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- Citizen Updates Fantastic Caliber 0200 And Brings It To Europe, Unimatic's Modello Cinque Shrinks To 36mm, G-Shock Updates 1983 Classic With New Metal, New From MeisterSinger And H. Moser 6 Cie.
Citizen Updates Fantastic Caliber 0200 And Brings It To Europe, Unimatic's Modello Cinque Shrinks To 36mm, G-Shock Updates 1983 Classic With New Metal, New From MeisterSinger And H. Moser 6 Cie.
The Citizen really is something that I will have to have one day. Just look at it!
Vuk Radic
February 21, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 18 minutes
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. The on that The Citizen might seem excessive to you at first, but take another look. It’s perfection!
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In this issue:
Citizen Updates Their Fantastic Caliber 0200 And Finally Starts Selling It Outside Of Japan
Unimatic Answers Fan Requests And Shrinks Down To 36mm For The First Time With Minimalist New Modello Cinque LEs
G-Shock Updates The Brand’s Classic 1983 Model With The MRGB5000 Made Out Of Corbarion Alloy
MeisterSinger Goes Classical With A Retro-Inspited Pangea Day Date Collection
H. Moser & Cie. Introduces The Deceivingly Simple Streamliner Perpetual Calendar Concept Smoked Salmon
Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 55 seconds
👂What’s new
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On my list of favorite watches from 2023 was The Citizen Eco-Drive Black Washi Paper Dial Limited Edition AQ4103-16E. It was a bit of an eye opener for me, as I saw Citizen mostly as a maker of lower-cost mechanical and solar-powered watches. First, I learned that Citizen, confusingly, has a sub-brand they call The Citizen (their equivalent to Grand Seiko). Second, I learned that these The Citizen watches look amazing and are powered by the second-most precise quartz movement Citizen uses, which ignited my interest in quartz once again. But The Citizen is not all quartz - they also have an extremely impressive mechanical movement called the 0200. Now, Citizen has introduced the new The Citizen Mechanical Caliber 0210 with an added date window and finally on sale outside of Japan (although, it’s not great news for the U.S.).
This is a beautiful duo of watches. They come in a tonneau-shaped case with very sharp angles and facets, with a combination of brushed and polished surfaces. It’s all very retro looking, like some of the best 70s and 80s sports watches that came out of Japan. The stainless steel case measures 40mm wide, increases a bit in thickness from 10.9mm to 11.2mm, so still manageable, and with a lug-to-lug of 47mm. There’s a smooth bezel on top and the water resistance is rated at 100 meters. The WR is an important point as one of the biggest criticisms of the previous Caliber 0200 model was 50 meters of water resistance. Another important point that everyone who has handled one repeats is that it’s incredibly well built, on par with watches in higher price points.
The dials are almost the same as on the Caliber 0200, so still beautiful. They come in white or black, with two different textures, depending on the color. The black version comes with a very rough, asphalt-like, finish and the white has a cloud-like texture also obtained through an electroforming process. There’s a small seconds counter at 6 o’clock with a snailed finish. The hour markers are applied and faceted, the hands are just as sharp, and there’s a new framed date aperture at 3 o’clock, the biggest update to the Caliber 0210.
The movement is really special. Developed in cooperation with La Joux-Perret, a subsidiary of Citizen, it features a free-sprung balance wheel, a pretty rare construction method that allows it to be highly shock resistant as well as resistant to wear over time, with a better ability to maintain its stability of rate over time. Citizen also points out that they revised the original movement so that the date complication has been integrated into the recessed mainplate, avoiding adding thickness to the movement. If true, why has the thickness of the watch increased then? The movement, however, is very accurate, with a rating of -3 to +5 seconds a day, exceeding chronometer standards. The movement is also nicely decorated, with diamond-cut bevels, polished countersinks and linear brushing. The watch comes on a stainless steel bracelet with H-links and a folding clasp with pushbuttons.
The Citizen Mechanical Caliber 0210 has been available in Japan since the end of 2023, but now it will be available in Europe for the first time starting this summer at a price of €8,500. See more on the Citizen website.
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From their very first release, the Modello Uno, Unimatic established their unique style. They made vintage-military-inspired watches with a modernist and minimalist design language. But all of their watches embraced the military side of inspiration and came in cases that measure 38.5mm or larger. Now, Unimatic is introducing the Modello Cinque, their smallest watch to date, with two limited editions, the Modello Cinque U5S-A and U5S-AN.
