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- Christopher Ward Releases The Bel Canto Act II; Ace And CW Add A Twelve To The Twelve; Sternglas Expands Hamburg Line; GP Adds Touch Of Gold To Funky Casquette; The Spectacular Piaget Andy Warhol
Christopher Ward Releases The Bel Canto Act II; Ace And CW Add A Twelve To The Twelve; Sternglas Expands Hamburg Line; GP Adds Touch Of Gold To Funky Casquette; The Spectacular Piaget Andy Warhol
I'm not sure about renaming the Black Tie to Andy Warhol, but it's an incredible watch nonetheless
Vuk Radic
October 31, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 19 minutes
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Christopher Ward is kind of hogging the news today, but it’s all good news. If you want something longer to read, considering getting a free trial to the premium subscription so you can get early access to a review of the Sherpa Ultradive, a watch that kind of broke my brain thinking about it.
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In this issue:
Christopher Ward Releases Act II Of The Bel Canto, Now With More Elegant Guilloché Dials
Dutch Retailer Ace Jewelers Teams Up With Christopher Ward For A Special Edition Of The Twelve
Sternglas Expands Their Most Popular Hamburg Automatic Line With More Colors
Girard-Perregaux Adds A Touch Of Gold To The Very Funky Titanium Casquette 2.0
Piaget Creates A Beautiful Clou de Paris Version Of The 70s Black Tie, Renames It The Andy Warhol Watch
Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 18 seconds
👂What’s new
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It’s Halloween so I’ve been binging a lot of horror movies and documentaries about horror movies. One of them reminded me that New Line Cinema is often called the House that Freddy built, hinting at the instrumental role that the character of Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Stree series had on turning New Line from a decently sized production company into a global powerhouse. An analogy could be drawn to Christopher Ward, the company that the Bel Canto built. CW was a significant company way before 2022, when they introduced the chiming watch, but it easy to say that they have exploded ever since then. Mostly because the C1 Bel Canto affirmed them as a company that could make affordable watches with highly complex movements and great finishings. The Bel Canto always struck me as a sporty watch with a high-end complication, but CW is fixing that now with the C1 Bel Canto Classic, a much classier version of the watch.
The Classic keeps the exact same case of the original C1 Bel Canto. That means that it’s made out of brushed grade 5 titanium, with polished chamfers, and measuring 41mm wide, relatively svelte 13mm, and with a decent 48mm lug-to-lug measurement. It keeps the same pusher to activate the chime, as well as the 30 meter water resistance. But what’s new is the glassbox-style sapphire crystal that shows off the new dials.
And the Classic is all about those new dial plates. While previous versions came in a number of colors and finishes, but nothing like these new dials. They get a laser-etched guilloché pattern and come in four colors — gold, green, silver and blue. New is also the time dial which gets circular brushing and Roman numerals. The hands are fairly similar, but with no lume in them. The on/off indicator for the chiming mechanism is red on the blue and green dials, black on the gold dial and blue on the silver.
The internals, partially visible on the dial plate, remain the same. The watch is powered by a fairly basic Sellita SW200 automatic movement that beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. Onto that, CW attaches the FS01 striking hour module which they managed to acquire when they bought up watchmaker Frank Stelzer’s company. But not before Stelzer licensed the same module to MeisterSInger for their Bell Hora line. The watches come on a number of Seta leather straps that taper from 22mm to 16mm, or on a Grade 2 titanium bracelet.
The new C1 Bel Canto Classic can be pre-ordered now, with deliveries expected in December. Price is set at €4,450 on leather and €4,885 on the bracelet. See more on the Christopher Ward website.
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Speaking of Christopher Ward, on the same day they introduced the new Bel Canto, they also released a special edition of their existing The Twelve integrated bracelet sports watch that fixes one glaring omission on the dial. This special edition is done with the legendary Ace Jewelers from Amsterdam and combines the modern look of The Twelve with the heritage and culture that Ace brings. Ace was founded in 1975 by David Ben Joseph and is now run by his two sons, Alon and Amir. This relatively small jewellery shop has established itself as a powerhouse in the watch collaboration space, working with both large and small brands, always imbuing the collaboration with their specific sensibilities.
