Breitling Updates Controversial Endurance Pro Line, Ball Serves First Responders With Life Saving Functions, Tiffany Introduces Diamond-Inspired Line And Canadian Brand Arcus Switches Directions

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. There’s not much going on right now, it’s the height of summer, but I still managed to find some new releases. Hope you enjoy them.

The Seiko giveaway is over, and I’ll let the winners know by the end of the week. In the meantime, I’m starting a new giveaway. I used to do several cheaper watches and people loved it. However, I’m trying something new out. Just one watch, but a bit up there in price - the Longines Spirit Zulu Time. Since it’s just one watch, there’s a new way to get it. It’s a “ticket system” where you can enter the giveaway multiple times if you do one of three things: subscribe to the newsletter, invite your friends (every friend you get to subscribe is a seperate ticket) or fill out our survey. So invite your friends or fill out the survey to enter right now.

In this issue:

• Breitling Releases More Colors For Their Ever-Expanding Endurance Pro Line

• Ball Pays Homage To First Responders And Gives Them Life-Saving Functions In New Roadmaster Special Edition

• Tiffany & Co. Introduces New HardWear Collection And Updates The Eternity Line, There’s Even One Surprisingly Affordable Watch

• Canadian Brand Arcus Switches Directions, Unveils New Exos Model

Today’s reading time: 6 minutes and 57 second

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👂What’s new

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Breitling Releases More Colors For Their Ever-Expanding Endurance Pro Line

I might be going crazy, but I’m starting to like the Endurance Pro Line from Breitling. Yes, it’s a very expensive quartz watch that’s huge, flashy, a little bit insulting, preposterous and very purpose build. But they are all that in just the right amount to be interesting. And they love to do collaborations. It’s something Breitling is very well known for and they do it well, regardless of what a lot of people think of it. Since 2021, they have worked with the Ironman racing series to create a special watch for them. Their latest is a duo of IRONMAN World Championship Editions, which is essentially just a new colorway of the original Endurance Pro IRONMAN.

The new 70.3 World Championshiop, like the previous Ironman Finisher model, gets a case made from Breitlight (carbon composite) that measures 44mm in diameter by 12.5mm-thick, with an overall lug-to-lug profile of 52.49mm. It has a rubberized crown and a pair of pushers on the 3 o’clock side of the case, and a screw-on caseback that helps create a 100 meters of water resistance. What’s different is the colorway. It gets splashes of turquoise on the dial with bright yellow accents on the chronograph hands and features the Ironman logo within the sub-dial at the 6 o’clock location. Ironman also shows up on the chunky turquoise rubber strap that usually says Breitling.

The other watch Breitling is introducing is called the Endurance Pro IRONMAN World Championship Edition. Sounds the same as the one I described above? Note that it’s missing the 70.3 in the name, meaning that it’s not made out of carbon composites, but rather out of brushed titanium. While the turquoise-colored Endurance Pro IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Edition is intended to be a tribute to the IRONMAN competition in Lahti, Finland, the titanium Breitling Endurance Pro IRONMAN World Championship Edition is dedicated to the men’s competition in Nice, France and the women’s competition in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It also gets its own colorway - the same anthracite dial, but with bright blue instead of turquoise and with orange on the hands.

Inside the watch is Breitling’s super advanced. Caliber 82 thermocompensated quartz movement, which features a 30-minute chronograph that is capable of measuring times down to 1/10th of a second, along with an automatically changing date display located at the 4:30 position. Based upon the core architecture of an ETA movement design, the battery-powered Breitling Cal. 82 offers standard chronograph functionality, although it also features a split-timing feature. Additionally, just like nearly all of the brand’s contemporary movements, the Breitling Cal. 82 is a COSC-certified chronometer, which means that it is accurate to within approximately ten seconds per year.

You can look at this watch as a really expensive quartz watch or an affordable Breitling. Ever the optimist, I choose the latter. The carbon composite version can be had for EUR 3,550, while the titanium is EUR 3,950. Both models are super limited and only 250 pieces will be made of each. You can see more on the Breitling website.

