Blancpain Unveils New Ceramic Bathyscaphes; Rado Nods To Tennis With Captain Cook; Ming Goes Aventurine; Ressence Is Stunning; Moser's Repeater Tourbillon Streamliner; And An Unbelievable Breguet

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. You know it’s a good edition of the newsletter when a new Ming watch is not the best looking watch in the issue. That will forever be a Ressence, and this one is very, very pretty. Oh, and note that there’s a lot of expensive watches today… Can’t help that they all released new pieces, but I will be looking for more affordable stuff next week.

In this issue:

• Blancpain Unveils Ceramic Quantième Complet Adds New Ceramic Bracelets To Bathyscaphe Line

• The New Rado Captain Cook Blue Gradient Features A Blink-And-You’ll-Miss-It Nod To Tennis

• Ming Releases The 37.08 Starlight With A Stunning Aventurine Dial

• Ressence Gives Their Supremely Cool TYPE 5 L Dive Watch A Fully Lumed Dial

• H. Moser & Cie. Unveils The Streamliner Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Blue Enamel

• Breguet Releases Incredible Golden Classique Double Tourbillon “Quai de l’Horloge” 5345

Today’s reading time: 12 minutes and 56 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Blancpain Unveils Ceramic Quantième Complet Adds New Ceramic Bracelets To Bathyscaphe Line

Last year was a bit of anomaly over at Blancpain. They were celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms, so the brand put out some quite unusual, very controversial and extravagant watches. Which is not in line with what they usually do. Blancpain has been around for decades, so they are measures in their approach, rare in releases and subdued in their intensity. And this is exactly what we got yesterday, with a couple of updates to the Bathyscaphe line, a more compact and streamlined version of the Fifty Fathoms, reintroduced in 2013. This is not a breakthrough, but an evolution. We’re getting a chronograph and time-and-date ceramic version with a ceramic bracelet, as well as ceramic version of the Quantième Complet.

Translated, Quantième Complet Phases de Lune means Complete Calendar Moonphase and this is what Blancpain turned from the steel version into a black ceramic version with a matching bracelet. The watch keeps the same dimensions as the steel, meaning it’s 43.6mm wide and 14.1mm thick, with brushed and polished surfaces and a black ceramic bezel. This is still a diver, so that bezel is unidirectional, the crown screws down and water resistance is 300 meters.

While the Quantième Complet Phases de Lune has become iconic in the Blancpain lineup, it was and still is a bit controversial as a diver with a Complete Calendar and a complicated display. There’s a pointed date style around the dial, two windows at 12 o’clock for the week and the month and the phases of the moon are displayed at 6 o’clock. You can have the watch with either a blue or a green sunburst brushed dial and both have white gold hardware applied to it. Inside the watch is the in-house automatic calibre 6654.P that beats at 4Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watches come on either a ceramic bracelet, a NATO strap or a sailcloth strap. The new full ceramic Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet retails for CHF 23,900 on the bracelet and CHF 16,900 on the straps. You can see the blue version here and the green version here.

Also new is a full black ceramic bracelet for a couple of their new models. Blancpain is very proud of this bracelet as they point out it’s extremely complex, with all links being different in shape and size, tapering from the lugs to the buckle. It also has the now already iconic Blancpain cam-shaped pins which will have you unscrewing them to adjust. The first model to get the new bracelet is the time-and-date Bathyscaphe ref. 5000. It comes in a 43.6mm wide and 13.8mm thick ceramic case with 300 meters of water resistance. Inside is the automatic calibre 1315 with a 120h power reserve. The new Bathyscaphe with the ceramic bezel retails for CHF 19,600, CHF 7,000 more than the version on sailcloth or NATO. Check out more about it on the Blancpain website.

Also getting the ceramic bracelet is the green Bathyscaphe Chronograph Flyback. The watch comes in the same black ceramic case with a width of 43.6mm and thickness of 15.25mm. The case and bracelet sure are nice, but the main attraction is the dial which gets a wonderful gradient green sun-brushed treatment, matched to the green ceramic bezel. Inside the watch is the F385 calibre, an automatic integrated column-wheel and vertical clutch chronograph movement which beats at a quick 5Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. Priced at CHF 23,900, also CHF 7,000 over the strap options. See more about it here.

