Day Three Of Watches And Wonders And We Have The Most Accurate Watch From Grand Seiko, The Most Complicated Watch From Vacheron, And Lovely Watches From Cartier

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I had to cut this one short because I’m already super late, stuck in meetings all day, and I have to get to a dinner ASAP. Do forgive me and look for a slightly longer issue tomorrow.

In this issue:

• Grand Seiko Breaks Accuracy Records, Plays With Case Shapes And FINALLY Gives Buyers A Mico-Adjust

• Cartier Brings Back The Tank à Guichets, Updates The Tank Louis Cartier And Goes Hard On Jewelery

• Vacheron Constantin Unveils Most Complicated Wrist Watch Ever Made And A Bunch Of Other Stunners

• Bell & Ross Introduces The New BR-03 Skeleton With Some Great Lume Application

👂What’s new

1/

Grand Seiko Breaks Accuracy Records, Plays With Case Shapes And FINALLY Gives Buyers A Mico-Adjust

Big ships are hard to steer. And Grand Seiko certainly is a big ship. So it’s easy for us to wonder why it takes years for GS to just listen to what buyers want from them, but it just takes time. They’re playing long games here. So, the good news is at least one of the models is getting an adjustable clasp, but it should propagate through the collection soon. For now, these are the Grand Seiko novelties, as we ponder about what GS might do about those cases…

• The Grand Seiko Evolution 9 Spring Drive U.F.A. SLGB001 and SLGB003 Ice Forest are the watches that the micro-adjustment clasp is debuting on, giving you 6mm total adjustment. But the watches themselves are also pretty cool. They come in titanium or platinum (!) and are the smallest Evolution 9 cases to date. They measure 37mm wide and 11.4mm thick. That’s thanks to a new calibre 9RB2 and the U.F.A. in the name stands for Ultra Fine Accuracy since this Spring Drive breaks records with its accuracy — 20 seconds per year. Oh, and those dials… they just be some of the best looking dials GS has done in a while. And that’s saying a lot. The titanium is priced at $10,900, while the platinum runs $39,000.

• This is the new Grand Seiko Evolution 9 SLGC007 Tentagraph, only the second regular-production Tentagraph GS has done. It comes in a High-Intensity Titanium Evo 9 case, with a matching bracelet, and measures 43.2mm wide, 15.3mm thick and with a lug-to-lug of 51.5mm. The base of the dial gets a textured snow blue color, with black sub-dials and outer minutes track. Price is set at $14,100. See it here.

• The Tentagraph comes in all shapes and sizes, as it seems. This new Grand Seiko SLGC009 Tentagraph “Tokyo Lion” is made out of Brilliant Hard titanium and measures a chunky 43mm wide and 15.6mm thick and houses the 9SC5 movement. It comes on a rubber strap that’s faceted to match the case. Price is set at $16,400 and you can see it here.

• The Grand Seiko Elegance SBGW323 44GS Kiri is an expansion of the smaller 44GS. It has great proportions at 36mm wide, 11.6mm thick and has a 42.7mm lug-to-lug. This is a Grand Seiko, so you know that dial is named after some natural phenomena. Kiri is a type of flower that holds great importance in Japanese culture. Powered by a manual wound calibre 9S64, this watch is priced at $5,600. See it here.

• This Grand Seiko Masterpiece SBGD223 Proud Lion has a lot to be proud about. It’s a continuation of the gem-set Masterpiece Collection but now with a black dial. Well, what’s left of the dial, because this is filled with diamonds. There are 600 of them, set into the dial and platinum case, which measures 44.5mm wide, 14.4mm thick and 52mm long. What little of the black dial remains untouched has a lion’s mane texture. Price is $320,000. See it here.

2/

Cartier Brings Back The Tank à Guichets, Updates The Tank Louis Cartier And Goes Hard On Jewelery

Sometimes, you don’t have to release 9 watches to make an impact at Watches and Wonders. Sometimes, you can get everyone talking with just one watch. And that’s pretty much what Cartier did this year at the show. Everyone is talking about the Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets, calling it the best watch of the show. Other than that, we got an update to the Tank Louis Cartier, and a bunch of jewelry watches, the majority of which I’ll have to skip for now. Cartier has all their novelties on one side. 

• Let’s start with the supercool Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets. It’s inspired by a watch from the 1920s, made famous by Duke Ellington, and it features a jumping hour display and a dragging minute marker, hidden by a solid metal plate. The case measures 24.8mm wide, 6mm thick and has a length of 37.6mm and there are four versions you can choose from — the yellow gold, rose gold and platinum have the hours at 12 and a curved minutes at 6; while the fourth version is limited to 200 pieces and has the time display rotated on a 90 degree axis. Powered by a manually wound 9755 MC, the price is set at $47,700 in yellow or rose gold and $55,500 in platinum. The limited edition Guichets "Oblique" is priced at $61,000.

• The Tank Louis Cartier is the best that Cartier has in terms of rectangular and elegant watches. Now it gets an update in the form of a new case that measures 27.75mm wide, 8.18mm thick and a 38.1mm lug-to-lug, available in yellow or rose gold. Inside is the automatic 1899 MC and everything else remains the same, with Roman numerals, Flinque dial and blued-sword-shape hands. Priced at $14,900.

• There’s a lot of jewelry watches released by Cartier at the show, but I’ll just mention the gem-set Panthère. There are four watches with fully set bracelets and gem-set bezels. Two in yellow gold and two in rose gold, in smaller and larger models. However, what you'll want to see is the very wild watch inspired by a panther and zebra. Black and golden brown lacquer contrast the gold of the case and form the basis of the design. Pavé diamonds and orange and yellow spessartites make ti pop. In total, there are 145 snow-set stones on the dial and a further 314 diamonds on the case, along with 86 spessartites.

3/

Vacheron Constantin Unveils Most Complicated Wrist Watch Ever Made And A Bunch Of Other Stunners

Vacheron Constantin employed the exact opposite tactic of Cartier, and, again, to great success. They have a lot of releases, so let’s get right to it. Again, since there are a lot of these watches, VC has a really nice layout of all the novelties.

• Starting with the biggest of bangers, pictured above is the new Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication, the most complicated wristwatch in the world. The 41 complications include 6 for time measurement, 8 for the Gregorian perpetual calendar, 3 for lunar indication, 14 astronomical indicators, 5 repeating complciations, 4 chronograph functions, and a power reserve indicator. And yet, despite all that and the white gold case, it doesn’t seem monstrously large. Sure the 45mm width is something to behold, but it’s just a hair under 15mm, which is something that a lot of chronographs can’t achieve. The price is unknown, and each watch will be customized to the owner.

• A step down in terms of complications, but not class is the Traditionnelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar which comes in a 42mm wide and 11mm thick platinum case. That thickness is truly impressive when you consider that the manufacture calibre 2162 QP/270 combines a tourbillon and perpetual calendar. The dial features a hand-guilloché Maltese cross motif.

• The Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle collection gets three new openworked references, each limited to 370 pieces. You can choose from either a retrograde date perpetual calendar, a retrograde date tourbillon, and a complete calendar with a moonphase, and they all come in 41mm wide platinum cases with around a 11mm thickness.

• How about something way more subdued. The Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Manual-Winding comes in either 38mm or 33mm, both 7.77mm thick, in either platinum or pink gold, with dauphine hands and baton indices, with a small seconds at 6 and geometric engravings on the dial.

• This Patrimony Moonphase Retrograde Date just might be my favorite of the bunch, with a sweeping retrograde date display at the top of the dial, a smaller moonphase at 6, and the same geometric patterns emanating from the Maltese cross on the dial. 42.5mm x 9.7mm in white or pink gold, limited to 270 pieces.

• The Patrimony Self-Winding is the brand’s most minimalistic release of the year, making that new Maltese cross dial even more prominent. 40mm wide, 8.65mm thick, with just the three hands and date aperture at 6.

• These three Les Cabinotiers Tribute to the Tour de l’Île unique pieces have been created as an homage to the city of Geneva and all three watches have the same motif — the Tour de l’Île, a 13th century tower built on an island in the Rhône river. But each does it in its own medium — grand feu enamel, hand guilloché, and hand-engraving.

4/

Bell & Ross Introduces The New BR-03 Skeleton With Some Great Lume Application

Folks, I need a break from all the gold, diamonds and huge brands. Sure, Bell & Ross is no microbrand, but it’s still a bit different than what we had over the past two-three days. Don’t worry, this isn’t the only non-major brand I’m writing about this Watches & Wonders, but I’m saving those for when we’re all a bit more relaxed about these releases, because there’s some very cool stuff in there. This is the new BR-03 Skeleton collection, all with the same 41mm wide case and all centered around the same X-shape that dominates the dial.

Starting off with the BR-03 Skeleton Black Ceramic, you get a matte black ceramic case that’s paired with a smoked sapphire crystal dial that only gives you a glimpse at the movement inside. You get black applied indices and black hands, but they stand out against the dark background with stark white lume that glows green at night. Then, there’s the BR-03 Skeleton Grey Steel which comes in a satin finished and polished steel case with a stainless steel dial whose facets have been treated with ruthenium for extra brilliance. Last, there’s the very cool BR-03 Skeleton Lum Ceramic which looks the best. It uses green lume on the edges of the dial cutouts for a futuristic look.

Inside all three watches is the calibre BR-CAL.328, a new proprietary automatic movement developed by Sellita for Bell & Ross to have that X shape and remove the date from the SW300. The power reserve is 54 hours. The watches come on a black rubber strap and an aviation-inspired black Velcro strap.

The new BR-03 Skeleton Grey Steel and the BR-03 Skeleton Lum Ceramic are both limited to 250 pieces each. Price is €5,900 for the BR-03 Skeleton Grey Steel, €6,400 for the BR-03 Skeleton Black Ceramic and €6,900 for the BR-03 Skeleton Lum Ceramic.

⏲️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

• For years, Matthew Allison took advantage of lax moderation on the social media platform Telegram to churn out videos — around 120 in total — celebrating white terrorism. Why has this easygoing DJ led a dual life as an online propagandist for white supremacist hate and, prosecutors say, inspired followers to kill LGBTQ+ people and people of color.

• Manicured grass yards are ecological dead zones. So why are they being forced on people by their neighbors and homeowner associations? This is the cult of the American lawn.

• The Walrus goes inside the shadowy world of the erectile dysfunction pill black market and uncovers how men are playing “Russian Roulette” with dodgy, dangerous counterfeit and illicit sex drugs

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I love these Beau Miles short documentaries. They all have a very early 2000s style.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk