Casio Celebrates 50 Years With Six "Sky And Sea" Watches; Hamilton Updates Ridiculous BeLOWZERO; De RIjke & Co. Is Killing It; Parmigiani Has Three Pastel Chronos; And MB&F Outdo Themselves

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s a travel day for me here so do excuse me if you see any changes in the regular way things are done. But while I’m on the road, I want you to check out those De Rijke watches. Those are fantastic!

In this issue:

• Casio Celebrates 50 Years Of Watchmaking With Six Sky And Sea Watches

• Hamilton Updates The Delightfully Gigantic BeLOWZERO With An Underwater-Visible Yellow Colorway

• De Rijke & Co. Comes Back To The Amalfi With Stunning Enamel Art-Deco Dials Illustrated By Guy Allen

• Parmigiani Fleurier Says Goodbye To The Tonda GT And Welcomes Three New Pastel Tonda PF Sport Chronographs

• The MB&F Sequential Flyback Platinum Is A Bit Less Sporty, But A Lot More Complicated

Today’s reading time: 10 minutes and 3 seconds

👂What’s new

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Casio Celebrates 50 Years Of Watchmaking With Six Sky And Sea Watches

In 1974, Casio was a powerhouse in the world of calculators. At the time, these pocket computer relied on Large-Scale Integration (LSI) technology which the company pioneered and propelled to greatness. Then they realised they could use the same tech to make the world’s first ever digital watch with an automatic calendar function. Called ‘Casiotron’, the watch could keep track of seconds, minutes and hours, and display the month, date and day of the week. The brand was off to the races and there was no stopping them. This year, Casio is marking 50 years of that first Casiotron release, and they are doing so with six limited edition of the Casio 50th Anniversary Sky and Sea Series watches

The watches included in the collection and pictured above, from left to right, are the G-Shock GMW-B5000SS-2, the Oceanus Manta OCW-S7000SS-2A, the Casiotron TRN-50SS-2A, the Pro Trek PRW-61SS-2, the Baby-G BGA-S290SS-2A and the Edifice ECB-2000SS-2A. They all share the same shade of blue as either the main color or one of the detail colors and all six have the 50th Anniversary logo on the case back. All the prices I will mention here are from the Japanese website converted from Yen, as they have still not announced pricing in other territories.

There’s a lot of details about these watches, but I’ll try to keep this brief. Starting with the GMW-B5000SS-2, you get the familiar GMW-B5000 full metal case with a blue outer bezel and a metallic gold finish on the display surround. The price should be around €550. The Oceanus Manta OCW-S7000SS-2A is made out of titanium and has a sapphire glass bezel ring with a DLC-coated titanium bezel frame. It also has a sapphire insert on the crown and case back, all in blue. This model is currently listed only on the Casio Japan website and does not have an international product page like the other five models. Although it could possibly be released in a few other countries, it is not expected to be released worldwide. It’s also the most expensive one at €1,600.

Then there’s the stainless steel TRN-50SS-2A, an homage to the original Casiotron. The bezel and the display surround get the collection’s blue shade. Expect to pay about €400 for this one. The PRW-61SS-2 is an adventure watch made out of bio resin which has the Triple Sensor which measures pressure with altimeter and barometer, compass, thermometer. It has a blue bezel, gold crown and a blue cloth strap. Priced at €450.

The BGA-S290SS-2A is the first of its kind, with a Tough Solar movement, 100-meter water resistance and a bezel and band made of bio-based resin. The expected price is €145. And last, there’s the ECB-2000SS-2A which has a carbon-fiber reinforced case and a blue ion-plated stainless steel bezel, with a blue suede-like strap. Priced at €280.

It should also be noted that all the watches except for the Baby-G and Edifice are made in Japan. All six will be limited but Casio hasn’t said to how many just yet and they will all be released worldwide except for the Oceanus Manta which is limited to 600 pieces. The watches are expected to go on sale in Japan on June 7, and likely around the same day in other countries. See more on the Casio website.

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Hamilton Updates The Delightfully Gigantic BeLOWZERO With An Underwater-Visible Yellow Colorway

There are subtle watches out there. Flashy ones. Ones that fly under the radar and those that might get a glance or two. Then, there are statement pieces. And the Hamilton Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO is surely a statement piece. If not for it’s strange case shape or it’s sheer size, then for the update it just got, from a fully black watch to one that has bright yellow details to stand out even more. As if a 46mm watch needs more attention.

The case of this behemoth is made out of titanium, which is surely welcomed since it measures 46mm wide, 15.7mm thick and has 24mm lug width. But it’s not just the sheer size, it’s also the industrial design of the case. The bottom case has short and stubby lugs, as well as prominent crown guards, but it’s the bezel that’s the showstopper. Huge and with exposed screws, it bolts down to the case with four large hex screws. The bezel rotates and has a detailed 15-minute scale and 12 o’clock marker, and it sits around a hefty sapphire crystal. It should be hefty, since the watch is water resistant to 1,000 meters and Hamilton claims that “should the pressure exceed safety limits a valve will open to release the excess pressure to protect the internal mechanisms.” I’m not sure if they mean the watch has a helium escape valve, or some other sort of pressure evacuation, but it’s still pretty crazy.

While the previous version of the Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO came in a black PVD case and fully black dial, this one includes some color. And not just any color. The strap, hands and hour markers are painted a bright yellow, one of the last colors to be lost while diving and seeing other wavelengths be filtered out. That’s one of the reasons why diving tanks are painted bright yellow. The rest of the dial remains pretty much the same, with a black textured surface and large Arabic numerals that are plenty lumed.

Inside is the H-10 movement, which is just Hamilton’s version of the Swatch Group Powermatic 80. This means that it beats at 21,600vph and has the great 80 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a chunky yellow strap with a pin buckle.

The Hamilton Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO will certainly not be a bestseller for the brand. I’m not even sure what it will be. But it is interesting, in a weird kind of way. I also expected it to be WAY more expensive than the CHF 1,595 Hamilton is asking for it. See more on the Hamilton website.

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De Rijke & Co. Comes Back To The Amalfi With Stunning Enamel Art-Deco Dials Illustrated By Guy Allen

There’s a couple of very interesting independent watchmakers in the Netherlands. Grönefeld makes some eye watering beautiful stuff, Christiaan van der Klaauw is as classic as it gets and Bataavi is an extremely strong entry into the microbrand space. But my favorite? Without a doubt De Rijke & Co. This small indie has made a name for itself with an incredibly cool rotating case and a prolific collaboration with Miffy, the cartoon character I remember from my childhood. Now, they’re reviving their Amalfi Series which started the brand, only now the three limited edition releases feature incredible illustrations by renowned illustrator Guy Allen rendered in beautiful enamel.

In most watches, I just ramble on the case details as quickly as I can just to get to the more interesting stuff, the dial. But here, the case deserves a kudos. De Rijke has been using a similar case for a while, but now it gets small details. It measures 38.2mm wide and 11mm thick, but the most impressive part is the two-part construction. It allows you to rotate the internal part of the case, the one which houses the movement and the dial/crystal by 90 degrees opposed to the outer case that is attached to your wrist. This allows the watch face to rotate to face you while you are driving. Pretty cool. The case has sapphire crystal and the lugs have been modified from the original Amalfi watch to allow for regular spring bars and straps.

The inspiration for the dials comes from the actual illustrations done by Guy Allen back in 2018 when the brand release the first series of Amalfi watches. For the new dials, Allen has created illustrations for the three main themes - land, sea and air. For Land, the dial is rendered in shades of red and features a 1950s Italian GT car, Air has a blue shade and an illustration of the Macchi Castoldi M.C 72 Seaplane, while Sea comes in green with a drawing of a sailboat. These dials are made using the traditional champlevé technique, with solid 925 silver dials etched and then filled with grand feu enamel by hand and fired at high temperature by a craftsman in the UK. It really is very beautiful.

