Breitling Has A Bunch Of New Avenger Night Mission Watches; Bell & Ross Continues Fully Lumed Case Experiment; Paulin's New Modul Watches; New Brand Alert; And A Nice Moritz Grossman

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In this issue:

• Breitling Expands The Avenger Collection With New Night Mission Models In New Colors And Sizes

• Bell & Ross Continues Making Fully Lumed Case, This Time In Blue, With The BR-X5 Blue Lum

• Scottish Darling Brand Paulin Has More Modul Watches With Colorful Quartet In Two Sizes And Two Movements

• Newcomer Alterum Has A Slightly Different Take On The Worldtimer Watch

• Moritz Grossman Releases The 37 Arabic Vintage In A Stainless Steel Case And Beautiful Dial

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 8 seconds

👂What’s new

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Breitling Expands The Avenger Collection With New Night Mission Models In New Colors And Sizes

Breitling has been releasing so many watches this year that I’m starting to wonder if they’re actually doing too much. I understand what they are doing, they want to cover all of their bases and offer as many options as possible. However, that might lead to analysis paralysis, where customers can’t decide on the many hundreds of tiny nuances. I know it’s happening to me. There’s at least 7 Breitlings released this year that I want. Just look at this turquoise version pictured above. I want it! Well, now Breitling is releasing a bunch of new updates to the Avenger Night Mission collection, just for good measure.

The collection shares a couple of specs, like the fact that they all have black ceramic cases and 300 meters of water resistance. They all feature ceramic bezels on top, with pushers for the chronograph versions made out of titanium. The chronograph versions all have the same tri-compax layout, although there are also GMT and time versions as well, and lumed hands that have a very strong similarity to those military-stenciled numbers. There are new military-inspired strap collections, as well as a bunch of new colors, including green, sand, black, and turquoise.

Starting off with the most ridiculous of the updates, there’s a new Super Avenger B01 Chronograph 46 Night Mission. It, of course, comes in a really beefy black ceramic case that measures 46mm wide and 15.3mm thick. Inside is the Breitling Manufacture Caliber B01 which beats at 4Hz and has a very nice 70 hour power reserve. It’s a watch for the very few, but it’s something else. Almost equally as large is the Avenger Automatic GMT 44 Night Mission. It has the same combination of the black case, carbon dial and green strap, only now the bezel has a 24-hour graduation and the size is shrunk down to 44mm wide and 12.3mm thick. This is powered by the Breitling Caliber 32 that beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve.

Then, there’s the smaller Avenger B01 Chronograph 42 Night Mission which has the familiar black case that measures 42mm wide and 15.01mm thick. There are two new versions, sand and turquoise. The sand version gets black carbon dial with sand colored numerals, along with a sand colored strap. The turquoise gets a bright turquoise dial with black sub-dials, and a turquoise strap. Both of those are powered by the same Breitling Manufacture Caliber B01. And last, there’s the Avenger Automatic 42 Night Mission that is the simplest of the bunch, a three-hander with a black case, carbon dial and black leather strap. It’s powered by the Breitling Caliber 17, with a power reserve of approximately 38 hours.

All of the watches are available now and are not limited, and they can be had for a whole range of prices. Starting with the most expensive, the Super Avenger B01 Chronograph 46 Night Mission will set you back €9,600. The smaller Avenger B01 Chronograph 42 Night Mission is priced at €9,400, the Avenger Automatic GMT 44 Night Mission at €6,800, while the most affordable Avenger Automatic 42 Night Mission is still pretty expensive at €6,100. See more on the Breitling website.

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Bell & Ross Continues Making Fully Lumed Case, This Time In Blue, With The BR-X5 Blue Lum

You will have to do a lot of searching to find a somewhat normal Bell & Ross. Sure, they make a couple of regular round pieces, but their entire company is built on recreating flight instruments on your wrist. And these square and bold watches are the tame stuff. Bell & Ross has been known to make watches that actually look more like instruments than watches. But one of my favourite weird watch they ever made came out last year, the BR-X5 Green Lum. It was an actual full-lume watch, but not one that had a fully lumed case. Instead, it had an entire case made out of a proprietary material that made the entire case glow bright green at night. Now, they’re releasing the BR-X5 Blue Lum which, you guessed it, the exact same thing only in a light and powdery blue.

The case is made out of LM3D, a photoluminescent composite material developed by Bell & Ross engineers. It measures 41mm wide and 12.8mm thick. The majority of the case, at least the part that glows in the dark and made out of LM3D, is a very pale blue in daylight, hinting at the color it emits at night. The case is, of course, not entirely made out the LM3D resin, as that would be too brittle. The watch is built around a black DLC micro-blasted grade 2 titanium central spine, that extends to the right to protect the crown. Water resistance is cool at 100 meters.

