Blancpain Releases The Fifty Fathoms Tech, A Much More Wearable Tech Gombessa; Citizen Finally Shrinks Down The Navihawk; Unimatic And Todd Snyder Team Up; The Simplest Biver Dials To Date

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. A bit of a slow day today, which I don’t mind at all, considering the fact that my apartment was full of police and insurance evaluators all week, dealing with the aftermath of the fire. Can’t wait to get some sleep and dream of that Blancpain.

In this issue:

• Blancpain Releases The Fifty Fathoms Tech BOC IV, A Slightly More Wearable Tech Gombessa

• Citizen Finally Shrinks Down The Very Popular, But Very Large, Navihawk, Gives It Great New Dials

• Unimatic And Todd Snyder Team Up For A Very Cool And Very Limited "Modello Tre" Chronograph

• Biver Presents Its Simplest Dials In The Japan Edition Light and Shadow In Enamel

👂What’s new

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Blancpain Releases The Fifty Fathoms Tech BOC IV, A Slightly More Wearable Tech Gombessa

It was February 28, 2023, and I was just writing the second issue of this newsletter ever, while I still had no idea how to go about writing watch news, when Blancpain released a watch that would etch itself into my mind — the immensely cool Tech Gombessa. I love that thing. It was developed by Blancpain and perhaps the best underwater photographer of all time, Laurent Ballesta and it was a beast — made out of titanium and measuring 47mm wide and 14.81mm thick. It featured a whole bunch of tech inside it, but people really didn’t like the size. Quite understandably. Well, now Blancpain is releasing a new watch, one that gives you all the coolness of the Tech Gombessa but at a more manageable size. Sure, still large, but more manageable. This is the new Fifty Fathoms Tech Blancpain Ocean Commitment IV, with a good cause behind it.

The new Fifty Fathoms Tech Ocean Commitment keeps the super-agressive look of the Tech Gombessa, including the heavily serrated and sloped beze and the very cool central lug. The case is made out of grade 23 titanium, which is an alloy similar to grade 5, and used by Blancpain for years, combining the lightness of titanium with more corrosion resistance. Like I said, it’s still a large watch that measures 45mm wide and 14.1mm thick. But the good thing is not just that it’s light, it’s also the use of that central lug that gives it an almost lugless construction. People who have worn it say it easily feels like a 42mm watch. And while the Tech Gombessa features a very cool patented count-up bezel with a 3-hour scale, built to be used with a closed-circuit rebreather, this new watch uses a more traditional 60-minute undirectional diving scale, but still sharply angled towards the dial. Water resistance remains 300 meters and you get a helium escape valve for saturation diving.

On the dial, gone are the bright orange numerals, replaced with light green ones that are made out of solid lume blocks. The matte black dial is something that Blancpain calls absolute black, as they claim it absorbs 97% of light for better contrast. The hands are polished silver with lume strips inside them. There’s also a date window at 4:30, something that the Tech Gombessa didn’t have and it made the watch look that much better.

Inside, you’ll find the in-house calibre 1315A. It beats at 4Hz and has a a pretty great 120 hour power reserve. That’s five days, to save you the math. It does so with the use of three series-coupled barrels. It also features a silicon balance spring for resistance to magnetic fields and has an openworked gold rotor emblazoned with a blue BOC logo. The watch comes on a black rubber strap.

The new Fifty Fathoms Tech Blancpain Ocean Commitment IV is limited to 100 pieces and comes in a Pelican case, accompanied by a 1/100 special edition photograph taken by and signed by Laurent Ballesta, and a donation certificate. You get the certificate because €1,000 from each sale will be donated to the Blancpain x Sulubaaï Marine Research Center, an extension of the Sea Academy project, a flagship initiative of the Blancpain commitment to the ocean. Price is set at CHF 19,600. See more on the Blancpain website.

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Citizen Finally Shrinks Down The Very Popular, But Very Large, Navihawk, Gives It Great New Dials

Speaking of huge watches that alienate a huge percent of the market with their sheer size, just like the Tech Gombessa (well, the size and the price, in that case), we have the Citizen Promaster Navihawk. This behemoth that’s packed with information usually came in a shockingly large 48mm case. What was one supposed to do with that? Well, Citizen knows the large size was a bit of an issue. That’s why they just introduced the new 40mm Promaster Navihawk collection, making it much easier to own.

This is very much a familiar case used here, only it’s not the size of the Arecibo radio telescope. The stainless steel case now measures 40mm wide, 13mm thick and has a very comfortable 45mm lug-to-lug. It’s a tool watch, so the majority of the case gets a satin finish, but there are a few polished details. You get a heavily knurled crown, a notched bezel that has a rotating slide rule bezel and a flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is as expected, 200 meters.

There are three dial colors to choose from: khaki green, copper, and silver. All of them have a matching internal flange and all of them have a metalic finish. All three also have three black sub-dials, sword hands with lume, and a date aperture at 4:30. The watches have the same functions as the bigger pieces, which include ⅕ second chronograph timing up to 60 minutes, and 12- and 24-hour time displays.

All of this is powered by the Caliber B620 Eco-Drive movement, which is a solar movement. It can power the watch for 270 days in complete darkness and is accurate to ±15 seconds per month. The watches come on stainless steel three-link bracelet, closed with a push-button folding clasp.

The new 40mm Promaster Navihawk in green and copper are available now, while the silver goes on sale this spring. Price is set at $595. See more on the Citizen website.

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Unimatic And Todd Snyder Team Up For A Very Cool And Very Limited "Modello Tre" Chronograph

While Unimatic makes some pretty great looking watches, it’s quite possible that they shine best when they collaborate with other brands. And their latest collaboration, the one with Todd Snyder, a U.S.-based clothing brand, is one of their best so far. The new "Modello Tre" chronograph U3FB-TS is an incredibly cool looking watch that was only made in 100 pieces. And while the website says it’s sold out, despite being released less than a day ago, it’s all sold out. But don’t give up just yet, as the brand says there are still watches in store. But more on that later.

The collaboration is build on the Unimatic "Modello Tre" chronograph, which means that you get a stainless steel case that gets a black PVD coat. It measures 41.5mm wide and 13.7mm thick. On top is a flat, broad, unmarked bezel, and on the side are knurled pushers and crown. Water resistance is great at 300 meters.

Contrasting the black of the case is a really dark olive dial and it makes for a great stealthy look. Making it even better is the contrast you get from the two off-white subdials and hands, as well as the pops of orange on the central chronograph hand and the two sub-dial hands. It’s an overall very simple dial, with a thin minutes track on the outside and minimal branding at the 6 o’clock position.

Inside, you’ll find the Seiko VK64 meca-quartz chronograph which uses a quartz movement to keep track of the time, and a mechanical movement to run the chronograph. The watch comes on an olive seatbelt NATO strap.

The Todd Snyder x Unimatic "Modello Tre" chronograph U3FB-TS is limited to 100 pieces and all are sold. At least online. According to Todd Snyder, there are still watches available in their Madison, Liquor Store and Williamsburg locations in NYC, The Grove in LA and Bal Harbour in Miami. The price is set at $718. See more on the Todd Snyder website.

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Biver Presents Its Simplest Dials In The Japan Edition Light and Shadow In Enamel

While certainly very impressive, the watch that industry legend Jean-Claude Biver and his son used to launch their eponymous brand, wasn’t met with as much enthusiasm as would be expected. Many believe that the Biver Carillon Tourbillon was way too modern, had a controversial look and was introduced at a simply ridiculous price for a new brand — CHF 520,000 — despite being headed by Biver. It was hand made and finished, made out of exquisite materials and it sold, despite the price. But that was followed up with the much simpler Biver Automatique, a three hander that still had quite modern dials, but also at a more reasonable price. For their new release, Biver simplifies the dials even further, with the Biver Automatique Japan Edition that gets two very subdued enamel dials.

The proportions are as classic as they come — 39mm wide and 10mm thick, the case can be made out of either brushed and polished rose gold or platinum, depending on the dial color, with slightly angular lugs and a box style sapphire crystal. Interestingly, for a watch as elegant as this one, you get 80 meters of water resistance.

The regular production Biver Automatique was available with dials made out of solid 18k white or rose gold, with a number of finishes, or you could dip into the Atelier collection where you could get stone dials. But on the Biver Automatique Japan Edition, you get something a bit simpler. Paired with the gold case is a black enamel dial with rose gold applied hour markers, while the platinum case gets a white enamel dial paired with white gold hour markers.

Inside is the calibre JCB-003, a movement powered by a bi-directional micro-rotor crafted from 22k gold, and produced with Dubois. It beats at 25,200vph and has a 65 hour power reserve. It has seven bridges, wheels with serpentine spokes, and an array of finishes, including clous de Paris engraving, circular graining, anglage, satin brushing and guilloché. It’s one of the most decorated movements you’ll see out there. The watches come on either a black or brown leather strap.

The Biver Automatique Japan Edition is available exclusively in Japan, available through Hour Glass Japan. Price is set at CHF 89,000 in gold and CHF 92,000 in platinum. See more on the Biver website.

⏲️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

• If you’ve ever been to a Michael Jordan Steakhouse, you know that athletes and celebrities lending their names to restaurants is nothing new. But you might not know exactly how not-new it is. The 1960s saw an explosion of chains—including one that hired Muhammad Ali as its face and pitchman. How did it pan out? Let me answer that question with a question: When’s the last time you saw a Champburger? For Defector, Dan McQuade tells the tale.

• OK, we’re getting a lot of reporting on the Zizians, an alleged violent cult that’s comprised of Silicon Valley math prodigies, AI researchers and internet burnouts. I linked to a couple of the articles on the group. Now the Guardian has a report on the mystery that lead to six deaths.

• In the epic US-Russian prisoner swap last summer, Vladimir Putin brought home an assassin, spies, and another prized ally: the man behind one of the biggest insider trading cases of all time.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Bill Murray will forever be cool. In fact, the older he gets, the cooler he becomes. And he’s pretty cool while eating hot wings.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk