Bell & Ross Updates Diver For Refreshing Take On Tradition; G-Shock's Space Themed MT-G; Cuervo Y Sobrinos Continues Cuban Theme; Excelsior Park's Vintage EP 884-SI; Jacob Has New Bugatti Watch

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Bell & Ross is not as popular as some other brands out there, and they surely have their share of misses, but I really like this diver collection. Like, really…

In this issue:

• The Updated Bell & Ross BR 03 Diver Collection Is A Refreshing Departure From The Traditional Diver

• G-Shock’s Latest MT-G Is Inspired By The Vast Regions Of Outer Space

• Cuervo Y Sobrinos Continues Amazing Cuban Inspired Watchmaking With Two New Watch Lines

• Excelsior Park Finally Introduces Their Super Dressy, Vintage-Inspired EP 884-SI Collection

• Jacob & Co. Continue Bugatti Partnership With The New Bugatti Tourbillon, Named After The New Bugatti Tourbillon

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 48 seconds

👂What’s new

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The Updated Bell & Ross BR 03 Diver Collection Is A Refreshing Departure From The Traditional Diver

While talking about watches in yesterday’s newsletter, I mentioned that while Bell & Ross watches might not necessarily be for me, I appreciate that they are wacky enough to not just convince everybody that square watches are cool, but then do weird stuff with them, like the Art Deco-inspired gold details from yesterday. But then, just a day later, they introduce an update to their BR 03 Diver collection, fix all the stuff they were criticised for, and make a couple of watches that I just might actually want.

There are five new models in this sporty collection which meets ISO 6425 requirements for a diver, with cases made out of either black ceramic or satin finished steel. The dimensions are always the same 42mm wide and 42mm tall, with a thickness of 12mm. On top are flat sapphire crystals surrounded by a unidirectional rotating bezel with ceramic bezel inserts - black for the black or white dials and blue for the blue dial. All of them have 300 meters of water resistance.

Things get pretty amazing when we get to the dials. All of them get a minute track on the inner flange that gives a dramatic sense of depth, larger applied indices and Bell & Ross ditched the stepped hands of the older model for much more straightforward arrow hands filled with lume. One of the criteria for ISO 6425 compliance is the need for a dial to display all hour markers uninterrupted and lumed. This means that the date display had to be relegated to the dreaded 4:30 position, but I have always said that B&R is really good at implementing this date position, as the aperture is tiny and very well color matched.

There are a couple of pretty amazing colors to the dial. The steel version gets a black, white or blue dial, while the ceramic option has either a matter black or a truly spectacular pale blue all Super-LumiNova dial. They already had a fully lume dial black ceramic BR 03 Diver in the collection and that came with a pale green/yellow dial, but this blue just brings it up to another level. And the pale blue dial shines in an incredible bright blue shine.

Bell & Ross also caught a lot of flack for their movements, which were certainly not up to snuff for the price range they sat at. While these new movements are definitely not in-house creations, and still might be a bit overpriced (just in terms of the movement), they are very familiar. Despite Bell & Ross calling it the BR-CAL.302-1 it is, in fact, the often used Sellita SW300-1. It’s easily servicable, beats at 4Hz and has a 54 hour power reserve.

Finally, the price of the new and updated BR 03 Diver line. I mean… they aren’t cheap and there are certainly better value for money watches out there. But Bell & Ross has never been about affordable watches. They offer you something you can’t really get with other brands, especially when it comes to divers. So, the stainless steel watches are priced at €4,400, the black dial ceramic will set you back €4,990 and the best of the bunch is also the priciest - the fully lumed black ceramic BR 03 Diver is priced at €5,400. See more on the Bell & Ross website.

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G-Shock’s Latest MT-G Is Inspired By The Vast Regions Of Outer Space

Casio’s rugged G-Shock line has been known for decades now for the affordable and stylish watches that can take a serious beating. But one thing that the brand is unfairly not recognised for would surely be their innovations in material science. While certainly not on the technical level of Richard Mille, just think about all the resins, plastics, fibers and metals that G-Shock has improved to make more resistant watches. And at the very top of that materials pyramid is the new limited edition G-Shock MTG-B3000DN-1A inspired by a diffuse nebula in outer space.

The MT-G is not a small watch. It measures 50.9mm wide, a surprising 12.1mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 51.9mm. It’s shockingly heavy at 111 grams. This is mostly thanks to the carbon fiber-reinforced case and the use of stainless steel mainly on the caseback and the bezel. Speaking of the bezel, it’s the main attraction and what links the watch to the diffuse nebula. The stainless steel bezel gets a gradated blue-purple ion plating and the same treatment can be found on the subdial rings on the dial. It looks very futuristic and space like. Oh, and water resistance is a very decent 200 meters.

Inside is a familiar G-Shock quartz movement that features a bunch of the functions we have seen before, which include Multi-Band 6 automatic radio timekeeping, Tough Solar power, dual time, stopwatch, timer, alarm, LED light, and Triple G Resist for protection against shock, centrifugal force, and vibration. The watch usually comes on a black urethane strap, but customers in Japan and Singapore will be able to buy it on a IP stainless steel band.

The new G-Shock MTG-B3000DN-1A is a limited edition (I just can’t find to how many), available now and priced at $1,250. See more on the G-Shock website.

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Cuervo Y Sobrinos Continues Amazing Cuban Inspired Watchmaking With Two New Watch Lines

Imagine this. There’s a small repair shop in Havana, Cuba that fixes local watches and clocks. They’re growing slowly but steadily, and have become an importer of watches like Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Rolex to Cuba, where customers include people like Caruso, Gary Cooper, Hemingway and Einstein. Pretty soon they start making their own watches but they didn’t survive the quartz crisis. In the 1990s, the brand was revived and it’s now based in Capolago, Switzerland and has carved a niche with models that lean heavily on vintage design cues and a touch of Cuban flamboyance. These are very interesting, very niche watches. And their two new releases are inspired by two important parts of Cuban history - the Robusto 1935 leans into the Art Deco era of the 1930s, while the Robusto Sans Souci is inspired by the legendary Cuban Sans Souci Cabaret night club from the 1950s.

The 1930s were a super important era in Cuban history, with the country living its first modernisation push and a lot of construction going on all over the island. Most of this construction was inspired by the Art Deco movement, and this is what Cuervo Y Sobrinos captures in the Robusto 1935. The watch measures 40mm wide and 11.85mm thick, and has a fairly traidtional construction. It has a double domed sapphire crystal and 100 meters of water resistance. The dial comes in four colors - sunburst brown, silver, blue and green. The indices are applied and faceted, while the hands are lumed. There’s a date window at 6 o’clock. Inside is a movement called the CYS 8130, which is just a slightly modified Soprod Newton Cal. P092. which beats at 4Hz and has a 44 hour power reserve. This watch comes on a 3-row steel bracelet and is priced at €2,900. You can see more about it on the Cuervo Y Sobrinos website.

Then, there’s the Robusto Sans Souci, which is inspired by mid-century style that celebrities and foreign leaders enjoyed in the 50s just outside of Havana in the Sans Souci nightclub. That’s why this watch comes in a bit more extravagant case which is somewhere between a cushion shape and a C-shape with short and curved lugs. It measures 38.5mm wide and 11.1mm thick. On top is a box-shaped sapphire crystal protects the dial, out back is a solid case back with an engraving of the Sans Souci’s iconic entrance. The crown is slightly recessed into a cutout in the case and water resistance is 50 meters. The dial is also more extravagant, with a sunray brushed black, vertical brushed champagne and sunray brushed blue colorway, bold Arabic numerals with Super-LumiNova, a small seconds at 6 o’clock and super chunky alpha-shaped hands (are they still alpha if they are this broad? Is there another name for them?) that are filled with lume. Inside is a completely different movement, the CYS 5159, which is based on the Sellita SW261 automatic. You don’t see brands source movements from different suppliers all that often. It’s a familiar movement that beats at 28,800vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. You can get the watches on either a stainless steel 3-row bracelet or leather straps that match the dial. This watch is priced at €2,400. See more on the brand website.

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Excelsior Park Finally Introduces Their Super Dressy, Vintage-Inspired EP 884-SI Collection

How do you know you are talking to a Swiss person from the Jura mountains? They will most likely tell you. The same principle applies to watch brands from the region. People - and brands - from Jura will be the first to point out that the village of St-Imer traces its roots back to the year 884 A.D. They are incredibly proud of this heritage and good on them. Much later on, in the 18th century, St-Imer became the headquarters of some of the largest Swiss watch brands, including Excelsior Park. That brand has an incredible history, being one of the pioneers of the chronograph movement, but like so many others, they couldn’t survive the quartz crisis. Excelsior Park was recently relaunched, but it has little to do with the original brand. And yet, the new EP, lead by Guillaume Laidet who has made a name for himself by running brands like Vulcain, Nivada Grenchen and Space One - with support from a legendary Chinese-based manufacturer - is leaning heavily on vintage design. It’s a move that just might work for them. Following the release of their first watch, a nice looking bi-compax, Excelsior Park is now opening preorders for their second watch, the EP 884-SI, a perfectly simple vintage three-hander.

The new EP 884-SI comes in a stainless steel case that has both brushed and polished finishes and pleasant measurements - 38mm wide, 9.45mm thick, a lug-to-lug of 42.6mm and a lug width of 20mm. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, out back is a screw down caseback and water resistance is 100 meters. The lugs are thin and the fixed bezel is minimal, just there to hold down the crystal and nothing more. It’s as elegant as a modern watch can get.

More elegance can be found on the dial. There are six possible color options, but all three have thin stick hands and stick markers on the odd hours and simple numerals on the even hours. You can get a black enamel dial with silver or gold plated hands, numerals and hour markers, an ivory enamel dial with blue or gold plated hardware, a silver dial with silver hardware and a blue dial with the same hands, numerals and markers.

