Breitling's New Perpetual Chrono Has An Interesting Price; Mido Gives Commander 1959 Funky Pixelized Dial; Stowa Faithful Recreation Of Historic Flieger; Fears and Topper Team Up For A Great Cause

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. There’s not a lot of watches today, but I have to say I like every single one of them, which doesn’t happen all that often.

In this issue:

• Breitling Does The B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar In Steel And Platinum With An Interesting Price

• Mido Gives The Commander 1959 A Very Funky, Slightly 70s, Pixelized Dial

• Stowa Releases The Most Faithful Recreation Of The Historic Pilot’s Watch With The Flieger Original

• Fears and Topper Team Up Again For The Redcliff 39.5 Burlingame Edition ‘Confetti’ For A Great Cause

👂What’s new

1/

Breitling Does The B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar In Steel And Platinum With An Interesting Price

Last year was a good year for Breitling. The brand marked their 140th anniversary, and as part of the celebration, they released a trio of quite stunning rose gold perpetual calendar chronographs. They used the three watches to show off their new caliber B19, and it was only a matter of time when they used the same movement in a watch that didn’t cost more than €50,000. And now is that time, as Breitling just released a the new Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar in steel and platinum. There is something inherently cool about a perpetual calendar and chronograph combination, but the price on this thing is what might be the most interesting thing.

The size of the new non-gold Navitimer B19 remains the same — it measures 43mm wide, 15mm thick and has a 49mm lug-to-lug. The case is now made out of stainless steel, but on top is a rotating bezel that’s made out of platinum with a black slide rule insert. You still get the same piston-style pushers and water resistance isn’t that great at 30 meters. But hey, are you planing on swimming with your steel/platinum perpetual calendar chronograph?

The dial is great looking, with a striking sunburst finish and a ice blue color. The sub-dials have circular graining in the same color as the dial. The moonphase indicator gets a dark blue color, while a very intense bright blue is used on several parts of the dial to give contrast to the more metallic blue of the base.

Inside is the mentioned B19 movement, which is built on the same base as the Calibre B01 chronograph, but with many improvements. For example, power reserve has been bumped up from 70 hours to 96 hours. To display the perpetual calendar details, Breitling chose to use the chronograph sub-dials, the date and 30-minute totaliser are at 3 o’clock, the month and leap year are at 6 o’clock, day and small seconds at 9 o’clock, moon phases ar at 12 o’clock, with a central chronograph seconds. The movement is, of course, COSC certified. The watch comes on either a stainless steel seven-row bracelet with a butterfly clasp or a black alligator strap.

The new Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar is priced at $29,000 on leather and $29,500 on the bracelet. This is far from being a cheap watch, but comparatively, it’s dirt cheap. If you want to get a perpetual calendar chronograph, you have to be looking at a Patek at way north of 100,000, or a Lange Datograph Perpetual that’s not much cheaper, or a Vacheron Traditionnelle Perpetual Calendar Chronograph in the same vicinity. The one competitor you might be looking at is the IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Chronograph which IWC no longer sells. And when they did, back in 2017, they priced it at $29,900 in all steel. So the Breitling really is a great deal. See more on the Breitling website.

2/

Mido Gives The Commander 1959 A Very Funky, Slightly 70s, Pixelized Dial

Mido makes some of the best Swatch Group watches. Sure, they make some unremarkable and boing watches, but their Multifort TV Big Date oozes 70s cool, and the Ocean Star line is incredible. The Tribute is a great diver, the GMT might be the best looking one on the market for the price and the Decompression Worldtimer is just incredible. Then there’s the Commadner line. It’s been in continuous production since 1959, hence the name — Mido Commander 1959. Well, technically, the Commander 1959 collection is a heritage collection that draws inspiration from those original watches, giving it a fully retro look. Now, with the new Pixel model, it gets a very funky disco-ball like dial.

Unlike the regular Mido Commander, the 1959 version has a much more retro shape. It takes on the same pebble shape of the original, only now it’s slightly larger at 37mm wide and 10.5mm thick. And since there are no lugs, just a fully round case, it also has a length of 37mm. The one thing that will anger people, but I warmly embrace, is the use of an acrylic crystal on top. Acrylic gives the watch a charming and vintage warm look and it’s often easier to maintain. Water resistance is not great at 50 meters, but will make sure that water doesn’t get in during everyday wear.

Then, there’s the very unique dial. It’s completely made up of hundreds of tiny squares in various sizes and colors. The base is black, with shades of blue, pink and purple making up the colorful mosaic that looks like a disco ball stuck in the late 1970s. But that’s not all. Some of the squares are filled in with colored Super-LumiNova, creating a very cool effect at night. The dial also has retro-inspired polished hour markers and hands, both with black inserts.

Inside, you’ll find Swatch Group’s Powermatic calibre 80. It beats at 21,600vph and has an 80 hour power reserve. Since the case doesn’t have lugs, the Milanese mesh bracelet integrates right into the case.

The new Mido Commander 1959 Pixel is available now and it’s priced at CHF 740. See more on the Mido website.

3/

Stowa Releases The Most Faithful Recreation Of The Historic Pilot’s Watch With The Flieger Original

The German manufacturer Stowa is particularly well known for their fligers, especially those with a B-Uhr configuration. And for very good reason, as they are one of the five original companies — including A. Lange & Söhne, Laco, Wempe and IWC — that was awarded the contracts to construct the the original pilot’s watches ordered by the newly formed Luftwaffe in the early 1930s (I wrote about the history of the flieger here, and I unlocked the article that was exclusive to paid subscribers so you can read it for free). So, it’s really interesting to see them release the new Stowa Flieger Original, what could be the most faithful recreations of the original flieger.

The original fliegers were huge watches, meant to be worn over pilot’s jackets and be easy to tell the time at a glance. So, the one thing in which the Stowa Flieger Original majorly drifts away from the original is the size. It’s still large at 42mm wide, 13.5mm thick, and with a 52.3mm lug-to-lug, but not nearly as the originals. It comes in a steel case with a bead-blasted finish, and there is a flat onion-style crown on the side. On top and bottom are sapphire crystals, and you will want to see what’s behind the one on bottom.

The dial is also as close as can get to the original. This watch has the Type A configuration, which means that you get a minutes track on the edge of the dial, large numerals, the double dots over triangle at noon and heat blued sword-shaped hands. All of the markings and hands are filled with Super-LumiNova. Keeping the ethos of the vintage watches, there is no writing or date on the dial.

Since the watch companies had to build a lot of pilot’s watches quickly, they used the most abundant movement to them — large hand-wound movements. And Stowa keeps somewhat in that tradition with this release. It uses the STOWA-M1 manufacture movement, which is the Unitas 6498-1 movement modified in-house to convert it to central seconds. It’s hand wound, beats at 2.5Hz and has a 46 hour power reserve. Being a huge movement, it also has a lot of area to decorate, and Stowa has done it. Decorations include radiant brushed stripes, heat-blued screws and chamfered edges. It’s a great looking thing. The watch can be had on either riveted leather straps in brown or black, or on a steel Milanese bracelet.

The new Stowa Flieger Original is available now at a price of €2,990. See more on the Stowa website.

4/

Fears and Topper Team Up Again For The Redcliff 39.5 Burlingame Edition ‘Confetti’ For A Great Cause

It’s thanks to Burlingame, California-based Topper Jewelers that I finally fell in love with Fears watches. I respected what Fears was doing, but never really clicked with their watches until I saw the California-themed collaboration with Topper. Those were so great, I am no completely in love with everything Fears does. Now, they are reaming up again, for the fourth time, on a dial that celebrates a very special occasion in their sporty Redcliff model. This is the new Fears Redcliff Confetti Burlingame Edition.

Like I said, the Redcliff is Fears’ sportiest watch that comes in a brushed stainless steel case, with polished details, measuring 39.5mm wide. On top is a domed sapphire with dual-sided anti-reflective coating, surrounded by a plain bezel. On the right is an unguarded and oversized screw down crown which gives you a pretty impressive 300 meters of water resistance.

Then, there’s the Confetti dial that’s meant to be a celebration. And the story behind the celebration is quite something. The multi-colored confetti on the white dial are drawn by John Caplan just after completing three years of chemotherapy in his fight against Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The fun dial is paired with applied baton hour markers full of lume and more lume on the lance-shaped hands. The central seconds hand is done in a pastel blue color.

Inside is the La Joux-Perret G100, which has proven to be somewhat loud, mostly due to its fast-turning rotor, but is a really nice alternative to the ETA 2824 clones. It has the same 4Hz beat rate, but offers a much, much better power reserve of 68 hours. The watch comes on a 3-link stainless steel bracelet with a folding clasp, with an additional powder grey textile strap.

The first batch of Fears Redcliff Confetti Burlingame Edition’s have been sent out to early buyers, but the second batch is expected in April. The watch is priced at $3,700 and a portion of the proceeds of this Fears Redcliff Confetti Burlingame Edition will be donated to support the world-renowned oncology research being conducted at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Stanford. See more on the Fears or on the Topper website.

⏲️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

• Marcin Wichary explores the history of the Gorton font, a ubiquitous yet overlooked industrial typeface. Wichary’s fascinating research ultimately leads him to walk over 100 miles in New York City, photographing thousands of examples of the font in the wild. If you like to follow curious people down rabbit holes, stop what you’re doing and read this refreshing essay, which is accompanied by beautiful photographs.

• For Literary Hub, Sahar Delijani confronts the linguistic betrayal she feels when writing in English about Iran, a country that she left as a child and hasn’t visited in 13 years. As a first-generation immigrant writer, she recalls the thrill of learning her first world in English as a girl in Tehran and the dissonance she felt on arriving in the US to discover her pronunciations were incorrect and that her comprehension suffered.

• Twenty-five years ago, Dave Eggers’ literary debut won its author instant fame and cultural ubiquity. These days, however, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius quietly moves just a few copies each day, its fanfare long since diminished. As the anniversary of its publication quietly passes by, Dan Kois considers the disparate impacts of Eggers’ memoir, which inspired a generation of would-be writers and gave rise to a mighty literary empire, even as its creator struggled openly and passionately with the consequences of his creative act.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The Breitling Fighters were the first civilian display team sponsored by Breitling. They were some of the best teams to ever do it, and I just accidentally found this video. It’s an incredible one minute and 25 seconds.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk