an expensive private company nobody trusts. Juul grew up playing with a toy post office, fantasizing about stamping envelopes. Now she watches her aggressively digital country pat itself on the back while a quarter of its citizens can’t navigate the government’s digitized services. In its bid to put all processes online, Denmark has inadvertently created an underclass of people who do not or are unable to use the internet.

• A few weeks ago, after the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, Tom Homan of the Department of Homeland Security arrived in the Twin Cities to announce a winding down of immigration enforcement. But as Gaby Del Valle shows, the city remains under siege—and locals are resisting in every way they can think of.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of my favorite movies of all time and it’s so good to see Tim Curry still be enthusiastic about his career.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I started booking meetings for Watches and Wonders and let me tell you… this will be the most packed calendar for me to date. And there will be a lot of new content for you. I also started looking at hotels. I swear, rooms are tripling in price every year. All I can say is: please subscribe to the paid side of the newsletter, because this is going to be an expensive trip…

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In this issue

• Seiko And HUF Team Up Again For A Time Sonar-Inspired SRPM09

• Mido Has A Two Tone Variant Of The Recently Introduced Multifort 8 One Crown

• Raymond Weil’s Toccata Heritage Looks Good In Red And Rose Gold

• Heron’s Year Of The Horse Watch, The Mirabel Firehorse, Punches Way Above Its Weight

• Louis Moinet Honors The Past With The Speed Of Sound Collection Powered By Wonderfully Restored Valjoux 88

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 64: Plastic Fantastic, The Fortis Flipper That Beat Swatch to the Punch

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko And HUF Team Up Again For A Time Sonar-Inspired SRPM09

It’s probably a given that the watch community doesn’t particularly like collaborations. Not because they produce bad watches, on the contrary. it’s because they are necessarily always limited editions. And Limited editions are just a bummer. Well, we have a new collaboration today, one between Seiko and the legendary lifestyle and streetwear brand HUF started by iconic skateboarder Keith Hufnagel. This is the second time that the two are coming together, where the first collaboration was a very groovy retro-inspired Seiko 5. This new one is inspired by the vintage “Time Sonar” model and it’s the Seiko 5 Sports HUF Limited Edition SRPM09. Sure, it’s limited, but that means something completely different in the Seiko universe.

Unlike previous revivals of the Time sonar, this one comes in a smaller brushed steel case with a fixed polished bezel. The watch measures 39.4mm wide, 11.6mm thick and has a 48.1mm lug-to-lug. It’s basically a regular 5 Sports case, with the crown at 3 o’clock and a Hardlex crystal on top. The caseback has a green-tinted mineral crystal and a graphic inspired by San Francisco, the city where HUF was founded. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is the main focus of the Time Sonar inspiration and uses HUF’s signature green color. The bright green is used for the semi-transparent dial that gives you a view of the day-date mechanism underneath. On top of the dial you’ll find applied markers, an orange triangle at 12 o’clock, with a black stripe down the middle that holds the day and date apertures on the right side. The hour and minute hands are candlestick shaped and filled with lume, while the central hand is bright orange.

Inside, you’ll find the mediocre but well known 4R36 which beats at 3Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. It will tell the time, as well as the day and date, but keep in mind that Seiko rates the accuracy of this movement at +45/-35 seconds per day. of course, this is often much better in real life, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow. The one cool thing is that you can see the movement through the caseback, but it’s covered in a lime green glass. The watch comes on a three-link stainless steel bracelet.

Like I said, the Seiko 5 Sports HUF Limited Edition SRPM09 is limited. But don’t worry, 7,000 pieces will be made, so it’s not like a regular limited edition. The watches go on sale in March at a price of €410. See more on the Seiko website.

2/

Mido Has A Two Tone Variant Of The Recently Introduced Multifort 8 One Crown

Mido is on an incredible speed run to expand their collections as quickly as possible. I noted recently that they are on a very healthy trajectory to become the go-to entry level luxury watch of the Swatch Group, and they are clearly trying to fill every need of the market. Just a month or two ago, they dropped a crown from their integrated sports watch, the Multifort 8 Two Crowns, and released the Multifort 8 One Crown collection. Quick on its heels, the One Crown is getting a two-tone treatment.

The new Multifort 8 One Crown comes in a stainless steel case that measures 40mm wide (although, the Mido website mentions 38.4mm for case length… not sure what measurement that is) and a very svelte 9.9mm thick, with a very comfortable 44.86mm lug-to-lug with an integrated bracelet. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a fixed metal bezel with eight sides cut out of it. The bezel on this version has a rose gold PVD treatment. The lugs are faceted and there’s a single narrow mid-link to connect the watch to the strap. On the side is a single crown positioned at 3 o’clock and water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial on this version is black, with horizontal lines cut into them. The applied indices and lumed tri-faceted hour and minute hands, as well as the seconds hand, are all treated in the same rose gold PVD. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture and all the printing is done in white.

Inside, unlike the two crown, you’ll see the Powermatic 80, a staple in the Swatch Group. It beats at 3Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve. The movement also has a signed and decorated rotor that has Côtes de Genève. The watches come on metal flat three link bracelets, which has its central links also done in rose gold PVD.

The new Mido Multifort 8 One Crown Two Tone is available now, priced at CHF 960. See more on the Mido website.

3/

Raymond Weil’s Toccata Heritage Looks Good In Red And Rose Gold

Late last year, Raymond Weil proved once again that they have great taste when it comes to recreating some of the most iconic vintage watch shapes. They did it first with the Millesime, which was very much inspired by the 1930s. They repeated it with the Toccata Heritage, which took on the classic shapes of Patek, Universal Genève, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron — the ellipse watch. The initial release of the Toccata Heritage was met with a lot of approval and now we’re getting a new version, one that pairs a gold case with a red dial, a very good combo.

Just like the other watches in the Toccata Heritage collection, this one measures 33mm wide, 6.95mm thick and is 38mm long, which makes it pretty fantastic in the classic dress watch size. It’s not a gold watch, obviously, but rather a stainless steel case with a rose gold PVD finish. On top and bottom you’ll find sapphire crystals. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial keeps things simple, just like previous versions, with a sunray-brushed finish, now available with a very nice shade of red. Keeping with the simplicity of the dial, you get faceted Dauphine hands for the hours and minutes, a printed minute track and applied, polished hour markers.

While the rest of the collection uses both mechanical and quartz movements, this one comes with the mechanical movement. It’s called the RW4100, based on the hand-wound Sellita SW210-1. It beats at 4Hz and has a 45 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black calfskin leather strap with an alligator-style pattern, closed with a steel rose gold PVD pin buckle.

The new Raymond Weil Toccata Heritage in red is available now and part of the permanent collection. Price is set at CHF 1,650. See more on the Raymond Weil website.

4/

Heron’s Year Of The Horse Watch, The Mirabel Firehorse, Punches Way Above Its Weight

Unfortunately, sometimes watches sell out so fast, I don’t get to write about them. But also, sometimes these sold out watches are so cool, I can’t help myself and not mention it, despite the fact you won’t be able to get one. At least you might keep an eye out for them on the secondary market. One such watch is the Héron Mirabel Firehorse, the Canadian brand’s take on the Lunar New Year watch, inspired by the hongbao, small red envelopes given during the New Year with money in it for good luck. And it has a neat little trick on the dial.

The case of the Mirabel Firehorse is a very classic C-shape that could have easily been used on a late 1950s watch. It’s made out of stainless steel, with a gold PVD coating and some pretty nice proportions — 37.5mm wide, 11.8mm thick with the box style sapphire crystal and a comfortable 43.5mm lug-to-lug thanks to the very short lugs. The caseback has an engraving of a Firehorse and the inscription that reads 马年通宝 (Mǎ Nián Tōng Bǎo), often found on ancient Chinese cash coins, translating to “Circulating Treasure of the Horse Year.” On the side is an oversized crown with a red cabochon. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The case is cool, but that dial… oh, that dial… The base of the dial is made out of agate stone, which has a fiery orange hue to it, with darker striations, perfect for a fire horse. If that wasn’t cool enough, beneath the stone is a layer of Swiss C3 Super-LumiNova which backlights the stone at night. And if that wasn’t cool enough, the seconds hand is replaced by a clear disc that has a replica of an ancient Chinese coin which travels around the dial. Around this very cool layered central dial is a gold colored heavily grained chapter ring that and the hands are also gold colored and faceted.

Inside, you’ll find the Miyota 9039 automatic. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a brownish-red premium Baranil leather strap, closed with a gold colored pin buckle.

Like I said, the Héron Mirabel Firehorse is sold out, which makes sense since only 50 were made and they were priced at €535. That’s an incredibly cool watch. See more on the Héron website.

5/

Louis Moinet Honors The Past With The Speed Of Sound Collection Powered By Wonderfully Restored Valjoux 88

I’m honest when I say that I was never particularly interested in much that Louis Moinet does. No idea why. They never popped off the screen at me, and some of them are very thick. But last year in Geneva I got to try one on for the first time and it was instant love. Sure, they are a bit weird, a bit too thick and quite expensive, but absolutely delightful. Now, we’re getting some new watches from them — three new Speed of Sound watches, heavily limited, very bright, and powered by a fantastically decorated Valjoux 88 movement from the 1940s.

Like almost all Louis Moinet watches, it’s quite large — especially standing up from your wrist — but also like other Louis Moinet, it’s made out of titanium, which makes it relatively light. The titanium can handle the 40.7mm width, but the 18.7mm thickness really does sound substantial on paper. It’s substantial in real life as well, but a lot of that thickness is dedicated to the oversized domed sapphire crystal. On the side you get the familiar piston-style pushers, and the case is satin brushed with polished details and bevelled lugs. Water resistance is meh at 30 meters.

There are three dial colors available — black, green and a bright orange. They all have a fantastic hand-guilloché mesh-like pattern engraved into it, with three silver sub-dials. But look closer and you’ll see that the 3 and 9 o’clock (30 minute counter and small seconds, respectively) sub-dials are framed in silver but actually have grey Aletai iron meteorite inlays in the center. At 6 o’clock is a hand-drawn moon phase indicator that has a fragment of Dhofar 457, a rare lunar meteorite. You’ll find applied Arabic numerals on all the positions except for 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, as well as openworked hour and minute hands. Around the perimeter of the dial is a telemeter scale that measures the speed of sound.

Inside, you’ll find a vintage Valjoux 88, restored and modified by Louis Moinet in house. The watchmakers remove the calendar complications and 12-hour totaliser and replace the original pointer date function. It’s a manual-winding column-wheel chronograph with a horizontal clutch and swan-neck regulator It beats at 18,000vph and has a 40 hour power reserve. But the movement is also incredibly decorated, with hand engraved floral motifs on the gold bridges. The watch comes on color matched rubber straps with triple-blade folding clasps.

The new Louis Moinet Speed of Sound trio is limited to three pieces per color. The orange one is already sold out, by the way. Price is not disclosed but is likely about CHF 50,000. See more on the Louis Moinet website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 64: Plastic Fantastic, The Fortis Flipper That Beat Swatch to the Punch

The budget Swiss sports watch that sold modularity, fun and 200‐meter water resistance as a single package. Read it here.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• Eleni Polinski was a rising pot star in New York. Even Carmelo Anthony said he loved her stuff. Then a stunning police raid upended everything and shattered her family. Rosalind Adams draws on a wealth of surveillance footage, electronic communications, and other materials to tell a story that highlights how razor thin the margin can be between whether a person in the cannabis industry is celebrated as an entrepreneur or charged as a criminal.

• For skiers and snowboarders, speed has long depended on PFAS-based wax, made with the harmful “forever chemicals” found in household products and the environment. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation banned fluoros in 2023, making this year’s Winter Olympics the first fluoro-free games. In this Grist story, Joseph Winters and Tik Root examine the sport post-ban and explore why the transition hasn’t been easy for professional athletes.

• For Aeon, Yogi Hale Hendlin explores solarpunk, a vision of the future in which humans take their cues from nature’s living systems rather than working against them. Hendlin, an environmental philosopher and public health scientist at the Feral Ecologies Lab, highlights ecologically grounded cities built within Earth’s limits—and asks “what it would mean to make the built world hospitable again.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I know I might be overdoing it with music videos, but I think I just found my favorite cover of all time. Wouldn’t work without the video, of course.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk