Baltic's New Hermétique LE Is A Tribute To Glaciers; Nodus And Raven Watches Team Up For The Stealthy Trailtrekker; Glashütte Original's New Women's Line; And Fleming Is A New U.S. Based Indie

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Baltic has pretty much proven that they can make a great looking watch, but they haven’t experimented much with dial. I am happy they decided to, because the two new LEs look fantastic!

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In this issue:

• The First Baltic Hermétique Limited Edition Is a Beautiful Black And White Homage To Glaciers

• Nodus And Raven Watches, Two Microbrand Legends, Team Up For The Stealthy Trailtrekker

• Glashütte Original Releases Four New Serenade Luna Watches In Honor Of International Women’s Day

• The U.S. Gets A New Independent Watch Brand, Fleming, Launching With The Series 1

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 5 seconds

👂What’s new

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The First Baltic Hermétique Limited Edition Is a Beautiful Black And White Homage To Glaciers

Following the incredible release of the Prismic not even a month ago, Baltic is not resting easy as they just introduced an update to their down-to-earth field watch, the Hermétique. The original collection offered up four great looking, simple, thin watch with fantastic flat colored dials. Now, the new Baltic Hermétique Glacier Limited Edition takes inspiration from glaciers and gets an incredible icy textured dial.

Let’s get the familiar out of the way first - the watch comes in a vintage-inspired stainless steel case that measures 37mm wide and 10.8mm thick. To keep with the vintage style, there’s a double-domed sapphire crystal on top, with the case being brushed with a polished bezel. Just like vintage field watches, the crown is recessed into the case, but unlike vintage field watches, you get 150 meters of water resistance.

Things get much more interesting under the crystal, as these must be the most complex dials that Baltic has made. In fact, I’m sure they are. Baltic has made pretty beautiful dials in the past, but this one has an intricate pattern of asymmetrical grooves and ridges, emphasised by a a scratchy texture, achieved through a stamping method. The shapes and scratches are meant to represent a glacier when seen from above, where giant slabs of ice slam into each other, but those who have spent a lot of time on ice will most certainly recognise the up-close texture of scratchy clear ice. The dials really do look amazing from afar and up close.

Oh, and they come in two colors - black and white. Both have a peripheral black minute railroad track with overlapping hour markers, with hour markers made out of Super-LumiNova. The watches really do look amazing at night.

Inside, there’s nothing new. The watch is still powered by the Miyota calibre 9039, an automatic that beats at 28,800bhp and has an OK power reserve of 42 hours. The movement is accurate to -10/+30 seconds per day. You can have the watch on a number of straps and bracelets - there’s a color matched FKM rubber tropic strap, you can chose a steel bracelet with flat links or a beads-of-rice steel bracelet. Also, every watch comes with a black canvas strap.

The new Baltic Hermétique Glacier Limited Edition is, like the name says, limited. Only 200 pieces of each colorway will be made and the price is pretty fantastic - €600 on the rubber and €665 on your choice of bracelet. See more on the Baltic website.

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Nodus And Raven Watches, Two Microbrand Legends, Team Up For The Stealthy Trailtrekker

Running a modern watch microbrand is tough business. You live and die with the success of your last model, your (often extremely) small team has to handle design, production, fulfilment and customer support. Sure, it brings you joy to make watches, but it can be a lonely journey. I don’t speak from experience, but these are the stories I have heard from small watch operations. So it’s really a shame we don’t see more collaborations from these smaller brands. In fact, it’s a shame we don’t see more collaborations between brands across the board. Now, we’re getting one such thing - two U.S. based indie brands, Nodus from California and Raven from Kansas, are teaming up to create a rugged multi-time zone adventure watch that reflects what both companies are best at.

Starting with the case, it takes a lot from the Contrail GMT that Nodus is supposed to release in April of this year. Made out of surgical grade 316L stainless steel, it measures 39.5mm wide, 11.8mm thick and has a 46.6mm lug-to-lug. These just seem like the perfect proportions, especially when you consider the fact that the case is only about 10.8mm thick, with the box-shaped sapphire crystal protruding another millimetre on top. The case gets a matte gray DLC finish which looks fantastically stealthy and cool. On top is an equally great looking, albeit a bit familiar, fixed 24-hour bezel which gets a sand colored Cerakote ceramic coating and engraved numerals filled with black lacquer. The heavily knurled crown gets a black DLC finish and screws down to give you 200 meters of water resistance.

