Breitling Dedicates A Superocean To The Blue Danube; Maurice Lacroix Gives The Aikon A Bronze Case; echo/neutra's Averau Big Moon With A Full Lume Dial; And Ace Jewelers X FC Amsterdam Reviewed

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Nice Breitling, an even nicer Maurice Lacroix, but I’ve been saying for a while that echo/neutra is making some of the best micro watches out there. This is one of their best. Oh, and big news. I’ve finally started writing my own reviews. Check out the new Chrono Critique secion down below and my review of the Ace Jewelers X Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Amsterdam.

In this issue:

• Breitling Dedicates Their Latest Superocean Release To The Romantic Danube River

• Maurice Lacroix Treats Their Iconic Aikon To A Fully Bronze Treatment

• echo/neutra Gives Their Already Impressive Averau Big Moon Moonphase A Fully Lumed White Dial

• Sarpaneva Teams Up With Watch Editor Justin Mastine-Frost For A Never-Before-Seen Damascus Dial On The Dragonskin

• MB&F Welcomes Blue To Their Funky Car-Inspired HM8 Mark 2 Collection

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 51 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Breitling Dedicates Their Latest Superocean Release To The Romantic Danube River

The last couple of years have been fantastic for Breitling. They had some spectacularly designed pieces in the Top Time line, they carried on great collaborations - like those with Bucherer - they updated the Superocean Heritage ’57 Highlands series and announced a huge piece of news in their acquiring of Universal Geneve. Even the Superocean line, which the introduced in 2022 to a lot of controversy, has come into its own with a whole slew of versions. Joining the lineup now is the new Breitling Superocean Automatic 42 Blue Danube Edition.

This Superocean is chunky in the most traditional of ways. The stainless steel case measures 42mm wide, 12.5mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 47.7mm. It’s right on the edge of being too large for the majority of wrists, but not in a bad way. On top is a cambered sapphire crystal, out back is a screw-in caseback and the crystal is surrounded by a unidirectional bezel that has a ceramic insert in a really nice blue color, the color that’s kind of the theme of the watch. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The blue color of the ceramic insert is key to this homage to the Danube. One of the hit tunes of the 19th century was ‘An der schönen blauen Donau’ or the ‘The Blue Danube’ by Johann Strauss, which epitomised the blue color of the second longest river in Europe. And this color is used today as a teal-blue mix that shows up on the bezel and the internal chapter ring, along with the minute and hour hands. The hands are set against an anthracite background, which is the actual true color of the river, and that internal disc also houses the applied square hour markers that are surrounded by blue and filled with lume.

Inside is the Breitling Caliber 17, which is a controversial movement in a time when Breitling is doubling down on their manufacture movements. The Caliber 17 is essentially a COSC grade Sellita SW200-1 with a Breitling branded rotor. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a blue rubber strap with a stainless steel folding clasp.

The new Breitling Superocean Automatic 42 Blue Danube Edition is limited to 100 pieces and only after finishing this writeup did I notice one interesting tidbit about the watch: the watch will only be sold in Austria and Eastern Europe (I’m assuming they mean Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine, where the Danube runs through). The watch is priced at €5,350. See more on the Breitling website.

2/

Maurice Lacroix Treats Their Iconic Aikon To A Fully Bronze Treatment

Someone with less regard for brand history and a bit more cynicism than me would say that the Maurice Lacroix Aikon is just a budget version of the AP Royal Oak. But just the fact that it has an integrated bracelet, a slightly angular case and a patterned dial don’t make a Royal Oak knock off. The Aikon has carved out an interesting niche for itself in the past wight years, from a fun quartz alternative to high-luxury integrated bracelet sports watches into a huge collection that will now give you pretty much anything you’d like, it it’s your stile. The latest addition to the collection is the Aikon Automatic Bronze with a fantastic bronze case and an even better brown fumé dial.

The shape of the Aikon is already iconic - a tonneau case with no lugs - only two links that integrate into the bracelet or strap. The measurements are as follows: 42mm wide, just 11mm thick and a not-so-horrible 48mm lug-to-lug. This is not the first time that ML has used bronze in the Aikon line - they did so way back in 2017 - but it’s always a welcome material for its ability to patina. The case and bezel are brushed, while the signature double claws on the bezel have a polished finish, making for great contrast. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial on the new Aikon gets a lot of attention. Not only does it have a fantastic gradient color scheme, going from light brown in the center to a super-dark one on the edges, it also has a Clous de Paris texture, meaning it’s made up of tiny pyramids. It’s rendered more elegant with the replacement of numerals with simple 4N gold baton indices. The hour and minute hands are made out of the same material, but also have Super-LumiNova strips. There’s a date window at 3 o’clock.

Inside is a movement that Maurice Lacroix calls the Automatic ML115, but it’s just a barely modified Sellita SW200-1. You still get the same 28,800vph beat rate and 38 hour power reserve. What you do get over the regular SW200-1 is decent decoration that can be seen, including Geneva stripes and perlage. The watch comes on an integrated brown leather strap that has a vintage look to it.

The Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Bronze is limited for 888 pieces and retails for €2,500, with taxes included. See more on the Maurice Lacroix website.

3/

echo/neutra Gives Their Already Impressive Averau Big Moon Moonphase A Fully Lumed White Dial

Many microbrands follow a similar path, which means we get a lot of watches that look very much alike. There’s a lot of vintage recreation, some explorations of colors, movements we see repeated from watch to watch and prices under or around the $1,000 mark. The Italian microbrand echo/neutra could have easily ended up in this pile of generic watches, were it not for their sharp and unique design that plays on classic good looks and modern twists. Their last collection called the Cortina 1956 GMT gave us a very refreshing take on the retro-modern GMT, but what we get now is even better. The new watch is a fresh take on their Averau Big Moon

The Averau collection takes up a classic field watch position in the echo/neutra lineup, and they make a great addition to it with a moon phase complication. There’s the regular moonphase, which shows the double moons, but there’s also the Big Moon that gets a wonderful rendition of our nearest neighbor. Being a field watch, in comes in at a pretty decent dimension of 39mm wide, 13.5mm thick and with a 46mm lug-to-lug. The case has a brushed finish, with a polished curved bezel on top with no markings, surrounding a domed sapphire crystal. There’s a very prominent and knurled crown on the side and water resistance is 100 meters.

New with this watch is the dial, which is now completely white. Well, not just white. The entire dial is painted with BGW9 Superluminova, making it glow like crazy in the dark. The rest of the markings are super simple, almost architectural and bauhausian, with block markers for every 15 minutes and simple thin markings for every five. The hours get simple and minimalist numerals. At 3 o’clock is a date window and at 6 is the large convex moon with two arrow indicators inside it indicate the current moon phase.

Inside is the familiar Sellita SW280-1 in the elaboré grade, meaning it beats at 28,800vph and has a power reserve of about 40 hours. You get a choice of straps - vegan leather, nylon strap, cordura or an h-link steel bracelet with an adjustable style clasp with micro-adjustments.

The echo/neutra Averau Big Moon is not limited and it’s priced at €840 if you get it on the nylon or cordura, €880 on the vegan leather strap or €910 on the steel bracelet. See more on the echo/neutra website.

 4/

Sarpaneva Teams Up With Watch Editor Justin Mastine-Frost For A Never-Before-Seen Damascus Dial On The Dragonskin

Sharp magazine might not be on your daily roster of websites to check if you’re in pursuit of watch news. Maybe you should changed that, as writing about watches over there is writer/editor Justin Mastine-Frost who knows a bunch about watches and will introduce you to some funky stuff. Now, he is in the center of a new release from Sarpaneva, the spectacular Finnish watchmaker known for strange cases and even stranger dials. Mastine-Frost approached Sarpaneva with the idea of creating a one-off watch that would be made with a South-Africa-forged Damascus steel dial. The result is the Sarpaneva Dragonskin, a made-to order limited run of really wild looking watches.

The watch gets a very familiar case from Stepan Sarpaneva. That means that it’s made from high-grade Outokumpu stainless steel from Finland, measures 42mm wide and has deep scallops and an otherworldly shape, with a prominent crown at 4 o’clock.

But who cares about the case (kidding, we all care, because it’s amazing), it’s all about the dial. The dials are made out of Damascus steel forged in South Africa, shaped in Canada by Grimsmo Knives and then sent off to Finland for instalation, where they are topped by an openworked module with DLC-coated Sarpaneva indices and the familiar two-tone steel hands. The name Dragonskin comes from the unique shape of the Damascus striations that takes the form of circles on a blue and purple colored surface, looking almost like a dragons skin would.

Inside is a modified Chronode P1003 automatic movement which beats at 28,800vph and has a 60 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a stainless steel bracelet that takes on a very organic look that’s easier to see in pictures than describe.

The Sarpaneva Dragonskin started off as piece unique, but Sarpaneva is opening up for requests for one of these watches which will come with their unique dial. Prices are on request. See more on the Sharp website, as Sarpaneva has not included it on theirs yet.

 5/

MB&F Welcomes Blue To Their Funky Car-Inspired HM8 Mark 2 Collection 

Max Büsser, the owner of the quirky and elite MB&F, claims he has always wanted to be a car designer. And this makes sense. MB&F’s automotive-themed timepieces, the HM5 and HMX, had already hinted at the brand’s fascination with cars. But in 2016 the brand went all in on the car connection. They unveiled the Horological Machine No. 8, or HM8 for short, inspired by Can-Am racecars known for their distinctive aesthetics and impressive performance – loud, beastly monsters with their characteristic lines, roll bars and long, open tops. However, in recent years, the Legacy Machines had taken centre stage, and it seemed unlikely that the HM8 would receive a follow-up. Until last year, that is, when MB&F introduced the HM8 Mark 2, inspired by double-bubble body construction of racing cars. Now, the HM8 Mark 2 is back with a beautiful blue color.

This HM8 Mark 2 is made out of grade 5 titanium and measures 41.5mm wide and 19mm thick. While that thickness seems huge, it makes sense on a watch like this, that has the double protrusions at its thickest part. But what its surprising is the lug-to-lug (or, better said lenght as there really aren’t any lugs) of just 47mm, which seems incredibly short. While the previous version came in green, this new one gets a beautiful sparkly blue - almost like a candy metallic paintjob on a car - and those colored parts are made out of CarbonMacrolon, polymer matrix invented by Bayer injected with carbon nanotubes making it as tough as steel while weighing eight times less.

You don’t tell time on the face, but rather on the side, just like the Amida we saw the other day. It even uses a similar mechanism of using reflective sapphire crystal prisms to show horizontal discs on vertical displays. On the left are jumping hours and trailing minutes on the right. The face of the watch is reserved for the large window into the movement which displays the signature battle axe 22k gold rotor.

Speaking of the movement, it’s based on a Girard-Perregaux automatic base that gives it a 42 hour power reserve. On top of that, MB&F attach what they call the 3D engine, a 247 component module that offsets the time display to the side. The watch comes on a white calfskin strap.

The blue HM8 Mark 2 is limited to 33 pieces and priced at €70,000 without tax. See more on the MB&F website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Bulgari Tadao Ando Serpenti

2/

Hands on with the A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Honeygold “Lumen”

3/

A review of the Chanel J12 X-Ray In Pink Sapphire

✍️Chrono Critique

Watch reviews, written by me

It’s About Time goes hands on with the Ace Jewelers X Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Amsterdam

it’s a solid, fantastically built watch, with an in-house movement, that takes the design choices of the original and streamlines them to make them more legible and, perhaps, more exciting. It will fit a lot of wrists quite well, despite it’s large-ish diameter and significant thickness that it hides through fantastic use of curves and cutouts. Are there things to nitpick about? Sure.

Read the whole review on It’s About Time

⏲️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

• This is the one story that has it all. It’s absolutely incredible. A portrait of Scott Thorson: Liberace’s ex. Witness in the notorious Wonderland murders. Televangelist. Drug runner for the Mob

• I kind of stopped watching the UFC after they lost some of their most recognisable names. Something happened with the MMA organisation that I just couldn’t get with them any more, it was all a bit boring. But I noticed that since their sale to Endeavor things have been going a bit wild there. Dana White is everywhere, Trump is showing up to a lot of their shows. Turns out, there is something going on. 

• I am grateful every day that I got out of high school before smartphones became a thing. Because things are incredibly difficult for kids these days. Bloomberg reports on the uptick in a new and particularly pernicious and modern phenomenon, what the FBI calls “Sextortion,” in which scammers catfish teen boys into sending nudes, then threaten to ruin the kid’s life if he doesn’t pay up.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

There’s this awesome outfit in Portugal called Cool-N-Vintage (I don’t think they spell it like this, but they should) who take old Land Rovers and create the perfect simple car. Here’s a video on what they do. But linked above is their new series called Obsession, in which they explore the one thing that plagues us all - obsessions.

Want to let us know what you think about the newsletter? Go to our survey and fill it out.

-Vuk