Doxa Continues Clive Cussler Releases With SUB 300T Sharkhunter; Stowa's Olympic Fliegers; Union Glashütte Gives The Noramis Gulf Colors; ProTek Updates 1210 USMC; And Porsche Design x Hodinkee

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. As an ardent hater of fauxtina, I can’t get over how much I like the Clive Cussler Doxa. I know it’s corny, but I’m just smitten.

In this issue:

• Doxa Releases Second Clive Cussler Themed Watch With The New SUB 300T Sharkhunter

• Stowa’s Trilogy Of Pilot’s Watches In Gold, Silver And Bronze Pays Homage To The Olympics

• The Union Glashütte Noramis Chronograph Sachsen Classic 2024 Takes On Gulf Colors

• ProTek Updates The 1210 USMC Series With An Automatic Movement

• Porsche Design Teams Up With Hodinkee For Nearly Invisible Changes To The Chronograph 1

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 22 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Doxa Releases Second Clive Cussler Themed Watch With The New SUB 300T Sharkhunter

It is with great passion that I can’t stand fauxtina. This trend of mimicking age in watches by giving the lume an old-looking orange or yellow color is thankfully waning, but some brands are still pushing for it. But pulling off a good fauxtina look is incredibly difficult. Best case scenario, it look corny. Worst case, it looks incredibly cheap. And then there are those very few that manage to make a good looking fauxtina watch. I know I’m in the minority when I say this, especially considering how far Doxa went with faux-aging and how opposed to fauxtina I am, but last years release of the SUB 300T Clive Cussler Edition was one of my absolute favorite implementations of fauxtina in recent years. And now, Doxa is bringing the watch back on Clive Cussler’s 93rd birthday with the SUB 300T Sharkhunter Clive Cussler.

So who is Clive Cussler and why is his name on the dial? Cussler was an American novelist best known for his adventure book series with leading man Dirk Pitt. The marine engineer graduated from the US Air Force Academy and served as a pilot during the Vietnam War. After leaving the Air Force, Pitt became a full time adventurer and explorer. His weapon of choice is a .45 Colt that he received from his father. His drink of choice is tequila with salt and lime. And most of the time, he strapped an orange dial Doxa 300T dive watch to his wrist, the same that was made famous by Jacques Cousteau. The story of how the Doxa was chosen is also pretty amazing - during his younger years and before becoming a full-time writer, Clive Cussler worked in a dive shop. Once his first novel finished, he decided to quit his position in the shop, devoting the rest of his life to the creation of his books. And before he left, the manager of the shop gifted him an orange dial Doxa SUB 300T. But Cussler wasn’t just a writer, he was also an avid shipwreck hunter who founded the non-profit National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). Now the look of this LE Doxa is starting to make a bit more sense.

The original SUB 300T Sharkhunter Clive Cussler came in a weathered case with an equally vintage looking case, intentionally done so and more extreme than what other brands are willing to do. The case is a big one and always has been, even in the late 60s when the original launched. It measures 42.5mm wide and 14mm thick, but thanks to its helmet-style case it has a very reasonable lug-to-lug of 44.5mm. On the side you’ll find a helium release valve and on top is a saw-tooth bezel that has a red no-deco scale followed by a black 60-minute scale. The bezel has the same rough-and-tumble finish as the case. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial takes on some influences of the previous Cussler model, but renders them in black. This makes sense as Sharkhunter Doxas always have black dials. Only here the black is washed out and features a much more prominent compass rose than the previous version. The indexes are blocky, made out of beige lume and surrounded by white borders on the sides. The hands are white and filled with lume, while the dates 7, 15, and 31 are displayed in red, a reference to the author’s birthday (07/15/1931).

Inside the watch is a very familiar and reliable/easily servicable Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a matching stainless steel bead-of-rice bracelet with a folding clasp and ratcheting wetsuit extension as well as a black FKM strap with the same folding clasp.

The Doxa SUB 300T Sharkhunter Clive Cussler is limited to 93 pieces and comes in an awesome box that looks like a Clive Cussler book. Price is set at €3,350. See more on the Doxa website.

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Stowa’s Trilogy Of Pilot’s Watches In Gold, Silver And Bronze Pays Homage To The Olympics

The traditional flieger watch is not without its complicated history, especially in its B-uhr configuration. The A- and B-uhr have a very notorious link to the German Luftwaffe under Hermann Göring (I wrote about their history on my Patreon, it’s unlocked for everyone), but have since emerged as the go-to style for flieger watches. One of the five official suppliers of B-Uhren to the Luftwaffe, and still making the same style, is Stowa. And their latest release is a trio called the Stowa Flieger Olympus. And while Stowa cheekily skirts around copyrights by calling the collection the Olympus, the fact that the three watches are made out of gold, silver and bronze, and launch just several weeks before the start of the Summer Olympics, it’s pretty clear where the inspiration comes from.

Now, not only are the three watches made out of three different materials, they also come in two sizes. The style cues of the case reach back to the original Stowa Flieger from the 1940s, only now made out of gold, silver and bronze. The gold and bronze versions come in at 41mm wide and 12.8mm thick, while the silver case measures 42mm wide and 13.5mm thick. An interesting choice, considering how small the differences in size are. The bronze and silver case get a bead-blasted matte finish, while the gold one is fully polished. On top an bottom are flat sapphire crystals and on the side of the bronze and silver models are onion crowns, while the gold one gets a regular crown. Water resistance is decent at 50 meters.

The three models share pretty much the same matte black dial. It’s the exact style you would expect from a flieger watch — large Arabic numerals, a triangle and two dots at noon and strong hash marks for the numerals. The hands are blued steel and have the iconic pilot’s watch shape. It’s a completely sterile dial, meaning no logos, and everything that’s lumed is lumed with Old Radium which gives it that fauxtina finish.

For the movement, Stowa chose a Unitas movement to pay even more homage to the original pilot’s watches. The base ETA Unitas 6498 movement has been modified to incorporate a central seconds hand, and you can see the entire thing through the caseback. Finishings include sunray stripes emanating from the balance wheel, blued screws and golden engravings. The movement beats at 18,800vph and has a 46 hour power reserve. The watch comes on vintage-style cowhide leather straps in black, grey and brown, to match the material of the case.

The three watches are extremely limited. The bronze will be made in 18 pieces, the silver in nine pieces and only three pieces will be made of the gold. And the price, despite the materials, is rather optimistic - €3,990 for the bronze, €4,990 for the silver and €9,490 for the gold. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the most expensive Stowa ever made, and by a long shot. See more on the Stowa website.

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The Union Glashütte Noramis Chronograph Sachsen Classic 2024 Takes On Gulf Colors

If there’s one thing that you can always count on, it’s the fact that Union Glashütte — that slightly lesser known part of the Swatch Group based out of the legendary German watchmaking town of Glashütte — will honour their partnerships with (mostly) car-themed events and release limited editions to mark these occasions. One of these events is the Sachsen Classic in Saxony, an incredible event that’s not as famous as a classic rally as some others in Europe that attract multi-million euros worth of cars. What they do attract is an incredible number of cars even the most ardent classic-car enthusiasts didn’t know even existed. The result of the partnership between the watchmaker and the vintage rally is the Union Glashütte Noramis Chronograph Limited Edition Sachsen Classic 2024 which gets some pretty familiar colors.

The watch comes in a 42mm wide and 14.45mm thick stainless steel case that has a 50.05mm lug-to-lug, with a lug width of 22mm. It’s an all-around vintage affair, with mushroom pushers, a domed sapphire crystal and slightly angular lug ends that give it a bit of an edge. There’s only a sliver of a bezel on top, allowing for a great view of the dial. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is where things get really great. The colorway of the watch is obviously very inspired by the light blue and bright orange of perhaps the most famous racing livery of all time — that of the Gulf Oil company. The base of the dial is a nice cream color, surrounded by a super thin light blue minute track. There are applied, polished and faceted hour markers on the odd positions and applied Arabic numerals on the even positions. The two sub-dials are positioned at 3 and 9 o’clock and in a pretty wild move, they put a date window within the 9 o’clock subdial. Towards the center of the dial is a printed Tachymeter scale in orange, something that you would usually expect on the bezel. It’s strange, it’s retro and it works very well.

Inside the watch is the self-winding UNG-27.S2 chronograph movement beating at a frequency of 28,800vph, and a power reserve of approximately 60 hours. Based on a modified Valjoux 7750, this calibre is equipped with a silicon balance spring for enhanced longevity, precision, and resistance to magnetic fields. The watch comes on a perforated light blue racing-style strap.

Union Glashütte Noramis Chronograph Limited Edition Sachsen Classic 2024 is a limited edition release of 350 pieces and priced at €3,600, which is not a horrible price to pay for such a watch. See more on the Union Glashütte website.

 4/

ProTek Updates The 1210 USMC Series With An Automatic Movement

If you, like me, glanced at the photo without reading the caption, and thought: “Oh, these new Luminox models are getting pretty sweet”, I hope that we all will be forgiven for this mistake. But you are about to find out why we thought these watches were Luminox. They are, in fact, ProTek, a brand owned by Barry Cohen who was Luminox’s original owner and founder. Now it makes sense. Both Luminox and ProTek share their passion for making tactical looking watches with a couple of bright colors and a very rugged construction. Now, ProTek is taking their 1210 USMC series and gives it a a mechanical movement.

The USMC in the name of the watch stems from the fact that this is a watch that is approved as an Official Watch of the United States Marine Corps, and it’s pretty clear why. It comes in a case made out of carbon composite to keep things super light and super tough and it measures 42mm wide. On top is a unidirectional rotating bezel, also made out of carbon composite, with an engraved and white-filled 60 minute scale and prominent blocks at every 10 minutes to help move the bezel. Water resistance is great at 300 meters.

The watches come in four dial colors - black, tan, green and a definitely-not-subtle red. The dial colors and the screw-down tars are color matched, while the dial has a subtle pattern to it. The hands are partially skeletonized and hold a tritium tube. The same tubes can be found on the outside minutes track at every 12 hours. ProTek calls this ProGlo tritium illumination and the tubes are supposed to glow for 25 years. The dial has a date aperture at 3 o’clock and USMC markings at 6 o’clock.

Inside, they ditch the quartz movement and replace it with the Seiko NH35 automatic movement which beats at 21,600 beats per hour, and offers a 41-hour power reserve. While I’m all for a good mechanical movement, it seems to me that this watch works best with quartz. But it’s good to have options. The watches come on rugged black rubber straps, as one would expect.

The ProTek 1210 USMC Automatic is on sale right now for a price of $695. See more on the ProTek website.

 5/

Porsche Design Teams Up With Hodinkee For Nearly Invisible Changes To The Chronograph 1

First, a bit of history. In 1972 Ferdinand Porsche, the man who designed the 911, lent his design prowess to Porsche Design, Porsche’s sister company. He was tasked with creating a chronograph that could be used in motorsports. The result of the brief was the Porsche Design Chronograph 1, the first watch in the world to use physical vapor deposition (PVD), which allows a thin, hard layer of vaporised material to atomically bond to the material beneath, to create a black watch. While colored black to cut down on the glare of the sun while racing, this characteristic made it super interesting to the German Bundeswehr where it became an issued military watch, with later models being issued to the U.S. Air Force squadron called the Flying Tigers. The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 is a legend to this day and now the brand has teamed up with Hodinkee for a limited edition. Honestly, I’m surprised the two haven’t worked before as they are very well matched in ethos and aesthetic. What I’m not surprised by is how minimal Hodinkee’s intervention is. It’s like one of those find the differences image pair, if you were playing on expert mode.

New generations of the Chronograph 1 ditch the PVD coated cases of old and now employ an even more complicated process to get the black case. The 40.8mm wide and 14mm thick case is made out of titanium and covered in what PD calls a titanium carbide coating. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Looking at the dial, you might think you are looking at the regular Chrongoraph 1, but eagle eyed viewers and Porsche Design specialists might notice what Hodinkee added to the edition. First, there’s a new rehaut that doesn’t have the regular Tachymeter scale, but rather one that’s benchmarked to 1 mile instead of kilometres. Additionally, the lume of the markers and the hands is now vintage colored for a bit of fauxtina. They also added a Japanese day indicator so you can chose between English or Japanese, as well as a tiny letter H in the 6 o’clock sub-dial in the 1972 Porsche Design Red to signify Hodinkee. And that’s all.

Inside is the WERK 01.140 which is a joint effort between Porsche Design and Concepto. The base architecture is the Valjoux 7750, but the hairspring, escapement, winding mechanism, and adjustment mechanism are all new. It has a 48 hour power reserve and a COSC certification. The watch comes on a matching titanium bracelet with matte-black titanium carbide coating.

The new Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – Hodinkee 2024 Edition is limited to 350 pieces, 100 of which went on sale already through Hodinkee. The rest will be available through Porsche Design later on. Price is set at $9,650, which the exact same price as the non-Hodinkee branded watch. See more on the Hodinkee website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands-On With The Nodus × Raven TrailTrekker Clay

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A review of the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Blue Enamel

✍️Chrono Critique

Watch reviews, written by me

I review the Sternglas Hamburg Chrono Regatta, perhaps the perfect summer watch that won’t break the bank

You don’t have to keep your expectations low to enjoy the Sternglas Hamburg Chrono Regatta. It’s a refreshing watch that serves a very specific purpose. Swap out the straps a bit and you’ll get a watch that will fit pretty much any scenario.

Read my whole review

⏲️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

• Cameron Maynard recounts his time as an amateur competitive eater, an attempt to find the emotional fulfilment he sought by eating in bulk for a cheering crowd.

• I wish more car reviews were written from the perspective of its stereotypical owner. Like this review for the Tesla Cybertruck: “The gas pedal might stick and get you killed. You might have heard about that little design flaw as well, although I had no such issues on my test drive. Again, this is because I am a very smart, important and cool person. The Cybertruck works only for alphas, and that’s me all over. Once any alpha learns this car, they’ll feel at home within it. If you are not an alpha and the truck doesn’t sit well with your snowflakey constitution ... well, best of luck getting around Tesla’s no-resale policy. Perhaps you could rent it out on Turo to make back your down payment. Either way, you are not ready for the spotlight.”

• When Swiss CEO Lukas Fecker's American protection failed to recover a debt from German businessman Thomas Schwarz, he called in a new team of ex-military operatives. Despite meticulous planning, their mission went horribly wrong, resulting in Schwarz's brutal murder and a trail of evidence leading back to the culprits. This gripping true-crime tale unravels the botched extortion attempt, the ensuing international manhunt, and the shocking questions that remain unanswered about the use of military veterans as hired enforcers.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I will never not be amazed by how advanced home-movies have become. Sure, I know this wasn’t made just by a dude in a basement, but for what must be hundreds of dollars, maybe a few thousand, they made something that rivals the best major studios can do.

💵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