Inside, you’ll find the hand wound Landeron Caliber L21. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. Also of note, the L21 usually has a date function, which the new Excelsior Park watches lack, so the question will remain for a while - before people get them in their hands - whether they removed the ghost date position. The watches come on either a beads of rice bracelet or textured black or brown leather straps.

The new Excelsior Park EP 884-SI is expected to go on sale at the start of July at a price of $845 on leather and $995 on the beads of rice bracelet. See more on the Excelsior Park website.

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Jacob & Co. Continue Bugatti Partnership With The New Bugatti Tourbillon, Named After The New Bugatti Tourbillon

A couple of days ago, a kid that I interviewed for my paper some 15 years ago because he was building a home-brew electric supercar in his garage stood on a stage and introduced the latest Bugatti model, the Tourbillon. The kid is current Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac and the car is a hybrid V16-powered monster that gets to 300 km/h in 9 seconds, goes on to a top speed of 445 km/h and will set you back €3.8 million. But most importantly for this newsletter, the car features an incredible gauge cluster which features wheels, pinions, jewel bearings and bevels that you might find on a high end watch. This incredible piece of engineering art has been made by legendary movement designer Concepto. And if that wasn’t enough of a hint, the name Tourbillon might give away that there is a lot of connection between the watch world and hypercars. And now, we’re getting a new watch from Jacob & Co, which has had a partnership with Bugatti for years now, that pays homage to this watch. This is the new Jacob & Co Bugatti Tourbillon.

On the outside, it looks very much like the previous Bugatti Chiron model, only a bit smaller. But it doesn’t mean it’s small. The black-PVD titanium case, shaped like the Tourbillon car, measures 44mm wide and has a length of 52mm.

This watch doesn’t have a traditional dial. Instead at the top of the face of the watch you’ll find three smaller dials. The one on the left features a 30-second flying tourbillon. The centre dial has the retrograde indicator for both the jumping hours and the minutes replicates, mimicking the speedometer of the hypercar. And on the right is a subdial that displays the power reserve for the barrels driving respectively the time indication and the automaton. Oh yeah, the automaton. Right below the dials is a huge recreation of the new V16 Bugatti engine which actually runs, powered by 2 barrels of the watch, while the other two barrels provide 48 hours of timekeeping.

The automaton engine is made out of a single block of sapphire into which 16 cylinders are drilled to house titanium pistons, and each has it’s own exhaust manifold. Pressing the pusher integrated into the crown launches the animation, which means that the crankshaft pumps the pistons up and down, all of this for a quite long 20 seconds. All of this is powered by the JCAM55 movement which beats at 21,600vph. While Jacob & Co rarely says this, the movement is made by Concepto, as well. The watch comes on a perforated rubber strap.

The previous Jacob & Co Bugatti Chiron was limited to 500 pieces, which was the production run of the Chiron hypercar, and the same is true for this watch. Just 250 (of the car and the watch) pieces will be made. Price is set at $340,000. See more on the Jacob & Co website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the three colorful Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba Watches

2/

Hands-On with the Ulysse Nardin Diver Net OPS and Diver X Skeleton OPS

3/

A review of the Sheffield Allsport Diver 1A

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Calgari Dimora Panda And Pierre Morlet — Two Affordable Meca-Quartz Chronographs

The Calgari Dimora Panda is a 40mm meca-quartz chronograph with a brushed and polished stainless steel case. Including the slightly protruding flat sapphire crystal, it’s 11.6mm thick. To conclude its dimensions, it spans 47mm from lug to lug. Those brushed lugs feature an elegant polished bevel, and they quickly slope down toward the wrist. The convex bezel is fully polished, while the sides of the case are horizontally brushed. On the left side of the case, there’s a badge stating the watch’s unique number (out of 100 pieces), and on the right side, you’ll find the push-pull crown and chronograph pushers. When you turn the watch around, you’ll find a nice engraving inspired by the countless bridges over Amsterdam’s idyllic canals.

Read the whole review on Fratello

⏲️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 death of a jogger in the Italian Alps has sparked a furious debate about the relationship between humans and nature. It began as a rewilding experiment. Now a bear is on trial for murder.

• From the Arab Spring to the Umbrella Revolution, mass protests have shaken governments around the world. But over the past decade, facial recognition technology has increased the risks around expressing dissent. Demonstrators can be picked out of a crowd, arrested, or even preemptively detained. Can’t wait to see how people will combat this.

• I love these on-the-ground reporting pieces from a situation that should be completely inconsequential to the rest of the world as a local issue, but can be turned into a thrilling story if well written. It’s about a statue in Palm Springs and that’s pretty much all you need to know.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

There’s no real easy way to describe this video, other than me saying that Flesh Simulator is quickly becoming my favorite youtuber in the world. Just trust me.

💵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 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