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Ball Pays Homage To First Responders And Gives Them Life-Saving Functions In New Roadmaster Special Edition

It was just last week that I wrote about Ball and some of their shady practices - a not so clear ownership structure, questions whether they have swiss-based manufacturing facilities, the fact that they heavily rely on preorders, as if they wanted to know how many watches they had to make in China and make logistic easier… But, despite all this, they still make some very interesting wathces. And then they go and make the new Ball Roadmaster First Responder with so many functions that can actually help first responders that you can’t criticize them too much.

This watch is based on the familiar Roadmaster, so you get a 41mm wide titanium case that’s built for toughness. Ball says you can get it in two different configurations. One is with a conventional anti-shock system that protects the movement inside from harder bumps. The other, however, is hardcore. It comes with rotor-lock case back that prevents external shock from affecting the movement. When the mechanism is locked, the watch is capable of withstanding a 5.2 metre free fall. When locked, the movement draws from its 42-hour power reserve, which you can see on the dial-mounted indicator.

On to the functions that help save lives - for first responders, the first hour of a call is key, which is why the rotating bezel has a 60-minute countdown scale printed on its black ceramic insert. Not that unusual, but it also has platinum minutes, which are marked on the inner bezel, are the first 10 minutes after a trauma in which first aid is critical. Usually inner bezels are operated via a crown that would be fiddly to work with in gloves; however, the Ball Roadmaster First Responder uses a special mechanism that lets you use the inner bezel with ease. Simply rotate the external bezel counterclockwise to engage the countdown, or turn it clockwise to set the inner ring. The chapter ring gives you a pulsometer scale, while the other scale lets you count breaths per minute. It also has a double ended seconds hand, so you don’t have to wait for a full minute before you can start using the pulsometer.

Inside is the BALL RR1302 movement, which is based on the ETA 2897 architecture. Along with the rotor-lock case back it’s been modified with special lubricants that ensure reliable operation in temperatures from -45 °C to +80 °C.

The Ball Roadmaster First Responder can be pre-ordered until September 6, at an exclusive price starting at CHF 2,090 without rotor-lock or CHF 2,240 with rotor-lock. Check out the Ball website for more.

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Tiffany & Co. Introduces New HardWear Collection And Updates The Eternity Line, There’s Even One Surprisingly Affordable Watch

The LVMH purchase of Tiffany has gone through. Seeing as how LVMH owns TAG Heuer, Zenith, Bulgari and Hublot, we can expect Tiddany & Co. to step up their watch game. And that is exactly what’s happening. The brand just introduced a new HardWear watch collection, in addition to adding a few new models to the Eternity watch collection. I’m really happy I can write about these because fully women’s watches are a rare thing to find in today’s world of unisex watches.

The Tiffany HardWear watch collection borrows its bracelet design from its popular HardWear jewelry pieces, featuring 10 characteristic gauge links. To maintain the streamlined design, the watch bracelets are fitted with hidden clasps on either side of the case. So in theory, you could remove the case portion of the watch and just wear the bracelet as a piece of jewelry if you wish.

Tha watch case itself measures 24.5mm and has a cushion shape that looks like the legendary Tiffany Diamond, complete with a faceted sapphire crystal glass. The dial is simple, with a pair of centre hands. Tiffany is offering the HardWear watch in steel with sterling silver bracelets or full 18k rose gold. The steel and sterling silver versions feature eight brilliant-cut diamonds — four on each of the case attachments where the bracelet is hooked. They come with the choice of a silver sunray dial or a Tiffany Blue lacquer dial. The 18k rose gold watches either come with the same eight diamonds as the steel and sterling silver models or there are also the more lavish options set with 291 round brilliant diamonds of over 1 total carat around the case. Dial choices here include white mother-of-pearl or black lacquer. The watches are powered by a Swiss quartz movements and are water-resistant to 30 meters.

Then there’s the new Eternity Cushion watches. Inside the 28mm cases are dials that are set with a different diamond cut at each hour marker: round brilliant, baguette, cushion, Tiffany True®, marquise, Asscher, heart, pear, oval, emerald, triangle, and princess. The display of dazzling diamonds doesn’t stop there; there are diamonds set into the bezel and more set into the buckle. The latest Tiffany & Co. Eternity Cushion watches are available in rose gold or white gold, both paired with black brushed calf straps.