The Ace touch is very subtle on this The Twelve, meaning that the outside remains practically the same. Made out of brushed and polished stainless steel, the case measures 40mm wide, a really thin 9.95mm thick and with a pretty great 44.5mm lug-to-lug that’s only slightly extended with the integrated steel bracelet. On top is the brushed bezel that features 12 sides — hence the name — and polished facets, which surrounds a flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.
You will notice that the major change on this limited edition comes in the form of the inclusion of a numeral on the dial. According to Ben Joseph, he instantly fell in love with The Twelve and was captivated by how The Twelve never featured the number 12 on the dial. This prompted him to include the number 12, but to do so while paying homage to his cultural heritage — the twelve on The Twelve has been rendered in Hebrew which gives the numeral both an architectural and symbolic implication.
The rest of the dial is actually very familiar, with a familiar pattern of cross-like pyramids and a gradient blue dial which shifts from light blue in the centre to a darker on the outside. The rest of the indices remain the same as on the regular model, just like the sword and triangle handset.
Inside, no changes — you get the same Sellita SW200 movement that we know and love. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on the well known integrated steel bracelet with single links.
The Christopher Ward x Ace Jewelers The Twelve Hebrew is available for order now, but limited to just 50 numbered pieces. Price is set at €1,350 and you can find out more about the watch on the Christopher Ward website.
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The German indie Sternglas is celebrating their 8th birthday and to do so they recently introduced their first full-fledged dive watch, the Merion. But that doesn’t mean that they forgot their bread and butter, the Bauhaus-inspired Hamburg Automatik, what has to be their most popular collection. They are introducing a new colorway to the mix, the Neugraphit, a dark grey dial. But, thankfully, not just grey — there is a bit of color on it.
On the outside, not much has changed with the watch. It the same Hamburg Automatik polished stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide, 12mm thick and with super short lugs to give it a 45mm lug-to-lug for easy wearability. On top is a domed sapphire crystal with a super thin bezel around it. Water resistance is 50 meters.
The dial gets a matte grey finish, with a white inner hour track and external minute track. The color comes in the form of green lumed pips at the cardinal points, as well as brushed silver metal hands which are filled with red-tinted Super-LumiNova. Another pop of color is the central orange seconds hand. And as always, there’s a date aperture at the 6 o’clock position.
Inside is the well known Miyota 8215 automatic movement which beats at 3Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. Nothing fancy, but it does the job and does it good. The watch can be had on either a brown leather or yellow nylon strap, or a stainless steel bracelet.
The Sternglas Hamburg Automatik Neugraphit joins the regular collection and is decently priced at €429. See more on the Sternglas website.
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While Girard-Perregaux is most known for their higher end Swiss mechanical watches, at one time they were pioneers in the era of digital watch. Back in 1971, it made waves with the Caliber GP-350, a quartz movement that set the universal market standard for frequency. Following that was the Caliber 395 and that’s the movement that GP put in the Casquette. And even int he 70s, the Casquette was a strange watch it was a black geometric hunk on your wrist that displayed the time at the push of a button on a tiny screen on the front facing side of the watch. Since 2021, GP has bright back this watch several time in various limited editions and now we’re getting another one, with the Casquette 2.0 Titanium and Gold. That’s cool, but I’m sure that it’s time that GP brings this back as a regular edition.
While the old Casquette came in either titanium or ceramic, the new one is available only in grade 5 titanium, with this version getting slight touches of gold — on the Girard-Perregaux logo inset into the top of the case, and the two pushers integrated into the case flanks. It looks like a huge and cumbersome watch and while it will have a presence surely, it’s not unwieldily. That’s because it measures 33.6mm wide, 14.64mm thick and with a 42.4mm lug-to-lug. People will notice it, but it won’t look silly on your hand. On the side of the case that’s facing you is a display covered by a sapphire crystal where the time is shown.
Inside you’ll find the GP3980-1474 battery powered movement. It can also show you the month and year, second time zone, and has a chronograph. It also has a “secret date” function, which allows the user to specify any date to flash on the screen once per day for 20 seconds at a time of your choosing. The watch comes on a single-link titanium bracelet that is lined with rubber and has a folding clasp with integrated micro-adjustment.
The Girard-Perregaux Casquette 2.0 Titanium and Gold is limited to 820 pieces and priced at $4,960. See more on the Girard-Perregaux website.
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Despite becoming world famous in the 1960s, Andy Warhol actually came into his own in the age of excess in the 1970s and early 80s. That’s where his obsession with popular culture and fame became an artwork in itself and Warhol the artist became as interesting as his artwork. This brought with it a certain uniform that would express to the world Warhol’s character. Among the many things that we know him for — the platinum white hair, the black turtlenecks… — were his watches, models from Cartier, Patek Philippe, Rolex and Piaget. Especially Piaget. He owned seven of them, including weird stuff like a watch hidden inside a gold nugget. But he was most enamored with the Piaget Black Tie, a super thin yellow gold watch that measured an unusually large 45mm wide that soon became synonymous with Warhol. Now, Piaget is releasing a new Black Tie, but with a twist. They acquired permission from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to rename the watch. There is no more Black Tie. It is now called the Andy Warhol Watch.
The new Andy Warhol watch keeps the strange proportions of the original. This means that it still measures 45mm across, just as large as the recently introduced Patek Philippe Cubitus. Piaget doesn’t give more dimensions, but photos on wrist show this to be a very thin watch that has no lugs, so fits comfortably on even what look to be smaller wrists. The oversized case is needed, as the very perimeter of the case is decorated with an incredible Clou de Paris guilloché made out of small but distinct tiny pyramids. Between the sapphire crystal and the hobnail perimeter sits a flat rounded square bezel with a deeply brushed finish. While this pictured case is made out of white gold, the watch will also be a rose gold option.
The dial is just as exquisite, made out of blue meteorite, each with its own unique pattern. You get applied indices and dauphine-style hands, both done in silver, just like the Piaget logo at 12 o’clock. It also drops the date aperture that was on the 1970s version, which is a pretty awesome choice. There’s also no seconds hand at all. The blue meteorite won’t be the only dial option, as there will be ten different stone dials available.
The original was powered by the very interesting Beta 21 quartz movement, while the modern version gets Piaget’s ultra thin automatic calibre 501P1. It’s an automatic that’s just 3.63mm thick, beats at 4Hz and has a 40 hour power reserve. The watch can be had on five leather strap colors.
This pictured Andy Warhol Clou de Paris in white gold with a meteorite dial is priced at €56,000 and will be available for purchase very soon. The watch is still not up on the Piaget website, but will be very soon.
🫳On hand
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⚙️Watch Worthy
A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like
Echo/Neutra was on a quest to create a watch that combines the elegance of a dress watch with the modern properties of a titanium sports watch. In exploring the opportunities, the brand created something distinct. Is this the future of dress watches? The Rivanera most certainly pushes the boundaries of dress watches without straying from the essence of what makes them attractive. That makes this so much more than just one of the many new offerings in this genre.
⏲️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
If you decide to investigate Michael Jackson World, you’d better come back from that much-discovered country with something fresh. John Jeremiah Sullivan does that in this 2011 feature about Jackson’s talent, which includes layovers in the hubs of weirdness the artist inhabited.
Having grown up watching The Goonies over and over again, I’m drawn to stories about the weird subterranean worlds right under our feet, which means I love this tale of the search for a mythical cave that may or may not exist. It’s easy to think that in this modern world there are no more uncharted places—and while that may be true up here on the surface, there’s a whole world beneath us that we still know relatively little about.
John Burton was just 27 when he was put in charge of creating Thorpe Park’s biggest-ever project. Once too scared to go on rides himself, how did he become the rollercoaster king, the man behind the UK’s fastest thrill-ride.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Can you build affordable housing, cut greenhouse gas emissions and bootstrap a strapped community all at once? On the plains of Minnesota, the Lower Sioux Indian Community has the answer. And it starts with hemp. These Patagonia documentaries are really, really good.
💵Pre-loved precision
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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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