Citizen And Sikorsky Helicopters Team Up; Spinnaker Continues Tribute To First Mariana Trench Descent; Jacques Bianchi Releases First Non-Destro Diver; And MING Knocks It Way Out Of The Park

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s still chaos in the It’s About Time household, but I’m catching up with everything. I caught a break as it seems there won’t be enough news tomorrow, so I’ll see you all Thursday.

If you wonder what people who are subscribed to the Patreon get, you can read this pretty incredible and mostly true story of the ruthless and revered Pasha of Marrakech and how the modern Pasha de Cartier was inspired by his life. And do read the red box below as it explains everything:

In this issue:

• Citizen And Sikorsky Helicopters Pay Homage To The Iconic And Life-Saving S-92

• Spinnaker Continues Tribute To First Mariana Trench Descent With Piccard Skeleton

• Jacques Bianchi Teams Up With le Marégraphe de Marseille For Their First Non-Destro Diver

• The MING 20.01 Series 3 Is Just Stunning With A Fused Borosilicate Lumed Dial, Special Movement

Today’s reading time: 10 minutes and 18 seconds

👂What’s new

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Citizen And Sikorsky Helicopters Pay Homage To The Iconic And Life-Saving S-92

I understand that running a multi-national corporation must be an incredible difficult task. Especially the multi part of that equation, as it usually means handling many global markets and rollouts in them, making it hard to have a coherent release strategy. That’s how we end up with releases like the new Citizen Special Edition Promaster x Sikorsky S-92. Technically, this watch was introduced in May, but it seems that Citizen didn’t tell anyone. Mostly because ti was first released in the UK, so they waited a while for all the markets to get it. And here we are, with the official introducing of a very busy, very angular and very limited Citizen Special Edition Promaster x Sikorsky S-92, made to honor the Sikorsky S-92, an all-weather helicopter that flies worldwide search and rescue, utility and transportation missions.

The S-92 is supposed to be the American aircraft manufacturer’s top of the line helicopter, so it makes sense that Citizen paired it with the Promaster Skyhawk A-T model, one of their most advanced models. It’s also a pretty large watch. The case measures 46mm wide, with an unspecified thickness. However, the size is somewhat offset with a series of facets on the case that make it look a bit smaller (or at least push the dial to the forefront) and give it a very futuristic look. The case is brushed with polished pushers and the entire thing is water resistant to 200 meters. On top is a sapphire crystal that’s surrounded by a thin blue bezel, but despite its lack of heft it’s a fully fledged slide rule that will allow you to do all sorts of calculations.

The connection with the Sikorsky S-92 is best evident in the dial. While the look of the watch has changed, not much has changed about the layout and functions. Which is a good thing, because if I were a Skyhawk user, I would hate to have to relearn all the functions. I can only imagine how thick the user manual is. The colors they use are the colors associated with the S-92, red white and blue, with yellow accents on the seconds hand. The hour and minute hands are also shaped like the blades of a helicopter.

Inside is the Citizen U680 movement which is solar powered and simply stuffed with functions. There’s the chronograph alarm, and countdown timer, along with a perpetual calendar, displays for alternate world time zones, digital time, the power reserve, and a 24-hour hand as an AM/PM indicator. It also syncs with radio transmitters in Japan, China, Europe or the USA to receive atomic time and adjust the time for accuracy. The watch comes on a blue rubber strap that matches the blue strap.

The new Citizen Special Edition Promaster x Sikorsky S-92 is a special edition, but as far as I can tell, it won’t be limited. The watch is priced at $995, but it seems to be on sale right now for $746.25. See more on the Citizen website.

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Spinnaker Continues Tribute To First Mariana Trench Descent With Piccard Skeleton

Do you remember in 2012 when James Cameron got into a high-tech submarine (sponsored by Rolex) and plummeted to the deepest point on the planet, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench? Yeah, I remember it being a huge deal and at the time I wasn’t as well educated about the world of underwater exploration. Which, along with a lack of research, led me to think that Cameron was the first to go that deep. Boy, was I wrong. More than 50 years earlier, Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh jumped into a much less advanced sub — the correct word would be a bathyscaphe, a free-diving, self-propelled deep-sea submersible — called the Trieste and dove right down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This was an amazing achievement and Walsh’s watches have later become part of underwater exploration legend. But it’s Jacques Piccard, and the 1960 descent, that the watch brand Spinnaker pays homage to, with the new Piccard Skeleton Automatic.