Prices are all over the place, but very intresting. Let’s start with the most attractive - the steel, silver and diamond variants of the HardWear is priced at $3,900, which sounds great. But that’s the only affordable watch of the bunch. The 18k rose gold with eight diamonds model costs $18,000. The Tiffany Eternity Cushion watches are even pricier, where the rose gold version retails for $32,000 USD and the white gold model retails for $34,000 USD. You can see more on the Tiffany website.

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Canadian Brand Arcus Switches Directions, Unveils New Exos Model

Arcus Watches made a bit of a splash in 2021 when they announced their Tropos monopusher chronograph model. Priced below $1,000, it used a modified Seagull ST1901 with in-house components, which is not something you see every day. Then they unveiled the Mesos, which took the modifications one step further. In addition to being an ST19-based monopusher, they re-jiggered the mechanism to just start, and reset, but with the ability to hold before release, like a vintage Omega Chronostop. That one was even cheaper at $599. Alas, as it happens with microbrands, they couldn’t get out of the prototype phase since there were not enough orders to go to production.

The people behind Arcus did not give up, however. They reinvented themselves and the result is the Exos. They’re still modifying movements, but this time they opted for higer-end, smaller batch attempts at more elegant watches. The steel case measures 39mm wide, 10.5mm thick and 46.5mm lug-to-lug. The dial is made in-house out of grade 2 titanium - with a brushed and anodized finish - with a raised index made from steel. The hands are made in-house as well. The hour and minute hands are a variation on a Dauphine shape. They are brushed to an even finish and come to a very fine point. The seconds hand is a thin stick with a long counterweight, also brushed.

Inside is the a modified Sellita SW330 GMT automatic. But since this is not a GMT watch, the movement has been reconfigured to have a local jumping hour hand when the crown is in the first position. The watches will be available in a range of anodized colors, the first pari being purple and blue. And ARcus plan on making just 10 each color.

The watch is priced $1,250, which is a decent price for a mass-produced watch with a SW330. But since you’re getting a highly modified movement and super limited production, this might be an interesting gateway into affordable haute horology-adjacent territory. See more on the brand’s website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands On With The Titanium Sinn T50

2/

Spending Time With The Tudor Black Bay 54

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The Colorful Tissot Sideral Isn’t Just For Timing Your Regatta

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

Helicon paints the sunset with the 62 Master Blue Hour

The design of the Helicon 62 Master is based on archival drawings the brand’s founders came upon in the basement of a defunct Swiss brand, one that never saw the light of the day. At first glance, we can see the vintage aspect of the 62 Master in the simplicity of the case design – polished, slab-sided flanks and straight, brushed lugs. No polished chamfers and no crown guards, alluding to perhaps a skin diver heritage. What also seems to be a call from the past are the case dimensions, with a diameter coming in at 38.5mm, a lug-to-lug of 48mm, a thickness of 13.9mm, and a lug width of 20mm. These Goldilocks measurements are likely to please many watch collectors, especially those that favour 1950s and `60s diver designs.

⏲️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

• I’m becoming more of a fan of the Atavist magazine with every new feature they publish. Like, this new one: A filmmaker was producing a documentary series on the Iran hostage crisis. Then her father went missing overseas. Fantastic story.

• A couple of years back I saw a YouTube video about ghost licence plates, in essence temporary plates, used in New York City to avoid parking tickets and get out of some traffic infractions. I couldn’t find it now to link here, but what I did find is this great piece on how this is a much bigger problem. One that tends to lead to deaths.

• Have you ever wondered what happened to American cities for them to all end up looking exactly the same? Business Insider attempts to answer that question.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

You, most likely, hate advertisements. We all do. But some people are smarter when they want to sell you something than others. And with the internet, we get to see more and more of these smartly done ads. And even if they’re not targeting us - I will never, ever, buy a Hasselblad X-Pan - they make us stop and watch. This is a brilliant video done by Thomas Heaton to see how the Hasselblad X-Pan performs in the Arctic. Come for the camera, stay for the fantastic nature.

💵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: 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

• FOR SALE: Longines Heritage Skin Diver, box and papers. €1400. Reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch

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