Grand Seiko Releases Three Stunning Katana-Inspired Models, Yema Launches Beautiful Sous Marine Dive Line, Brew Metric Gets A Mechanical Movement And New Watches From Bangalore, Atelier de Chronométrie

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Major releases today. Not sure which one I like more - I would be happy with any of these watches in my watch box. If it weren’t for some extravagant prices.

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In this issue:

• Three New Stunning Grand Seikos From The Katana Collection Take Inspiration From Great Katana Artists

• Yema Launches Incredibly Attractive, Super Capable And Surprisingly Affordable New Sous Marine Diver Line

• Brew Watches Metric Automatic Introduces Mechanical Movement to Retro Collection

• Limited Edition Bangalore MACH 1 Admiral Uses Parts Of A Decommissioned Indian Navy Aircraft Carrier

• The Atelier de Chronométrie Stunning Pièce Unique AdC17 Is A Stunning Split-Second Chronograph Inspired By The 1940s

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 19 seconds

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👂What’s new

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Three New Stunning Grand Seikos From The Katana Collection Take Inspiration From Great Katana Artists

While Grand Seiko is adored by millions, an equal amount of people like to make fun of their marketing department. They make beautiful, high-quality watches, but the people who write the descriptions of their new models tend to slide off the rails every now and again. Famous for their nature-inspired limited editions, the texts accompanying these models can often be too flowery. But to risk ridicule, I will lean on the GS press release and point out that their lates trio of watches need all the natural elements of earth, water, fire, and air to create iron from which legendary Japanes swords, the katana, are forged. And the latest trio of Grand Seiko watches is inspired by exactly that - the katana. Unfortunately, all of them will be U.S. exclusives.

While the three new models are just variations of the existing 44GS design language, which means they are housed in a 40mm by 12.5mm stainless steel Zaratsu polished case and 100m water resistance, they get three new incredible dials, each of which is inspired by a specific stage of katana forging. Grand Seiko claims they took inspiration from the tamahagane steel that is used to craft a katana – a steel that Is worked two different ways for the blade.

First, the high carbon steel is used for the outer sharp edge, known as kawagane, which inspired the black dial of the SBGA489. The other steel is the strong inner core of the blade, shingane, which inspired the dark green dial of SBGA491. Both have a textured pebbly dial that looks a bit like coarse sandpaper. It looks great on the black, but on the green it looks spectacular.

Last is the SBGA493, a deep red color with yellow gold-tone accents influenced by the heated blade during the forging process. The texture looks almost hammered, continuing the katana forging idea. This will be a limited edition of 500 pieces and people online have already noticed that this is a very rare Grand Seiko dial texture in a striking fiery red hue. The folks at Time and Tide believe that the SBGA493 uses a dial texture that Grand Seiko has only used once before on their SBGY025. The SBGY025 is a Grand Seiko Thailand-exclusive limited edition of 50 pieces that made Grand Seiko die-hards outside of Thailand very jealous, with its distinct Hikari ‘golden light’ dial.

All three versions use Spring Drive Caliber 9R65 movements and come on the familiar five-piece link bracelet. The SBGA489 and SBGA491 release this month for $5,600 while the SBGA493 will come out in September, limited to 500 pieces, for $6,000. You can see more on the U.S. Grand Seiko website.

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Yema Launches Incredibly Attractive, Super Capable And Surprisingly Affordable New Sous Marine Diver Line

It’s impossible to hate Yema. They have specialized in cheap(ish) watches with incredible styling and a good story behind them. The Urban Traveller and Urban Field collections will go down as some of the best microbrand offerings out there. They have also made some interesting divers, like the Superman, which has a strong vintage vibe. Now Yema is introducing a completely new line of modern and utilitarian divers called the Sous Marine.

The stainless steel case measures 40.5mm wide and 12.2mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 46mm. It comes with a sapphire crystal and a solid caseback, with elegant but pronounced crown guards. The watch is water resistant to 300 meters and comes with a unidirectional rotating bezel with a coloured aluminium insert that can be had in one of the five colors of the watch - black, blue, green, orange or yellow.

The dial for the Sous Marine comes in black, blue or green and is a multi-level affair. The black dial is always matched to either a black, orange or yellow bezel while the blue and green dials are matched to blue and green bezel inserts only. The white outer flange is sloped and has a dotted minute flange with triangular indications at every 5-minute interval. On the inside of the indices is a recessed ring, for the hours with Arabic numerals.

Inside the watch is a bit of a surprise. While most micro brands go for something like an ETA 2824 or Sellita SW200 movement, Yema installs their own movement called the YEMA2000 calibre. This movement runs at a rate of 28,800vph and offers a running time of 42 hours when fully wound. It has also been regulated in 4 positions to run within -10/+10 seconds of deviation per day. The watches come on a rubber strap that is color matched to the bezel insert or a stainless steel Beads of Rice bracelet with a folding clasp.

The Sous Marine is now a regular collection for Yema and preorders for the watches will begin August 24th, with delivery scheduled to commence towards the end of September 2023. The watch costs EUR 890 on the rubber strap or EUR 990 on the bracelet. See more on the Yema website.

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Brew Watches Metric Automatic Introduces Mechanical Movement to Retro Collection

As many fans Brew Watches have been able to attract with their fantastic 70s inspired sports watch design, there are just as many people who will criticise them. While even the most ardent critics couldn’t bash the design, the focused on the fact that Brew Metric watches hovered around the $500 price point while only outfitting them with VK68 Meca-Quartz Chronograph movements. Now Brew is shutting those critics down by releasing the first automatic watch at pretty much the same price point.

Brew started back in 2015 as a specific concept brand, centring all of their watch around coffee themes with a strong retro influence. Over the years, however, Brew has managed to escape the dangers of falling into the trap of only making single concept watches. The new Metric Automaticis confident enough to rely on its strong styling to be popular rather than any fun gimmicks.

On the surface, this is pretty much just a regular Brew Metric. It has a 36mm wide case, 50 meters of water resistance and a sapphire crystal. The body of the case is tonneau leading into a quasi-integrated bracelet with quick release although when it comes to shape the rounded square bezel makes more of an impact visually.

In addition to being the first automatic Metric, it’s also the first time-only model, while others were chronographs. That means there are no pushers flanking the crown and no subdials on the display. The dial is a simple black with oversize rectangular hour markers and Arabic numerals for the minutes. The central hands have also been updated since this is the first model to feature a central seconds hand, for which Brew has used a lollipop style in bright red.

Inside is a mechanical, automatic movement - the Seiko NH35A with 41-hour power reserve. It also has a super cute small exhibition window in the steel caseback allowing you to view the balance wheel. Now that Brew has fitted their watch with an automatic movement, putting an end to the criticisms of only using quartz, I guess the critics will have to point out that the NH35A is found in much cheaper watches and that at this price range it’s not uncommon to see the ETA 2824 or Sellita SW200 movement. But one step at a time, I guess.

The new Brew Metric Automatic is limited to 500 pieces and will set you back $525. See more on their website.

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Limited Edition Bangalore MACH 1 Admiral Uses Parts Of A Decommissioned Indian Navy Aircraft Carrier

The Bangalore-based indie brand aptly named Bangalore Watch Company is carving a very interesting niche for themselves. They are focusing on celebrating notable achievements from India. I previously featured their watches dedicated to the Indian space mission, but now the brand is paying homage to the INS Vikrant R11 aircraft carrier, one of the most important ships in the Indian military, in service between 1961 and 1997. And not only does it take it’s design cues from the aircraft carrier, the new 70-piece limited edition MACH 1 Admiral uses parts of the actual INS Vikrant R11.

The stainless steel case measures 40mm in diameter, with a 10.8mm height and a 46.5mm lug-to-lug and gets a black PVD coating. There’s a sapphire crystal on top, and a solid caseback on the reverse side, decorated with an image of the anchor chain of the aircraft carrier used for the dial material. The crown is also blackened, and the watch has a 100m water-resistance rating.

Yeah, you read that right. The dial is made out of metal taken the anchor of the INS Vikrant R11. And while Bangalore Watch Company has managed to get the dial to be an almost uniform grey, there are still going to be slight differences between the watches, meaning that each one is unique. The dial is finished in naval grey. The hands and numerals are outlined in black with beige Super-LumiNova inserts. There’s blue details on the seconds hand and the track on the outer edge and the brand’s logo is offset with a silhouette of the INS Vikrant R11. A date window sits at 6 o’clock, and houses a black and beige date disc.

Where previous editions of the MACH 1 collection relied on Sellita movements, Bangalore Watch Company has chosen the much more advanced La Joux-Perret G100 automatic movement for this limited edition. The G100 runs at a rate of 28,800 and has a lifespan of 68 hours when fully wound. The watch comes on a Nicobar blue woven nylon strap with BWC signed pin buckles.

The regular MACH1 movements, the ones that house the Sellita SW200 movements, hover around the EUR 900-1000 mark. This one is a bit different, however. Due to it’s limited number of only 70 made, Indian Navy provenance and use of metal from a legendary aircraft carrier and the fact that they are using the G100 movement, Banaglore Watch Company is asking for EUR 2,337 for the watch. A lot of money if you’re not an aficionado of naval history or the Banaglore Watch Company, but certainly interesting. See more on their website.

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The Atelier de Chronométrie Stunning Pièce Unique AdC17 Is A Stunning Split-Second Chronograph Inspired By The 1940s

There will always be a space in the watch world for those brand that are a step above everything else that exists. Even brands like F.P. Journe, Greubel Forsey and H. Moser & Cie have someone above them to look up. One of these brands at the very tipity-top is Atelier de Chronométrie, a brand started by vintage watch dealer and Patek Philippe expert Santiago Martinez, dedicated to creating hand made, ,fully bespoke, one-off pieces inspired by the history of horology. Their latest creation is the AdC17, a manually wound split-second chronograph.

While earlier Atelier de Chronométrie creations were made with great historic movements, earlier this year they introduced their first ever in-house movement, the M284, and used it in the AdC22. So it was expected that they would continue using it in their new watches, but the AdC17 takes a twist turn and goes back vintage.

The new AdC17 uses the AdC8 as a reference point, which is their other split-second chronograph and finalist in the chronograph category of the 2020 GPHG. It comes in a grey gold case made up of three parts, including a polished concave bezel that measures 39mm wide and 13.3mm thick. It has teardrop-shaped lugs and contrasting rose gold pushers and crown. Sapphire crystals are on top and botom.

The dial is a two-tone rose galvanic piece with applied rose gold Breguet numerals and indices. It also comes with a knot-based tachymeter scale instead of the more usual kph/mph scale, which is a nod to purpose-built aviation chronographs, and was requested as such by the client. The central hour and minute hands are leaf-shaped and finished in polished rose gold. The remaining two central hands are for the chronograph, one finished in polished 18k rose gold and one finished in heat-blued steel

The AdC17 uses the same movement as the AdC8, which is based on a vintage Venus 179 movement which runs at a rate of 18,000vph and has an autonomy of 49 hours when fully wound by hand. The old movement is completely reconstructed and gets newly manufactured parts where needed. New parts include three bridges in Arcap, the anchor bridge, the rattrapante bridge, the free-sprung balance, several wheels and gears. Finishings include black polishing on the screws and countersinks, as well as anglage, paired with a technique called etirage des flancs, a type of brushing on the vertical side of the components. The three Arcap bridges have a grainage finish, and you can also discover hand-applied perlage and various types of brushing throughout the entire movement.

Each Atelier de Chronométrie is a piece unique and is made to order by a client. This means you will not be able to buy this one, but you might try to order one for yourself. Just know that the price for AdC17 has not been revealed and the base price for a similar split-second chronograph starts at EUR 150,000 and only goes up from there. This will sound outrageous, but considering the fact that there are mass produced watches that lack the crazy attention to detail and hand-made cache of the AdC at the same price point, this looks like a bargain. The brand still hasn’t posted details of the watch on their website, but you can go to their Instagram where there are more photos of the piece.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands-On with the Nivada Grenchen Chronoking “Paul Newman” Orange

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A review of the Zodiac X Huckberry Super Sea Wolf Bronze Skin Diver

⚙️Watch Worthy

A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like

With the T02, Etien seems to have found its stride

The dial of the T02 is absolutely stunning. While the brand calls this color “blue,” it’s closer to teal. The flinqué enamel centerpiece is created by carving the guilloché pattern with a CNC machine, then layering translucent colored enamel over it to achieve the almost iridescent sheen. The subtle spiraling of the pattern is almost hypnotizing. This elegance—fanciness, even—is restrained a bit by the brushed metal chapter ring. The ring’s markings are cut and then black-filled to improve legibility, with polished leaf hands indicating the time. Smartly, the brand name is placed on the ring, and not on the centerpiece, ensuring an unfettered display of the enameled guilloché. The style of the chapter ring lends an almost industrial bent to the dial, keeping it from feeling too formal. But make no mistake: while I think there’s some flexibility allowed by the chapter ring’s more modern look, everything else about it (and the entire watch) suggests a dress watch.

⏲️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

• To many in the tight-knit deep-sea exploration community, OceanGate’s submersible dives were reckless and often dangerous, writes best-selling author Susan Casey. New details reveal that the Titan Submersible disaster was years in the making

• In her latest book, The Quickening, the Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Rush embarked on an epic odyssey to one of the most important – and least-explored – places in the world. This is her epic journey to Earth's 'doomsday glacier'

• Legendary author John McPhee on procrastination, dread, and his endless final project. The 92-year-old nonfiction master has published 32 books, over 100 magazine features, and some 3 million words. With a new collection out this summer, he shares the simple secrets to his staggering productivity.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Let’s keep it light for the weekend. I bet you didn’t know that Microsoft Excel is an extremely popular eSport. Excel as a sport is just as weird as this video about it.

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