Grand Seiko Introduces The Sakura Kakushi In Rose Gold; Mido Adds Green To The Commander Gradient; A Pink MOP Dial For A Brellum; The Apollo Instruments Moonwatch Is Wild; And A New Czapek Trio

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I keep this running list in Notes of new releases that I have to write about. It’s the easiest way I found to keep track of everything and schedule when everything goes out. I often have to bump watches for later in the week when something interesting comes out and I don’t have any room for it. This has been the case with the Apollo Instruments’ DSKY Moonwatch for weeks now. I’ve been putting it off since the start of the year, because I thought it was a novelty watch. Boy, was I wrong. Make sure to read that, it’s an incredibly fun watch.

Oh, and if you’re a subscriber to the paid side of the newsletter, don’t miss the review of the Christiaan van der Klaauw × Ace Jewelers stAriadne. Great watch

In this issue:

• Grand Seiko Introduces The Beautiful SBGH368 “Sakura Kakushi” In A 62GS Rose Gold Case

• Mido Continues Adding Colors To The Commander Gradient Line, This Time A Deep Green

• Brellum Gives The Smaller Duobox Chronometer A Pink Mother-Of-Pearl Dial In Time For Valentine’s Day

• The Apollo Instruments’ DSKY Moonwatch Is Way More Than A Novelty Toy

• The Czapek Promenade Gets A Trio Of Silky Plissé Dials In Pearl, Pink And Ivory

👂What’s new

1/

Grand Seiko Introduces The Beautiful SBGH368 “Sakura Kakushi” In A 62GS Rose Gold Case

Grand Seiko’s use of natural phenomena to describe their dials has become a sort of meme. And it’s clear why — every single release has this long marketing copy that describes an exact field near the Grand Seiko factory where a flower blooms just 15 minutes every 100 years, and this served as inspiration for a dial that looks nothing like what the described. It gets funny, but the fact is: the dials are beautiful, regardless of how crazy the copy gets. One of their better looking dials is dedicated to the Sakura-Kakushi phenomena of early cherry blossom in snow. They did it a couple of times, always in light shades of pink. Now, they’re brining the Sakura-Kakushi back with the SBGH368, but in a much lighter color to contrast the 18k rose gold 62GS case.

While the new Sakura-Kakushi instantly brings up images of the legendary SBGA413 Shunbun, it actually comes in a slightly smaller case. It measures 38mm wide, 12.9mm thick including the crystal and has a 44.7mm lug-to-lug. It keeps the interestingly faceted lugs with blunt tips, as well as the sapphire crystal that extends all the way to the edge with practically no bezel. What is extra special for this 62GS-style case is, of course, the incredible polished 18K rose gold. And despite the precious metal, it still has 100 meters of water resistance.

The dial is familiar in its execution, less so in color. It has the same texture as previous Sakura-Kakushi dials, only now the dial is a silver-cream white color. The applied hour markers and dauphine-style hands are made of the same rose gold which gives the dial a warm color. At 3 o’clock is a gold-framed date aperture.

Inside, there is no change, as the watch is still powered by the same hi-beat calibre 9S85 as the previous versions. It beats at 5Hz, has a 55 hour power reserve and GS claims accuracy of +5/-3 seconds/day. The watch comes on a brown crocodile leather strap with a gold clasp.

The Grand Seiko Sakura-Kakushi 18k Rose Gold 62GS will be available in April and is one of the more expensive 62GS watches you can buy. Price is set at €37,500. See more on the Grand Seiko website.

2/

Mido Continues Adding Colors To The Commander Gradient Line, This Time A Deep Green

Omega, Longines, Tissot, Hamilton and Blancpain dominate the Swatch Group lineup. They’re popular, some of them are exclusive and they make up the backbone of the company. However, there’s one brand in the portfolio that gets overlooked, and it’s a shame. Because Mido makes some of the best Swatch Group watches. Sure, they make some unremarkable and boing watches, but their Multifort TV Big Date oozes 70s cool, and the Ocean Star line is incredible. The Tribute is a great diver, the GMT might be the best looking one on the market for the price and the Decompression Worldtimer is just incredible. Then there’s the Commadner line. It’s been in continuous production since 1959 but in 2020 got its best variation — a fully smoked gradient acrylic dial gives you a tiny look inside the watch, in an almost ghostly look. Since then, the Commander Gradient has had a number of colors with the latest being this pretty deep green one.