The Piccard is not a new watch for Spinnaker. They already have three colorways of the watch, but the new duo comes with a brand new skeletonized dial. This also means that the base of the watch, what’s on the outside, remains the same. And what’s on the outside is truly spectacular, even if it’s not your cup of tea. You see, the Piccard is a watch that not only pays homage to the descent, but also that crazy Rolex you must have seen that was strapped to the outside of the Trieste. This means that the watch measures 45mm wide and an incredible 21mm thick. While that sounds completely ridiculous, the majority of that thickness comes from the extremely domed sapphire crystal. Unfortunately, it seems that the crystal is more of a gimmick than actually useful, as water resistance is decent at 550 meters, but not nearly as extreme to demand such a wild crystal. Very fun, not very useful. That crazy crystal is surrounded by a unidirectional bezel with a matte ceramic insert in either black or green and an engraved 60-minute timing scale with a luminous inverted triangle at 12 o’clock. On the back is an engraving of the Trieste

As the two colors of the inserts might suggest, there are two coloways to the Piccard Skeleton — black and green. Now, these colors are obviously not present on the dial, as the dial is skeletonized, but you do get a chapter ring in the respective color and with large applied hour numerals that are surrounded with a metallic ring and filled with lume. The Dust Black model features small pops of red and orange for its “300 Fathoms” text and the tip of its seconds hand, while the Mist Green version features these same details in a bright shade of yellow. The hands are extra wide and chunky — almost like something you would find on one of the more avant-garde Panerai models — and also filled to the brim with lume.

Inside, a slight change to the Spinnaker lineup. They usually use the ubiquitous Seiko NH35, but the Piccard Skeleton instead uses the Seiko NH70. This is not really a surprise as the NH70 is essentially the NH35, but skeletonized. It beats at 3Hz, has a 41 hour power reserve and won’t be winning any accuracy competitions. But in a very wise move, Spinnaker chose to keep the caseback solid, as the movement is not particularly beautiful from the backside, thus bringing all the focus to the front where you see the intricate movement of the watch which is always a joy by itself, you don’t need decorations. The watches come on a flat three-link bracelet and with 22mm wide lugs if you want to swap it for something else.

The Spinnaker Piccard Skeleton Automatic duo is available for purchase right now and I think it’s a really fun watch for the summer, especially if you have a larger wrist. Now, it’s up to you to decide whether $550 is too much for a single-purpose watch, but I would say it’s right up there at the edge. Oh, and one more thing. Jacques Piccard’s father was Auguste Piccard and his uncle was Jean Felix Piccard, both renowned Swiss scientists. It is said that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry named captain Jean-Luc Picard for (one or both of) the twin brothers Piccard. See more of the watch on the Spinnaker website.

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Jacques Bianchi Teams Up With le Marégraphe de Marseille For Their First Non-Destro Diver

A marégraphe, or a tide gauge, does exactly what it says on the label — it gauges the hight of a tide. While they are now mostly sensor based, for centuries these devices were simple floats and sticks. And often, they were housed in dedicated buildings to eliminate as much environmental impact as possible. One such building is the Marégraphe de Marseille, a truly iconic building not just for Marseille, but all of France. Built in 1883, this structure was used to determine the origin of altitudes in mainland France, marking the fundamental reference point for the French leveling network. And this would be an extremely curious institution to partner with to make a special edition watch for pretty much any brand, other than Jacques Bianchi, a brand that is strongly linked tot the city of Marseille.

There aren’t a lot, if any, watch brands that are based in Marseille, which makes Jacques Bianchi somewhat special for the town. The brand started in the 1980s with their JB200, which was a quartz dive watch at one time issued to combat divers of the French Navy. The brand struggled and went under, only to be revived recently. In 2021 the brand launched a Kickstarter campaign for the reissue JB200, a classic looking diver powered by the Seiko NH35 movement with a crown on the left side and a drawing of a diver on the dial. The campaign was a success and they’ve been cranking out versions of the JB200 for a couple of years now, each selling out in minutes.

The new JB200 Marégraphe builds on the classic JB200 style, with one major change — it’s no longer a destro model as the crown has moved to the more conventional right side of the case. Other than that you still get a 42mm wide and 13.30mm thick stainless steel case, with what looks in pictures to be a flat sapphire crystal on top. The crystal is surrounded with a rather slender unidirectional bezel with a blue sapphire glass insert that’s fully graduated to 60 minutes and fully lumed in green Super-LumiNova. Water resistance is decent at 200 meters.

The dial has a blue base with topographical contour lines drawn on it, to mark the collaboration with the Marégraphe de Marseille which helped map out France. You get huge lume painted indices for the hours — a triangle at 12, rectangles at 3 and 9, and dots for the rest — as well as 24-hour markings in red. At 6 o’clock there’s a date window with a white date wheel inside.

Inside is the Soprod P024 automatic, yet another clone of the ETA 2824-2. You know the spec then - a beat rate of 28,800vph and a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a blue tropic strap.

The Jacques Bianchi Marseille JB200 Marégraphe goes on sale tomorrow, August 21st at 3PM CET and it’s limited to 150 pieces. The price is set at €890 with taxes included. See more on the Jacques Bianchi website.

