Citizen Shrinks Down Tsuyosa Collection To 37mm; Nomos Gives The Club Campus New Colorways; Arcanaut Makes A Coffee Dial; Girard-Perregaux’s Aston Collab Is Beautiful; And A Skeletonized Angelus

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Can we have a round of applause for Citizen for doing exactly what they should be doing? It's not often that you see a brand execute something as well as they are currently. A lot can be learned from them.

In this issue:

• Citizen Shrinks Down Their Super Popular Tsuyosa Collection To 37mm

• Nomos Gives The Club Campus New Colorways, Starlight and Night Sky

• Aracanaut Turns Coffe Grounds Into An Actual Dial For Their ARC II D’Arc Roast

• Girard-Perregaux’s Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition In Iridescent Green Is A Good Car Collaboration

• Angelus Opens Up The Dial For The Flying Tourbillon Titanium Blue Edition

👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Shrinks Down Their Super Popular Tsuyosa Collection To 37mm

What do you do when you have a runaway hit of a watch collection on your hands? Well, if you’re a certain affordable watchmaker you instantly raise the price, making it a less appealing option. If, on the other hand, you’re the favorite watch brand of a certain secret agent, you start cranking out every single version of the hit watch, except the one that fans keep asking for. However, if you are Citizen, you do exactly what needs to be done, what the people are asking for. You take your best selling Tsuyosa collection and shrink it down from 40mm to 37mm. This is the new Citizen Tsuyosa 37mm collection.

While the original Tsuyosa collection, which has been around since 2022, sounds like a large watch, it actually wasn’t. Mostly due to the fact that it had a surprisingly short lug-to-lug thanks to an integrated bracelet. It measured just 45mm on a 40mm width. The compact dimensions continue on the smaller version. Still made out of stainless steel, it measures 37mm wide and 11.5mm thick, with a great lug-to-lug of 43mm. Apart from the size, a lot remains the same. You still have the barrel shape, flat sapphire crystal on top, a mineral crystal out back and a recessed crown at 4 o’clock. Water resistance is a bit controversial at 50 meters, but will do fine.

There are three new dials to choose from for the new smaller version. There’s the NJ0200-50X Dark Green, the NJ0200-50Z Pastel Pink and the NJ0200-50L Ice Blue, all of which are self explanatory. The setup of the dials remains the same as well — you get a brushed finish, applied markers and hands filled with lume. There’s also a date aperture at 3 o’clock with a cyclops above it.

Inside is the Citizen Calibre 8210 automatic movement which beats at 3Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. It has an accuracy of -20/+40 per day, but like most of these more affordable movements, it performs much better in real life. The watch comes on a three-link tapering stainless steel bracelet that’s closed by a folding clasp with push-button release. Adjustment is possible on the clasp, but it requires a tool.

The new Citizen Tsuyosa 37mm also keeps a pretty affordable price — €299. See more on the Citizen website.

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Nomos Gives The Club Campus New Colorways, Starlight and Night Sky

I’m full of controversial opinions, so here’s a mildly controversial one: the Club Campus is the best looking Nomos Glashütte watch. Sure, the brand is best known for their austere, serious and minimalist watches, but I think that the Club Campus is a fantastic amalgam of the germanic seriousness Nomos is known for, and a more fun design. It’s also very unfairly maligned by many online groups. But I love it and the fantastic colors they come in. Now, the collection gets two new coloways — Starlight and Night Sky.

Like a lot of Nomos watches, there’s a lot of customization to be had. You can get it in two sizes, either 36mm wide and 8.2mm thick, or the larger 38.5mm wide and 8.5mm thick. Keep in mind that almost all Nomos watches wear much larger because of the very long lugs they have. On top is a sapphire crystal and you have a choice of opting for a sapphire caseback instead of the base closed one. The case has a lot of shine to it thanks to the polished finish. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Then we have the dials, which remain the same as previous versions, save for the new colors. It’s what’s called a California dial, which has Arabic numerals on the top half and Roman numerals on the bottom half of the dials. The hands are rhodium plated with lumed inserts and both colorways have a bright orange hand on the small seconds dial at 6 o’clock. As far as the two new colors are concerned, Night Sky comes with a dark blue base with white numerals and markers outlined in pink; while Starlight gets a bright yellow base with light grey numerals and indices with an orange outline.

Inside, there are no surprises, as it’s powered by the in-house made Nomos Alpha calibre, a hand-wound movement that’s based on the well used Peseux architecture. It beats at 21,600vph and has a 43 hour power reserve. The watches come on either an anthracite (for the Night Sky) or grey (for the Starlight) suede leather-free strap.

Regardless of the color, the new Nomos Club Campus 36 is priced at €1,300, while the 38mm variant is priced at €1,400. Add to that an additional €200 if you want a sapphire caseback. See more on the Nomos Glashütte website.

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Aracanaut Turns Coffe Grounds Into An Actual Dial For Their ARC II D’Arc Roast

Arcanaut is made by watch nerds for watch nerds. Headed by verified nerds Anders Brandt as Chief Designer, James Thompson aka Black Badger as Chief of Materials Development and Rob Nudds as Head of Brand Development, they are so obviously having a lot of fun. They have a very nice looking case called the ARC II and have released a whole slew of dials that are just increasingly getting wilder. First, it was the Fordite, then came a couple of interesting lumed projects, a few weeks ago we got a wonderful green copper dial and now we have a new watch from them, the ARC II D'Arc Roast which gets a dial made out of coffee.

This edition uses the already familiar ARC II case, which is made out of micro-blasted 316L stainless steel that has hand polished highlights. The case quite a dramatic curve to conform to the wearer’s wrist, which makes the 40.52mm width, 12.82mm thickness and 49.06mm lug-to-lug much more manageable even on smaller wrists. Water resistance is 100 meters. On the caseback is an extremely cool medallion with a anthropomorphic “Coffee Time” cartoon Glowpatch graphic.

But you know all about that case. What’s extra special is the new dial. I’m a sucker for brown dials and it can’t exactly get much browner than this, seeing how it’s made out of coffee. Arcanaut says that they use a fine powder of specially selected beans, which is then mixed with an ultra-hard, UV-resistant binding agent which makes the material millable. They can then cut it in the form of the dial and CNC 12 holes on the perimeter that are set with LumiCast hour markers. They also add a drilled hour and minute track and a logo at 12 o’clock into the speckled brown disc. You get the familiar skeletonised ‘Grand Paw’ hands, only now heat-treated to a bronze color.

Inside, is the M100 movement. It’s an automatic that beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on an integrated brown rubber strap.

The new Arcanaut ARC II D’Arc Roast is limited to 33 pieces and it’s priced at €5.250, with 25% VAT included. Or, if you’re in the US, it’s $4,400 without tax. See more on the Arcanaut website.

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Girard-Perregaux’s Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition In Iridescent Green Is A Good Car Collaboration

There’s an almost unending supply of watch and automobile collaborations and the vast majority of them are uninspired at best and horrifically tacky at worst. But every now and again, but very rarely, we get watches like the Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition which comes in a beautiful titanium case and with an even more striking iridescent green dial.

The shape of this Laureato Chronograph remains the same, measuring 42mm wide and 12.16mm thick, made out of brushed and polished Grade 5 titanium. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, surrounded by the iconic octagonal bezel. On the caseback is the only Aston Marting branding as it features a logo engraved on the crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.

But the case is not important at all, it’s all about this incredible dial. You can see how special it is just from photos — it’s overall green, but with the very clear transition into orange. Not only is this the same color that Aston Martin uses on its car, they also apply the same paint process as if it were a car, applying 15 ultra-thin layers of paint and two cooking cycles. The hour and minute hands are openworked, while baton-shaped hour markers have a grey-toned PVD finish. The central chronograph hand gets a black tip. The three subdial counters at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock — for 30 minutes, 12 hours, and running seconds — are framed with the same grey-PVD color as the markers. There’s also a date window at 4:30.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre GP03300-2451 which beats at 4Hz and has a 46 hour power reserve. It’s also quite the looker, with circular côtes de Genève on the rotor, straight côtes de Genève on the bridges, circular graining on the mainplate, polished sinks and thermally blued and mirror-polished screws. The watch comes on an integrated titanium bracelet with brushed and polished surfaces.

The new Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition is, of course, a limited edition and only 188 pieces will be made. Price is set at $22,700. See more on the Girard-Perregaux website.

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Angelus Opens Up The Dial For The Flying Tourbillon Titanium Blue Edition

It might not be a household name today, but Angelus has been making watches since 1891 and were particularly known for their chronographs. The company went way for a while and came back in 2015, revived by La Joux-Perret. Angelus today makes contemporary, well-made sports watches that are dripping in nostalgia. But it was just a matter of time before they stepped into something more modern. And now we got it. Using the case of the Chronodate, Angelus just released the openworked Flying Tourbillon Titanium Blue Edition.

So, since the watch is based on the Chronodate, we know what it’s all about. It measures 42.5mm wide and 11.45mm thick. It’s a multi-part case that has a carbon composite core that’s surrounded by a titanium case middle. The watch has very angled lugs, which surely helps with the wareability. It is also has a very dramatic notched bezel on top that makes it look almost like a cog. There’s also plenty of brushed surfaces on the entire case. Water resistance is not great for a sports watch, only 30 meters.

Since it’s an openworked watch, there is no dial. Instead you get a flange on the periphery that holds the well designed Arabic numerals. The rest is a combination of intricate blue PVD treated bridges that wind across the front of the watch. At 9 o’clock is a small seconds sub-dial and the polished hands and numerals are filled with lume.

The movement you see through the dial, and the caseback, is the calibre A-310, a manually wound mechanical movement incorporating a one-minute flying tourbillon. It beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. The watch can be had on either a brushed single-link titanium bracelet or a blue alligator strap, and whichever you choose, you’ll get an additional blue rubber strap.

The new Angelus Flying Tourbillon Titanium Blue is limited to 25 pieces and priced at CHF 45,000 on leather and CHF 47,000 on the bracelet. See more on the Angelus 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

• More than 3,000 pages of documents reveal how years of betrayals led to a messy court battle that threatens the future of Rupert Murdoch’s empire. The New York Times goes inside the Murdochs’ succession drama.

• On the occasion of The New Yorker’s 100th anniversary, Jill Lepore breaks all three magazine’s golden rules—and, boy, we’re glad she did. The result is a fantastic ode to the madness of reporting, the importance of editing, and a fantastic publication that ought to run for at least another 100 years.

• They rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic, battling unpredictable weather, chaotic seas, and finicky equipment. But what they discovered gave them profound new insights into the power of the ocean. This is the world’s toughest row.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’ve never flown on the Concored, but I’ve seen them plenty of times, always shocked at how small they are. The ultimate question is why haven’t we made another supersonic passenger plane? It seems Blake Scholl had the same question. He sold his startup to Groupon and then went back to school to learn aircraft design. Because he was sure that there were a lot of benefits to supersonic flight. His professors were actually impressed with his calculations and after a couple of years of building, Boom Technology just had their first supersonic flight. It’s a pretty great story.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk