Citizen Releases Wolverine, Deadpool And Captain America Themed Trio; G-Shock Adds Colors To MetalOak; Mr Jones' Love Letter To London; Blancpain Gives Full Gold Treatment To Bathyscaphe Duo

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Not a huge day today, but the Citizen sure are fun watches. If you’re a comic book fan.

My gratitude for your help continues. Really, thank you all that joined the Patreon so much. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please take a couple of seconds to read what’s in red right below:

In this issue:

• Citizen Releases More Marvel Themed Watches, Including A Wolverine And Deadpool Duo

• G-Shock Adds New Dial Colors And Tough Solar To Their Iconic Metal CasiOak Line

• Mr Jones Love Letter To London Is A Time-Limited Relese Designed By Their Watch Assembler

• Blancpain Gives The Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet and Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback A Full Gold Treatment

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 19 seconds

👂What’s new

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Citizen Releases More Marvel Themed Watches, Including A Wolverine And Deadpool Duo

As someone who grew up with Marvel comic books and has worked there, it pains me a bit to see what’s happening with the company right now. They have focused on television, with mixed success, while the movies get released and forgotten super fast. It seemed to me for a second there that Marvel might go down in flames in the coming years. And just as they were on the precipice, they go ahead and release the Deadpool & Wolverine movie that just crushes the box office, while simultaneously announcing that Robert Downey Jr. will be returning to their movies, this time as Dr. Doom. And overlapping with these movements at Marvel, here comes Citizen, with three additions to their Marvel Citizen collection. There’s the Captain America Forever WWII-style flieger, and the Wolverine and Deadpool watches.

Watch/pop culture collaborations have a lot of potential to be a bit cringy. Especially when it’s a collaboration between a huge luxury brand and Marvel, resulting in comic book-themed watches that sell for tens of thousands of dollars while being a bit… let’s just say over the top. Citizen, so far, has managed to make these collaborations with Marvel more or less pretty fun and good looking. And while they could have just slapped a couple of colors on the same dial, same case, they approach each release as a unique watch.

Let’s start with the Captain America Forever, which is exactly what you would expect from a watch that is styled after the famed WWII era soldier-turned-superhero. The watch is clearly vintage military-inspired, with a fully round steel case that measures 40mm wide, with a brushed finish for the case and a polished bezel. On top is a mineral crystal and water resistance is 50 meters. The dial is where things get very stylized, with a huge triangle at 12 o’clock, oversized numerals at 3 and 9 o’clock and slightly smaller double digit numerals in five minute intervals, very reminiscent of flieger watches. At 6 o’clock you’ll find a large Captain America shield that’s actually a small seconds dial. The watch is powered by the B690 eco-drive movement that’s powered by light. Keeping with the military theme, the Citizen Captain America Forever watch comes on a Cordura nylon bundt-style strap. Priced at $395. See more about it here.

Then, we get the Wolverine and the Deadpool. Named Here Comes Deadpool, the watch comes in a 42.6mm wide stainless steel case that gets a black coating, while the Wolverine has a 43mm black case and a crown protected by crown guards. Both watches have colored minute rings on the periphery of the dial, blue for the Wolverine and red for the Deadpool, and these rings also serve as an aperture for light to power the exo-drive movement inside. The Wolverine model gets a blue center of the dial with the characters claws scratching away at the bottom of the dial, while the Deadpool gets an upside down Deadpool peeking at the 12 o’clock position. Deadpool’s eyes light up on his model, along with the indices, hands, and the “merc with a mouth” text. The Deadpool comes on a leather strap and the Wolverine gets a case-matching bracelet. The watches are available now, the Deadpool priced at $350, while the Wolverine is priced at $425. See more on the Citizen website.

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G-Shock Adds New Dial Colors And Tough Solar To Their Iconic Metal CasiOak Line

Having been released in May in North America, Casio is now rolling out the new GBM-2100 worldwide. While it’s not their MOST iconic G-Shock model, the 2100 series has a cult following, and especially in the Full Metal guise. This model has earned the nickname CasiOak, for its octagonal similarity to the AP Royal Oak. The latest release, the GBM-2100, gets a significantly better movement, more gadgets and pretty awesome new dial colors.

The GBM-2100 case is not fully metal, despite the Full Metal name. On the outside is a metal case, but inside is an inner case made of bio-based resin that’s much better at absorbing impacts than metal itself. The case measures the standard-for-the-2100 49.3mm wide and 11.9mm thick. This is a G-Shock so you know it will be water resistant too — 200 meters.

The new dials have a vertical rectangles grid patter which looks to be printed on there, instead of having some depth to it. I would have loved to see that. But what I do love are the new dial colors — black, light blue and green. All three have a metallic finish which is achieved with a PVD process. The rest remains the same, with prominent lumed hands, applied silver markers that creep up the chapter ring, as well as the function selector at 9 o’clock and a display between the 3 and 6 o’clock positions.

Inside all three is a new movement for this lineup, but a familiar Casio unit - the Tough Solar. It runs 18 months on one charge from the sun, meaning that you will never have to change batteries. It has Bluetooth connectivity, allowing it to be synced with a smartphone, as well as the usual functions which include a world timer, 1/100-second stopwatch, Countdown timer, 5 daily alarms, along with an LED light. The watches come on a black bio-based resin band with a quick disconnect on the back.

The new G-Shock GBM-2100 is available now and priced at $250. See more on the G-Shock website.

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Mr Jones Love Letter To London Is A Time-Limited Relese Designed By Their Watch Assembler

There’s no lack of love for Mr Jones watches in this newsletter. Every single one of their releases is a special watch that should be cherished. They should be cherished even more when they are limited edition, which Mr Jones has been known to do. But we should pay even closer attention when we get a timed release. Their latest release, Tails Of London, will be available only today, Wednesday 31st July, and only for a 12 hour window that started at 8am BST, meaning you have only a few more hours to get one.

Let’s get the less important stuff out of the way first. The watch comes in that instantly recognisable Mr Jones case with a round body and spindly lugs. It measures 46mm lug to lug and has a 50 meter water resistance. Inside is a single jewel quartz movement. The watch is mounted on a 18mm wide strap, in this case it’s a very nice shade of brown.

Looking at Mr Jones from the outside, it seems that the company is one hell of a fun place to work at. Even the people assembling the watches are super talented illustrators, as evident in the case of the Tails of London. It was designed by Mr Jones Watch Assembly Technician, Catarina Morais, a Portuguese, London-based illustrator. It is her celebration of the city of London. The dial features iconic landmarks like Big Ben, Tower Bridge and The Gherkin, and among the streets you’ll find an illustrated character and their dog exploring the city and soaking up the summer sun. To tell the time, the position of Big Ben shows the hour and the character walking their dog points to the minutes.

Like I said, the Tails of London is only available for purchase for 12 hours (8am - 8pm BST) on Wednesday 31st July. Price is set at £225. See more on the Mr Jones website.

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Blancpain Gives The Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet and Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback A Full Gold Treatment

For decades, Blancpain has been a subdued luxury brand that has made some of the most capable and beautiful dive watches in the world. But then last year, they went all out and threw out any subtlety out the window, with a number of very large, very gold examples to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms. Now, gold is spreading to other lines, including the Bathyscaphe, their more compact and streamlined version of the Fifty Fathoms, was first released in 1956. Red gold now comes to two versions of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe, the Quantième Complet that has a complete calendar and moon phase, as well as the Chronographe Flyback.

Technically, the Quantième Complet already existed in red gold. The hefty gold case measures 43mm wide and 13.4mm thick and is topped by a 18k red gold unidirectional bezel with ceramic insert using the Ceragold technology for the 60-minute scale. Being a diver, despite being made out of gold, you still get 300 meters of water resistance. The dial is given a blue finish with a gradient from lighter in the center to darker on the outside, and features a central hand date indicator, two windows for the day and the month, and a moonphase at 6 o’clock. The movement inside is the in-house, automatic calibre 6654P, with 72h power reserve. Now, like I said, the Quantième Complet was already available in red gold, but only on a blue textile strap. This new one gets a full gold bracelet.

The second release was also available in red gold, but on textile. It’s the Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback which comes in a full 18k red gold case that measures 43mm wide and 14.9mm thick. Water resistance is still 300 meters and you get a very similar bezel. The dial has the same gradient blue finish and inside you’ll find the F385 automatic flyback chronograph movement which runs at 36,000bph and features a column-wheel and vertical clutch architecture. The big update is, of course, the full gold bracelet.

Interestingly, both the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback are priced at €59,500 and available now. See more on the Blancpain website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Bravur Team Heritage Collection

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Hands-On With The Handsome Tusenö Windseeker V2

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A review of the Audemars Piguet [RE]Master02

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Cimier 711 Heritage Chronograph is chunky but funky

The Cimier 711 Heritage Chronograph’s case profile is quite interesting. This 1970s-style barrel-shaped case has a raised bezel and quite a few lovely details to observe. One is the finishing, which includes the horizontally brushed case band with polished bevels, pump pushers, and a decorated crown. The raised bezel has a brushed side and a polished top surface.

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

• “The weird thing about growing up in oil country was that I had no idea I was growing up in oil country,” writes Jonathan Blake at the outset of this fascinating piece about Los Angeles’ still-active oil industry. Many have seen the wells near Baldwin Hills—it’s tough to miss them when driving down La Cienega—but fewer are aware of how drilling fields persist a century after the original oil boom, particularly in urban residential settings.

• From all-night poker games, sports betting, playing the three-number “Italian lottery,” and eventually, taking bets from others in the neighborhood, Victor Lodato recalls the pervasive gambling that went on during his childhood. Until his mom’s love of the numbers nearly tore his family apart.

• From scary movies to roller coasters to extreme sports, there are ways we can scare ourselves—for fun. Why do some people enjoy uncertain, risky, or dangerous situations? In this Believer essay, Elisa Gabbert reflects on her fear of heights, and also explores fear as pleasure, the philosophy of games, and anxiety as a luxury.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Alien is the most important movie of my life. Not my favorite, but definetely the most influential. I even wrote about it in the review for the Seiko x Giugiaro SCED035 “Ripley” review I just published on Patreon for early access subscribers. So seeing the original facehugger prop is the holy grail of props.

💵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 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