Technically, these aren’t the first Modello Cinque watches, as Unimatic showed off this new model a couple of months ago with a collaboration with Massena Lab, but these two now watches apply Unimatic’s regular design language to the small watch and we know that a regular release is coming. The watches come in a stainless steel case (untreated for the U5S-A and with a black DLC on the U5S-AN) that measures 36mm wide, 11.05mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 43.7mm. Despite the small size, it’s still a capable watch with 300 meters of water resistance. The lugs are curved, the bezel is small and the finishing is mostly brushed with a few polished details. You also get Unimatic’s signature oversized crown.
The U5S-A comes with a gray “Grigio Milano” dial, outline markers and glossy white skeleton hands. The U5S-AN has the same gray “Grigio Milano” dial but it looks much, much darker as there are no contrasts to it - the case is black, the markers are black and the skeleton hands are black.
Inside both watches is the Sellita SW200-1, a reliable and easily servicable movement that beats at 28,800vph and has a 41 hour power reserve. It’s not a great looking movement, but that doesn’t matter as there’s no display caseback. The watches come on a black quick-release TPU strap that tapers from 22mm to 20mm with an additional black calfskin strap that tapers from 22mm to 18mm.
The Unimatic Modello Cinque U5S-A and U5S-AN will be produced in a series of 300 each, with the U5S-A priced at €750, and the U5S-AN at €850. See more on the Unimatic website.
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Along with the Rolex Submariner, the Omega Speedmaster and the Casio f91w, the Square G-Shock is probably among those watches that pretty much everyone can recognize. A watch that people would draw if someone asks them to. Which is kind of funny, as G-Shock regularly updates these models. It goes to show how amazingly recognizable their design language is. The latest version is called the Casio G-Shock MRGB5000R-1, made out of titanium, fitted with bezel made out of extra-hard proprietary alloy called Cobarion and with a very cool rubber strap.
The watch is substantially large, 43.2mm wide, 12.9mm thick and with a 49.4mm lug-to-lug, just like the rest of the Square line. But this one forgoes mineral glas and resin and instead uses an internal case made out of black DLC-coated titanium and a sapphire crystal on top. The outer case, or bezel, is made out of 25 individual components and Cobarion on top. Casio claims that this material is four times harder than titanium with a bright shine that is similar to platinum.
Siting on top of the premium G-Shock models, the new black and gold G-Shock gets one of Casio’s most advanced movements, the Module No. 3541. You get solar charging, Multiband 6 radio-controlled timekeeping and bluetooth connectivity, along with the regular functions like stopwatch, alarm, countdown timer, world timer, automatic calendar, and backlight.
Perhaps the coolest part of the watch is the strap it comes on. While other premium Square G-Shock come on metal bracelets, this one gets a very nice looking black Dura Soft fluoro rubber strap. It closes with a DLC-coated titanium folding clasp.
What’s not cool is the price. The new Casio G-Shock MRGB5000R-1 sells for $3,100. While this is an extreme amount of money, it’s also the top of the line of Square G-Shock watches. For a niche audience, I think this works amazing. See more on the G-Shock website.
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Find the one thing your really good at and put your all into that one thing. I think that’s how the proverb goes. MeisterSinger also heard that proverb and since 2001 they have been honing into making just one type of watch - watches that use a single hand to tell the time. And it’s a delight to see them do it. You wouldn’t believe how many complications, ranging from chimes to moon phases and pretty elaborate horoscope-indicating displays, you could fit into a watch that has only one hand. I really started to love them. Now, MeisterSinger is taking a step back from their push into making more sports watches to create the Pangaea Day Date 365, the first MeisterSinger model with a historical style to enter regular production.
The watch comes in the same case that was used for the previous Pangea models, meaning it’s stainless steel, 40mm wide and 10.5mm thick. But while the earlier Pangea went for a more sporty appearance with a yellow and blue dial and a brushed case, this one gets a polished case for a classier look.
To distance it even further from the sport Pangea, this one gets a beautiful and retro dial. The dial is made up of a series of chapter rings, with the outermost displaying the full, half, quarter-hour and five-minute intervals, the second ring displaying the date, and the third the day of the week. If you’re looking at the photo of the watch and thinking: “man… those are some nice numerals”, I was thinking the same. MeisterSinger teamed up with typeface designer Lukas Schneider who created an elegant cursive typeface for them. The one hand that they do use has an unusual shape which is better seen than described.