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The MING 20.01 Series 3 Is Just Stunning With A Fused Borosilicate Lumed Dial, Special Movement

There really isn’t a brand out there like MING. Despite the feeling that they’ve always been around, Ming Thein started it only in 2017. And from an affordable but extremely avant-garde micro-brand, MING has turned into a full fledged maker of beautiful watches at all price ranges. Their latest release comes from the Special Projects Cave, which the brand uses to experiment with tech and materials, and is the MING 20.01 Series 3, with a truly special dial and a customised version of the Agenhor Agengraphe movement.

Being a 20 series watch, it shares a lot of the case design choices with previous versions. This includes not just the width of 41.5mm, but also the short wavy lugs and the crown at 4 o’clock. The case is 14.2mm thick and made out of 5N rose gold, with uniquely positioned gold chronograph pushers at 1 and 11 o’clock, as well as a thin curved gold bezel on top. There are four different finishes on the case, and along the perimeter of the case is a DLC-coated titanium caseband. Water resistance is 50 meters.

It’s a beautiful case, but that dial is even more stunning. The dial is made out of borosilicate, which is then cut into with a high-energy laser, creating 600 cavities arranged in a circular vortex-like pattern. Those cavities are then hand-filled with Super-LumiNova X1, which is one of MING specialties. One other MING signature move allows them to use the entire base of the dial for the crazy patter, as they often don’t use the dial to display any information. Instead MING etches the bottom side of the sapphire crystal with the hour indices and a minute track. They also etch a pulsometer scale into the scale, and it’s all also filled with lume. I adore the look of these etched crystals that MING has.

Inside is a very special movement, the Agengraphe Cal. 6361.M1 designed by Agenhor. Variations of this movement have been used by Singer Reimagined as well as H. Moser & Cie. The same movement is also found in the MING 20.01 Series 2, but this one gets rose gold plates and bridges. It’s arguably one of the most significant and sophisticated chronograph movements available today, and has some pretty unique features such as a central chronograph core; Agenhor’s proprietary backlash - free gears; proprietary horizontal clutch mechani sm; instantaneous jumping minutes; snail reset cams; and proprietary regulation mechanism. The movement is hand-wound and has a 55 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a Jean Rousseau Paris anthracite goat leather strap with an Alcantara lining that closes with a rose gold ‘flying blade’ buckle, which includes micro-adjustment.

The new MING 20.01 Series 3 will not be cheap and will not be widely available. But it is one of the best things MING has done. The watch is limited to 20 pieces and price is set at CHF 43,500. Deliveries are expected to begin in October 2024. See more on the MING website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Yema Navygraf Marine Nationale CMM.10

2/

Hands-On with the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Ultra Light “Armand Duplantis”

3/

A review of the Seiko 5 Sports Heritage Design Re-creation Limited Edition Duo

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Victorinox Dive Pro offers something interesting, whether you’re an aquatic or desk diver

While all of the new Dive Pro watches feature a 43mm case, faceted unidirectional bezels, and sapphire crystals, you have the option of two case materials: 316L Stainless Steel and Grade 2 Titanium. I feel that both of these materials were carefully selected for their unique properties they bring to the table. While titanium is a lighter material with more inherent corrosion resistance, these benefits come at a cost, literally. Stainless steel provides slightly less corrosion resistance but can be machined much easier allowing the material to be manufactured to the same quality at a cheaper price.

Read the whole review on Worn and Wound

⏲️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

• Greg Martel was a mortgage broker who coached his kid’s hockey team and pledged money to charity. By the time he owed investors $317 million, he was nowhere to be found. He is Canada’s version of Bernie Madoff.

• Hard drives, cloud storage, automated backups. Sometimes it feels like our digital lives are duplicated in so many places they’ll never disappear. Not so. From MySpace to MTV News to Usenet, huge swaths of information have been wiped from the internet—and the file formats and operating systems racing themselves into obsolescence make it even more difficult to assume permanence. For MIT Tech Review, Niall Firth surveys the people and technologies hoping to preserve the ever-proliferating petabytes of the present day.

• Is bacteria the future of food? Solar Foods, a factory in Helsinki, has created a promising product called Solein, a bacterium packed with nutrients. Could it reduce our reliance on large-scale factory farming? Philip Maughan writes an informative, fascinating piece on food technology that could make a drastic impact—if countries, companies, and people around the world are ready to make a change.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Why would astrophysicists care about a two millennia old Roman shipwreck between the islands of Sardinia and Mal Di Ventre? Why would archaeologists care about a particle physics experiment hiding deep beneath the Apennine Mountains, seeking to answer one of the most fundamental mysteries of reality as we know it? The answer to both of those questions is, in fact, a single story.

💵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