Breitling Honors Red Arrows With Two Avenger Watches; Credor Revives Genta-Designed Locomotive; Louis Erard's Enamel Dial; Moritz Grossman Works With Goldstone; And Breguet Expands Marine Line

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I did not see Credor bringing back such a strange looking watch, but I like it a lot. Shame it’s a limited edition. We really should put a stop to those.

In this issue:

• Breitling Celebrates The 60th Anniversary Of The Elite British Red Arrows With Two Avenger Models

• Credor Revives The Legendary Gerald Genta Designed Locomotive

• Louis Erard Unveils First Regulator With A Grand Feu Enamel Dial, Made By Donzé Cadrans

• Moritz Grossmann Teams Up With Sincere Fine Watches To Celebrate 70 Years Of The Legendary Asian Retailer

• Breguet Expands The Marine Collection With Marine Chronograph 5529 & Dame 9518

Today’s reading time: 10 minutes and 34 seconds

👂What’s new

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Breitling Celebrates The 60th Anniversary Of The Elite British Red Arrows With Two Avenger Models

There’s this persistent discussion in the watch world whether one should own watches that have a strong connection to a military unit. The most egregious example of this is the use of the Navy Seals name on a lot of watches, but most tacky on several Panerai models that feature both the words Navy Seals and the Seals Trident. There seems to be a general consensus that you should not wear a watch that has the Trident if you haven’t been a Seal. But how do we then go about owning watches that were actually issued to members of the military? Or those from other manufacturers that pay homage to units? I, personally, can live with it. Take a look, for example, at this stunningly cool Breitling Pluton made to honor the Italian air force acrobatics unit Diavoli Rossi. I will own one. It’s easier to justify owning these military-themed watches when they are older, but when it comes to modern ones it seems like they should be judged on a case-by-case basis. The Seals Panerai? Not really. The just announced Breitling homage to the 60th anniversary of the Red Arrows, the RAF’s legendary aerobatic display team, the limited-edition Avenger 42 Red Arrows 60th Anniversary Edition and the non-limited Breitling Avenger B01 Chronograph 44 Red Arrows? Yeah, that’s cool

Of course, the Red Arrows have a long standing partnership with Breitling and have been wearing their watches for a while. So the special edition watches make a lot of sense. Let’s start with the limited edition, the Avenger 42 Red Arrows 60th Anniversary Edition. It’s the same case you know, made out of stainless steel and measuring 42mm wide, 12.1mm thick and with a lug-to-lug of 51.2mm. It comes with a blue dial with red highlights on the seconds hand and hour numerals on the black rehaut, and the Red Arrows crest at 9 o’clock. Inside is a chronometer-certified ETA 2824-2 which beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. It comes on a stainless steel bracelet or a leather strap. The watch is limited to 360 pieces, priced at £3,650 on leather and £3,900 on steel, with a percentage of sales goes towards the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund which supports RAF families. You can see more of the watch on the Breitling website.

Then there’s the Avenger B01 Chronograph 44 Red Arrows. Not only does it swap out steel for a black ceramic, it’s also a chronograph that comes in a much larger case: 44mm wide, a whopping 15.2mm thick and a 53mm lug-to-lug. Once again, the dial is blue with red details on the three black sub-dials and the 9 o’clock sub-dial gets an ilustration of the squadron’s Diamond Nine formation. Inside is the Breitling Caliber B01 automatic chronograph movement, COSC certified and beating at 28,800vph with a power reserve of 70-hours. The watch comes on a blue leather strap with leather stitching. The Avenger B01 Chronograph 44 Red Arrows is part of the regular collection and not limited in number and you can get one for £7,950. See more on the Breitling website.

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Credor Revives The Legendary Gerald Genta Designed Locomotive

In a recent online discussion on what could be described as a watch that will instantly tell you the owner is a watch enthusiast, the consensus was reached that one of the most obvious ones is a Grand Seiko, especially if you live outside of Japan. The argument was simple - most people not into watches will see it as just a Seiko, while those in the know will know that GS stands a step above. However, it will take a slightly bigger watch nerd to recognize Seiko’s third brand - Credor. Their haute horology brand is not as well known as Grand Seiko, but they sure make some amazing watches. And back in the late 1970s, Credor worked with legendary watch designer Gerald Genta to create one of their most iconic watches, the Credor Locomotive. Now, Credor is celebrating their 50th anniversary and are bringing the Locomotive back, unfortunately in a limited capacity.

While Genta has made some of the best and diverse looking watches of the 20th century (think of a scope that varies all the way between the Universal Geneve Polerouter and the Rolex King Midas), he will always be most known for his iconic style of luxury sports watch, often with an integrated steel bracelet, and a flat and wide bezel with exposed screws or bolts. These include the AP Royal Oak, the IWC Ingenieur and the Patek Nautilus. And the Locomotive was right in Genta’s wheelhouse - steel, angular, flat bezel and huge exposed screws.

For the 2024 reinterpretation of the watch, Credor keeps it right up there with the original, but with modern changes. First of all, there’s no more steel, as it’s replaced by titanium, and the quartz movement has been replaced with an automatic, but more on that later. The case keeps a compact size, measuring 38.8mm wide and just 8.9mm thick. The signature hexagonal case and bezel retain the six screws of the original, now functional as opposed to the old model. Most of the case is brushed with a couple of polished details and the crown is in the same position as the original - 4 o’clock. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial remains very much a modern take on the original. In fact, Credor says they’ve scanned the original dial and recreated it perfectly with 1,600 radial lines engraved into the black dial that serves as the base. This gives the dial an incredible shine, and an almost grey-brown look in some light. Everything else is kept pretty simple, with applied and framed markers and date window. The markers and hands are both very curved and filled with lume.

Inside is a new movement we don’t know much about. It’s called the Calibre CR01 and is a fairly thin and basic automatic with a beat rate of 28,800vph and a 45 hour power reserve. The bracelet has also been recreated, but also in titanium, and has the very Genta-esque hexagonal mid-links, closed with a three-fold clasp with push button release.

Unfortunately, the Credor Locomotive is limited to just 300 pieces, so you know those will just vanish even despite the price of €14,000 which might be a bit high if the stories I’ve read that the movement is based on the Calibre 6L35 from Seiko. See more on the Credor website.

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Louis Erard Unveils First Regulator With A Grand Feu Enamel Dial, Made By Donzé Cadrans

OK, this is an incredible coincidence. The last time I wrote about a Louis Erard Release was towards the end of April when they released a collaboration with famous watchmaker and jeweler Cédric Johner. It was in that exact same issue that I featured a Credor with which they started their 50th anniversary, just like the Locomotive above. Coincidences aside, Louis Erard is really on a roll, cranking limited edition after limited edition, each different than the last and each with a very clear intention to showcase the talents of so many people in the industry through their canvas of a Regulator model. That’s what I love most about them. For their latest release they teamed up with the famous dial maker Donzé Cadrans of Le Locle to release their first Grand Feu enamel dial on a Regulator.

While the previous two Regulator releases from Louis Erard saw major changes to the case, this latest one returns to a much more classic look. Made out of polished stainless steel, it measures 39mm wide, 12.82mm thick and has a 45.9mm lug-to-lug. You’ll find sapphire crystals on top and bottom, a diamond-shaped crown on the right side, and a very thin curved bezel that makes the watch look like it’s all dial.

And it should be all dial. Made by Donzé Cadrans which has been making dials for more than 50 years, it is ivory in color with a slight shine to it. This is achieved with the application of five to seven successive coats of enamel, with high temeperature baking in between. All of this has to be done by hand. Being a regulator it has the central minute hand that tracks on the periphery, a small sub-dial at noon for the hours and one at 6 o’clock for the seconds. A bespoke typeface is used on all the numerals, one that looks very much like that seen on the last several releases from Hermès. The hands are blued steel and fir tree style, like so many other Louis Erard watches.

Inside is the relatively humble Sellita SW266-1, a regulator movement based on the SW200 series which is pretty robust and easily servicable. The good thing is this is an élaboré grade of the movement. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grey calfskin leather strap with a polished steel pin buckle.

The Louis Erard Regulator Grand Feu Enamel is limited to 99 pieces and priced at CHF 4,500 without tax. See more on the Louis Erard website.

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Moritz Grossmann Teams Up With Sincere Fine Watches To Celebrate 70 Years Of The Legendary Asian Retailer

If you, like me, don’t spend a lot of time in Asia, especially Singapore, you might not be all that familiar with Sincere Fine Watches. I know of the retailer and know that they carry some of the most prestigious brands in the world - especially in their Sincere Haute Horlogerie boutique in Taipei - but I had no idea that their history dates back to 1954, before Singapore was even a country. Now, the retailer is celebrating their 70th birthday with 12 special editions by watchmakers, each with a unique place in horological history. The list includes Greubel Forsey, Ferdinand Berthoud, Laurent Ferrier, and many more. The first one to be released is a new watch from Moritz Grossmann, the Hamatic Astral Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition.

On the outside, things are very simple. A 41mm wide rose gold case has slightly angular lugs and a polished finish, with sapphire crystals on top and bottom. But things get much more interesting on the dial - this is the first time that MG has used goldstone. Contrary to what the name might suggest, goldstone is neither gold nor a stone. It is glass heated to a high temperature and combined with copper to create little crystalline elements that are suspended within the material. The dial has a deep blue look with twinkling gold-like flecks inside of it. There’s a sunken small seconds display at 6 o’clock and the perimeter sees elongated trapezoid hour markers, with a Roman ‘XII’ at the top of the dial, all rendered in rose gold. The hands are extremely thin with poire tips and made out of rose gold.

Inside is the Calibre 106.0 which is referenced in the name of the watch, the “Hamatic” part. This is a reference to the unique winding system of the movement which uses a bidirectional operating hammer mechanism taking the place of a standard oscillating rotor. As the hammer oscillates, it drives two click levers that wind the mainspring both ways, adding a bit of efficiency to the function. The watch comes on a dark blue strap made from alligator leather and the caseback has Sincere’s 70th anniversary logo engraved on the open caseback.

The watch is limited to just 10 pieces and available only at Sincere’s Takashimaya boutique and the SHH boutique at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. Price is set at S$102,000 which converts to about $75,500. See more on the Sincere website.

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Breguet Expands The Marine Collection With Marine Chronograph 5529 & Dame 9518

Despite making arguably some of the nicest watches on the market, Breguet has one of the simplest model line setups of any brands. There are the Tradition/Classique lines which make, no surprise here, very traditional watches; there’s the Type XX military watch; and there’s the Marine collection which makes their sports watches. Now, do not expect something in line with Richard Mille from Breguet, the Marine watches are still very, very traditional. And now we’re getting two new diamon studded models, a 42.3mm Chronograph in white or rose gold and a smaller 33.8mm in steel.

Starting off with the larger model, the Marine Chronograph 5527, it is a continuation of the Marine Chronograph Breguet has been making for years. The case measures 42.3mm wide and 13.58mm thick and can be had in 18k white or rose gold that still has the famous Breguet fluted pattern on the side. This release has 90 baguette-cut diamonds set into the bezel and despite being a sports watch, you only get 30 meters of water resistance. I told you that you should take the “sports” with a grain of salt. I think they have the sport of sitting on your megayacht in mind here.

The dial is largely the same regardless of the material. It’s dark blue with a hand-guilloché wave pattern on the central disc. The sub-dial are different sizes with a smaller seconds counter at 9 o’clock and two slightly larger counters at 3 and 6 that intersect a bit. Eight hour markers are represented by baguette-cut diamonds set in gold frames while the rest are gold Roman numerals. If you opt for the pink gold version all of your hardware will be in pink gold and the white gold gets all white gold. Unfortunately, Breguet still insists on placing the date window at 4:30 making a horrible mess of it.

Inside is the familiar calibre 582 QA, an automatic flyback chronograph that beats at 4Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a blue leather or rubber strap. Price is set at €140,700. See more of the watch on the Breguet website.

Then there’s the new Breguet Marine Dame. As the name suggests, this one is targeted towards women. It comes in a stainless steel case that measures 33.8mm wide and 9.89mm thick, with a slightly better water resistance of 50 meters. The bezel is set with 50 brilliant-cut diamonds.

The dial has eight diamond markers framed in white gold with three luminescent pennant-style Roman numerals at III, IX and XII. There are two new models, one with a silver sunburst dial and the other with a blue sunburst dial. Inside is the time-and-date (oh look, the date is in a sane 6 o’clock position here!) automatic calibre 591A with a 38-hour power reserve. Both watches come with 3-link integrated stainless steel bracelets with a triple-blade folding clasp. The Breguet Marine Ladies 9518 sells for €29,300, regardless of color. You can see more about them on the Breguet website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the TAG Heuer Carrera Tourbillon Chronograph in teal

2/

Hands-On With The Hermès Cut

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A review of the Maurice de Mauriac Pillow Watch

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The three new versions of the Raymond Weil Millesime show the full potential of the vintage-inspired line

Raymond Weil applies a technique called “evolved design.” It takes a historical concept as a starting point and then asks what it would look like if it were drawn today. The result, if done right, tends to be more original and less sentimental than most straight vintage reissues are. The approach takes the gimmicky vibe out of vintage-inspired design.

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

• Since 2020, orcas off the Iberian coast, particularly in the Strait of Gibraltar, have taken up a hobby: ramming boats. Sailors have reported almost a thousand attacks. This behavior is atypical, as killer whales have rarely targeted boats in the past. Tomas Weber visits the region to understand what might be going on, and various orca experts and animal biologists have different theories. Are they seeking revenge against humans? Is it a display of orca culture or the group’s dynamic? Or are the instigators simply young whales who are playing with the rudders of boats? Weber tags along with Spanish orca expert Renaud de Stephanis to report on this whale of a tale.

• It’s easy to write about disliking something. It’s much, much harder to do so generously, with the skill to make even casual readers care about the nuances of a tennis point—yet that’s exactly what Scott Stossel does in this long, reasoned, highly enjoyable screed about Serbian tennis great Novak Djokovic. All haterade should taste this good.

• In 1983, 19-year-old Barbara Grams finished her shift at the Tampa Bay Center mall and walked into the night. She was found dead in the morning, raped and beaten, with an apparent bite mark on her cheek. Robert DuBoise, 18 at the time, was stunned when Tampa police arrested him after taking molds of his teeth that ultimately helped send him to death row. DuBoise served 37 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. His 2020 exoneration helped reveal what authorities call a vicious spree of serial killings, the links between them buried deep in case files and a medical examiner’s cabinet for decades.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

About a week ago the Peking to Paris, one of the coolest rallies of all time, kicked off and I got reminded of it with a couple of compilation videos from the road. Which reminded me of this documentary that follows the 2019 race. Watch it if you like pre 1980 cars crushing miles and miles of rough terrain.

💵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 Ōtsuka 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