This watch shares the case of previous versions. That means that the round stainless steel case is 40mm wide and a very decent 10.84mm thick. It also has a notably great lug-to-lug of just 43.83mm, which is pretty incredible for such a wide watch. This is mostly thanks to the fact that the lugs are spaced far way and super short. The case has a brushed finish, on top and bottom are sapphire crystals, and water resistance is a mediocre 50 meters.

Moving on to the dial, it’s made out of a green-tinted acrylic dial reveals its gradient effect with a more transparent centre that becomes increasingly opaque as it reaches the perimeter. Peeking out from beneath the green dial, you can see the brass gears of Mido’s calibre and the entire date wheel. The applied rectangular diamond-polished indices have white Super-LumiNova inserts.

The movement you see inside is Swatch Group’s Powermatic calibre 80. For improved chronometric performance, this version of the calibre 80 is also equipped with a high-tech Nivachron balance spring, making it more resistant to magnetic fields, shocks and variations in temperature. An elaboré grade movement adjusted in three positions, the rotor is decorated with Geneva stripes and the Mido logo. It beats at 21,600vph and has an 80 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a brushed and polished stainless steel bracelet.

The new Mido Green Commander Gradient is not showing up on the Mido website just yet, but should be there very soon. That’s why we don’t know the exact price either, but if it’s in line with previous releases, expect it to sell for €1,100. Keep an eye out on the Mido website.

3/

Brellum Gives The Smaller Duobox Chronometer A Pink Mother-Of-Pearl Dial In Time For Valentine’s Day

Despite looking like they dropped right out of the 1960s, Brellum is actually a fairly new company, only about wight years old. So it makes perfect sense that they are still filling up their lineup. People fell in love with their Duobox, a very classic chronograph that was powered by a Valjoux 7750 COSC-certified movement. However, a few had issues with its case size of almost 42mm. This, of course, is a pretty standard size for chronographs, as sub 40mm ones are pretty rare. Brellum fixed this complaint last year when they introduced the 39mm version of the Duobox Chronometer. Now, in time for Valentine’s Day, Brellum released a pink mother-of-pearl dial for the smaller chronograph.

There’s a pretty good reason why so many chronographs are 40mm and larger, especially if they don’t use in-house chronograph movements. A chronograph, especially an off-the-shelf one, takes up a lot of vertical space. And if you go for a case smaller than 40mm, the ratios of proportions start feelign off. I haven’t seen this new Duobox live, but it could be the case here because it measures 39mm wide, with a fairly long 48mm lug-to-lug, but has a 15.3mm thickness to fit the movement. OK, to be fair, the case measures just 11.05mm thick, the rest is space used for the box-style sapphire crystals on top and bottom, so it could fit much better than the size suggests. The stainless steel case has satin finished surfaces with polished pushers and bezel. Water resistance is great at 100 meters.

The new pink dial is made even more delicate with the use of mother-of-pearl, which gives the dial a subtle shimmer in the light. You get the regular Duobox tri-compax layout with a 30 minute totaliser at 3, 12 hour totaliser at 6 with date aperture and small seconds at 9 o’clock. Around the periphery is a pulsometer scale. The hour markers are applied and diamond-cut, filled with lume, just like the hands.

The smaller Duobox models no longer have the Valjoux cam-and-lever chronograph. Instead, you get the La Joux-Perret L110 automatic with a column wheel. It beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. It has a rose gold-coated rotor and the column wheel is blued. The watch comes with three straps: a stainless steel bracelet with a deployant clasp, a rose calfskin and a white calfskin leather strap with a pin buckle.

The new Brellum Duobox 39 Mother-of-Pearl Chronometer is a very limited edition. Only 17 pieces will be made and the price is set at €3,760. See more on the Brellum website.

4/

The Apollo Instruments’ DSKY Moonwatch Is Way More Than A Novelty Toy

I don’t know if you have heard this, but the Omega Speedmaster was the first watch worn on the moon. Of course you knew, because that is perhaps the most repeated marketing story in the history of watches. And I love my Speedy, so I let them fly. What is interesting, however, is that very few watches decided to capitalize and Moon and space exploration after it. Well, here comes Apollo Instruments with the DSKY Moonwatch and the connection with space exploration is clear as day. Mostly because the entire watch from this newcomer brand is an exact replica of the display and keyboard (DSKY) of the Apollo Guidance Computer (ACG), the primary computing interface used by Apollo astronauts.

While this initially looked like a fun toy to me, a slightly deeper dive revealed an actually well put together watch, albeit different than anything else. The case is made from billet 316L stainless steel with a ceramic coating, measuring 38.1 x 44.2 x 13.05mm. It features a micro-OLED display, a keypad with tactile micro switches enclosed by hermetically sealed keycaps, and even custom LED light color filters that make the warning lights match the glow of the original computer.

But like I said, this is a serious endeavor. So the folks at Apollo didn’t just stick a Chinese digital quartz watch module inside. No, they actually developed open-source code to run the watch, code that’s actually based on the original Apollo software code developed for the lunar module. So now the watch features basic stuff like count-up/down timer, alarm, and stopwatch, along with time zone adjusting via GPS. But you also get fun stuff like original Apollo mission operations, like the “GPS-driven P66 landing routine, V35 lights and display test, power down and standby routines.” Also, the watch can be connected to a computer-based spaceflight simulator, where wearers can input the same commands used by Apollo astronauts. And if all of that is not enough, you can upload and run their own code on the watch via a micro-USB port on the rear of the device. Oh, yeah, and the team at Apollo says they have included a proprietary I/O port that will connect to future products, including “breadboard interfaces, development enclosures, and robotic systems” and “an enclosure replicating the main chassis of the original Apollo guidance computer.” Come on!

You can still pre-order the Apollo Instruments DSKY Moonwatch and orders are expected to ship in Q1 of 2025. This is certainly not a watch for everyone, but it’s so unique I had to write about it. The price is also higher than you would expect when you first see it, but quite rational when you see how much work has gone into it. The DSKY Moonwatch will set you back £649, split up into a £240 deposit and £409 balance. See more on the very fun Apollo Instruments website.

5/

The Czapek Promenade Gets A Trio Of Silky Plissé Dials In Pearl, Pink And Ivory

Czapek promised us that their Promenade collection would be a more classic expression when it comes to the case, but will allow for way more creative expression. that was last year at Watches and Wonders, when they introduced the collection with a beautiful water-drop dial. A year later, we get a new iteration, a pleated dial with the fashion-inspired Promenade Plissé in three different colors.

The case is a simple affair, round and measuring 38mm wide and 10.8mm thick. It gets slightly protruding crown guards, a sandblasted finish on scaloped side of the case and a simple bezel. Covering the dial is a sapphire crystal and it forms a huge aperture into the case.

All three of the dials are stamped, which will surely be talked about, and the pattern includes a series of pleats and folds that look like they have been pushed aside by the small seconds display that sits at 4 o’clock. The dial comes in four colors: pearl, pink and ivory. You get diamond cut applied indexes and skeletonized arrow-shaped hands.

Inside all three is the same movement, the in-house SXH5 micro-rotor calibre which beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. Each of the watches has its own strap — the pearl and ivory get grey and brown nubuck leather straps, respectively, while the pink version comes on a Milanese bracelet.

The new Czapek Promenade Plissé is available for order now, with deliveries happening 12 months from order. Quit the lead time. Each colorway is limited to just 18 pieces. Price is set at CHF 16,000. See more on the Czapek 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

• James Bridle, the technologist and author of Ways of Being and New Dark Age, centers this insightful essay on the lionfish, and what some people view as an “invasion” of the species in the Mediterranean. Bridle uses an unexpected diving encounter with the fish as a starting point to explore nonhuman migration over millennia due to radical change in the world.

• In the race to employ AI everywhere and anywhere in a bid to generate higher profits, why are so few focused on what it will cost us as creative human beings? Where will we be as humans when art is completely reduced to algorithm-generated content? When the bots take over, what will human rights look like? In an excerpt of her book, Humans: A Monstrous History, Surekha Davies considers the efficiencies and progress AI breakthroughs can deliver for humanity, provided our humanity isn’t a casualty along the way.

• Mike White is known for his “oddball character studies,” and his most recent franchise, “The White Lotus,” has them in spades. The show is “both a social satire and a murder mystery” and White promises the latest outing—set in Thailand—will be an even darker affair. Kelefa Sanneh explores White’s career, and his “rather perverse sensibility” in this detailed profile. It will leave you longing for the next White Lotus stay.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

This Iron Snail guy makes some pretty great videos. I love the style.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk