Citizen Adds A Blue MOP Dial To Series 8 GMT; Zenith's New Defy Skyline Tourbillon; Yema Releases Black-Yellow Navygraf; Jacques Bianchi's Maxi Dial; And Two New Watches From Piaget And Parmigiani

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Remember how I told you that Geneva Watch Days is starting and that there will be bucketloads of releases? Well, I forgot that they scheduled Watches and Wonders Shanghai at the same time, so expect double the mess this week!

Btw, I’m doing a push for the Patreon till the end of August to see if I’ll have to start looking for the occasional ad to help continue running the newsletter starting in September. We did very good, way past the halfway mark of what I would need to cover the cost of sending the emails, but it’s just a bit short. If you would like to help out, read the red box right below. And just as a teaser of what you might expect to get in the Pateron, here’s the really cool story of why the Bulova Accutron Astronaut was chosen as the official watch for A-12 and SR-71 pilots. I unlocked it for everyone.

In this issue:

• Citizen Adds Blue Steel And Blue Mother Of Pearl Dial To The Series 8 GMT For 100th Anniversary

• Zenith Teams Up With Artist Felipe Pantone Again For A Full Color Spectrum Defy Skyline Tourbillon

• Yema Has A Black-Yellow Colorway Update For The Navygraf With Their CMM.10 Movement

• Jacques Bianchi Adds A Maxi Dial To Their Very Classic Diver, The JB200

• Piaget Unveils Its First Ceramic Watch Ever, The Polo Skeleton Ceramic

• Parmigiani Fleurier Teams Up With Retailer PRJKT8 For A Monochromatic Tonda PF Skeleton

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 46 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Adds Blue Steel And Blue Mother Of Pearl Dial To The Series 8 GMT For 100th Anniversary

The Miyota 9075 movement burst onto the scene last year with a bang ad for good reason. It was the first affordable movement that brought flyer style GMT movements to more affordable watches. The majority of sub €1,000-1,500 GMT watches on the market come with caller style GMT movements, meaning that you would independently adjust the GMT hand. The 9075 brought the independently adjusting hour hand, just like you would find on a Breitling or Rolex, to the masses. And it only makes sense that Citizen, which owns Miyota, would make great use of this. And that they did, when they launched the gorgeous Series 8 GMT collection last year. In 2024, Citizen is celebrating 100 years of their name and while they have released some pretty cool watches already, this one is really special. It’s the Citizen Series 8 880 Mechanical 100th Anniversary of the First Citizen Watch, in beautiful shades of blue.

The watch continues the look of the integrated bracelet Series 8 collection, with sharp corners and angles. The watch will certainly have a presence on wrist, not just because of a width of 41mm and a thickness of 13.5mm, but also for its color. The majority of the case has a charcoal grey finish, but then case side extensions and the central links on the bracelet get a deep blue color. It really looks special. On top is a bidirectional bezel with an insert that has a glossy finish, but I’m not sure what the material is. It’s also split into two colored segments, one black and one blue, with a 24 hour scale on it. Water resistance is 100 meters.

But while the case is beautiful, the dial is truly special. It has a blue mother-of-pearl base which gives it a plethora of rainbow hues, topped with tapering faceted indices and a printed white minute scale. The hands are dauphine shaped and the arrow tipped GMT hand is supposedly heat blued. The dial is ruined a bit with the inclusion of a rather large date aperture at 3 o’clock, with a white date wheel inside.

Inside is not the Miyota 9075, but rather the 9054. This seems to be a Citizen exclusive version of the 9075 which gets a beefed up magnetic resistance of 16,000 A/m. The movement beats at 28,800vph and has a decent 50 hour power reserve. Accuracy is rated to -10/+20 seconds per day and it, of course, has a flyer style GMT functions. It’s also decorated with gold-filled engraved lettering and striping across both the bridges and the signed rotor. Like I mentioned, the watch comes on a three-link bracelet, but it doesn’t have tool-less micro-adjustment.

The Citizen Series 8 880 Mechanical 100th Anniversary of the First Citizen Watch is limited to 2,200 pieces and it will go on sale in September. Price is set at $1,995. See more on the Citizen website.

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Zenith Teams Up With Artist Felipe Pantone Again For A Full Color Spectrum Defy Skyline Tourbillon

Argentine born artist Felipe Pantone is best known for his work based in kinetic art, installations, graffiti, and design, characterized by use of bold colors and geometrical patterns. If you can’t exactly picture what that looks like, just look at the picture of this new Defy Skyline Tourbillon Zenith made in collaboration with Pantone, and the dial and markers look exactly like his art. This watch is not the first time Zenith and Pantone have worked together. Not only did he do an art piece for Zenith’s headquarters, the two have worked on a number of watches, including the limited-edition Defy 21 in 2021, a unique piece for Only Watch 2021, and the 2022 Defy Extreme Felipe Pantone. But I think I like this latest one the most.

On the outside, this is largely the same Defy Skyline Tourbillon you know. It comes in a brushed stainless steel case with polished details. On top is the familiar 12-sided and faceted bezel and the exposed parts of the case below in the corners feature engravings that spell out “FPT1” – standing for Felipe Pantone Tourbillon #1. Still being a Defy Skyline Turbillon, water resistance is 100 meters.

But we’re obviously here for the dial. It features a sapphire disc with a mirrored back, micro-engraved patterns, and a vignette effect that gives the entire dile an iridescent look that produces different shades of color, depending on how it catches the light. More color can be found on the hands and markers which seem to have been broken and arranged into lightning bolt shapes and colored in a gradient of rainbow tones. At 6 o’clock is the traditional aperture for the one-minute tourbillon, but with radically reworked bridges that are now also in the shape of a lighting bolt.

Inside is the in-house El Primero 3630 high-frequency automatic movement which beats at 5Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. You can see the movement through the transparent caseback, and you’ll want to because of the star-shaped oscillating weight that gets a rainbow PVD finish and stripes arranged in a sunray pattern radiating from the tourbillon. It sure is something to see. The watch comes on an integrated steel bracelet with an additional rubber strap in black.

The Zenith Defy Skyline Tourbillon Felipe Pantone is limited to just 100 pieces and go on sale on September 12th. Price is set at €65,000. The watch is not yet on the Zenith website, but keep an eye out on it if you’re interested.

3/

Yema Has A Black-Yellow Colorway Update For The Navygraf With Their CMM.10 Movement

I write about Yema, the French watch brand, a lot. I should start tracking of all the brands I mention to keep a tally of mentions and I’m willing to bet that Yema would be among the top 5. That’s because they just keep putting out watch after watch after watch. Yesterday, I showed you the brand new Yema Diver model. Today, we have a quick mention of a color update to one of their most popular models, the Navygraf.

The Navygraf has always been the skin-diver variant of the more hardcore Superman diver, and has thus had a sleeker case. But the use of the proprietary movement has allowed Yema to shrink it down even more. The Navygraf now measures 39mm wide, 11mm thick and with a 46mm lug-to-lug. The 11mm thickness might not seem much of a feat, but it’s also a 300 meter water resistant diver, and there really aren’t many watches out there that are this thin and this water resistant. Surrounding the double dome crystal is a heavily fluted bezel with 60 minute markings on the sapphire insert. The new insert gets a black base with the first 15 minutes finished in a bright yellow.

The dial gets a black base, with so called exclamation point markers, which are printed in lume. You get thick pencil-style hands which are completely yellow, along with the seconds hand. The hands do have a thin strip of lume in them. The rest of the markings and text on the dial are all white.

Inside is the manufacture movement they call the CMM.10 automatic. Designed by watchmaker Olivier Mory, this time-only movement has an anti-magnetic Glucydur balance wheel, is regulated to chronometric precision (but without actual certification), beats at 28,800bph and has a modern 70 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a stainless steel bracelet that has a divers extension in the clasp.

This new Yema Navygraf is a regular production model and it’s priced at €1,690. See more on the Yema website.

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Jacques Bianchi Adds A Maxi Dial To Their Very Classic Diver, The JB200

Jacques Bianchi might not be a household name, but people have been slowly falling in love with them. The company was started in Marseille back in the 1980s and launched with their JB200, which was a quartz dive watch at one time issued to combat divers of the French Navy. The brand struggled and went under, only to be revived recently. In 2021 the brand launched a Kickstarter campaign for the reissue JB200, a classic looking diver that raised almost €800,000. Since then they have put out a couple of very cool octopus-dialed watches, but now they go full classic. The new JB200 Maxi Dial is exactly that, a classic diver with a maxi dial.

The watch comes in a case that you’ll find in pretty much every Jacques Bianchi release — a stainless steel chunky thing that measures 42mm wide, 13.3mm thick and has a 47mm lug-to-lug. JB has become somewhat notorious for their use of destro configurations where they place the crown and guards on the left side. This new Maxi Dial allows you to chose which side you would like the crown on. On top is a flat sapphire crystal and 60-click unidirectional bezel with a black aluminium insert that has a lumed 60 minute scale. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial is the main attraction. Gone are the diver and octopus illustrations that put their name on the map. Instead, you get a black base with circles, rectangles and a triangle for oversized markers, painted in a very light cream color of lume. At 6 o’clock is a date aperture, while the hour hand has a pencil shape and the minute hand has an arrow tip, both with the same light cream lume painted into them.

Inside is the Soprod P024 automatic movement. This is another clone of the ETA 2824, which means that you get a beat rate of 28,800vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black tropic-style strap.

The JB200 Maxi Dial goes on sale today at 3PM CET and is priced at €741, without tax. The edition doesn’t seem to be a limited one and deliveries are expected to start in October. See more on the Jacques Bianchi website.

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Piaget Unveils Its First Ceramic Watch Ever, The Polo Skeleton Ceramic

Is it just me, or has Piaget been making a bit of a comeback. I remember them being huge in the late 90s and early 00s, but they dropped off a bit, being overpowered by other luxury Swiss brands. However, since 2016 and the introduction of the Polo they have been making strides to re-establish themselves as one of the leading makers of dress and high end sports watches. They did use all sorts of golds and exotic materials, but one was suspiciously absent from the Polo. And that was ceramic. Now they’re bringing it to the Piaget Polo Skeleton, turning it from a 1980s luxury throwback to a very modern watch.

While the new Piaget Polo Skeleton Ceramic keeps the cushion shape and chunky bezel of the regular Polo, along with the 42mm width, everything else is very different. The ceramic needed a bit more thickness than the steel version, so the watch is now 7.5 instead of 6.5mm thick. I think we can live with that. Piaget uses black ceramic that gets a horizontal brushing on the bezel and case, along with polished bevels that give a lot of contrast. You can also see the central titanium container around which the watch is built, but that is covered in a black DLC coating, giving it a play of two shades of black.

There’s no dial to speak of, but what’s left there is matched to the case, meaning you get black openworked bridges and inner flange that holds the applied hour markers. Thos markers, indices and hands are filled with blue Super-LumiNova, which just looks very cool. You’ll find the same blue on the micro-rotor which you can see working through the movement. The Piaget logo is printed in luminous material, too.

Inside is the same movement that’s used in the regular Polo Skeleton, which is the calibre 1200S1, the skeletonised version of the 1200P. It beats at 21,600vph and has a 44 hour power reserve. It has blackened bridges and mainplate are decorated with a satin-brushed sunburst motif and feature polished bevels. The watch comes with two rubber straps, one in black and one in blue, closed by a steel and titanium folding clasp.

The Polo Skeleton Ceramic is priced at CHF 40,100 and will not be limited. The watch is not yet on the Piaget website, but should show up soon.

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Parmigiani Fleurier Teams Up With Retailer PRJKT8 For A Monochromatic Tonda PF Skeleton

I’m becoming more and more fond of collaborations between watch brands and retailers. Having worn a couple of these collabs, I can comfortably say that a lot of retailers have impeccable taste and are often way braver than the brand that made the actual watch. Well, this new collaboration between Parmigiani Fleurier and Bahrain-based retailer PRJKT8 is not ground breaking, but it is very, very nice, with its graphite openworked dial and flamed graphite blue indices.

Based on the Tonda PF, you know exactly what you get. It’s a polished and satin-finished stainless steel case that measures 40mm wide and 8.5mm thick. On top is a platinum bezel that’s fixed and very heavily knurled for a very funky look. Water resistance is 100 meters.

So, nothing has changed on the outside, but has on the dial. The base is a matte graphite openworked dial that allows you a few peeks at the movement inside through curved bridges. That’s topped by applied markers and openworked hands which are flamed graphite blue. The only thing that stands out from the grey and blue colorway is the fold PF logo underneath the 12 o’clock marker.

Inside is the PF777 calibre, an automatic with a 22k rose gold oscillating weight. It beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. The watch comes on an integrated stainless steel bracelet that has a very intricate brushed and polished pattern.

The Parmigiani Fleurier x PRJKT8 Tonda PF Skeleton is super limited. Only 8 pieces will be made and it can be purchased only from the PRJKT8 boutique in Bahrain or their website. The price is set at BHD 29,900 or €71,374. See more on the PRJKT8 website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar

2/

Hands-On with the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Tourbillon Titanium

3/

A review of the Roger Dubuis Orbis In Machina

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Nivada Grenchen Chronosport is a larger-than-life chronograph

According to watch experts, researchers, and urban legend, the original Chronosport was never a production model. Nivada created 20 or so prototypes to be tested before deciding whether or not to commercialize the product. In the end, the Chronosport never made it to the final catalog, and aside from hardcore Nivada or chronograph fans, most people forgot or never knew it existed. Occasionally, pieces from the original test batch would surface on auction sites or dealer pages, but this was all we heard about this rare model for years. That was until recently when Nivada Grenchen — more precisely, Guillaume Laidet — decided to give the Chronosport a new lease on life by releasing a re-edition of the original late-’70s model.

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

• When Leigh Claire La Berge was fresh out of college in the late ’90s, she landed a job that happened to be Peak Late ’90s: working alongside a consultancy firm to vet an enormous company’s ability to survive the coming digital apocalypse known as Y2K. A few misbehaving toilets aside, Y2K proved to be colossally overblown, but the futility of the process was not—which makes La Berge’s meticulously documented account of the time all the funnier. A pitch-perfect chronicle of corporate mediocrity.

• Climate catastrophe. Nuclear war. Alien invasion. What’s your reason for seeking your very own bunker? Patricia Marx’s New Yorker story on underground hideaways and survivalist properties on the market is very funny, but also very disconcerting.

• We tend to think of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as being associated with repeated concussions sustained by longtime football players. But the young men described in this feature gave up the game after high school, and still the damage to their brains was already done. Now, their families are grieving their loss and looking for answers.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Watches of Espionage is by far my favorite watch publication out there. The amount of stuff they dig up is absolutely incredible. And, of course, they helped popularise the fact that sketchy dudes wear Breitling. Now, WoE has started a YouTube channel and their first video is on, what else but, sketchy dudes wearing Breitling.

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-Vuk