Citizen Knocks It Out Of The Park With A Flyer GMT Series 8, G-Shock Brings Out All The Stars And Strips For 4th Of July, Croatian Based Marnaut Has A Sexy New Diver And Bell & Ross Goes Stunning Blue With GMT

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. This is a newsletter based in Croatia, so allow me to extend all my love to the also Croatian-based microbrand Marnaut that just announced some major updates, a new model and a chic new showroom. Scroll on down to read up on them.

Also, fill out the survey or invite your friends (one invite, one giveaway ticket) to enter the giveaway.

In this issue:

• Citizen Expands The Mechanical Higher-End Series 8 With A Flyer GMT

• This G-Shock Is The Most Patriotic Watch For Your 4th July Celebration

• Croatian Based Marnaut Announces New, Dressier, Diver

• Bell & Ross Has A New Sky Blue Color In The BR05 GMT Collection

• The Glashütte Original Sixties Small Second Is The Perfect Dress Watch

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 31 seconds

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👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Expands The Mechanical Higher-End Series 8 With A Flyer GMT

While not as widely known as their competitors, Citizen also has a higher-end version of their watches. They are called Series 8 and provide an option to a more upmarket buyer than would be looking at regular Citizens. Now, Citizen has equipped a new Series 8 with a brand-new GMT mechanical movement and gave it some very nice colors.

Many would like to see the Series 8 GMT be a smaller watch, but i believe that the 41mm wide and 13.5mm thick steel case is the perfect size for what is an integrated bracelet sports watch. You get water resistance to 100 meters with a non screw-down crown and a sapphire crystal. The bezel rotates bi-directionally and has a 24 hour markings on it.

I can also see the design being controversial from the very start. First up, the colors. There will be no end to jokes online for the colors that Citizen decided to launch the Series 8 GMT with. You can get it as a “Pepsi” version - a split blue and red bezel with a blue dial, a “Batman” version - a split blue and black bezel and a black dial, or a gold cased “Root Beer” option - a dark and light brown bezel with a frosted silver dial. Yeah, they’re Rolex GMT II colors. It is to be made fun of. But also, it’s kind of cool.

Then, there’s the dial design. Citizen claims that the frosted dial of the Root beer reflects the “patterns of light and shade created by long autumn grasses illuminated by the warm glow of sunset”, while the geometric patterns of the Batman and Pepsi are “inspired by the skyline of Tokyo at night with its countless skyscrapers and windows of different sizes, creating a modern twist on traditional check patterns long used in Japan to represent prosperity”. These crazy explanations aside, the dials are very busy. It’s a very strong personal preference whether you will like these or not. I like them.

Inside the watch is the Citizen 9054. Since Citizen owns Miyota, the 9054 is, if my source is correct, the Miyota 9075 with upgraded antimagnetic properties. The Miyota 9075 movement has been making the rounds in micro and indie brands, brining the “flyer” GMT function to much cheaper watches. I love it for that. I like it less for the fact that the 9054 is accurate to +20/-10 seconds per day (so way outside of COSC’s +6/-4 specifications).

All three references will hit retail this fall (a shame, as I would bet they would sell quite a few if they released it before the summer), with the two steel models carrying a price tag of $1,695 while the gold-tone reference is limited to 1,300 units and will cost $1,795.

2/

This New G-Shock Is The Most Patriotic Watch For Your Fourth Of July Celebration

Over the top patriotism is a uniquely American thing. Throwing the Stars and Stripes on bumper stickers, hats, blankets, doormats, sunglasses, shoes and underwear are as American as apple pie and driving the Route 66. So, with the Fourth of July coming up, G-Shock has something for the patriot in you that’s looking to accessorise. While G-Shock is made by Casio, which is a Japanese brand, this DW5600US23-7 is undoubtedly American with the U.S. flag plastered on every surface that would fit one.

In all significant ways, this is a regular 5600. The watch runs on a CR2016 battery, is water-resistant for up to 200 meters, and is shock resistant, just like every G-SHOCK. It has the regular fixings, as well - a calendar, stopwatch, and timer.

Why you would really want the watch is for it’s design. The strap of this ultimate American watch features stars on one side and stripes on the other. But Casio can do you one better. A special engraving is present on the back of the stainless steel case - the most American of all the birds, an eagle! That’s enough, a non-American would think. But it’s not enough. Turn on the backlight on the LED screen and - BAM - there’s a hidden American flag hiding behind the time.

The G-SHOCK Fourth of July is available now through Casio’s website for $140 and comes with custom packaging for this themed edition.

3/

Croatian Based Marnaut Announces New, Dressier, Diver And Updates Fantastic Dark Surge Model With Swiss Movement

In a country that has no watch industry, like Croatia, when a brand pops up and says we’re making Croatian watches, as a Croatian-based watch fan your ears perk up. That’s what happened with Marnaut when owner Mario Jutronić, a Croatian designer who spent most of his life in Asia, introduced the Dark Surge almost 5 years ago. Growing up with summers on the Croatian coast just a glance at the Marnaut was enough to see what was up with all the very strange dots on the dial - it was obviously mimicking the exoskeleton of a sea urchin, just like the ones I used to dive up as a kid. It brought back nostalgia and a warm feeling. Now Marnaut is doubling down - they are updating the Dark Surge with a new Swiss movement, the announced a new skin-diver type watch to come out this year and they unveiled their classy boutique on the island Brač in Croatia.

Let’s start with the update first. The updated Dark Surge 300 gets a slightly smaller case than the previous and measures 41mm, with a 50mm lug to lug distance. The watch is made out of steel, with a ceramic (or steel) bezel that has 120 clicks and spins unidirectionally. You can get the watch in three configurations - with a silver steel case or with a black PVD coating, with an option of the ceramic bezels on the black and silver watch or a full steel bezel on a untreated steel case. The caseback is screwed-down and sealed with a gasket and the crown screw downs as well. Why the gasket, you might ask? Well, this version of the Dark Surge, just like the previous one, has a depth rating of 300 meters.

The dial is black enamel and has 47 metal indices on it. Of those 47, 34 are arranged to resemble the dots on a sea urchin skeleton, and these line up with five minute markers. The dial also has Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock and everything is slathered in Super-LumiNova. On the bottom edge of the watch, on either side of the 6, where some brands might put “Made in…”, Marnaut included latitude and longitude coordinates that correspond with the stunning Blue Cave on the island of Biševo.

The biggest change, however, is on the inside. While the Dark Surge 300 used a Miyota movement before, they are now switching to the Swiss-made Sellita SW200 automatic movement, a reliable and familiar movement. All versions come on a rubber strap and all three versions retail for EUR 749. Buy it online or in the fantastic new showroom that Mario opened on his home-island of Brač, a short boat ride from Split.

Then there’s the new announcement. Later in the year, you will be able to buy the Safe Harbour 100. This is much more of a skin diver compared to the Dark Surge 300 and Seascape 200, Marnaut’s other watches. It has a C-Case shape and measures 39mm wide. The softer case features balance out the sportier dial, Double-O ring crown and 100 meters of water resistance. The watch will come with a black or white dial, with the same metal indices and will also be powered by the Sellita SW 200. This watch also sports coordinates at 6, this time of Split harbour. Full release details, including price, will be available in July.

Also of note for the entire Marnaut brand is the fact that all of their watches are now constructed in Germany. While the watches are fully designed in Croatia, they are assembled in Pforzheim, a German city nicknamed “Goldstatd”, or “Golden City”, for its history in jewellery and watch production where brands like Laco and Stowa were started.

For more on Marnaut, head on over to their website.

4/ 

Bell & Ross Introduces New Sky Blue Color To Their BR05 GMT Collection

The BR05 GMT line from Bell & Ross is a familiar staple and one of my favorite GMTs out there. It’s a fairly new watch for the brand, as they have only launched it in 2021, but it came out with only one colorway - black, with a red accented GMT hand. They updated it last year with a white dial. But this year, they’re going all out with an unusual, but stunning color - a sky blue on the dial and a dark blue on a rubber strap.

Much about this watch remains the same. The case is, for example, the same - it measures 41mm wide and it’s made out of stainless steel with a satin finish. It has a sapphire crystal, screw-down crown and 100 meters water resistance. The movement can be seen through the sapphire case-back, and it too remains the same BR-CAL.325, and features a full 360° oscillating weight as the automatic winding rotor. This movement is a derivative of the Sellita SW330-1.

The majority of the novelty is the dial. The dial is a very beautiful blue, with a textured matte finish on the surface, but over a sunray burst from the center. The usual dial elements – the Bell & Ross brand nomenclature and declaration that this is a GMT Automatic, the appliqué hour markers and transfer printed minute track remain unchanged, but executed in white. The 24 hour markers printed on the rehaut is now in white over blue for the night hours, and blue over silver for daylight hours. And the accent on the 24 hour GMT hand is now in a pale blue instead of red in the launch model.

You can buy the BR 05 GMT now and it’s not a limited edition. If you want it on the blue rubber strap it will set you back EUR 5,200, while the version on the steel bracelet is EUR 5,700.

5/

The Glashütte Original Sixties Small Second Is An Understated But Fantastic Option If You Need The Perfect Dress Watch

Glashütte Original celebrates the creativity and originality of the 1960s with a stylish new wristwatch model that enriches their Sixties collection. Inspired by this exceptional decade, renowned for its design and fashion, the watch pays homage to the era's influence. Characterised by the subtle retro look, the new Sixties Small Second presents, for the first time in this line, a dial with small seconds display at 6 o’clock, a detail which adds elegance to the ensemble.

This small second is set within the galvanic silver dial and decorated with a fine vinyl-type finish. The hands and the indexes are made in rose gold perfectly matching the 42 mm x 12.95 mm rose gold case. The sapphire crystal, anti-reflective on both sides, is slightly domed to follow the curved profile of dial and hands.

The Sixties Small Second is driven by the self-winding 39-60 calibre with a power reserve of 40 hours. The high-end Haute Horlogerie finishes include Glashütte stripes, bevelled edges, and polished screws. Together with the skeletonized rotor and its signature double-G logo, the movement can be seen through the sapphire crystal caseback. The watch comes on a green alligator leather strap.

If you’re in search of a truly great dress watch, the Sixties Small Second might be it. The only downside might be the price - EUR 17.600 when you include 19% in German VAT.

6/

Revolution Magazine Teams Up With Legendary Laurent Ferrier For Classic Micro-Rotor ‘Amazonia’ Limited Edition

Sector dials started off in the 1920s on both wrist and pocket watches as a way of more clearly delineating time. They featured a circular track where the hour indexes would radiate outward. This means that the hour hand would align perfectly with this track and there could be no mistaking its placement. Since the 20s, sector dials have become more of a style choice on the dial, but watchmakers like Laurent Ferrier are still considered masters of the sector dial. Now they have teamed up with Revolution Magazine once again to produce their most adventurous watch to date, the Classic Micro-Rotor Amazonia.

Make sure to go to the article on Revolution linked above where Wei Koh goes into deep detail on all of the collaborations between Revolution and Ferrier, but what you need to know so far is that this watch will be slightly different than their previous collaborations. As Ferrier said himself: “I would like to bring an even greater sense of sophistication to the design of our sector dials by making the Arabic indexes at 12, three and nine o’clock as well as the sector track from white rhodium treated gold, and have them be applied to the dial itself.”

As for the color: “I would like it to remind me of the Amazon rainforest and be a wonderful verdant green. The Amazon is the single, most species-rich biodome in the world, and an important resource for humanity. It covers one percent of the Earth’s surface but is home to 10 percent of the species on our planet.” I’m telling you, go read the article as Ferrier is really going out there with his descriptions.

The Laurent Ferrier Classic Micro-Rotor “Amazonia” features the caliber FBN 229.01, an automatic winding movement that uses Breguet’s natural escapement, a dual wheel escapement that runs without any lubrication. Like the other Revolution collaborations, this watch features a yellow gold colored finish. It will be made in just 15 examples with a price of USD 57,500.

Available for purchase today, 19 June 2023, 10pm SGT | 4pm CET | 10am EST.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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2/

A review of the Tour de France inspired Bravur Grand Tour La Grande Boucle II

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

Celebrating 25 years of Maurice de Mauriac with the Chrono Modern Blue PVD “Big Date”

Some people find Maurice de Mauriac’s take on the pilot watch a bit derivative at this point, but that is mainly because since the Chrono Modern first came out, there have been a lot of pilot watches released in the market. In fact, Maurice de Mauriac claims that it was first to use this particular modern dial font, which was later used in a similar form on Richard Mille watches. Maurice de Mauriac has also been an innovator in terms of colors and often materials.

⏲️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

• Earlier this year, a North Shore local named Luke Shepardson paddled out during his break and won the most prestigious big-wave competition on the planet, beating some of surfing’s brightest stars. So GQ went to Hawaii to figure out how he pulled off the damn near impossible.

• This Intercept piece is kind of all over the place, but the central premise that the allowance and official sanctioning of conspiracy theories after 9/11 laid the blueprint for Trump being president is very interesting.

• What Happens When a QAnon Cult Leader Moves Into Town? After being chased off an island in eastern Canada, the so-called "QAnon Queen" hunkered down for winter in rural Nova Scotia with her followers. Vice tried to visit the property. It did not go well

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Some of you might have caught on that this newsletter is written in Croatia (if not, scroll up and read the Marnaut piece). Croatia used to be a part of Yugoslavia, which broke up in the 90s, and it was the second largest country of the union. The capital was Belgrade, now the capital of Serbia. This is not a geography/history lesson, just giving some context. Since we were all the same country and spoke pretty much the same language, you would hear urban legends from all over. One of my favorite stories was of the Belgrade Phantom, a guy who would take a Porsche 911 on chases with the cops all over Belgrade, over multiple nights. There was a mediocre movie inspired by this story, but I randomly stumbled on this great YouTube video that sums it up pretty well.

💵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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