Inside is nothing special, but also not a bad movement. It’s the reliable and sturdy automatic Sellita SW300 high-grade. It beats at 28,000vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. Each of the watches gets its own shade of leather strap closed with a steel pin buckle.

The De Rijke & Co. Amalfi Enamel Series is limited to 25 pieces per dial and is priced at €3,395, without taxes. See more on the De Rijke website.

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Parmigiani Fleurier Says Goodbye To The Tonda GT And Welcomes Three New Pastel Tonda PF Sport Chronographs

I think I already said it a few times that I don’t understand Parmigiani Fleurier. I just couldn’t understand the design, the positioning or the price point. But things are changing. I’m starting to understand them and I’m starting to like them. And the three new Tonda PF Sport Chronograph are really scratching an itch for me. It’s all very luxurious and very sporty at the same time.

The new Tonda PF Sport Chronograph comes in a stainless steel case that’s very much in line with what the other cases in the Sport line look like. You get the same teardrop-shaped lugs and knurled bezel, with this one measuring 42mm wide and 12.9mm thick. You get sapphire crystals on top and bottom, and water resistance is 100 meters.

Of course, these three new watches are very much about the new dials and coloways, all of which have a very pastel like nature. The base dial is silver with a Clou Triangulaire guilloche motif, while the three colors - Milano blue, London grey and Arctic blue - are reserved for the subdials. The same colors show up on the inner flange. Black Super-LumiNova is used on the indices and tips of the hour and minute hands.

Inside is the in-house automatic calibre PF070 chronograph. Well, since the world is still debating what in-house actually means, we could point out that the movement is made with their sister company Vaucher Manufacture. The movement has a column wheel, a vertical clutch and a one-piece reset hammer, as well as a free-sprung balance wheel. It beats a a high frequency of 5Hz and gets a 65 hour power reserve. It’s also very beautiful with skeletonized, polished and sandblasted 22k pink gold rotor shaped like the steering wheel of the Ferrari 250 GTO. The watches come on colour-matched integrated rubber straps with a stainless-steel folding clasp.

The three new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Chronographs are not limited and are part of the regular collection. Price is set at €31,400. See more on the Parmigiani website.

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The MB&F Sequential Flyback Platinum Is A Bit Less Sporty, But A Lot More Complicated

When it was first introduced in 2022, the Legacy Machine Sequential EVO was a pretty special watch even for a brand like MB&F who pretty much makes only special watches. It was their first chronograph, it won the Aiguille d’Or at the GPHG, and it housed an incredible movement which had two column-wheel chronograph mechanisms linked to the same oscillator, which allowed for independent timing, simultaneous or split-second timing, sequential or lap-timer and cumulative timing. It was incredible. Two years later, it’s getting even better with the addition of a flyback function. This is the new MB&F Legacy Machine Sequential Flyback Platinum.

The original Legacy Machine Sequential came in a case made out of zirconium, with a PVD coat and had an overall much more sporty look than what we have today. The Flyback version more subdued and elegant, if such words can be used to describe a watch made out of solid platinum that measures 44mm wide and an incredible 18.2mm thick. Ok, to be fair, a large portion of that thickness is taken up by the heavily domed crystal that protects the dial that extends a lot into the third dimension.

The dial is no longer a burnt orange but rather a sky blue. On top of the blue plate you’ll find parts of the movement as well as five sub-dials. The one at 6 o’clock shows the hour and minutes, while the other four skeletonized chronograph sub-dials are arranged in two pairs of 30-minute timers and 60-second timers. By having two sets of chronograph functions, it offers a hugely increased range of use cases. You can time two separate events independently or you can use the twinverter function to start one chronograph, stop it and start the other, only to swap again and again. Alternatively, you can use the same function but reset each chronograph once you have stopped it in order to time laps.

But now the addition of the flyback offeres even more functionalities. The flyback has historically been developed for pilots to be able to instantly reset the chrono counter with the push of one button as they relied on very precise measurements of time for navigation. The flyback mechanism allow you to stop, reset and restart a chronograph with a single pusher press, meaning you can immediately start timing a new interval at the exact moment you stop timing the previous one.

This is all possible thanks to a movement that doesn’t really have a name, but has been conceived by legendary watchmaker Stephen McDonnell for MB&F. It’s hand wound, features a flying balance wheel with regulating screws dial side, beats at 3Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on an alligator strap with a white gold folding buckle.

The MB&F Legacy Machine Sequential Flyback Platinum is a limited edition of 33 pieces, but don’t worry, chances that they sell out before you get to them are pretty low considering the price is CHF 188,000, without taxes. See more on the MB&F website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Hamilton Khaki Aviation Pilot Auto 36mm

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Hands-On With The Seiko Presage Style60’s SRPL07 And SRPL09

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A review of the Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Chronograph Rattrapante

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

For the money, there is a lot of watch here to enjoy in the Citizen Tsuyosa Small Second

The appeal for many people in this particular Tsuyosa Small Second product family will be not so much the movement but the textured dial design with the subsidiary seconds dial. While this is not an authentic hand-operated rose engine guilloché dial (a high-end artisanal element available in more expensive luxury watches), the stamped guilloché-style dial on the Tsuyosa Small Second is nicely done and well-colored. The overall design of the dial is not only classy but also legible with lume-painted applied hour markers and hands. Let me also acknowledge the welcome design restraint at play by Citizen in keeping the dial functional and minimalistic without any unwanted text.

Read the whole review on A Blog To Watch

⏲️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

• The American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is home to the largest indoor surfing wave pool in the U.S. What’s the experience like for someone who grew up surfing in San Diego . . . outside? Are predictable artificial waves the future of this coastal pastime? Alexander Sammon writes an enjoyable, thoughtful essay on the trend, as well as the privatization and commodification of surfing and subcultures in general.

• Some kids grow up loving horses. Others, apparently, grow up loving wolves. E.B. Bartels is one of those kids—now fully grown, married to a partner who shares her love for all things lupine, and on her way to Yellowstone to see her beloved creatures in the flesh. A charming journey to the root of one’s obsession.

• When Sara Franklin embarked on gathering oral histories from Judith Jones, the queen of cookbooks, she was not expecting the gorgeous lunches they would prepare together before each interview. This lovely piece entwines food and friendship to create something truly satisfying.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Spend any time on social networks and you will inevitably run into a particularly troubled group of people, most of them young men or even boys, who are completely obsessed with making money. And I’m not talking about people who want to do good in life. I’m talking about people who make it their whole identity to talk about money and making money. It’s a prevalent trend in the watch world as well, ever since a few grifters started posting about their phoney millionaire lifestyle they supposedly afforded by flipping watches and suddenly social networks are full of kids running around the streets of big cities thinking their flipping watches.

I’m not blaming the kids, of course. They have obviously been skilfully manipulated into believing that money is not just the most important goal in their life, it is their life. It’s all very sad to look at from the outside, and when you see the slippery slopes out there for people to fall down, you can’t help but think of it as a cult.

Well, it would then come as no surprise that there is an actual cult that promises riches. Chris Terry, the elusive founder of the IM Academy, certainly knows what his audience wants to hear. Accused of brainwashing and being the first-ever crypto cult, many feel that IM Academy is actually a global pyramid scheme using cryptocurrency as a dangerous lure to suck in and squeeze money out of the world’s wide-eyed youth, selling dreams of both easy wealth and membership in a new world order?

In May of 2022, eight members of the Spanish chapter of the organization were arrested for fraud, misleading advertising, psychological coercion, the enticement of minors, and criminal organization. Will this Spanish scandal bring down the crypto cult or is it merely a speed bump on Christopher Terry’s road to riches.

💵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