While the case comes from Nodus, the dial is very much Raven. It is also finished with the same sand colored Cerakote ceramic coating as the bezel and the color really comes into it’s own on the flat large surface area of the dial. The hour markers are applied and quite large, taking on three different geometric shape. At the center are four hands - three brushed and gunmetal colored hands telling the local time and an yellow-orange GMT hand that points to the 24 hours scale on the bezel. Since both Nodus and Raven pride themselves with great lume, you should really see the watch in the dark where the Super-LumiNova BGW9 glows a strong blue hue.

Inside is the already legendary Miyota Cal. 9075 automatic GMT movement. It’s not a particularly special movement, but it is currently the most accessible third-party movement with a flyer-style GMT, meaning that you independently adjust the local hour hand. It beats at 28,800bph and has a 42 hour power reserve. While the movement is not extremely accurate from Miyota, Nodus and Raven have decided to regulate this movement to -8/+8 seconds per day, which is pretty darn good at this price point. Really more small manufacturers should opt to do this as it’s a relatively inexpensive way to bring much more value to their watches. Nodus is also pretty famous for their bracelets, so it’s no surprise that this watch gets a good one. It’s finished in the same matte gray DLC coat as the case, tapers from 20mm to 16mm, and comes with Nodus’s proprietary NodeX extension system that offers five steps of tool-less micro adjustments. You also get a olive green ballistic nylon strap with it, which matches the color of the case perfectly.

The new Nodus x Raven TrailTrekker goes on sale on March 15th at 9 AM PST, and here’s some great news - this will not be a limited edition. How’s that for a refreshing approach? When it does go on sale, it will do so at a price of $875, which seems like a great price to pay for what seems to be a very capable GMT-equipped adventure watch in the tradition of the Rolex Explorer II. The watch will be sold on the Nodus website, but you can also head on over to Raven to read a bit more about it as well.

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Glashütte Original Releases Four New Serenade Luna Watches In Honor Of International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day was almost a week ago, but it’s never to late to write about new watches. While consumers today don’t really like being told what they should or shouldn’t wear, there’s a growing demand for smaller watches that could be considered ladies models, but without the shrink and pink phenomenon which describes (mostly major) brands who take their regular models, shrink them down and adorn them with pink dials or precious stones, thinking this is what women want. Things are, however, slowly changing, as we can see in the four watches Glashütte Original released in honor of International Women’s Day 2024, the new Serenade Luna collection (although, to be fair, there are some diamonds here).

All four versions come in the same sized case that measure 32.5mm and 8.9mm thick, with a polished bezel on top and a sapphire crystal on top and bottom. The watches come in four variations - two steel versions, one steel with diamonds and one red gold with diamonds. The diamond models include a rose-cut diamond set into the crown while the non-gem-set variants have a moonstone cabochon instead.

Starting with the pure steel versions, they come with either a sunray blue or white mother-of-pearl dial, while the steel/diamond combination gets the mother-of-pearl. The red gold version gets a green sunray dial that compliments the case fantastically. All of the Serenade Luna dials include white-gold applied hour markers with 20 brilliant-cut diamonds set inside them. And all of them feature a circular moonphase display at 6 o’clock with a mother-of-pearl moon on a blue disc.

Inside is the Caliber 35-14, an automatic movement that beats at 28,800bph and has a 60 hour power reserve. According to Glashütte Original, up to 95% of all of its movement components are produced in its workshops in the Saxon town of Glashütte, Germany and out back is an 18k red gold rotor engraved with a fine shell pattern. The steel watches can be had on stainless steel bracelets or blue Louisiana alligator leather straps, while the red gold gets a green Louisiana alligator strap.

The Glashütte Original Serenade Luna collection is on sale now at a range of prices. The blue dial steel version comes in at $10,400 on leather and $11,500 on the bracelet, while the mother of pearl dial ups the price $500 respectively. The steel and diamond variant will set you back $14,200 on leather and $15,300 on the bracelet, while the red gold version sells for $22,700. See more on the Glashütte Original website.

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The U.S. Gets A New Independent Watch Brand, Fleming, Launching With The Series 1

Due to a LOT of leeway in the regulations what constitutes a Swiss made watch, allowing for a lot of non-Swiss watches to be declared as such, back in 2007 the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH proposed much clearer and stricter rules. They argued that 80% of the watch needed to be made in Switzerland in order get the Swiss made designation. This was heavily opposed by 30 Swiss watch companies, companies that are part of the FH, and they managed to lobby in 2007 that the share of Swiss parts and labor should be 50%, later upped to 60% for parts. There were many loopholes left in these regulations, and with some creative bookeeping it allowed companies to make the majority of the watch in Asia and then just put it together in Switzerland.

“Made in America”, on the other hand, represents a much stricter standard. It requires watchmakers to make all, or virtually all, components of the watch in the U.S. which answers the questions why so many U.S. watch brands don’t carry that label. Not having to stress over the designation allowed American indies to experiment more, something that we’re now getting to see with a brand new watch brand, Fleming, founded by CEO Thomas Fleming and “designed to be a statement of art, precision and American innovation married to Swiss craftsmanship.”

The watch comes with a stunning 38.5mm wide, 9mm thick and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. The case has distinct horned lugs, a polished finish with a brushed mid-case and can be had in one of three materials - rose gold, platinum, and tantalum. Each version is a limited edition, with the rose gold variant produced in just seven pieces, the platinum in nine and the tantalum in twenty-five, each of which is uniquely numbered.

The dials feature unique sector dial variations per material, complementing the material of the case in question and are crafted by Kari Voutilainen’s Comblémine workshop. Rose gold receives a contrasting gray guilloche and a champagne toned hammering, both hand applied. Platinum features two different guilloche patterns, the outer track in a honey gold tone, and the inner a rich metallic brown. Finally, the tantalum is paired with a dark gray frosted out track with dark blue aventurine for the inner dial and sub-seconds.

The the movement is developed by Francois Mojon at Chronode and it’s called the FM-01, based on Chronode’s C101 calibre. It’s manually wound, beats at 3Hz and has a seven-day power reserve. The immediate attention-grabbers are undoubtedly the two semi-skeletonised ratchet wheels, with the black-polished surfaces and frosted, bevelled cut-outs representing Fleming’s logo. The watches come on a thin grey crocodile leather with case-matching pin closures.

The pricing reflects the exclusivity and craftsmanship involved, with the rose gold variant retailing for $55,291, the platinum for $58,711 and the tantalum for $51,871. See more on the Fleming website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Doxa Sub 300 Whitepearl

2/

Hands-On with the Zenith Chronomaster Sport Titanium

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A review of the Tissot PR516 Chronograph 

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Halcyon Origin Dragon has a interesting dial, bizarre internals and a maddeningly positioned crown

Halcyon is based in the city of Jingdezhen, China, which, for over 1,500 years, has also been a home for traditional forms of porcelain and pottery making. The company was able to use local talent to offer one of the more affordable hand-painted porcelain dials available. In fact, porcelain dials in wristwatches produced in any volume are exceedingly rare. I believe that the rest of the watch’s components (except the movement, which is sourced from Seiko) and the assembly occur far from Jingdezhen in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Mostly known for its adeptness in designing and manufacturing electronics, Shenzhen is ideal for watchmaking because of the availability of talent as well as precision mechanical engineering and manufacturing.

Read the whole review on A Blog To Watch

⏲️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

• The other day I featured that great article that goes behind the scenes of a Formula 1 race to witness the incredible amount of money that appears in the paddocks. Now, the Oscars get the same treatment as Stuart Heritage of The Guardian reports from up in the gods—the mezzanine high above the more famous audience, reserved for journalists, film crews, and the family of nominees. In this fun piece, Heritage discovers that the people here can be even more invested than those below.

• After a fugitive doctor abandoned his mansion in Beverly Hills, an enterprising group of party throwers slid in the front door. What follows is a fantastically illustrated story that will have to be made into a movie pretty soon.

• The New Yorker (figuratively) dives deep into North Korea’s forced-labor program. Workers sent from the country to Chinese factories describe enduring beatings and sexual abuse, having their wages taken by the state, and being told that if they try to escape they will be “killed without a trace.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Somewhere near the time this newsletter was finding it’s way to the first several hundred subscribers, I discovered the best video I have ever seen on YouTube. An Italian guy named Luis reviewed the 5 best croissants in Paris. His video was well made and informative, but the thing you don’t expect from a video guide through croissants is that it was set during massive riots in Paris.

It’s obvious that Louis has a gift of providing social criticism in his videos without saying anything about it. His latest videos (he doesn’t make a lot of them) is an unbelievably clever take on how we approach the food we eat every day. I don’t want to spoil it because it really is incredible. Watch it.

💵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: Here’s a crazy request. One of you is looking to buy the Ōtsuka Lotēc No. 7.5. Sure, it’s a big ask, but if any of you have one and want to sell, reach out to and I’ll put you in touch

• SOLD: Well, not really new. It’s a great looking mid-90s Tudor Submariner 75090, offered for sale by a member of the It’s About Time reader crew. I love the way it looks and seems to be in great condition. Check it out over on Chrono24.

• 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

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-Vuk