Bell & Ross Introduces Gyrocompass With Bonkers Hour Hand, Nomos Gives Club Sport Neomatik New 39.5mm Size And Autumn Colors, Depancels Turns To 80s Turbo Cars And Bremoir Is Inspired By The Eastern

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Kind of a slow day today, but I hope you enjoy it. I know I like the Bell & Ross a lot. Like a lot, a lot.

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In this issue:

• Bell & Ross Introduces BR 03 Gyrocompass Special Edition With Pretty Bonkers Hour Hand

• Nomos Gives The Club Sport Neomatik A New 39.5mm Size And Nice Autumn Colors

• Depancel Moves From The 60s To The Funky 80s For Their Latest Vintage Car Inspired Watch, The Depancel Serie-R 80s Edition

• Bremoir’s Latest Watch Is Inspired By One Of The Most Famous Art-Deco Buildings In Los Angeles

Today’s reading time: 5 minutes and 38 seconds

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👂What’s new

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Bell & Ross Introduces BR 03 Gyrocompass Special Edition With Pretty Bonkers Hour Hand

You could argue that Bell & Ross makes odd watches and they have completely embraced this. Sure, now that their airplane instrument-inspired watches have been here for over 13 years, they have become more commonplace - especially with other manufacturers taking a page from their book. Every now and again, they obviously like to show off that they still have their knack for weird watches. Last year it was the BR 03-92 Radiocompass, which looked very much like an actual plane instrument, or the BR 03-94 Multimeter, which is just awesome. This year, they’re expanding their lineup of unique watches with the Bell & Ross BR 03 Gyrocompass, and boy did they outdo themselves this time.

In a plane, a gyrocompass determines the heading of a plane without having to use a magnetic compass, allowing for very precise navigation. These are very recognisable instruments in some planes as they mark the direction of the plane with an actual simplified shape of a plane. Of course, Bell & Ross went ahead and recreated this look. In the BR 03 Gyrocompass, the plane shape serves as a hour hand and the nose is the indicator. The minutes hand then has a large triangle and the seconds hand is a thin baton. The watch looks fantastic, with the plane rendered in a bright yellow and a matter black dial underneath.

The case, you would imagine, was the same as the previous Radiocompass version, the BR 03-92, but it’s not. Instead, it’s based on the new BR 03 41mm collection and has the same case as the Black Matte edition, which means a rounded square design in black ceramic measuring 41mm in diameter. Inside is the the updated BR-CAL.302 which has also been used in the new BR 03 collection. This comes with an upgrade from the previous 38 hours of power reserve to 54 hours of reserve.

The Bell & Ross BR 03 Gyrocompass is a limited edition of just 999 pieces and it is priced at €4,500. This is a €300 premium over the regular ceramic BR 03. I would say it’s easily worth it if you like the look of the watch. And I’ll have to say that Bell & Ross needs to make more crazy watches, ASAP. See more on the Bell & Ross website.

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Nomos Gives The Club Sport Neomatik A New 39.5mm Size And Nice Autumn Colors

Known mostly for their Bauhaus-inspired minimalist watches, since 2019 Nomos has been heavily expanding their lineup to include more dressy and more sporty options. This is why the Club collection was created, with the Club Campus taking on the task of more fun and casual watches with incredible dial colors, and the Club Sport being the, well, sporty versions with more water resistance. The Club Sport, up until now, came in two case sizes - 42mm with 300 meters of water resistance and 37mm with 200 meters of water resistance. Now Nomos is adding a third version to the mix, the possibly perfectly sized 39.5mm with three new dials.

In addition to the 39.5mm size you also get a thickness of 8.5mm if you opt for the transparent caseback and 8.4mm with a steel caseback. This is fantastically thin for a sports watch that also gets 200 meters of water resistance. Most sports watches add thickness to guarantee a robust sports watch, but Nomos has a 2-part case where the bezel and central case are a single part which makes it much sturdier. The finishing on the watch is polished with satin brushed links on the three-link bracelet. Just like other Nomos watches, this one has their trick crown that has a red ring on that’s very visible if the crown is not fully screwed in.

Nomos also introduces three new colors to this new size of the Club Sport and they are calling them Tabac, Ember and Smoke. The names give away what the shades are, all very autumn-themed, and with a sunburst finish on the dial that make them pop. Since it’s a sports watch, you get plenty of Super-LumiNova on the recessed baton indices, the Arabic numerals and the hour and minute hands. At 6 o’clock is a small seconds sub-dial with a snailed pattern.

Inside the watch is the brand’s in-house automatic calibre DUW3001. It’s a slim thing at 3.2mm thick and beats at a frequency of 3Hz with a power reserve of 42 hours. You get the expected 3/4 plate, blued screws and the Glashütte ribbing which you can see through the sapphire caseback, if you get that.

