Farer Releases Most British Racing Chronograph; Raymond Weil Redesigns Complete Calendar; Horage Launches The Funky DecaFlux; Brew Teams Up With Worn And Wound Again; Ressence Releases The Type 7

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Preparations for Watches and Wonders are in full swing here at It’s About Time, and all I can tell you right now is that it’s going to be a wild week. You should see the meetings I have lined up. Well, you’ll see them in two weeks actually. Also, Geneva is expensive. Go subscribe so I have something to eat there…

In this issue:

• Farer Releases The Most British Racing Chronograph, The British Racing Green Moritz

• Raymond Weil Completely Redesigns The Freelancer Complete Calendar

• Horage Launches The Funky DecaFlux With New K3 Movement That’s Filled With Silicon

• Brew Watches Teams Up With Worn And Wound For The Third Time With A Fully Lumed Regulator

• Ressence Releases The Type 7, A Radically Different, Sporty, Take On Their Sensational Orbital Dial

👂What’s new

1/

Farer Releases The Most British Racing Chronograph, The British Racing Green Moritz

Technically, a racing chronograph should be as boring as possible. You want them to be interchangeable, to not have any design flourishes or details that would distract from its primary purpose — timing while racing. A white or black dial, a couple of sub-dials, a centrally mounted seconds hand and a functional scale on the bezel. That’s all it should be. Well, that’s all it should be if you’re not Farer. Because Farer doesn’t know how to make a boring watch. This is their new racing chronograph, the Moritz Green.

From afar, this looks like a conventional chronograph, but in a funky color. But it’s not. There are so many unconventional things about it. First, it comes in a very 1970s case with an almost helmet-shaped case. And it’s that shape that gives it great proportions. Sure, the watch is wide, at 41mm, but I’m betting that was done to offset the significant thickness of 13.5mm (with crystal) that comes with off-the-shelf chronograph movements. To combat the over-40mm width, the short lugs give it a fantastic 44mm lug-to-lug. And on top of all that, the case is made out of brushed grade 2 titanium, which makes it super light. On top is a very retro heavily domed crystal surrounded by a fixed anodised aluminium bezel in green and featuring a cream Telemeter scale. That’s another unconventional approach. Most chronographs feature tachymetre scales to help them calculate speed. A Telemeter helps you calculate how far away something is based on how long it takes sound to reach you. Water resistance is 100 meters, despite having just a push-in crown.

The thickness of the case helps Farer create a very deep dial, with a base dial done in sunray brushed green, with sunken engine-turned recessed sub-dials. Speaking of the sub-dials, there’s a big-eye display with an oversize 30-minute counter, with an additional running seconds at 9 and a 12-hour chronograph counter at 6 o’clock. But check out how awesomely they integrated the hour marker into the sub-dial. Speaking of hour markers, on the other hand, they are made out of solid blocks of Super-LumiNova, more particularly a cream version of Super-LumiNova.

Inside, a bit of a surprise. There’s no automatic here. Instead, it’s the Sellita SW510M b manual-winding movement. It comes in the elabore grade, beats at 4Hz and has a 63 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a suede green strap, with a number of other options available for you to choose from.

The new Farer Moritz Green is available for order now, and like most Farer watches only 100 will be made. The first 10 will ship our immediately, while the rest go out April 2nd. Price is set at €2,125. Much higher than other Farer watches, but also in line with what you might expect from other chronographs in this range. See more on the Farer website.

2/

Raymond Weil Completely Redesigns The Freelancer Complete Calendar

Raymond Weil is killing it with their Millesime collection. It’s a very elegant and retro styled watch that comes in as many iterations as you can imagine. The success of the more elegant Millesime model line seems to have motivated them to redesign existing models to perhaps go more down that road as well. Their Freelancer collection is their flagship product and while it’s mostly a sporty family, they do have a few more dressier watches. Now, they took one of those lines and made it even more elegant. This is the new redesigned Raymond Weil Freelancer Complete Calendar.

The new case of the Freelancer Complete Calendar can be had in either uncoated stainless steel or with a rose gold PVD-coating. It has a classic round case with stepped and tapered lugs. The case measures 40mm wide and 10.15mm thick. There are sapphire crystals on top and bottom and on the side is a large, fluted, screw-down crown. That means you get 100 meters of water resistance.

Just like there are two case renditions, there are also two dial colors. The stainless steel version gets a blue dial, while the rose gold gets a sand colored dial. Despite the color difference, the details are the same on both. They have sunray-brushed finishes, rose gold-plated or nickel-plated applied hour markers and hands, day of the week and month displays at noon, and a sub-dial at 6 that displays the moonphase, with a hand that points to the date on the periphery. The moon is set against a starry blue sky on both variants.

Inside, you’ll find the automatic calibre RW3281, which is actually the Sellita SW 300-1 with a calendar module. At least that’s what the internet says it is. If it is, that’s impressive that they managed to fit all that in a sub 11mm watch. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 56 hour power reserve. The steel watch comes on a steel bracelet with a folding clasp, and the rose gold PVD version comes on a brown calfskin strap and rose gold PVD folding clasp.

The new Raymond Weil Freelancer Complete Calendar watches are priced at €3,775, regardless of material. See more on the Raymond Weil website.

3/

Horage Launches The Funky DecaFlux With New K3 Movement That’s Filled With Silicon

I have this incredible talent of falling for watches nobody else likes. For example, when Rolex moved to ceramic bezels, I stopped caring for a vast majority of their classic models. Nearly all, except for one. I always adored the Rolex Milgauss. It was such a weird thing, from its lighting-shaped seconds hand, to the incredible green-tinted crystal. I was sad when it was discontinued and I still have my fingers hopelessly crossed that they might bring it back at Watches and Wonders. However, even if they don’t, there might be a really good take on the Milgauss that just came out from Horage. I don’t get to write about Horage often, but when I do, it’s all very nice things. For example, the last time I wrote about them was for the very cool MicroReg which would bring impossibly precise regulation to the masses. Now, their new watch is their remaining of the Milgauss, the new DecaFlux. And perhaps more excitingly, it comes with a new in-house caliber, the K3, that is full of silicone to fight away magnetic fields.

The new DecaFlux comes in a case made out of 316LMo stainless steel, which is a more corrosion-resistant alloy than 316L. It measures 40mm wide, but don’t call it too large just yet, because the other measurements are just spot on — it’s 9.98mm thick and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. For now we just have renders of the watch, so its unfair to say how it will play in the light, but the case looks like it has just the right amount of polished edges to contrast with the brushed surfaces. The coolest thing about the case has to be the sapphire crystals — the black dial version gets five layers of red antireflective coating, while the blue dial gets blue coating. From the renders, the colors in the crystal don’t seem to be as prominent as on the Milgauss, but they are a very nice touch. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Now, since these are still renders, its also unfair to make any final says about the dial, but what we do see is that there will be two options — Polished Black and Sunray Blue. Both are very minimalist and feature rhodium-plated and Super-LumiNova-filled indexes, and both have lightning-bolt seconds hands rendered in blue and red. Can’t wait to see what these will look in real life.

Then, there’s the movement. One of the biggest advancements in watchmaking in the past few decades has been the introduction of silicon which provides low friction, high antimagnetic properties and high durability. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available to the masses. Well, the patent has expired and silicon is popping up here and there. With the K3, Horage has made liberal use of the material. It has a silicon escapement and a silicon mainspring. The movement beats at 3.5Hz and has a pretty great power reserve of 96 hours. It’s also accurate to -4/+ 6 seconds per day. Best of all, Horage plans to sell this movement to other brands. Can’t wait to see what comes out of that. The watches come on a stainless steel three-row bracelet with micro-adjustable push-button clasp.

The new DecaFlux is available for preorder now. If you get it by March 24th, you’ll pay CHF 2,500, after which the price goes up to CHF 2,700. This seems like a great price, not just for a Horage (since this is their cheapest watch), but also in general. See more on the Horage website.

4/

Brew Watches Teams Up With Worn And Wound For The Third Time With A Fully Lumed Regulator

Brew Watches might not have a very diverse model lineup, but they easily make up for the lack of different cases with dials galore. They’ve been known for completely reworking their entire look with just a few new colors, or a new texture. Now, they are teaming up with Worn & Wound for the third time to release a subdued take on a regulator movement that has a very clever use of the worst function of the Seiko Meca-Quartz movement. This is the new Metric Chrono Regulator Lumint.

Like all other Metric Chronos, this collaboration comes in the recognizable rounded square case that measures 36mm wide, 10.75mm thick and with a 41.5mm lug-to-lug. It has a brushed finish and an integrated bracelet. You get 50 meters of water resistance.

The previous two collaborations between the two brands were color heavy. Which makes sense, because the W&W crew is really good with colors. But this one is very different. It has a stark white background with black printing and dark applied indices and hands. The best thing, of course, is the fact that the entire base of the dial is lumed with a soft blue glow. The dial also has the aforementioned regular setup and it does so using one of the most annoying aspects of the Seiko VK68 Meca-Quartz you’ll find inside — the 24-hour subdial. The VK68 has this 24 scale that just shows local time, but in a different format and nobody can figure out why. Well, here, Brew removed the hour hand off the main stack to create a hacked-together reguluator movement — with sub-dials for the seconds, the hours (but in 24 hour format) and the minutes on the main indicator.

The new Brew x Worn & Wound Metric Chrono Regulator Lumint is limited to 500 pieces and priced at $549. Deliveries start in June. See more on the Worn & Wound site.

5/

Ressence Releases The Type 7, A Radically Different, Sporty, Take On Their Sensational Orbital Dial

I’ve said it many times, but it’s worth repeating — the Belgian indie watch brand Ressence is easily among my favorite top five watchmakers on the planet. While I still admire the watches they do today it was the oil filled Type 3 that I saw some 11 or 12 years ago that broke my brain and got me thinking what a watch is actually. And ever since then I’ve loved their very unique way of telling time where they have practically the entire dial rotate and become part of the indication. This mostly worked well because nearly all Ressence watches came in pebble-like cases that pushed the dial to the very edges. But what would happen if Ressence opted for a different shaped case, if they wanted to, perhaps, give their watches a bit of 70s charm with a more angular and sporty integrated bracelet look. Well, thankfully, we get to find out because Ressence just released the Type 7, their first with what could be considered a traditional case. But there’s few traditional things about this watch.

So, the new case is a classic luxury sports watch fare, which means that it has a slight barrel shape, with flat and super short, angled and integrated lugs. The case is made out of grade 5 titanium with an overall brushed finish and polishing on the razor-sharp edges that look to catch the light fantastically. The watch measures 41mm wide and a rather significant 14mm thick. But there’s good reason for that thickness, and it’s not just the double-domed sapphire crystal. The thickness is needed to house the two separate sealed chambers — on the bottom for the movement and one on the top for the oil-filled dial — as well as the magnetic connection between them. The crystal on top is surrounded by a fixed bezel that comes in either ceramic in a the darker Night Blue color or aluminium for the lighter XV Aquamarine. Very cool. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial can be had in two colors, Night Blue or XV Aquamarine, with the Aquamarine being an homage to 15 years of Ressence watchmaking. But the rest of the dial is both familiar and new. You get the same rotating time display, which uses the large white pointer for the minutes and the smaller sub-dial for the hours, but now there’s a new sub-dial that shows a second time zone on a 24-hour scale. Very cool. You also stil get the temperate indicator and a running indicator that completes a revolution every 120 seconds.

All of this is powered by a relatively humble ETA base movement that beats at 4Hz and has a 36 hour power reserve. But that ordinary movement is then upgraded with the patented ROCS 7 module in the oil filled part that runs the time indication and is connected to the movement with magnets. To adjust the watch, you use the two-part caseback. The outer ring acts as a locking mechanism that allows you to rotate the central part of the movement once unlocked. The watch comes on an integrated brushed & polished grade 5 titanium bracelet (from what I hater, a first for Ressence) that has a micro-adjustable deployant clasp.

The new Ressence Type 7 is priced at CHF 36,000 without taxes, with the Night Blue being part of the regular collection and the XV Aquamarine limited to 80 pieces. See more on the Ressence 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

• Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed journey to the South Pole captivated the world. But hidden within the legend was a story that has never been told—a love affair between two of the crew who survived.

• Wherever you live, I bet you have been to—or at least seen—an Irish pub. This import has become worldwide, and many establishments have the Irish Pub Company to thank. This Dublin-based design group has created upwards of 2,000 pubs in more than 100 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Liza Weisstuch looks at what goes into bringing the essence of Ireland across the world.

• Musk’s loyalists at DOGE have infiltrated dozens of federal agencies, pushed out tens of thousands of workers, and siphoned millions of people’s most sensitive data. The next step: Unleash the AI. WIRED goes inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I mean, this car… How can one care be so good?

Thanks for reading,
Vuk