Citizen Continues 100th Anniversary Celebration With Layers Of Time Structural Ink Collection; Timex And Snoopy Play Tennis; Brew Teams Up With Alton Brown; And Beaufort Renews Pulsatimer

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Croatia is still recovering from the Eurovision loss, so I’ll keep this one brief. Keep an eye on that Beaufort - is that great looking or is it just me?

In this issue:

• Citizen Quietly Continues 100th Anniversary Celebration With New Layers Of Time Eco-Drive Structural Ink Collection

• Timex Releases One Of Their Best Snoopy Watches, This One Tennis Themed With Snoopy Showing The Time With His Racket

• Brew Teams Up With Legendary Chef Alton Brown For A Limited Edition Retrograph Relic

• Beaufort Launches New Lineup Of Pulsatimer Watches With Four Colorways To The Very Unique Looking Dial

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 9 seconds

👂What’s new

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Citizen Quietly Continues 100th Anniversary Celebration With New Layers Of Time Eco-Drive Structural Ink Collection

Seiko is making a big deal out of their 100th anniversary, announcing that they will launch a dozen or so watches to celebrate it. At the same time, Citizen is celebrating the same anniversary, but with much less fanfare, just cranking out releases and pointing out that they mark them being around for a hundred years. The latest release is a capsule collection of five different limited-edition models, but all inspired layers of rock and minerals that formed the Earth millions of years ago and all featuring transparent dials that are finished with a special type of structural ink developed in collaboration with Fujifilm Corporation. They call it the Citizen Layers of Time collection.

Starting off with the top of the range and very long-windedly named Citizen Attesa Layers of Time Eco-Drive Satellite Wave GPS CC4057-60E. It’s a beastly watch made out of the brand’s Super Titanium alloy with a black Duratect finish, measuring 44.6mm wide and 15.4mm thick. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, surrounded by a gradient-finished bezel that mirrors the shimmering hues of purple, green and blue, mimicking the same shimmering colors on the dial. Inside is the Caliber F950 Eco-Drive movement, running on light with satellite-controlled GPS timekeeping and everything else you expect - a perpetual calendar, 1/20th second chronograph, light level display, power reserve indicator, and world time functionality. 1,900 pieces will be made and they’re on sale for $2,295.

Then there’s the Citizen Attesa Layers of Time Eco-Drive Radio Controlled AT8286-65E, which is very similar to the CC4057-60E (Citizen really needs to do something about their naming), with the same Super Titanium with a black Duratect finish, but it comes in a bit smaller - 42mm wide and 10.8mm thick. It also loses the colorful bezel and replaces it with a black one, while keeping the same colorful dial. Inside is the Caliber H800 Eco-Drive movement. Capable of solar charging and radio-controlled timekeeping, you get a perpetual calendar, chronograph and a world timer. It’s limited to 2,100 pieces and priced at $1,495.

Third is the Promaster Layers of Time Eco-Drive Radio Controlled Geo Trekker BY3005-56E which isn’t made out of titanium but rather stainless steel with a dark grey finish. It’s 46mm wide, 11.5mm thick and has a 200 meter water resistance. On top is a flat sapphire crystal and an aviation scale bezel, while the dial is the same colorful finish. Inside is the Caliber H864 Eco-Drive which has radio-controlled timekeeping and a running time of approximately 2.5 years when it power save mode. Limited to 10,000 pieces, I’m not sure you can even call it limited. Priced at $895.

Fourth is the Citizen Layers of Time Eco-Drive PCAT CB5878-56E based on their Perpetual Calendar Atomic Timekeeping (PCAT) models. It’s also made out of stainless steel with the same dark gray plating and the structural ink dial. The black bezel gets a tachymeter scale. Inside is the Cal. E660 with solar charging, radio-controlled timekeeping, a perpetual calendar, power reserve indicator and world time functionality. Made in 2,400 pieces and priced at $850.

Finally, there’s the Citizen L Mae Layers of Time Eco-Drive EM1067-53E, part of their women’s collection. Made out of stainless steel with dark gray plating, it measures just 29.5mm wide and 8.3mm thick. On top is a domed sapphire crystal with a thin fixed bezel with four diamonds set at the 3 o’clock location. The dial also gets the same structural ink treatment, with an additional four diamonds at its cardinal points. Inside is the Caliber E031 Eco-Drive movement which offers just three hands and light charging. Limited to 4,200 pieces, it’s surprisingly cheap for a watch with a number of diamonds - $650.

