AP Releases Openworked Yellow Gold Royal Oak Jumbo, Cult Favorite M.A.D.1 Is Back In Green, Arcanaut Releases Colorful Arc II Collection, New Watches From Cedric Bellon And Gerald Charles

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In this issue:

• Audemars Piguet Creates A Stunning Yellow Gold Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin Openworked

• The Cult Favorite M.A.D. 1 Is Back, This Time In Green And The Same Insanely Low Price

• Arcanaut Releases The Arc II — D’Arc Matter Colours Collection

• The New Cedric Bellon CB01 GMT NK90 COSC Chronometer Is A Great Looking Watch With A Sustainable Story

• Gerald Charles Shows That They Can Turn Their Dressy Maestro Into A Sports Watch With The Maestro 8.0 Squelette And GC Sport Squelette

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 52 seconds

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👂What’s new

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Audemars Piguet Creates A Stunning Yellow Gold Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin Openworked

Back in 2022, Audemars Piguet was celebrating the Royal Oak's 50th anniversary and they introduced a future classic watch - the Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-Thin Openworked. It came in two variants, a fantastic steel model and a rose gold version. It won over the hearts of watch enthusiasts with it’s super thin geometric case and a stunning skeletonized movement, despite it’s price and scarcity that keeps it out of the hands of most people. Now AP is bringing a new version of the Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin Openworked, reference 16204BA in yellow gold.

The case is the same you would get on your usual AP Royal Oak Jumbo, just like the one they introduced last week, which means it measures 39mm in width and just 8.1mm in thickness. This 18k yellow gold version comes with the familiar polished and brushed surfaces of a Royal Oak and contrasting the yellow gold are white gold details like the hexagonal bezel screws, hour indices, and hands.

Where things get really different are on the dial, or rather the lack of one. The entire central part of the watch is devoted to showcasing the movement. And the openworked models got a brand new movement last year that is present in this model as well. It is the calibre 7124 which at just 2.7mm of thickness is thinner than the movement used in closed-dial models, mostly due to the removal of the date mechanism. You get a frequency of 4Hz and a power reserve of 57 hours. While last year’s models featured a special 50th-anniversary rotor, this Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin Openworked 16204BA features a regular slim, openworked oscillating weight in yellow gold.

The Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin Openworked in yellow gold is a permanent addition to the collection and is not limited to production. The price is, without much surprise, upon request. For more details visit the AP website.

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The Cult Favorite M.A.D. 1 Is Back, This Time In Green And The Same Insanely Low Price

In 2021 Max Büsser, the creative mind behind the out-there but still incredible MB&F watches, sent out an almost cryptic email to friends of MB&F. The email was addressed to suppliers of the company, and in it Büsser announced that they will be creating the M.A.D.1 watch and he would like to offer it to them first. The lowest price an MB&F watch sells for is CHF 50,000 and go way past half a million, so to expect suppliers of parts for the watches to be able to afford one would be very optimistic. But this one was different. It was still a highly complicated watch, but it was offered to these people at a price point of CHF 2,900. Just a bit later, MB&Fs loyal customers got the same email, and a legend of a highly unattainable but affordable watch was born.

A year later, in March 2022, the M.A.D.1 Red was launched into the world and pandemonium ensued. Only 1,500 pieces were made at the coveted price of CHF 2,900. While it wasn’t an official MB&F, 19,000 people wanted to get their hands on a watch that shared the same sensibilities, was created by the same people and had an amazing story behind it. After all, this might be the only chance for an average watch aficionado to get a piece designed by Max Büsser (although, interestingly, despite being so coveted and making their way to the secondary market at a markup, it’s not as bad - you can get the M.A.D.1 Red for a price as low as €4,500).

Now, the M.A.D.1 is back for a third time, this time in a green colorway with a black minute dial and powered by a heavily modified Miyota 8315. On top of the watch, where you would expect to see a dial and to tell the time, there is just a wildly designed rotor that winds up the movement. The time is told with rotating rings on the side of the watch, so you turn your wrist and look for the arrow pointing to the hours and minutes. The first edition was blue, second was red and this third one is green.

You can enter the raffle starting yesterday and have two weeks to get your name in. Even if you don’t win it at first, there will be additional examples awarded from those who won the raffle but didn’t make a purchase. See the watch and the raffle system on their website.

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Arcanaut Releases The Arc II — D’Arc Matter Colours Collection

Back in 2021, Danish independent watch brand Arcanaut released a very interesting line of watches. It was a 50-piece limited release of the D’Arc Matter model. It immediately sold out and made the rounds among watch enthusiasts as being highly advanced in the materials development space. The original watch, you see, had a dial made from crushed Swedish slate and it looked amazing. Since then, Arcanaut has been working on the followup to it, and it’s here - the Arcanaut Arc II — D’Arc Matter Colours Collection.

If the photo you see of the watch seems familiar, it’s because you likely already saw it floating around Instagram, especially on the profile of Rob Nudds, watch podcast host and head of brand development at Arcanaut. There has been a lot of hype for what Arcanaut will come out with next, and it does not disappoint. The watch retains it’s dial that is made by grinding slate to a fine powder and binding with ultra-clear resin to form composite plates of stone and resin.

It just now gets highlights in one of four specially created Super-LumiNova colours — Badger Blue, Gamma Green, Hornet Yellow, and Pongo Orange — developed in partnership with Swiss specialist RC Tritec. The face is then topped with Danish-made stainless steel hands, laser-cut and manually finished, and fitted to the Danish-made hand-finished 41mm wide steel case.

Inside the watch is the Soprod A10, a movement that is considered to be based on the Seiko caliber 4L family found in higher end Seiko watches, including the Credor line. It runs at 28,800 bph and has a 42 hour power reserve.

Only 25 pieces of each of the four colors will be made and 15 of each will be availalbe in the pre-sale portion. The pre-sale goes live on 23 September 2023 at 7pm (19:00) CEST. The pre-sale will remain open until either all available models have been sold or until the pieces go on General Release, exactly one week later at 19:00 CEST on 30 September. In order to participate in the pre-sale, you’ll have to register your interest on their website. Delivery is expected to commence in January 2024. Also the first ten confirmed pre-sales will also receive a custom-made, lume-filled “Clocktopus” signet ring in .925 Sterling Silver.

Pricing is a bit weird to gague on this one. It has a decent movement, it’s limited enough, it has a very interesting dial… a lot of things are going for it. But then again, price is set at €3,950 without tax. That’s significantly more than watches from other microbrands, but then again… it just might be worth it to the right customer.

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The New Cedric Bellon CB01 GMT NK90 COSC Chronometer Is A Great Looking Watch With A Sustainable Story

Increasingly more watches are launching on Kickstarter these days and it makes total sense. The crowdfunding platform gives you an opportunity to gauge interest for your design without sinking tens of thousands of your currency to create prototypes, and gives you capital to kickstart production. But Kickstarter is a general interest platform. There is an alternative that many more watch enthusiasts should know about - Watch Angels. A crowdfunding platform for watches.

It is Watch Angels that in 2020 helped Cedric Bellon, watch designer who has worked with big brands like TAG Heuer, Bell & Ross, and Longines, launch his own brand carrying his name - Cedric Bellon. And his new watch is the CB01 GMT NK90 COSC Chronometer, which is not only a great looking watch with some great specs and a very fair price, it also focuses on transparency and sustainability, something that not many watches deal with so openly.

When I say that Bellon focuses on sustainability, I really mean it. Each watch comes with a full sustainability report that takes into account not just the materials used and where they come from, but also the chemicals used in the process and the total amount of energy expended to create the watch. The CB01 GMT NK90 COSC Chronometer, for example, gets a sustainability score of 87.59%. This means very little when you have nothing to compare it to, so keep in mind that the average watch gets a 40% score.

Every single aspect is taken into account. Take the brushed skin-diver-style case, for example. It’s 39mm wide, 11.45mm thick (with a 47mm lug-to-lug) and is made out of PuReSteel, a stainless steel that’s 100% recycled and whose source can be completely traced. You also get drilled lugs and 200 meters of water resistance. PuReSteel is also sued for the dial which also looks amazing. It’s made out two layers, creating a sandwich dial with cut-out indexes that are filled with white Super-LumiNova with an intense green glow. The steel dial is brushed, just like the straight hands, while the GMT hand has an orange arrow tip. Surrounding the dial is a fixed, circularly brushed inner bezel that displays a 24-hour scale.

Inside the watch is the Soprod C125 movement which has become increasingly popular in microbrands looking for an accessible and easily servicable GMT movement. You can find it in the likes of Baltic, Oak & Oscar, Lorien, echo/neutra and even some larger manufacturers like Zodiac. It runs within +6/-4 seconds a day and has a COSC certification, beats at a 28,800vph frequency and holds a power reserve of up to 42 hours. It’s also a “caller” GMT, meaning that you adjust the GMT hand and not the 12 hour hand. It comes on a sustainable handmade leather strap.

The CB01 GMT NK90 COSC Chronometer has a much more monochromatic look than other Cedric Bellon watches but I totally dig it (check out the other watches made by him here). I also appreciate that Bellon is putting sustainability front and center, without sacrificing quality, design or price. Speaking of price, you can buy it right now from the Watch Angels platform for CHF1,750. See more about the watch on the WA website.

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Gerald Charles Shows That They Can Turn Their Dressy Maestro Into A Sports Watch With The Maestro 8.0 Squelette And GC Sport Squelette

The Gerald Charles brand was founded by the late Gerald Genta in 2000. The famous watch designer founded Gerald Charles a year after selling his eponymously named Gerald Genta brand in 1999. Ownership didn’t last wrong as Genta sold the brand in 2003, but stayed on as chief designer until his death in 2011. For a while, the brand existed in relative obscurity and produced special models exclusively for collectors. Since 2019, however, they have been building up their portfolio with a strong focus on their Maestro line - a dress watch with a recognizable look that has, over the years, evolved into an increasingly more sporty watch, but still with a very advanced movement, as evidence as their two new watches - the new Maestro 8.0 Squelette in rose gold and Maestro 8.0 GC Sport Squelette in titanium. Squalette is French for skeleton, so no surprises that both watches are skeletonized.

The case of the Maestro 8.0 Squelette is 40mm of rose gold, in a lovely, classical contrast with the anthracite bridges. Inside the watch is the proprietary Vaucher-developed calibre GCA 5482, the focal point being that it’s a microrotor movement, because a skeletonized automatic watch needs to have one to show everything off. The bridges themselves are also impeccably finished, showing off a shooting star motif. It also offers a solid 50 hours power reserve, despite being just 2.6mm thick. The watch is completed with their signature chunky rubber strap in a steel blue.

The sportier counterpoint to the rose gold version, the Maestro 8.0 Sport Squelette shares the same 40mm case, just in lightweight titanium. Despite its haute horology nature, the movement has 5Gs of shock resistance. And since Dutch pro tennis player Tim Van Rijthoven wears the Maestro GC Sport Grass it should be able to stand up to daily abuse.

That DLC black case is contrasted with silver bridges, a lot more modern and suited to the Genta vibe. You’ll notice that this watch has a crown on the left side of the case - that’s because the entire movement has been flipped by 180 degrees. It’s fitted on a deep blue take on that same textured rubber strap.

These watches are, obviously, extremely expensive. The Maestro 8.0 Sport Squelette will set you back $78,400 while the Maestro 8.0 Squelette in rose gold retails for $93,500. See more on the Gerald Charles website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands-on with the Rado True Square Automatic Open Heart

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A review of the funky Bulova Curv Chronograph collection

⚙️Watch Worthy

A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like

The Hitori Yoshino is all sold out but not before some called on a witch hunt for it’s incredible similarity to a Grand Seiko

The company’s literature explains that the brand is inspired by Japanese culture and aesthetics, specifically Toro Tanaka’s “grammar of design” philosophy that focuses on the interplay of light on various elements of a watch’s surface, and which underpins many of Seiko’s most iconic pieces. The connection to Japan is reinforced by the name (translated as “one person”), its Hiagana logo, and the Yoshino’s inspiration, which is described in a very Grand Seiko fashion as, “the cherry blossoms of Mount Yoshinoyama” and “the snow season in Yoshino.” Read the whole review on The Time Bum.

⏲️Wait a minute

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

• Fifty years ago, teenagers Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit decided to hitchhike their way to a massive rock concert. What happened to them is a mystery today. In the ’70s, before there was the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or the Amber Alert system, or the citizen work of internet sleuths in our digital and social media era, the loved ones of missing persons only had law enforcement to rely on. And in 1973, when Mitchel and Bonnie vanished, the Sullivan County officials who handled the case failed at every turn.

• I don’t like reading or posting articles about 9/11, despite one of my favorite pieces of magazine writing being Tom Junod’s The Falling Man. However, this piece about the newsroom of the satyrical paper The Onion having to put together their first issue after the attack is spectacular.

• Everything you need to know about this article from ProPublica is in the title: The Inside Story of How the Navy Spent Billions on the “Little Crappy Ship”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

One of the incredible benefits of YouTube is the thousands of people creating content you will (most likely) not get to experience in your life. Like this dude who ate at Koks, a crazy restaurant in Greenland.

💵Pre-loved precision

Buy and sell your watches. Think of this section like old school classifieds - i don’t guarantee anything except that a bunch of people will see your ad and I’ll put the buyer and seller in touch. Want to advertise your watch? Contact us 

• LOOKING TO BUY: One of our readers is looking to purchase three very specific watches: an Islander ISL-133 Mother of Pearl, a Sinn 556 Mother of Pearl or a Zelos 300m GMT Mosaic Mother of Pearl. If you’re selling any of these, reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch

• FOR SALE: Longines Heritage Skin Diver, box and papers. €1400. Reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch

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