Breitling Pays Honor To U.S. Naval Aviators With New Avenger Night Mission Trio; Zodiac Goes White For The Summer; Junghans Has Ladies Watches; The Chinese Are A Big Thing; And A New De Bethune

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. If you want one piece of advice today, go check out the work of Qin Gan I linked to below. It’s extremely nice!

In this issue:

• Breitling Launches New Avenger Night Mission Collection To Honor Elite U.S. Naval Aviators

• Zodiac Ditches Almost All Color For Their Summer Ready Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver

• Junghans’ Max Bill Damen Gets A Very Refreshing Red-Cream-Blue Color Combination

• Watchmaker Qin Gan’s New Delectable Pastorale II Shows Why Chinese Watches Will Be The Next Big Thing

• De Bethune Slims Down The Kind of Blue Tourbillon With The New DB28XP

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 48 seconds

👂What’s new

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Breitling Launches New Avenger Night Mission Collection To Honor Elite U.S. Naval Aviators

There are several brands out there that had a couple of rough years but are now going through a new renaissance. TAG Heuer is one of these brands making huge strides with the work on the Carrera Glasbox. But right there with TAG is Breitling. While they made some pretty awesome watches in the 90s, the 2000s weren’t necessarily that kind to them. Then, in the last five years, everything changed. Their designs got more crisp and consistent, they drew on every single inspiration they could, from their history, automotive racing and sports, all the way to what they are associated most - aviation and military. I love what they have been doing. Now, they’re expanding the Avenger line with a partnership with the aviators of the United States Navy with three different watches paying homage to the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Navy squadron VX-30 “The Bloodhounds,” and U.S. Navy squadron VX-31 “The Dust Devils.”

Not only do these three watches come in identical cases, the case is the same as the regular Avenger Night Mission. This means it’s made out of black ceramic and measures 44mm wide and 15.2mm thick. Large, but this is a military-themed Breitling. For what it is, one could say it’s undersized. On top and bottom of all three are sapphire crystals. The bezel is traditional Breitling Avenger, with the 60 minute count-up markings and raised bezel tabs. Not that the bezel tabs help much, seeing as how the markings are engraved into the ceramic bezel and not very legible.

The difference between the three, of course, are the dials. They have the same architecture, with three recessed sub-dials, a date window at 6 o’clock, raised matte indices and a faceted pointed baton handset. The differentiation comes from the colors and logos in the 9 o’clock sub-dial on the dial. The Breitling Avenger B01 Chronograph 44 Night Mission U.S. Naval Academy get’s a matte blue base with yellow accents for the subdials, outer seconds scale, and the central chronograph seconds hand. The 9 o’clock sub-dial holds the scrollwork emblem of the United States Naval Academy.

The Avenger B01 Chronograph 44 Night Mission USN Bloodhounds gets a charcoal gray matte base dial with yellow accents and the mean three-headed dog emblem of the U.S. Navy VX-30 “The Bloodhounds” experimental test squadron. And lastly, there’s the Avenger B01 Chronograph 44 Night Mission USN Dust Devils which gets a black matte dial with red details and the red-devil-sitting-on-a-tornado logo of the U.S. Navy VX-31 “The Dust Devils” test squadron on the sub-dial.

Inside all three watches is the same movement, their in-house Caliber 01 automatic chrono. It’s an column wheel style chronograph which beats at 4Hz and has a very nice power reserve of 70 hours. All of the movements are COSC certified and are decorated with a mix of matte blasting, arabesque brushing, and linear brushing for the bridges, and a sleek skeleton rotor with further linear brushing. The watches come on black leather straps that have a fabric-effect, stitching that matches the dial color and a deployant clasp.

The three new U.S. Naval Editions watches don’t seem to be limited, but they do come at a price - $10,200. This is a slight bump up from the regular black ceramic Avenger 44 which is priced at $9,650. I often had nice things to say about Breitling pricing. I’m not sure I can do the same with the Avenger 44 line in ceramic. See for yourself on the Breitling website.

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Zodiac Ditches Almost All Color For Their Summer Ready Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver

As summer approaches, brands start putting out watches that are more sporty, more colorful, ready to be worn on the beach. This is exactly what Zodiac also did every year. And then this year, the flipped the script. Their latest summer beach watch is the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver ZO9309 which gets a black and white colorway with just a hint of color. Pretty cool.

The new Compression Diver comes in the familiar brushed steel case that’s 40mm wide with chunky and faceted lugs. On top is a white ceramic bezel insert, which Zodiac cleverly uses to mask the fact that this is not, in fact, a ceramic-case watch. Zodiac already made a ceramic case white Super Sea Wolf (technically, it wasn’t ceramic cased, but rather a ceramic cap over a steel core), which came at a higher price point. To keep it low, they have the prominent ceramic bezel which, in combination with the white dial, gives a sense of being a white ceramic watch. At least in pictures. Pretty nifty. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial, like I said, is white and not fully lumed as one could expect from light colored Zodiac watch releases lately. There is, however, a green chapter ring with the minute track which is fully lumed quite well. The indexes are applied squares bordered in black and filled with lume, while the hands are chunky batons - black for the hours and green for the minutes, both filled with lume. There’s also a date aperture at 3 o’clock.

Inside is the STP 1-21 automatic movement, which comes as no surprise as Fossil, Zodiac’s owner, also owns Swiss Technology Production (STP). It’s an alternative to the ubiquitous Sellita SW200 and similarly beats at 28,800vph and has a 40 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a white tropic rubber strap.

The new Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver reference ZO9309 is available now and priced at $1,395. See more on the Zodiac website.

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Junghans’ Max Bill Damen Gets A Very Refreshing Red-Cream-Blue Color Combination

I often write about Junghans watches on here. But I also almost exclusively focus on their pilot’s watches and the minimalist offerings in the Max Bill Bauhaus-style line. What I unfairly don’t mention their watches in the Damen category which are nominally intended for women but due to their minimalist design and smaller cases can work for pretty much anybody with a smaller wrist. But we’re fixing that now with the new France-inspired Junghans Max Bill Damen in the classic colorways blue, red, and cream.

The new trio comes in a really small case which measures just 32.7mm wide and 6.9mm thick. Made out of stainless steel, the entire case is polished, has the characteristic round shape and a domed sapphire crystal on top. Despite its small size and dressy look, you still get pretty decent water resistance of 50 meters.

The dials come with a polished white surface, same for all three models, with the only difference being the color of the printed numerals - black, blue or red, with a matched color on the date wheel numerals at the 3 o’clock position. There’s not much else to these dials, other than the thin printed markers, lumed dots at the hour positions and stick hands that are also filled with lume.

Inside, something very simple - the Quartz Caliber J643.29. There’s not much to this movement, other than it’s based on the pretty ubiquitous ETA 955.412 which shows up in a bunch of watches ranging from fashion brands to more respectable ones like Junghans. Battery life is somewhere around 80 months and the watch has an end-of-life indicator. The watches come on leather straps that match the dials (except for the black text, obviously) - blue, read and cream, which give the watches a ton of character.

The new Junghans Max Bill Damen are available for purchase now, priced at €745 with tax. See more on the Junghans website.

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Watchmaker Qin Gan’s New Delectable Pastorale II Shows Why Chinese Watches Will Be The Next Big Thing

I pointed out many, many times in this newsletter that the time of smirking down on Chinese watches is way behind us. Time and time again Chinese brands have shown that they are pushing what’s possible in watchmaking and putting out incredible complications for a fraction of the cost of what they retailed for just a few short years ago. On the other end of the spectrum - but often overlapping - are the many talented watchmakers from China have proven that they are artisans on the highest level. One such artisan is Qin Gan, a son of a well-respected watchmaker in Chongqing, who made a name for himself with the Pastorale he launched in 2021. Now, he’s back with the Pastorale II.

The original Pastorale was Qin Gan testing the waters, as the watch was limited to just six pieces. The Pastorale II is much more of a rounded product, but equally as elegant. It comes in a 38.5mm wide and 9.5mm thick case that you can had in either white or rose 18k gold. On top is a concave bezel surrounding a sapphire crystal, the lugs are horn shaped and the entire case has a combination of brushed and polished surfaces. It’s all very traditional and elegant.

There are two dials, one for each case material. The gold case gets a champagne champlevé enamel dial, while the rose gold case gets a silver dial with the same enamel finish. Roman numerals are engraved into the dial between two lines for the hour track, broken up by a wonderfully enlarged XII numeral, and they are all filled with black enamel. There’s a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock. The central hour and minute hands are bevelled and heat-blued.

The movement is very interesting. Called the Calibre 1810, it’s based on the Longines 30L architecture, a manually wound vintage Longines movement that was produced from 1955 to 1967. Despite having the same architecture, the entire movement is produced and finished in-house, with a handmade mainplate and geartrain. Almost all the decorations, which include Côtes de Genève, chamfering and perlage, are also done by hand. The watch comes on a leather strap with a simple pin buckle in either yellow or pink gold.

While the original Pastorale was made in only six pieces, the Pastorale II will still be limited, but not as much - 15 pieces will be made per year, at a price of $46,000, without tax. Qin Gan doesn’t have a website, but you can see all of his stuff on Instagram.

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De Bethune Slims Down The Kind of Blue Tourbillon With The New DB28XP

About 10 days ago, De bethune introduced a trio of watches in their DB Eight line and it was a huge departure from their regular offering. It is a somewhat traditional round mono-pusher chronograph. Well, they got that out of their system and now they’re back to making strange watches. And good on them! This is the new ultra-thin DB28XP which takes the incredible blue colored case of the DB28T Kind of Blue and applies it to the DB28XP, meaning it cuts down on thickness, significantly, while retaining a tourbillon.

The DB28XP Kind of Blue Tourbillon comes in a case made out of grade 5 titanium that measures 43mm wide and 9.1mm thick, with the signature De Bethune floating lugs and crown at 12 o’clock. De Bethune says the color of the watch is achieved through natural oxidation, and it’s way above my knowledge of materials, so we’ll have to trust them.

The dial is just as blue as the case, with a microlight engraving and Milky Way patterns created through laser micro-milling and gilded with 24-carat gold leaf. At 6 o’clock is the aperture for the tourbillon which rotates every 30 seconds, covered by an openworked blued bridge.

Inside the watch is the De Bethune calibre DB2009v5 which beats at 36,000vph and has a 5 day power reserve. That’s thanks to the twin barrels you can see through the caseback, where you can also see the power reserve indicator. The watch comes on a black alligator leather strap that closes with a blued titanium buckle.

The De Bethune DB28XP Kind of Blue Tourbillon is limited to 20 pieces and is priced at CHF 220,000. Without taxes. See more on the De Bethune website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas in rose gold

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Hands on with the Christopher Ward C65 Dune GMT

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A review of the Anthracite Armin Strom One Week Manufacture Edition

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The new Circula ProFlight Blue is the perfect combination of classic pilot's watch and modern design

The ProFlight builds on the hardened case with the special profile of previous models. The hand-sandblasted and faceted stainless steel case protects a reliable and precise Swiss Sellita SW200-1 Elaboré caliber inside. It also sports a slightly curved sapphire crystal with an inner antireflective coating and offers water resistance to 150 meters. The newly designed screw-down crown is more in line with Flieger designs and has the Circula logo filled with Swiss Super-LumiNova.

The Circula ProFlight’s case offers a good balance between sturdiness and wearing comfort. Based on the measurements we took, it has a 40.6mm diameter, 13.6mm thickness, and 45.8mm lug-to-lug. The flanks are an interesting detail of the case. They are slightly recessed in the longitudinal direction and have a coarse-grained texture. This optical trick makes the case look pleasantly slim.

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

• At some point in Cedric Lodge’s nearly three-decade career at the Harvard Medical School morgue, he decided to steal body parts from cadavers and sell them to customers—and got away with it for at least four years. Lodge’s case reveals an expansive network of human remains trading, much of it legal. While the subject is undoubtedly unsettling for some readers, Ally Jarmanning reports a fascinating story on this macabre market for body parts—and poses interesting questions about property, collecting, and preservation.

• There are many kinds of media burnout, but none are quite like “people who wrote about Game of Thrones.” For The Verge, Kevin Nguyen revisits the heady exhausting days when digital outlets would chase the fantasy saga’s page-view bounty. Say what you will about the death of monoculture, but at least such a phenomenon is unlikely to darken our doorsteps again.

• Alexandra Horowitz will get you thinking with this piece that explores the process of cloning dogs. Are clones the same as the beloved pets owners are attempting to recreate? Is it a morally acceptable practice? In a world that borders on sci-fi, Horowitz is a decisive guide.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Browsing through YouTube I stumbled on this video of this pretty freaky unmanned electronic warfare weapon that the US will likely be using soon. That led me to discovering Anduril, the company, and its founder Palmer Luckey. He sold the Oculus VR system to Facebook for a couple of billion dollars and since then has been growing out his hair and super weird beard, wearing Hawaiian shirts and flip flops and trying to become the largest advanced AI weapons producer in the world. You think I’m making things up? the Bloomberg video you can watch above starts on an attack boat Luckey purchased for fun from the US Navy. Yeah, what could go wrong with all of this.

💵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