Inside, surprisingly, is the Sellita SW200 automatic movement. This rather pedestrian movement is modified for MeisterSinger to suit the one-handed operation, as well as the day and date discs. The movement beats at 28,800vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a cognac-coloured leather strap with a crocodile print.
The new Pangaea Day Date 365 is not limited in production and is priced at €2,500. See more on the MeisterSinger website.
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If there is one thing that H. Moser & Cie. is sensational at, it would be hiding complexity. They make watches with repeaters, tourbillons and even Chinese calendars, and all of them could be easily confused, at a brief glance, for time pieces. There’s a certain new level of flexing - having a regular looking watch that costs like a small house. And now Moser has brought this concept to it’s logical end with the Streamliner Perpetual Calendar, a simple smoked salmon watch that houses one of the most complex complications in the watch world and displays it through a regular date window. Cool.
To be fair, this is not the first Streamliner Perpetual Calendar, but I never had a chance to write about it. The Streamliner is Moser’s luxury sports watch with an integrated bracelet, strongly inspired by art-deco. The cushion-shaped case measures 42.3mm wide and 11mm thick without a crystal. On top is a domed sapphire crystal and water resistance is rated at 120 meters.
The dial is rendered with a fumé smoked salmon dial which is darker on the outside of the dial. The dial also gets a vertical brushed finish which looks beautiful. The dial also embraces minimalism with no printing, no indices… nothing, aside from the three central hands, a big date aperture at 4 o’clock and a power reserve indicator hand at 10 o’clock. It’s interesting that Moser included this dial, because it’s kind of useless with no scale to work with. There is another, somewhat hidden, indicator on the same axis as the central hands - a small red and white hand that indicates the months.
Inside is the HMC 812 movement which incorporates a direct-drive central seconds hand. It beats at a rather slow 18,000vph, which gives it a 7 day power reserve. Decorations on the movement include dark grey PVD-coated bridges with double horizontal stripes and a microblasted mainplate. The watch comes on a metal bracelet with wave-shaped links, decorated with sunray-brushed and polished surfaces.
The Streamliner Perpetual Calendar Concept Smoked Salmon will only be available for 12 months at a price of CHF 49,900. See more on the H. Moser & Cie. website.
🫳On hand
Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon
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⚙️Watch Worthy
A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually likewatches
Founded by pilot, scuba diver, and race-car driver Abingdon Mullin in 2006, Abingdon Co. is in the business of creating aviation, dive, motoring, and other tool watches for women. In short, she wanted watches to keep up with her adventurous lifestyle — as did her aviation colleagues — so she set out to have them made. Seventeen years later, Abingdon watch wearers are referred to as The Crew, a community that includes, among others, accomplished women professionals in aviation, military, sports, and other fields often dominated by men. One of the brand’s current hero products is the Marina 2.0 watch, a revamped version of its popular dive watch built using feedback provided by Crew members. I went hands-on with the Abingdon Co. Marina 2.0 watch, a diving watch with a world timer, to discover what this women’s tool watch has to offer.
⏲️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
In what feels like a centuries-long plot for world domination, species of ants living in Central and South America have spread across the planet, globalizing their tiny-but-mighty societies alongside our own. For Aeon, science journalist John Whitfield offers a glimpse into their fascinating world.
Gaining impressive access, Adam Ciralsky reports from the Wyoming—a United States nuclear submarine. It’s a fascinating, yet terrifying, look at the message these subs are designed to send to the rest of the world: don’t mess with us, the response will be apocalyptic. Also, the photos are mind-blowingly beautiful.
I love when I can just paste a lead to an article and it instantly makes you want to click it. Like this one from New York Magazine: “On a Tuesday evening this past October, I put $50,000 in cash in a shoe box, taped it shut as instructed, and carried it to the sidewalk in front of my apartment, my phone clasped to my ear. “Don’t let anyone hurt me,” I told the man on the line, feeling pathetic.” Come on!! Tell me that doesn’t make you want to read the whole thing.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
I spent a nice evening yesterday with a new friend, Hrvoje, a talented photographer and videographer from Croatia. He also runs his own motorcycle adventure channel. While I don’t ride bikes, I can see how closely related they are to the world of watches, and Hrvoje’s Yamaha is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a while. Bonus points is you get to see the incredibly beautiful part of the world where It’s About Time is being produced every day.
💵Pre-loved precision
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-Vuk
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