All of these new releases just made me realise a couple of things. It’s incredible how many watches Citizen makes, while managing to make them all look pretty much the same. It’s even more shocking how many different movements they make that offer pretty much the same functionalities. You can see more on the Citizen website.

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Timex Releases One Of Their Best Snoopy Watches, This One Tennis Themed With Snoopy Showing The Time With His Racket

The appearance of Snoopy, the iconic Peanuts character, is one of the biggest puzzles to people who are new to watch collecting. The story of how the favourite dog ended up on watches is not extremely complicated, but is a bit longish. It’s actually this watch that inspired me for the new Patreon article - the history of Snoopy on watches - so give that a read if you’re subscribed. But the gist is clear: there’s the Snoopy NASA connection and then there’s the playfulness connection. The new Timex x Peanuts watch falls in the latter category and it really is incredibly fun, featuring one of Snoopy’s alter-egos, The World-Famous Tennis Player. This is the new Timex x Peanuts Snoopy Tennis and it’s incredibly cool.

The watch comes in the familiar Timex Marlin case, which means it measures 34mm wide and 10mm thick. It’s made out of stainless steel, but it’s colored gold. Unfortunately, Timex doesn’t say how they achieve this color, whether it’s just some sort of rugged paint or a more deliberate PVD coat. On top is an acrylic crystal and water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is the special part, of course. Rendered in a beautiful green color, it features Snoopy with a tennis racket in hand and a visor on his head. The arms and the tennis ball are used to tell the time, with the racket arm telling the minutes, his other hand telling the hours and the tennis ball telling the seconds. There are large numerals at the cardinal positions and a pale blue Timex logo between Snoopy and the 3 o’clock position.

Interestingly, shockingly for the price actually, inside is a mechanical movement. Made by Miyota, Timex doesn’t say what it is, but it is manually wound. No specs beyond that are given by Marlin, but it’s still a great inclusion. The watch comes on a brown leather strap.

The Timex x Peanuts Snoopy Tennis is available now and priced at $229. See more on the Timex website. (The Timex website is notoriously horrible at regional cross-compatibility, and I’m pasting the EU link with hopes it works for everyone. If not, just google the Timex x Peanuts Snoopy Tennis and it will pop up).

3/

Brew Teams Up With Legendary Chef Alton Brown For A Limited Edition Retrograph Relic

I’ve been saying for years that watches and cooking have the perfect overlap. Two things are essential for good food - temperature and timing. People often ask what’s the use for a dive bezel for people who don’t dive? Well, I’ve gotten so used to timing food with the bezel that I can hardly live without one. I’ve also had some video ideas with watches and food, but I need about 6 more hours in a day to pull that off, so keep your eyes open, we’ll see what happens with that. But the folks over at Brew, the darling of the indie watch industry, are, of course, a few steps in front of me and have teamed up with legendary chef, television personality and watch enthusiast Alton Brown to produce a very distinct Brew Retrograph Relic.

Based on the familiar Brew Retrograph, the case is made out of steel and measures 38mm wide, 10.4mm thick with a 41.5mm length. The watch has 50 meters of water resistance. However, unlike the regular polished finish of the Retrograph, the Relic gets an antique bronze PVD coating to complement the dial.

And it’s obviously all about the dial with this watch. You will either love it or hate it. I can’t say I’m deeply in love with it, but I can surely see the appeal. The dial is oxidized to a deep brown (I guess both to match the Brown last name and the color of an espresso) which Brew calls an “espresso-esque patina.” They removed the date window that’s usually found at 6 o’clock and replaced the 24-hour register at 3 o’clock with an imprint of a coffee bean. The minute track on the outskirts of the dial is still graduated to seconds for the first 35 seconds, the time necessary to brew an espresso shot.

Inside is the Seiko VK64 Meca-Quartz Hybrid chronograph movement which we all know to be a great solution when you want the precision of quartz to tell the time and the smoothness of a mechanical movement when you start the chronograph. The watch comes on a bund-style strap made of shell cordovan by US strap maker BillyKirk with hardware that matches the case and features Brown’s signature.

I know that Brew watches are popular, and that Alton Brown brings a significant amount of attention with his name, but I had no idea that they were this popular. They launched on Friday and since there were some awesome releases I wanted to get out first, I postponed this writeup for today. What a mistake. 250 pieces were made and all 250 sold out on the same day. Sorry about that if you really liked it and wanted one. If you want to see more pictures, head on over to the Brew website and check them out.

 4/

Beaufort Launches New Lineup Of Pulsatimer Watches With Four Colorways To The Very Unique Looking Dial

The New Zealand brand Beaufort makes only three lines of watches. The Aerotimer pilot’s/field watch, the Seatrekker diver and the Pulsatimer chronograph. When you have only three models, it would behoove a brand to give them as unique a look as possible. You run the risk, then, to not attract a broad audience but the ones who like your design will adore it. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Aerotimer and Seatrekker - and that’s fine - but he just released Pulsatimer is just fanatstic, all four versions of it.

The Pulsatimer comes in a stainless steel case that’s equally as traditional as it is unique. It measures 39mm wide, 13.8mm thick and has a 47mm lug-to-lug length. It’s a perfectly round case with very chunky tapered lugs and an almost stepped look thanks to the fixed and markless bezel on top. The bezel gets a high polish, while the rest of the case is a mixture of brushing and media blasting. On top is a box-domed sapphire crystal that enhances the interesting look. Water resistance is 50 meters.

But most of the uniqueness comes from the dial which has a significant pulsation ring on the outskirts, a colored center with hollow applied indices that are connected to a ring that surrounds the dial. It looks amazing and you can get in one of four colorways. There’s a regular case finish that gets a silver black or salmon dial, and there’s a jet black DLC coated case which gets an all black dial. The dials that come in the untreated case have contrasting sub-dials that uniquely small and pushed all the way to the edges of the dial.

Inside is a manually wound Sellita SW510. This is a great cam-operated chronograph that has the same architecture of the Valjoux 7753. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 63 hour power reserve. You can get the watches on a choice of leather strap, TPU rubber strap, or stainless-steel flat link or beads of rice bracelet.

The new Beaufort Pulsatimer is limited to 100 pieces each and priced at €1,366. However, the watches are currently on pre order and can be bought for €1,299.95. Deliveries are expected in September of this year. See more on the Beaufort website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar

2/

Hands on with the Grand Seiko Kodo 'Daybreak'

3/

A review of the new Seiko SPB455, SPB453 and SPB451

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Lesablier LS-04 Travelgraph is an affordable, compact and feature-packed worldtimer

The Travelgraph comes in three versions. The only difference between the three is the dial color and finish. The Constellation model on my wrist features a glossy and glittery blue aventurine dial. It also has a few yellow accents on the city ring and the tip of the seconds hand (not yet featured on the prototype in the pictures). Then, there’s the Midnight version, which features a black sunburst dial with red accents. Finally, there’s the Azzuro version with a trendy ice-blue sunburst dial. Other than the color and finish, the dials are the same.

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

• Mystery, theft, backstabbing, a cute cat—it’s all in the story of Kitty Snows, a community cat that went missing, to the chagrin of her multiple guardians. Discovered to be in the Watergate, the debate on whether she was cat-napped or rescued is still raging. Read this compelling piece to decide for yourself.

• 1999 was a bonkers year for movies. Some were blockbusters (The Matrix, The Sixth Sense). Some were small-bore classics (Being John Malkovich, Election). But nothing rode the line between small and big—or enjoyed a legacy so out of proportion to its initial reception—quite like Doug Liman’s Go. Cue this thoroughly entertaining oral history from the cast and crew, which featured more on-the-rise actors than any movie since The Outsiders.

• This is a lovely insight into the world of Bill Berloni, an animal trainer who has seen it all after decades of working in Hollywood. Concentrating on his experience with Bing, a Great Dane who is starring in an adaptation of “The Friend” by Sigrid Nunez, we see Berloni’s passion—and Bing’s professionalism.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

This is an old video that just popped up in my feed. If you know why it just showed up now, go watch it, you’ll appreciate it. If you don’t, you’re likely not huge hip hop fan and haven’t witnessed the destruction of Drake and Kendrick Lamar demonstrating why he is this generation’s genius. Even if you didn’t follow the beef, you might want to watch this video, there’s a lot to learn.

💵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