2/

The New Rado Captain Cook Blue Gradient Features A Blink-And-You’ll-Miss-It Nod To Tennis

Hey speaking of ceramic watches, Rado has a new summer watch! But, plot twist, the masters of “high-tech ceramic” aren’t actually releasing a ceramic watch. Instead, and following a number of releases that were exclusively ceramic, it’s the new Rado Captain Cook in stainless steel with a really lovely blue gradient dial and the subtlest of hints to tennis.

You know the Captain Cook, it’s been around for years in both steel and ceramic forms. It measures 42mm wide and 12.3mm thick. Interestingly, despite looking brushed in photos and being so sports centric, the case is almost completely polished. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a stainless steel rotating bezel that has a polished blue insert with engraved markers and numerals at the 3, 6 and 9 positions, all od which are filled with matte white lume. Water resistance is 300 meters.

Over the past several years, Rado has been sponsoring a lot of tennis players, including Ash Barty, former women’s world No.1 tennis player. And Rado also points out that this watch is their ode to tennis. It starts with the blue color of the bezel and dial (which has an incredible gradient from almost white in the center to dark blue on the edges) which seem to mimic blue tennis courts, like those used in the Australian Open, a court color supposedly chosen as it is the perfect contrast to the neon yellow ball. And it’s that same neon yellow that Rado uses for the minute track and the lume tip of the seconds hand.

Inside is the Rado calibre R763 automatic movement. It beats at 21,600vph and has a power reserve of 80 hours, with an antimagnetic Nivachron hairspring. If that sounds very much like the stats of the Swatch group Powermatic 80, you would be 100% correct, seeing as how Rado is part of the Swatch Group. The watch comes on a steel bracelet with titanium clasp, with a blue leather strap and a white and blue NATO strap.

The Rado Captain Cook blue gradient is available now and is not limited. Price is fixed at $2,700. See more on the Rado website.

3/

Ming Releases The 37.08 Starlight With A Stunning Aventurine Dial

Despite being called aventurine stone, the aventurine dials we find on watches are neither stone nor natural occurring phenomena. Sure, aventurine stone does exist, but it looks nothing like the aventurine dials we have become accustomed to. True natural aventurine stone is green in color, almost like a jade. What we see in watches, what is also confusingly called aventurine stone (or goldstone) is the product of an accidental discovery at Murano in Italy when a worker dropped copper filings into molten glass, creating the highly spakrly material that is traditionally found in brown, but also exists in green and blue, the most common of applications in watches. And it is this exact aventurine stone that the specular new Ming 37.08 Starlight uses as a dial.

Being a 37 series watch means that it comes in a very familiar form factor, with the incredible curved pagoda-style lugs. The stainless steel case measures 38mm wide and 10.9mm thick, with alternating brushed and polished finishings. There are domed sapphire crystal front and rear, with the top one being surrounded by a thin and fixed polished bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is, like so many Ming dials, stunning. Made out of polished aventurine, each one is slightly different due to the manufacture process. And aventurine is perfect for Ming, as the brand is well known for printing all of their markings on the underside of the dial. The same happens here, which leaves the dial completely free of any interventions, and with just a shadow of the peripheral track of luminous dashes. Brilliant. The hands are anthracite-coated and treated with Super-LumiNova X1 - a border on the minutes hand and an insert on the hours hand.

Inside, no surprises as Ming puts all their effort into design and case/dial/crystal quality, while choosing an off-the-shelf movement to keep the cost manageable. The movement is the manual-winding SellitaSW210.M1 which beats at 4Hz and has a 40 hour power reserve. Ming goes the extra mile and customises the movement with some nice decorations that include skeletonised, brushed bridges and a matte anthracite base. The watch comes on a 5-link stainless steel bracelet with a hidden butterfly clasp.

The Ming 37.08 Starlight is a limited edition of 300 pieces with preorders opening today, 28 June at 1 p.m. GMT. Deliveries are expected by August. Price is set at CHF 4,500. See more on the Ming website.

 4/

Ressence Gives Their Supremely Cool TYPE 5 L Dive Watch A Fully Lumed Dial

You know how, when you were younger, you found yourself in the presence of a girl or boy you really, really liked, but were to overcome with this feeling to say anything. This would lead to you freezing up and saying something incredibly stupid that would embarrass you so much you would just run away from this person whenever you saw them? It’s that deep, guttural feeling of butterflies in your stomach combined with a fluttering heart. This is the exact feeling I have when I see a Ressence watch. I am deeply, madly, in love with them and petrified to ever see one in real life because I don’t know what I would do when I did. So, do excuse me if I get too enthusiastic about their new release. I will likely call it the most perfect watch ever made several times by the end of this segment, and I can’t help it. The new watch is a new take on their TYPE 5 L dive watch which now gets a fully lumed dial. It really is the most perfect watch ever made. See, what did I tell you?

The first Ressence I fell in love with was the TYPE 3. This incredible watch looked like a tiny puck on a wrist as black as what I imagine the center of a black hole would be. This incredible darkness is achieved with filling the watch with oil, which then also gave it a pretty unique viewing angle from the side, as it eliminated refraction. This wasn’t such a novel concept as people filled watches with oil for decades, but these were all quartz watches - a mechanical movement just wouldn’t work submerged in oil. Ressence solved this by splitting the watch in two - a bottom part where a regular movement ticks and a top part filled with lume and running a special module that rotates the entire dial and the subdials in an incredible way to show the time. Connecting the two halves were magnets. Are you seeing why I love them so much?

One of the advantages of oil filling a watch is the reduction of refraction, so a lot of divers did this with their watches to make them easier to read underwater. It, then, only made sense that Ressence would create a dive watch at one point, seeing as how they can pull of an oil filled mechanical watch. And the TYPE 5 is exactly this. It looks simple, but it’s not. Made out of grade 5 titanium, the watch measures 46mm wide, but everyone that has ever worn one says they wear much smaller. On top and bottom are two heavily domed sapphire crystals, with a titanium strip between them. Since the watch doesn’t have a crown, the time is set with a rotating caseback, but to prevent water ingress there, Ressence uses a proprietary Ressence Compression Lock System (RCLS), a mechanism which enables wearers to lock the compression gasket for waterproofing. It’s a pretty capable diver at that, meeting ISO 6425 standards. 100 meters of water resistance, a graduated 60-minute unidirectional bezel and anti-magnetic and shock protection tech inside.

We’ve seen this on previous TYPE 5 watches, but brand new is, of course, the insanely gorgeous lumed dial. In daylight, the watch has a light grey dial with yellow and blue details. At night, all the negative space turns bright green, while the tracks remain uniluminated for amazing contrast. You get central minutes, hours in a subdials, as well as the running indicator and the oil temp.

Inside, like I said are two different parts of the watch. The upper part uses the module that Ressence calls the ROCS and which drives all the circular dials and hands. In the bottom part is an automatic movement. And boy, is it a surprise. Such an advanced watch runs on a heavily modified ETA 2824 which is connected to the top part with magnets. This means that the movement beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grey fabric strap with yellow leather lining.

The Ressence TYPE 5 L Luminous is part of the regular collection and it’s priced at CHF 34,500, without tax. See more of the most perfect watch ever made on the Ressence website.

5/

H. Moser & Cie. Unveils The Streamliner Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Blue Enamel

While H. Moser & Cie makes some really impressive watches, I would argue that the Streamliner is their best watch. It’s not the flashiest, or the most advanced, but it’s below-the-radar look and incredible Art Deco style make it a darling in my heart. Now, the Streamliner is getting a blue enamel dial on the incredible minute repeater tourbillon watch they already kind of made before, but only as a piece unique for that famously shifty auction.

The new Streamliner Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon comes in a 42.3mm wide and 14.4mm thick stainless steel case that has that amazing fluid cushion shape that looks almost like a vintage locomotive. It’s slightly wider at the edges because they needed the space to accomodate the movement and the resonating box. The case is vertically satin brushed with incredibly shapred polished bevels. This is a super complicated watch so no water resistance would be understandable, but you still do get 50 meters.

The dial looks just incredible. Made out of Grand Feu enamel, there are four tones of blue applied to it to create a gradient effect with a lighter central area gradually intensifying to a darker edge. All of this is applied over a gold base that gets a hammering by hand, creating an incredible texture. The dial also has apertures that show off the two complications that make it so special - at 6 o’clock is the flying tourbillon while at the 9 o’clock position you’ll find the gongs for the chiming mechanism.

Powering all of this is the in-house, manual-winding calibre HMC 905. The movement beats at 21,600vph and has a 90 hour power reserve. Finished by hand, there’s plenty of nice things to see, including an anthracite finish and signature Moser double stripes, and certain parts are skeletonised. The watch comes on the Streamliner beautiful integrated bracelet.

The H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon is limited to 50 pieces and retails for CHF 269,000, with tax. See more on the Moser website.

6/

Breguet Releases Incredible Golden Classique Double Tourbillon “Quai de l’Horloge” 5345

Sometimes a watch comes out that’s so out there, so outside what anyone would expect, that there’s not much to say about it. And yet, here we are. I’ll put some words on the screen, but just click on through to see more detailed photos from the front and back. Funnyly, Breguet says this watch is here to celebrate the 223rd anniversary of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s patenting of the tourbillon. Cool! This is the Breguet Classic Double Tourbillon Quai de d’Horloge which doesn’t just come with a tourbillon, but also a rotating dial.

There’s a lot going on with this watch, so it needs to be large. Measuring 46mm wide and 16.8mm thick, it is made out of 18-carat rose gold or 950 platinum. You get the signature straight lugs, as well as coin-edge detailing on the edge of the case. Despite the watch coming on a blue rubber strap, this is far from a sports watch and it has no water resistance.

The Double Tourbillon technology is not new, as Breguet has been using it since 2006, but what purpose does it serve? Both of the tourbillons have completely independent gear trains and power barrels, meaning they are powered and operate separate from each other. However, they are connected by a central differential meaning they work in tandem to regulate the rate of the watch – averaging out any inconsistencies and potential errors between the two. The result of which is an even higher degree of accuracy.

This is where things get very crazy. You will notice that the blue hour hand of the watch is fixed in place on the bridge, making it impossible to turn, right? Well, yeah, right. But the hand doesn’t turn. The entire movement does. The twin tourbillons are attached to a third gear train which uses their power to rotate the entire mainplate of the movement 360 degrees every 12-hours. Below all of this, the base plate is covered in a hand-lathed guilloché pattern named radiant flinqué, surrounded by a suspended sapphire disk that has Roman numerals on it.

The movement itself is the 588N2 and it is stunning. It’s comprised of 740 components, each immaculately finished, and has a power reserve of 60-hours despite the power intensive double tourbillon and carousel style display – thanks largely to the twin barrel system. It’s protected by a solid caseback featuring an engraving of Breguet’s original workshop at Quai de l’Horloge, with each caseback taking 100 hours to painstakingly engrave by hand.

According to Breguet, the price for this watch is on request. But reports say it should be in the €815,000 range, which is just… Well, you know what it is. See more on the Breguet website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Raymond Weil Millesime Collection

2/

Hands on with the rubber-clad AP Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding 43mm

3/

A review of the Zenith Defy Zero-G

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Beaucroft Seeker 37mm is a great example of why microbrands exist

This Seeker 37’s teal dial stands out with a symmetrical and legible dial layout. Notice the polished applied hour markers and how they are recessed within the slightly raised minute track. This design choice endows the Seeker with a gentle dimension which is welcome here. Furthermore, the hour markers at the cardinal points are more visible than the others as they are equipped with circular lumed elements. The hands are also easy to read and elegant, in what seems to be modernised leaf hands which are also lumed and fully polished. I love how the tips of the hands perfectly match the shape of the applied hour markers.

Read the whole review on Time + Tide

⏲️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 Nathan’s hot-dog-eating contest is one of the most American things ever and as such is perhaps the most important sporting event in the country after the Superbowl. I kid, but only a bit. The event is globally famous, made even moreso by its hero, Joey Chesnut. This ordinary looking dude is a competitive eating legend, 16-time Nathan’s champion and record holder at 76 eaten hot dogs. But things are wild in the competitive eating world. Chesnut was just banned from Nathan’s for accepting a sponsorship from Nathan’s competitor Impossible Foods, but the Major League Eating (of course that’s a thing) overturned the decision, allowing him to compete. Is this an end of an era or one of the best promotional beefs ever thought up?

• Laura Kipnis recounts how she got involved with Rebind, an AI-powered service that seasons public domain classics with original human commentary so that readers can not just read, but be in conversation with a book. This service sprouted out of a plumbing magnate John Dubuque’s desire to better understand weighty tomes like Being and Time by Martin Heidegger and Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead.

• In 2013, Emma Carey went skydiving for the first time and experienced an absolute nightmare. Without me even saying, you know exactly what happened. And yet, she survived. It’s an incredible story.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

This monstrous recreation of a Mercedes 190E Evo has been all over my social media in the past few days. And watching this longer video, I can see what the hype is about, despite the huge price.

💵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