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- Breitling Celebrates 140th Year With Navitimer 41 And Cosmonaute B12; A Colorful Bauhaus Watch From Sternglas; Christopher Ward's Quartz Military Watch; And New From Czapek And Arnold & Son
Breitling Celebrates 140th Year With Navitimer 41 And Cosmonaute B12; A Colorful Bauhaus Watch From Sternglas; Christopher Ward's Quartz Military Watch; And New From Czapek And Arnold & Son
The Cosmonaute is a watch with a great story that deserves more love
Vuk Radic
March 28, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 22 minutes
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I was just about ready to hit pause on the newsletter for Easter break, when all of a sudden we got a lot of new releases. I very much enjoy today’s lineup, what do you think?
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In this issue:
Breitling Celebrates 140th Anniversary With Brand New Navitimer 41 And Cosmonaute B12 Models
Sternglas Offers A More Modern And Colorful Take On The Bauhaus Design Watch With The New Lumatik
Christopher Ward Introduces A Military Watch Inspired Quartz Chronograph C63 Valour
The Very First Czapek Antartique In Gold Is Dedicated To Gold-Spewing Mount Erebus
Arnold & Son Release Longitude Titanium, Their First Integrated Sports Watch Chronometer
Today’s reading time: 11 minutes and 11 seconds
👂What’s new
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According to CEO Georges Kern, this will be a big year for Breitling. It seems almost impossible to put into perspective that Breitling has been around for 140 years, but this is the anniversary they are celebrating. We best know Breitling for their 1950s chronographs and the questionable design choices they made in the late 90s, but there’s no denying that the brand has left a deep mark not just on the watch world, but also on the world of aviation. A lot of their watches have marked important moments in air and space travel, and to underscore this link, Breitling is kicking off celebrations with new lines of Navitimer 41 watches, along with a new Cosmonaute B12.
Starting off with the Navitimer 41, it’s obviously the 41mm version of the legendary, but extremely large, Navitimer that has been one of the quintessential pilot’s watches. Since Breitling already makes the 41mm Navitimer, one might ask what’s the big deal? Well, this is a no date version, so we can truly rejoice. The watch comes in a 41mm wide, 11.6mm thick case, with a 46.8mm lug-to-lug. There are three different materials to choose from - full steel, a combination of steel and rose gold and a fully rose gold version. On top of the watch is a notched bezel also seen on the Navitimer B01 Chronograph models, surrounding a sapphire crystal.
The dials are both familiar and new. The steel versions get blue, green or ice blue dials, while the steel-and-gold gets a silvery, almost cream, dial, all with a sunray finish. The dial gets a new minutes track, dividing each minute into four segments, while the indexes are applied and faceted. The hands are sword shaped and the seconds hand gets an arrow tip in a contrasting color. Inside is the Breitling caliber 17, beating at 28,800bph and with a mediocre power reserve of 38 hours. If these stats seem familiar, they should be as the caliber 17 is based on the ETA 2824-2. However, this piece gets COSC certification, so that’s good. The watch comes on either an alligator leather strap with folding buckle, or the signature Navitimer seven-row bracelet with a butterfly clasp.
Moving on to the next release, it’s the Navitimer Automatic GMT 41 which keeps the exact same case as the regular Automatic 41, so kudos to Breitlign for keeping the same thickness on the watch. In terms of finishes, you can choose a stainless steel case or a full 18K red gold version. The steel case gets black, silver or ice blue dials, while the red gold version gets a beautiful green dial. Much is the same as the regular 41, with the addition of a GMT hand an a fantastically integrated 24-hour scale on the dial. This version also has the date indication at 6 o’clock.
Inside the watch is the Breitling caliber 32, a COSC-certified ETA caliber 2892-2 featuring a customized rotor, the GMT hand can be set independently via the crown turning clockwise in one-hour increments. You can get the watch on either the alligator leather with folding buckle or the Navitimer seven-row bracelet with a butterfly clasp. In this case, you can get a fully gold bracelet on the fully gold model if you so please.
And lastly, we get to the best watch of the bunch, the new Navitimer B12 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute Limited Edition. Back in the 1960s, as America was still running the Mercury space program, one of the original seven astronauts Scott Carpenter wore a Navitimer on the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission, America’s second orbital spaceflight. He had asked Breitling to modify the Navitimer for space exploration, resulting in a 24-hour dial for easier tracking of day and night. This watch was called the Cosmonaute and now it’s making a comeback.
The new Navitimer B12 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute LE comes in a 18k red gold case which measures 41mm wide, 14mm thick and has a 47mm lug-to-lug. It retains the Navitimer’s sweeping, facetted lugs and classic chronograph pump pushers. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a tiny bezel to allow as much view of the dial as possible, including the internal bi-directional bezel with slide rule scale.
The watch gets a beautifully rich green dial with sunray brushing, black chronograph subdials, gold hands and beige lume on the Arabic numarals of the hours. Speaking of the numerals, you might notice that it’s not a 12 hour scale it denotes, but rather a 24-hour one. Inside is the caliber B12 movement, an automatic movement that beats at 28,800bph and has 70 hours of power reserve. The watch comes on a leather strap with 18K red gold folding buckle.
The Navitimer B12 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute Limited Edition is a 250-piece limited edition model exclusively retailing through Breitling’s boutiques both online and in-store.
The Navitimer 41 in steel on leather is priced at €5,300, in steel on a bracelet at €5,600, the bi-metal version will set you back €9,700 and the fully gold version is priced at €14,900. The Navitimer Automatic GMT 41 is priced at €5,650 in steel and on leather, €5,950 in steel on a bracelet, €15,300 in gold and on leather and, finally, €35,000 in gold on a fully gold bracelet. And finally, the Cosmonaute is priced at €21,500. See more on the Breitling website.
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There are so many watch brands out there it’s just impossible to keep track of every single one. And some, despite making great quality watches with fantastic design, just fall off my radar and never make it into the newsletter. Sternglas is, unfortunately, one of these brands. Known for their Bauhaus-inspired watches, I always manage to miss their new releases. Well, I won’t be making that mistake again, because Sternglass just did something very interesting. Bauhaus-inspired watches have an extremely clean and well designed look, but can look sterile and a bit uninspired at times, as it often comes down to sans serif fonts, monochromatic colors and geometric shapes. But the new Sternglas Lumatik does something fantastic - it adds a splash of much needed color to the otherwise minimalist look.
The Lumatik comes in a 38mm wide and 12mm thick stainless steel case that has a brushed bottom part and a highly polished sloped bezel that almost looks like something you could find on the Nomos Club series. However, unlike the Nomos, the Sternglas has sloping lugs that give you a lug-to-lug of 43mm, with a 20mm lug width. On top is a double-domed sapphire crystal, water resistance is 50 meters and it’s overall a very simple package.
Things get much more interesting on the dial, where the first thing you will notice is the beautiful flat light blue shade of the dial base. Around the edge of the dial is a white printed minute scale with second gradations. Between the scale and the white Arabic numerals which have a grey drop shadow are lumed circles and triangles featuring orange Super-LumiNova, which is just a fantastic touch. There’s a date window at 6 o’clock which has a white base and stands out a bit. The hands are pencil style and feature the same orange lume, while the super thin seconds hand has a red tip.
Inside is a bit of a letdown, as you’ll find the Miyota 8315. It’s a fine movement, known to be robust, but not particularly refined, based on a very old design and with quite a lot of complaints that it’s too loud. However, it’s serves it’s purpose here. It beats at 21,600bph and has a 60 hour power reserve, with a stated accuracy of -20/＋40 seconds per day. The watch has a choice of three straps - a black or brown leather, or a light blue nylon strap with dark blue leather details, which just looks the best.
The new Sternglas Lumatik is available now and it’s priced quite fairly at €499, and I’m seeing a discount on the website now dropping it down to €469. I like it a lot! See more on the Sternglas website.
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Watches made for the military have to meet a number of strictly defined criteria. In decades past, mechanical watches were the norm, but with the advent of much more precise quartz mechanisms they pushed out mechanical watches as service equipment. And it makes perfect sense why. Now, taking inspiration from a quartz timepiece used by the British military in the 1980s, Christopher Ward releases something completely different to all their other suff - this is the C63 Valour. However, while a lot of brands claim their inspiration stems from military issue watches, CW teamed up IMG, the British Ministry of Defence’s global licensing representative, which means that they got to use the crests of the Army, Navy, and RAF on the case back. But there’s much more to it.
The C63 Valour is part of the brand’s Sealander collection, meaning it gets the Light-catcher case which measures 39mm wide, 11.55mm thick and has a 45.8mm lug-to-lug measurement. The finish is a combination of brushed and polished, with contrasting facets and water resistance is 150 meters.
The dial doesn’t push the military connection right into your face, and that’s great as it can attract a much larger audience. The base of the dial is black, with a slightly grained texture, with white subdials that have a snailed finish. At 2, 6, and 10 o’clock, the numerals are replaced with small applied square markers, meaning the rest are very simple applied numerals. The only link to the military comes from the three colored hands on the subdials - the red hand is for the Army, the dark blue one is for the Navy, and the light blue hand is for the RAF. The hour hand is arrow shaped while the minute hand is sword shaped.
Inside, a bit suprisingly for CW, is a quartz movement, the ETA G10.212 AD. It’s a thermocompensated and chronometer-certified quartz chronograph caliber that is accurate to +/- 10 seconds per year and a three-year battery life. The watch can be had on CW’s three-row Bader bracelet, the five-row Consort bracelet, or a black canvas strap with a stainless steel buckle.
The Christopher Ward C63 Valour is an interesting watch that not only serves military fans, but also opens up the brand to way more people who would love to own a quartz watch. Pricing is interesting, and I’m not sure what to think about it - €675 on the canvas strap, €800 on the Bade and €840 on the Consort. See more on the Christopher Ward website.
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Back in 2020, Czapek & Cie launched its Antarctique collection, which is the Geneva-based brand’s version of an integrated bracelet sports model. Not only was it released just before the crest of the integrated bracelet sports model, it was an extremely attractive watch, so it’s clear why it became a best seller for the brand. And over the four years, it’s gotten a huge number of variations, including material changes from stainless steel to titanium. So many variations, in fact, that it’s almost puzzling that it took four years to release a gold version. And we’re finally here, with the Czapek & Cie. Antarctique Mount Erebus Deep Blue in rose or yellow gold, named after the active volcano on Antarctica that throws out gold from the depths of the planet.
The Antarctique Mount Erebus Deep Blue can be had in identical cases, measuring 40.5mm wide, 10.6mm thick and with a 45mm lug-to-lug, made out of 5N rose gold or 2N yellow gold. Being a sports watch, it’s clear why the top of the case has a radially brushed finish, but this is perfectly contrasted with the polished bezel. On top is a sapphire crystal and the watch gets 120 meters of water resistance. Not so unexpected for a sports watch, but not very common among these high end gold pieces.
Perhaps even more beautiful than the case is the dark blue dial that contrasts the gold fantastically. The dial gets a lamé finish, which makes it look like it’s made out of a rough linen. You’ll find all the expected Antarctique dial details, including the eight-faceted indexes, a date window at 6 o’clock and sword hands that match the case material.
Inside is the in-house micro-rotor called the SXH5. It beats at 28,800bph and has a 60 hour power reserve. It has a platinum micro-rotor, open-worked gears, sandblasted black bridges with brushed bevels, and hand-beveled concave angles. The watch is a integrated bracelet sports watch, meaning you can get it on either a material matching bracelet or an integrated rubber band.
The Czapek Antarctique Mount Erebus Deep Blue in yellow gold is limited to 50 pieces while 100 pieces will be made of the rose gold version. The watch is available to pre-order now. The yellow gold version is priced at €55,000 on the bracelet and €32,600 on rubber and the rose gold version is price at €56,700 on the bracelet and €33,800 on the rubber strap. See more on the Czapek website.
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So just a minute or two ago you saw me write that Czapek just caught the luxury sports watch wave as it was coming up and cresting. This might lead you to believe that the trend might be over. Well, you, like I, would be wrong, as demonstrated by Arnold & Son. Go over to the brand’s website and you will see that Arnold & Son specialises in extremely detail oriented and well crafted watches that get as classic as they can. So, their announcement of the Longitude line, an integrated bracelet luxury sports watch to be introduced at Watches and Wonders 2024, comes as a bit of a surprise. A surprise, that is, until you learn that the layout of the dial reflects the marine chronometers of John Arnold.
The Longitude case is brand new for Anrold & Son, made out of titanium, 42.5mm wide and 12.25mm thick. There are prominent crown guards on the right, and the crown screws down to give you 100 meters of water resistance. The case a slight cushion shape, with vertical brushing, polished bevels, and on top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a fixed and unmarked bezel that still has pronounced teeth all around that give it a very unique look.
The dials are just wonderful, coming in three PVD coated colors - Kingsand Gold, Ocean Blue, and Fern Green. The dial has a a vertical brushed finish, interrupted by the power reserve at 12 o’clock that’s made up of six cutouts with a contrasting color underneath, and a small seconds dial that’s slightly recessed and snailed at 6 o’clock. The hour markers are applied and the hour and minute hands are treated with Super-LumiNova. The Kingsand Gold and the Ocean Blue get rhodium-plated hands and indices, while the Fern Green gets golden hour markers and hands.
Inside is the new A&S6302 calibre, an automatic movement with COSC chronometer certification. It beats at 28,800bph and has a 60 hour power reserve. The openworked rotor is made out of 22k gold and is styled to look like a prow of an 18th-century English frigate and engraved with the graduations you might once have found on a sextant. The watch comes on an integrated titanium bracelet with rounded edges and slightly domed, H-shaped rounded links.
The Longitude Titanium in Ocean Blue and Fern Green are unlimited editions priced at CHF 21,500, while the Kingsand Gold is limited to 88 pieces and priced at CHF 22,600. See more on the Arnold & Son website.
🫳On hand
Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon
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⚙️Watch Worthy
A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like
Ok, maybe it isn’t all that much of a departure. After all, the DIN 8330 is still unquestionably a pilot’s watch, perhaps the kind you might expect a Eurofighter Typhoon pilot to wear. Indeed, the model name represents the new Deutsche Industrie Norm (DIN) standard for cockpit requirements, covering functionality, durability, safety, and compatibility. The DIN tests cover all the parameters we watch fans expect, such as water resistance, shock protection, and illumination, as well as many we may not, like the ability to withstand vibration, magnetic fields, and wild swings in temperature and external pressure. The result is a creature of the modern jet age with a decidedly military bearing and rugged tool watch appeal. Currently, the Laco Hamburg DIN 8330 is the only DIN-certified pilot’s watch on the market.
⏲️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
In May 1606, Caravaggio’s rackety life caught up with him. He already had a long list of misdemeanours against his name. He had been twice arrested for carrying a sword without a permit; put on trial by the Roman authorities for writing scurrilous verses about a rival, Giovanni Baglione (or “Johnny Bollocks” according to the poems); arrested for affray and assault, in one incident being injured himself (his testimony to the police survives: “I wounded myself with my own sword when I fell down these stairs. I don’t know where it was and there was no one else there”); arrested again for smashing a plate of artichokes in the face of a waiter; for throwing stones and abusing a constable (telling him he could “stick [his sword] up his arse”); and for smearing excrement on the house of the landlady who had had his belongings seized in payment of missed rent. Now come on… How awesome is that for an opening?
Embarking on four days of total blackout, inside the sensory equivalent of a tomb, Tim Neville of Outside magazine went on a dark-cave retreat, the same one that quarterback Aaron Rodgers did. It’s always fun to see what new ridiculous trend is separating the rich and the bored from their money.
Who would have thought that Michael Imperioli would have a second renaissance after his great success with the Sopranos. Well, his season of the White Lotus showed that he should be in way more stuff. In this profile for The New Yorker, Imperioli discusses his formative first encounter with Martin Scorsese, his philosophy of acting, and the climate protest that just disrupted his Broadway début.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Lessons from the Screenplay is an interesting YouTube channel that reads through the screenplay of a movie and compares it to the final product. It’s an interesting exercise I recommend that everybody do with their favorite movie, the result can be fascinating. They did the same with the original Ghostbusters, just as the new movie hits theaters, and finds that the screenplay is nothing special. How, then, is the movie such a cult hit? Watch to find out.
💵Pre-loved precision
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-Vuk
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