These Club Sport Neomatik 39 models will be regular additions to the collection and not limited. The version with the steel caseback will set you back €2,820, while the sapphire on is priced at €3,120. See more of the watches on the Nomos website.

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Depancel Moves From The 60s To The Funky 80s For Their Latest Vintage Car Inspired Watch, The Depancel Serie-R 80s Edition

So many sports watches out there are inspired by vintage car or racing, but very few, if any, have the same look of Depancel. The brand was started in 2018 in France, with inspiration coming from three very specific vintage French car manufacturers - Delage, Panhard and Facel Vega. Since 2018 they have focused on recreating the vintage vibe of these cars in their watches, but now they’re trying out something new - they’re stepping into the 80s, another golden period of French carmaking, with the Depancel Serie-R 80s Edition

The Depancel Serie-R 80s Edition carries with it a lot of irony, seeing as how the original design of the watch was inspired by the very distinct radiator grill of the straight 8 powered Delage D8-120, a stunningly elegant car first produced in 1929. The same art-deco inspired shape, a square(ish) measuring 42mm tall and 36mm wide and 13mm thick, is used but here it gets a very funky look that’s inspired by turbo engines and neon colors of the 1980s.

The very angular case is covered by a bevel-cut sapphire crystal and new crown protectors. But the truly different part is the dial that looks like something that just fell out of a Renault 5 Turbo or a Lancia Delta Integrale. The base of the dial is anthracite with horizontal cut out groves, which is contrasted by bright neon orange colors. The circular inner flange frames a multitude of indications, with central hours-minutes-seconds, a date window at 3 o’clock, the indication of the day at 9 o’clock, a power reserve and a 24-hour AM/PM, respectively at 12 and 6 o’clock.

Inside the watch is the Miyota 9110, a well known and reliable movement that beats and 4Hz and has a power reserve of 40 hours. You can see it through the see-through caseback and it has a customised rotor. The watch comes on a black, padded leather strap with orange stitching and a metal bracelet with horizontal, brushed links.

You can pre order the watch right now and numbers will not be limited. Expect to pay €795 for it and deliveries will start at the end of November. You can see more on the Depancel website.

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Bremoir’s Latest Watch Is Inspired By One Of The Most Famous Art-Deco Buildings In Los Angeles

Bear with me, but this question will make sense: have you, by chance, followed the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Trial? I wouldn’t blame you if you skipped it, but know that you missed some pretty fun one-liners. During the trial, very much has been said about the five penthouses that Depp owned during his marriage with Heard and the defence and prosecution spent a lot of time describing the building and the apartments. This, of course, got me googling the building and let me tell you, this is one of the most beautiful buildings you have ever seen.

Built in 1930, the Eastern Columbia Building is perhaps the best example of Art Deco architecture in Los Angeles. It has a stunning terracotta facade with colorful geometric patterns and an impressive clock tower with an illuminated clock on top that has become a symbol of the building. And this is the building that Bremoir used as inspiration for their new watch, the Eastern. This is, of course, not Bremoir’s first building-inspired watch. The previous one, the Lexington, was based on the Chrysler Building.

The first color in the new Eastern collection is called Pacific. Makes sense since it’s a combination of a bright blue found on the Eastern facade and a deep navy like the Pacific Ocean. The 39mm wide stainless steel case largely carries over the Lexington’s basic silhouette but streamlines a handful of key elements. The two tones of the dial are accentuated by gold accents for the hands, numerals, and hour markers.

Like the Lexington before it, the Eastern is powered by the automatic Swiss Made STP 1-11 caliber movement, promising 44 hours of power reserve and the movement can be seen through the exhibition back of the watch. The watch comes on a brown leather strap.

The Bremoir Eastern model in Pacific is available via the Bremoir website for $985.

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

Manime La Fidèle, a watch that can be worn at any time

There are five references of the Manime La Fidèle, with four in the main collection and one special edition. Each of the standard watches have resplendent sunburst dials, making their colours all the more vibrant and dynamic in any lighting. The choices are a khaki green, copper red, champagne gold and anthracite grey. The fifth version is called the Dirty Dozen La Fidèle, created in the spirit of the A-11 Mil-Spec watches commissioned for allied forces in WWII. Its matte grey dial is matched with darker-toned details, with the exception of the red, white and blue symbol of the French Air Forces. Read the whole review at Time+Tide.

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

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• The Intercontinental in Kabul was Afghanistan's first luxury hotel. Once the site of legendary parties, the hotel is now in the hands of the Taliban, and their fighters are supposed to work with outsiders. Incredible photos and a melancholic story.

• Karen Rodriguez was kidnapped by Mexico’s Zeta cartel. Her mother would stop at nothing to find out exactly what happened to her.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Yesterday I had the video of the painting restoration. And a surprising number of you clicked it 😄 I hope you liked it. Let’s keep on with the restoration theme, this one even more appropriate - how about a restoration of a Seamaster that survived a tragic plane crash.

💵Pre-loved precision

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