While the case glows brightly, the dial doesn’t. It’s completely matte black surface with pill-shaped hour indices and same shape for the skeletonized hands. In a very cool move, the indexes and hands are painted in black lacquer fill, with only the edges of the pill shapes done in blue Super-LumiNova. Surrounding the dial is a sloping black flange with a blue minutes track. At 9 o’clock is a power reserve indicator, and at 9 is the three-day date indicator.

Inside, a somewhat different movement to what Bell & Ross usually uses, which are usually some kind of Sellita variation. Inside this one is the BR-CAL.323, a movement developed for Bell & Ross by Kenissi. It beats at 4Hz, has a 70 hour power reserve and is COSC-certified. The watches come on a black rubber strap, closed with a steel folding clasp.

The Bell and Ross BR-X5 Blue Lum doesn’t seem to be a simple and unique as one might expect. That’s why only 500 will be made and why they are priced at €13,900. That’s a huge price tag, but I guess Bell & Ross believes they can sell 500 at that pricepoint. You can preorder the watch now with deliveries happening at the end of October. See more on the Bell & Ross website.

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Scottish Darling Brand Paulin Has More Modul Watches With Colorful Quartet In Two Sizes And Two Movements

The Scottish watch industry is going through a bit of a renaissance these past few years. And at the crest of the new wave sit anOrdain, known for their beautiful and affordable enamel dial pieces, and their sister brand Paulin, known for their colorful and quirky designs, and great prices. Now, Paulin is expanding their Modul series with new D & E models that come in two sizes and two modes of powering it — a quartz and a mechanical movement.

The watches share the case shape, but not the size. Both have a C-shape case, characteristic for its barrel shape and super short lugs, but one measures 39mm wide, 9.7mm thick and with a 45mm lug-to-lug, while the smaller one comes in at 35mm wide, 8.2mm thick, with a 40mm lug-to-lug. The shape gives it a very retro look, as does the brushed finish and minimalist bezel on top. But of course, the most retro thing will certainly be the hesalite crystal on top. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Regardless of the size and movement, all the dials are the same. The Modul D gets a black lacquer applied onto a brass dial, with blue, white and red hands with white Arabic numerals and yellow indices; while the Modul E has brushed rhodium dials with orange and blue hands with blue Arabic numerals and orange indices.

There are three movements you can choose from — the 35mm case has the choice of either a quartz or manual movement, while the 39mm option is equipped with an automatic movement. The quartz option is the ETA 955.112, while the manual wind ETA 7001 beats at 3Hz and has a power reserve of 45 hours, along with a small seconds at 6 o’clock. The automatic in the larger watch is the La Joux-Perret G101, which beats at 4Hz, has a 68 hour power reserve and three centrally mounted hands. You can choose from a variety of straps, including leather and fabric, along with a stainless steel mech bracelet.

The new Paulin Modul D & E models are available now, with the quartz models priced at €468, the smaller manual wind ones at €1,029 and the larger automatic at €936. See more on the Paulin website.

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Newcomer Alterum Has A Slightly Different Take On The Worldtimer Watch 

For a while there, it seemed like new watch brands were popping up left and right, almost a new one once per week. And it made sense. We suddenly witnessed the democratisation of watchmaking, with Chinese factories offering low order quantities of decent manufacturing, which allowed anyone with a couple of thousand dollars and access to Kickstarter to start their own watch brand. And very quickly, we got a deluge of same looking watches with slightly different colors. Well, here’s a new watch brand that’s trying something new. Alterum Watch Co. has just introduced its Worldtimer, a watch with an integrated bracelet and an almost architectural approach, all the while keeping the time telling portion as something original.

Alterum’s owner Justin Walters lists architectural marvels like the Guggenheim and the spectacular Steve Jobs theatre at Apple headquarters as inspiration and yeah, I can see where he’s coming from. The case is made out of stainless steel, with a vapor-blasted finish and is a super interesting combination of a fully round case and aggressively angular edges on everything else. On top is a polished stepped bezel surrounding a flat sapphire crystal. The case itself has decent dimensions at 38.5mm wide and 10.5mm thick. Alterum doesn’t give us a lug-to-lug, and it might be surprisingly long thanks to the integrated bracelet. On the right side are two crowns that operate the city disc and adjust the time. Water resistance is 50 meters.

But as interesting as the case is, the dial is even more interesting. As you can see, it doesn’t use traditional hands to tell the time. Instead, it’s shown with a number of matte black rotating discs. The very outside ring holds the names of all the cities for the world timer functionality, followed by a disc that has a 24-hour scale, half black and half grey to show night and day. Moving on inwards is a thin ting that has a circle on that points towards the hours, while the final central ring has a line that points to the minutes. Where, then, are the hour markers you ask? They are painted onto the underside of the crystal.

Inside is a very familiar movement, the Sellita SW330-2 automatic GMT. It beats at 4Hz and has a 56 hour power reserve. The flat single-link integrated bezel gets the same finish as the case, with polished bevels and seven lines engraved on the links. The bracelet closes with a butterfly clasp.

The new Alterum Worldtimer is quite the looker, but it’s also quite pricy at CHF 2,850, without tax. That’s a lot of money to spend on a first model from a brand you have no experience with, so I assume most of the sales will come from people who have gotten to handle the watch first. But also, it’s limited at 100 pieces, so it should be able to sell out. See more on the Alterum website.

5/

Moritz Grossman Releases The 37 Arabic Vintage In A Stainless Steel Case And Beautiful Dial

Yesterday, while writing about the 30th anniversary of the Lange 1 special edition, I mentioned that A. Lange & Söhne is the defining brand of German watchmaking. That’s not to say that there aren’t other even more impressive brands out there, it’s just that Lange is the yardstick against the entire German industry positions itself. But when you get into high-end German watchmaking, things get pretty nice, pretty fast. Founded by the founder and director of the German School of Watchmaking, the eponymous Moritz Grossmann has blown past that yardstick. Their latest watch, the Moritz Grossmann 37 Arabic Vintage is just another example of this.

There are a lot of precious metal Moritz Grossmann watches out there, but I think that a stainless steel version just suits this watch so nice. It’s casual enough on the outside and stunning on the inside. So, this one is made out of satin-finished stainless steel and measures 37mm wide and 9.2mm thick. Sapphire crystals on top and bottom, and a conical crown with curved serrations on the right side are pretty much it when it comes to the case.

The dial, on the other hand, has a lot of talking points. It’s made out of untreated German silver that is black engraved. This means that the surface has been thermally treated, giving the untreated German silver an almost grainy structure and a dark hue. It’s incredibly cool. But it’s not the entire dial that gets this treatment. They are raised up from the dark base and are super finely brushed for a silver look that stands out from the background. The numerals are Bregeuet-style, and MG has used them before. There’s a railroad track minute graduation on the periphery, as well as on the small-seconds sub-dial. The steel hands are elegantly shaped and highly polished.

Inside is the Moritz Grossman in-house calibre 102.1 and it’s very German. Its 3/5 plate and parts are made from untreated German silver and it has a surprisingly thin construction of 4mm, despite having a pillar construction. It beats at 3Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. The decorations include large ribbings, gold chatons with blued screws and a hand-engraved balance cock. The watch comes on a brown Kudu leather strap.

The Moritz Grossmann 37 Arabic Vintage is a regular addition to the MG collection and has a price tag of €39,700, tax included. See more on the Mortiz Grossman website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Prevail Onward Future Field

2/

Hands-On with the Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT

3/

A review of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Sternglas Merion Diver Is An Affordable Alternative With Innovative Touches

From a design standpoint, these watches show inspiration from ’60s Super Compressor divers. Twin screw-down crowns bring modern capability, including water resistance to 200 meters. The crowns have a nice touch in that a reddish-orange ring is exposed when unscrewed. It’s a gentle reminder for the wearer to “batten down the hatches” before getting wet. The crown at 2 o’clock is for rotating the bidirectional 120-click internal bezel. The other signed crown sets the time and date.

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

• Chances are your neighborhood movie theater shows only first-run movies. In these days of franchise fatigue, that likely doesn’t do much to pull you away from your widescreen TV streaming recent releases in 4K. But more and more, theaters are making room for repertory screenings—not just black-and-white classics, but films just a couple of decades old—and people are flocking. For The Ringer, Abe Beame investigates the unlikely rise of revival cinema.

• Hermann Meuter has spent decades documenting the return of fin whales to the coast of British Columbia, after their desimation by whale hunters. But Meuter and his team are now worried they may see the demise of these whales once again—this time from fatal ship strikes.

• Transplants, retirees, and second-homers thought western North Carolina would be a refuge from the ravages of climate change. Hurricane Helene thought otherwise. “The mistake of labeling Appalachia as a climate haven is the latest chapter of a long history, wherein Americans project exploitative fantasies onto the region without paying much attention to the realities of the place and the people who live here,” two professors at Appalachian State University write. “Appalachia can’t be a haven for anyone, newcomers or otherwise, if there is no care ethic, no sustainable infrastructure, no forward-thinking leadership, no deep respect for its complexities.” In diary format, the professors recount their experience of the storm and its aftermath.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

OK, so for the past week or so you couldn’t get away from the footage of Space X catching its rocket mid-flight. Admittedly, it’s an incredibly cool feat. But this entire time something’s been bugging me in the back of my mind. And it just dawned on me — it’s this video I linked above. The catching of the Space X rocked reminded me of this, the greatest shot ever filmed for television.

💵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

-Vuk