Citizen Proves They Are Still Kings Of Hardcore Watches; Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Is Tastefuly Vintage; Nivada And W&W Team Up; Junghans Goes Full1990s; Grönefeld Releases First Ladies’ Watch

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. What’s up with these late newsletters, you may ask? Well, you know how misfortune never comes alone? On Friday, we dealt with surgery on our dog and that took up a lot of time. Yesterday? Well, the apartment two flors below me turned into a fiery inferno. No really, it made the news here in Croatia. We were trapped in the apartment by a wall of black smoke, our windows burst from the heat and the apartment smells like there was a dumpster fire in here, but we’re all fine and safe. So, sorry for the tardiness, we’re back on schedule tomorrow!

In this issue:

• Citizen Proves They Are Still Kings Of Hardcore Watches With New Solar Powered Promaster Eco-Drive 300m

• The Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Is One Of The Most Tasteful Vintage Re-editions On The Market

• Nivada Grenchen And Worn & Wound Team Up To Conclude Their Chronograph Trilogy

• Junghans Goes Full Early-1990s With The Incredibly Cool Mega Futura

• Grönefeld Releases Its First Ladies’ Watch, The Really Beautiful 1944 Tanfana

👂What’s new

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Citizen Proves They Are Still Kings Of Hardcore Watches With New Solar Powered Promaster Eco-Drive 300m

If nothing else, this newsletter will serve as a testament to the incredible run that Citizen has had in the early 2020s. I’ve tried covering as many of their releases as possible, but I’m sure I’m missing many of them. Over the last few years, we’ve seen citizen expand their premium mechanical sports watch lines, introduce great new mechanical budget options that are perfect starter watches and even build out a whole line of high-end quartz watches that can stand up to all sorts of abuse. But is it just me, or have they kind of neglected the watches we love them for most, their chunky divers? Their Fugus, their Eco-Zillas, the Promasters and the Aqualands? Maybe. But here they go, releasing a duo of very nice solar powered Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive Diver 300m watches with 365 days of battery life even in the toughest of conditions.

Citizen really wants you to use this as a tough dive watch, especially if you do any professional underwater, preferably saturation diving, work. Hence, the size. The stainless steel case measures an enormous 46mm wide and 16.3mm thick. On top is a fat bezel with a with five deep cutouts organized into six groups to be used for better grip. The bezel has a black insert with a 60 minute scale that uses a great font. The crown is positioned at 4 o’clock and water resistance is 300 meters. The cases also feature helium escape valves, for that extra dose of hardcore diving.

There are two versions of the watch. The BN1024-01E comes with a grey to black gradient dial, while the BN1024-01Z is rather more attractive with a great red-black vertical gradient. Both dials have a slight texture to them, oversized hour markers and hands, as well as a date aperture at four o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the Cal.E365, a solar powered movement with a charge reserve of 365-days. That pretty impressive number means that if you charge it up full in the sun and put the watch in a dark drawer, it will easily run for a full year. The watches come on the iconic polyurethane strap with the recognizable ribs and a strap extension.

The new Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive Diver 300m models will go on sale in April and are priced at $675. See more on the Citizen website.

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The Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Is One Of The Most Tasteful Vintage Re-editions On The Market

Just like the above mentioned Citizen, Rado ha had a pretty good run in the past few years. But most of their releases have been focused on recreating some of their weirdly shaped ceramic-based pieces. And a lot of them have been cool. But Rado also made a couple of great looking non-ceramic pieces in the 1960s. Like, for example, the Captain Cook Over-Pole, their dive-travel hybrid. In 2022, they released it as a steel limited edition and now we’re getting a yellow gold PVD-coated version.

Interestingly, in a world that’s clamoring for smaller and smaller watches, this one ups the diameter from the 2022 version. But it does so to the near-perfect dimensions. The stainless steel case goes from 37mm wide to 39mm wide and 10.9mm thick, and then gets a polished gold colored PVD coating. On top is a heavily domed, retro inspired, domed sapphire crystal, surrounded by a bi-directional bezel that has a black ceramic insert with a laser engraved worldtimer scale with city names. Water resistance is 100 meters.

While the case is nicely retro, it’s the dial that steals the show on this watch. It has a sunray silver finish, with a strongly pronounced curve that’s matched by the curved applied gold colored markers. It’s a very retro look, like old Omega used to make. Around the entire periphery is a very subtle 24 hour scale. The dauphine-style hands are also gold colored, while the iconic Rado anchor is placed on a ruby background. The hands have thin strips of lume in them.

Inside, you won’t find a spectacular movement. It’s the Rado calibre R862, which is essentially a hand-wound version of Swatch Group’s Powermatic 80. It beats at 3Hz, has na 80 hour power reserve and includes decorations like Geneva stripes, blued screws and gold-coloured markings. The watch comes with two straps, a yellow gold PVD-coated beads-of-rice bracelet and a grained leather strap with a gold-coloured pin buckle.

The new Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Gold PVD is, unfortunately, also a limited edition and will be released in 1,962 pieces, priced at CHF 2,700. See more on the Rado website.

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Nivada Grenchen And Worn & Wound Team Up To Conclude Their Chronograph Trilogy

This is an interesting collaboration. Back in 2022, the watch website Worn & Wound teamed up with Nivada Grenchen to release a reimagined Chronomaster, one of Nivada’s more legendary chronos. It had a dial with some killer colors, but more importantly, Nivada procured 20 Valjoux 72 chronograph movements to be placed inside. In addition to those 20, they also put out way more versions with the Seiko Meca-Quartz movements. Then in 2023, they did it again, but this time with the Datomaster model, 150 meca-quartz movement and just 15 with the Valjoux 72. Well, it seems that the well of Valjoux movements has dried out, as the duo is teaming up for the third time to release a new edition of the Datomaster, only now with just the meca-quartz.

The Datomaster VK63 V3 comes in a compact case, made out of stainless steel and polished, measuring 36mm wide, 12mm thick and with a lug-to-lug of 43.5mm. The Datomaster doesn’t have a rotating bezel. Instead it has a minimal polished bezel and a heavily domed crystal that extends all the way to the edge. On top is a domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is great for such a retro-inspired watch at 100 meters.

The dial continues where the previous two versions left off, with inspiration coming from mid-centry cars. The dial has a pale mint colored base with a darker green circle in the middle, which has an additional bubble at its base to be used as the base of the sub-seconds at six. At three and nine you’ll find the 24-hour and 60-minute counters. The dramatic central seconds hand has a purple tip, the same color as the hour markers.

That 24-hour indicator is an instant tell what’s inside — the Seiko VK63. This, of course, means that you get the reliability and practicality of a quartz movement to tell the time and the smooth engagement and sweep of a mechanical chronograph movement. The watch comes on a brown leather rally-style strap.

The new Nivada Grenchen x Worn & Wound Datomaster VK63 V3 is limited to 150 pieces and available for preorder now. Deliveries are expected in July. Price is set at €484. See more on the Worn & Wound website.

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Junghans Goes Full Early-1990s With The Incredibly Cool Mega Futura

Just this Friday I wrote about Junghans, the iconic German watch manufacturer for the paid side of the newsletter. And just two days later, we have a new watch from Junghans. One that is very much in line with what I’ve been saying for a while now — the 1990s will be make a major comeback. To get the whole background of what Junghans is all about, I’m giving everyone access to the Junghans article that’s usually reserved for paid subscribers only (if you like it, and want to get more like it, feel free to subscribe). What we have here is a recreation of the iconic Junghans Mega 1 and it’s called the Mega Futura. Hell yeah.

Back in 1990, Germany was in a really, really great place. The Wall had come down, the country had unified, the economy is booming and the future was looking bright. To look forward to that future, Junghans made something pretty nifty — the world’s first commercial radio-controlled wristwatch: the Junghans Mega 1. It was, teachnically, the most accurate wristwatch in the world.

Now, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of that release, Junghans gives us the Mega Futura, which takes on a look very much like the original version. It measures 38.5mm x 44mm, with a significant asymmetric bump on the left side to accommodate the oversized display. Water resistance is decent at 50 meters.

There are three versions of the watch — two with brushed untreated steel cases, one with a positive and the other with a negative case, and one with a black steel case. It’s a simple display that shows a prominent 12- or 24-hour form of time, with additional functions including the calendar week, the day of the week, and date.

Inside, you’ll find the multifrequency radio-controlled Caliber J604.90, which was developed and assembled in Schramberg at Junghans’ headquarters. The movement connects to the atomic clock of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (the national metrology institute of the Federal Republic of Germany) while in Europe or similar transmitters in the United States or Japan to constantly adjust to the correct time. The watches come on black leather straps.

The new Mega Futura is quite the limited release, with only 80 pieces of each being built, which is truly a shame. Especially since the watch is priced at just €490. See more on the Junghans website.

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Grönefeld Releases Its First Ladies’ Watch, The Really Beautiful 1944 Tanfana

The Dutch watch scene, while loved in some circles, doesn’t seem to get the respect it so much deserves. They have incredible brands and watchmakers, ranging from affordable but fantastically designed Batavi, through De Rijke, all the way up to Holthinrichs, the incredible Christian van der Klaauw and Grönefeld. They really do have it all. Grönefeld made some waves recently by launching the Grøne Oldenzaal, a lower cost sub-brand that uses their style with off-the-shelf movements. But now they’re back doing what they do best — superbly made watches. And the 1944 Tanfana, named after a local pagan goddess, is their fist ladies’ watch. And it’s sensational.

The watch comes in a rather large (for a ladies’ model) red gold case that measures 37.5mm wide and 10.5mm thick. The bezel, mid-case and lugs are set with 233 brilliant-cut diamonds, and the crown is set with an aventurine cabochon. The brand uses different sized diamonds to be able to still have hollowed out lugs and tiny diamonds on its sides. It looks like one of the best settings of diamonds in the market.

The dial is blue aventurine, which is decorated with ‘flower of life’ motifs which aren’t ever seen on aventurine. The indices are made out of red gold, just like the lance-shaped hands. There’s a wonderful 6 o’clock small seconds sub-dial which doesn’t use a hand, but rather a blue floral motif that rotates in its entirety.

Inside is the calibre G-06, an adaptation of a base movement made by Andreas Strehler’s UhrTeil AG manufacture. It features a variable-inertia balance wheel and a free-sprung balance spring. It has a 56 hour power reserve. The openworked 22k red gold rotor has a white gold medallion engraved with the Tree of Life and the words ‘Goddess’ and ‘Tanfana’ in relief. There are a large number of strap available, but all of them come with a diamond-set pin buckle.

The new Grönefeld 1944 Tanfana is available now and priced at a pretty high €118,000, without tax. See more on the Grönefeld website.

⏲️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

• This is a wild tale of Eligio Bishop—a.k.a. Natureboy, a.k.a. the leader of an itinerant band of off-the-grid disciples known as Carbon Nation. Bishop is currently serving a life sentence without parole, but that ending is anything but a spoiler; the real payoff is Peisner’s dogged reconstruction of the web Bishop spun, ensnaring young men and women who were justifiably tired of America’s structural imbalances.

• While some may consider it a wild goose chase, Owen Long still wants to solve the mystery of who killed Andy, a footless goose who became a celebrity after his owner, Gene Fleming, gave him baby shoes to enable him to walk. (The photographs of the goose in boots are remarkable.) There are no clear answers, but Long’s list of suspects is a fascinating one.

• Ivy Schamis, a former teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, survived the 2018 shooting. Two of her students, Nick Dworet and Helena Ramsay, were among the 17 victims. As Emily Baumgaertner Nunn writes for The New York Times, Schamis has remained a strong presence and source of support in the lives of the surviving students in her class, despite her own struggles with guilt and PTSD.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I dare you to tell me that Nicolas Cage isn’t the greatest actor of our generation. He gets made fun of, many times rightfully so, but he is sensational at other times.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk