Citizen Introduces Super Great Looking Atomic Timekeeping Moon Phase, Norqain Releases Lion Inspired Wild ONE, 60s Fan Favorite Benrus Ultra-Deep Is Back, New Watches From MeisterSinger And Narbel

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. A couple of great looking watches out today, but I’ll say my favorite is the Benrus. I’m an easy person to please.

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In this issue:

• Citizen Unveils Their Latest Innovation, A Super Accurate Atomic Timekeeping Moonphase

• Norqain Releases Lion Inspired Wild ONE Hakuna Mipaka Limited Edition

• The 1960s Fan-Favorite Super Compressor Benrus Ultra-Deep Is Back

• MeisterSinger Keeps Telling Time With One Hand But Adds A Wonderfull Moon Phase To The Dial

• Narbel Proves He Is A Master At Skeletonisation And Finishing With Only His Second Watch, The Narbel & Co Skel-1

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 35 seconds

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👂What’s new

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Citizen Unveils Their Latest Innovation, A Super Accurate Atomic Timekeeping Moonphase

Analog and digital watches are not and should not be mutually exclusive. In fact, both pursuits require an immense amount of technical precision and innovation. Just like gyroscopes, silicone and dual escapements are introduced to mechanical watches to push the craft further, some manufacturers push what’s possible in digital movements. One such brand is Citizen and their newest watch - the Tsuki-Yomi A-T - exemplifies that pursuit as it is the first light powered analogue moonphase regulated by atomic timekeeping.

The Citizen Eco-Drive is a well known quartz movement from the brand made famous for it’s ability to charge the battery with light. It’s reliable, hyper-accurate and durable. Now, with the Eco-Drive Cal. H874 which not only has a moonphase, it also has a multi-band radio receiver that picks up signals emitted from atomic clocks around the world and adjust the time accordingly. The great thing about having the radio recievers is that the watch can tell where it is in the world, which will then adjust to the local timezone. It will, of course, also adjust the moonphase if you cross into another hemisphere. Accuracy is +/-15 seconds per month without signal reception and without a light source it can tell the time up to 2.5 years.

But Citizen has always been known or their highly advanced movements. What about the looks of the watch? It’s pretty large at 43mm, but the titanium case likely helps with wearability, just like the sloping bezel and facetted lugs. The dial will come in three versions - grey, blue and red. This is a reference to the regular grey moon, as well as the blue and blood moons. The moonphase indicator sits at 6 o’clock on the dial, with a day/night indicator at 9, a date at 4 and a combined days of the week, power reserve and hemisphere indicator at 12 o’clock.

This will not be a watch for everyone, but I do suspect a lot of people will appreciate a moonphase on a Citizen. The watch will set you back $850 and it will not be a limited production. See more on the Citizen website.

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Norqain Releases Lion Inspired Wild ONE Hakuna Mipaka Limited Edition

I’ll be the first to say that I don’t fully understand what Norqain watches are all about. Sure, they’re a relatively young brand that does sporty watches, I understand that. What I’m not so sure about is why they command prices higher than more established and familiar brands. But their technical innovations and links to major philanthropic efforts have made a name for themselves. That an being taken under the wind of watch world legend Jean-Claude Biver who serves as Advisor to the Board. Now, the brand is launching a new model, the Norqain Wild ONE Hakuna Mipaka Limited Edition in collaboration with wildlife ambassador and Hakuna Mipaka project creator Dean Schneider to benefit lions in the Hakuna Mipaka sanctuary.

The watch comes in a 42mm wide and 12.3mm thick case made out of NORTEQ, a material developed by Norqain. What is NORTEQ? Well, considering how many buzzwords they use on the website to describe it, it looks to be fancy plastic. According to Norqain, this is a “carbon fibre composite is made of carbon fibre … and a high-performance polymer matrix containing 60% bio-sourced material (castor oil)”. You know what else is made out of castor oil? Bioceramic, the “plastic” used on the MoonSwatch. Bioceramic is mixed with zirconium oxide (ceramic) instead of carbon fibre, in an unknown percentage. I haven’t handled a Norqain with a NORTEQ case, so I can’t tell you if you get the same plastic feel from it.

The great thing about a material like NORTEQ is that it takes color well, so the Wild ONE Hakuna Mipaka is rendered in a very nice dark brown and has a rubber shock absorber in a sandy color. The crown is also dressed in sand-colored rubber and the sand theme is also present on the dial, which is stamped with a lion fur pattern and the sanctuary’s logo. You get flat hour indices, faceted hour and minute hands and all of them are plated in red gold with white X1 Super-LumiNova.

Inside, housed within a sandlbasted titanium housing, is the Kenissi made calibre NN20/1. The movement beats at 28,800vph, has a 70 hour power reserve and is chronometer-certified. The watch comes on a beige rubber strap that has a lion-fur pattern stamped into it.

The Norqain Wild ONE Hakuna Mipaka is limited to 300 pieces and the retail price is set at CHF 5,250. See more on the Norqain website.

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The 1960s Fan-Favorite Super Compressor Benrus Ultra-Deep Is Back

I’ll say it again - we are at peak vintage-reissue time and I deeply appreciate it. Many of the best looking vintage pieces are either difficult to source, way too expensive or have become too delicate/valuable to use as the tools they were intended to be used as. Modern reissues of these old watches solve nearly all of the problems. One such example is the just announced Benrus Ultra-Deep, an extremely faithful recreation of the original.

Benrus is an American watch company that often supplied watches to the U.S. military but really found it’s stride in the 1960s when hobby scuba diving became more prevalent. They cranked out a number of incredible divers, the most popular of which was the Ultra-Deep. It came in a compressor-type case, which meant that it got better water tightness the further you dove. These watches were equipped with special gaskets that allowed parts of the watch to move undre pressure, ultimately tightening as you went down and gave you water resistance of about 200 meters. They are also known for their internal bezels which were rotated with a crown at 2 o’clock.

Benrus is bringing this exact same design back and sticking to the original size as well, meaning that it measures 36.5mm wide, an incredibly small size for a modern diver. Even one that is vintage-inspired. While it keeps the look of a compressor, it does lack the compressing functionality. Benrus says that because of new techniques and tolerances, a modern screw-down design was used to maintain the depth rating of 200 meters.

The black dial features a white minute track with super long markers and large luminous hour markers sandwiched between them. The inner dive bezel also displays oversized luminous numerals for 15, 30, and 45 minutes. There’s a date window at 3 o’clock with a date magnifier in the acrylic double-domed crystal. The cathedral hands look amazing and are the same as the original.

Inside the watch is the automatic Soprod P024 based on the very familiar ETA 2824-2. It operates at 28,800vph, features a quick-set date, and has a 38-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a Jubilee-style stainless steel bracelet, but you also get a blue nylon NATO dive strap.

You can buy the Benrus Ultra-Deep right now at a price of $1,095. See more on the Benrus website.

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MeisterSinger Keeps Telling Time With One Hand But Adds A Wonderfull Moon Phase To The Dial

I never thought I would say this, but I’m starting to really like MeisterSinger. Their insistence that time should be told with just one hand is just charming enough. However, despite keeping time indication as simple as possible, MeisterSinger has been known to include some pretty spectacular complications in their watches. In 2021 they unveiled the Stratoscope, a watch with a moon phase indicator, which is now getting an update.

Just like the previous model, the new one has an incredible luminous moon that is painted a golden color and, honestly, huge. Take into account that this is a large case that measures 43mm, so you can imagine how large the moon is on that dial. The stainless steel case has satin-brushed and polished finishes, a large crown and curved lugs. The dial starts off black on top and gradually turns dark blue on the bottom. The moon phase display is at 12 o’clock. The moon disc faithfully replicates the lunar surface, and supposedly looks fantastic in the dark when it glows brightly.

Since MeisterSinger uses just one hand, the time indication is seperated into 12 hours with 144 markers, each representing 5 minutes to tell the time easier. You get a color matched date window at 6 o’clock and the hours are displayed with two digits and golden indices.

The watch is powered by the automatic Sellita SW 220-1 which, of course, doesn’t have a moon indication, so MeisterSinger adds their own moon phase module that allows for accurate moon phases for the next 128 years. The base movement beats at 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 38 hours.

The new MeisterSinger Stratoscope is not limited and price is set at €4,390. See more on the MeisterSinger website.

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Narbel Proves He Is A Master At Skeletonisation And Finishing With Only His Second Watch, The Narbel & Co Skel-1

Phillipe Narbel has put in years of work at Audemars Piquet before branching out on his own with a team oc collaborators to create Narbel & Co. Last year they introduced the Roots watch to much praise, but their second watch will make people stop and stare - they stripped down the Roots to it’s bare minimums and in the process created a work of art called the Skel-1

Since Narbel & Co built their second watch on the basis of the first, you still get the 40mm x 40mm cushion shaped case in either stainless steel or a combination of steel and red gold. Despite the chunky look you get with the cushion shape, the watch is only 10mm thick, with a combination of brushed and polished finishing and a strong bevelled edge on the bezel. The sapphire crystals on both sides follow the silhouette of the case.

The Skel-1 doesn’t have a dial, but it does have a sloped flange on the outside perimeter with sculpted three-dimensional openworked indices that help you tell the time. The hour, minutes and seconds hands are steel with a frosted and polished finishing, with the addition of a gold plate on the bi-color model. Beyond the hands is the skeletonized movement which looks amazing.

The Skel-1 comes with the same base movement as the Roots did, which is the manually wound Peseux 7001. However, that’s just the base. The team completely rebuilds the movement to fit in the shape of the case. The Skel-1 gets even more customization to get it skeletonized. German silver is used for various elements, which is then given a black-gold finish or a 5n red gold plating. It beats at a rate of 21,600vph and delivers 42 hours of running time. The hand-applied finishing includes frosting, brushing, engraving and more. No less than 211 interior angles have been bevelled and polished by hand. The watch comes on a handmade leather strap, bespoke to each client’s requirements in terms of material, colour and size, with a stainless steel or gold ardillon buckle.

While the watches will not be limited in numbers, they are limited in production capacity. Philippe Narbel expects to make 10 to 15 pieces every year, depending on the level of customization requested from customers as the material, colour and finishing of the case, buckle, ratchet cover, mainplate and bridges can all be altered if desired. The base price is CHF 62,000 for stainless steel and CHF 82,000 for bicolour steel and gold, excluding VAT, and go up with any bespoke requests. While Narbel & Co doesn’t have any of the watches on their website, you can see them on their Instagram page.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands on with the Yema Sous Marine collection

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A review of the Frederique Constant Highlife Chronograph “Panda”

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

Sherpa Ops, A True Modern Compressor Dive Watch

The Sherpa line came in all shapes and sizes, but some of the most collectible are those designated as super-compressors. Most modern watches use this terminology to describe a watch with two crowns, one that controls the movement, and another that manipulates an internal bezel mechanism. In truth, this is incorrect. The Super-Compressor is defined by its ability to increase its water resistance as you increase in depth. The additional external pressure compresses the crowns and caseback into specialized gaskets therefore increasing the water resistance. Sherpa watches dug through Swiss archives to recreate this concept and enhance it with modern materials. 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

• Have you ever wondered what makes Elon Musk tick? This journalist from the Guardian spent months following the same people as him on Twitter to find out who fuels his curious worldview.

• The record shows that in the chaotic period before and after the 2020 election, General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did as much as, or more than, any other American to defend the constitutional order, to prevent the military from being deployed against the American people, and to forestall the eruption of wars with America’s nuclear-armed adversaries. Along the way, Milley deflected Trump’s exhortations to have the U.S. military ignore, and even on occasion commit, war crimes. This is an incredible piece from the Atlantic, a must read to see what people close to Trump saw during the presidency.

• For months, dozens of unwitting birth workers coached a supposedly expecting client named Kaitlyn Braun through a series of grotesque labor scenarios. Now, in a sprawling international court case, she faces 52 criminal charges for making it all up. In their first major magazine interviews, five of Kaitlyn’s accusers describe how they fell under her chilling, persuasive power.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Photographers really have the best jobs sometimes. Like this dude, who got to put on a space suit, get into a Cold War-era spy plane, fly in it to the edge of space to do a photoshoot with another spy plane. Can’t really think of anybody who did something cooler on that day.

💵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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