Grand Seiko's Red Spring Drive Duo; Yema Has A Brand New Diver; Hamilton Adds Quartz To Khaki Field; The M.A.D. Gets Swiss Movement And Slimmer Case; Blancpain Updates The Villeret Collection

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I can’t put into words how over the new watch drought is! We’re back to 5 watches per issue, and even like that I can’t fit all the stuff that we have new now. And Geneva Watch Days hasn’t even started yet. Bear with me as I sift through the mess of new releases and I’ll get them to you as quickly as possible.

Btw, I’m doing a push for the Patreon till the end of August to see if I’ll have to start looking for the occasional ad to help continue running the newsletter starting in September. We did very good, way past the halfway mark of what I would need to cover the cost of sending the emails, but it’s just a bit short. If you would like to help out, read the red box right below. And just as a teaser of what you might expect to get in the Pateron, here’s the really cool story of why the Bulova Accutron Astronaut was chosen as the official watch for A-12 and SR-71 pilots. I unlocked it for everyone.

In this issue:

• Grand Seiko Has An Autum Ready Hotaka Peaks 9R Spring Drive Duo in Sunrise Red

• Yema Releases Brand New Watch, The Diver, Paying Homage To 50s And 60s Models

• Hamilton Adds A Quartz Movement To The Khaki Field Collection At 38 and 33mm

• MB&F's More Accessible Watch, The M.A.D., Gets Swiss Movement And Much Slimmer Case

• Blancpain Updates The Villeret Collection With Sunburst Green Dial Quartet

Today’s reading time: 11 minutes and 6 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Grand Seiko Has An Autum Ready Hotaka Peaks 9R Spring Drive Duo in Sunrise Red

Grand Seiko’s insistence that they just keep putting out the same watches with new dials (always inspired by nature, of course) has been annoying me for a long time. Well, I think I just realised what the game plane was. Just crush the public with the sheer amount of watches before they fall in love. I would call it release bombing, perhaps. And you know what? It works, they got me. Because after years of complete indifference to most GS releases, I’ve finally fallen in love with one. The newly released SBGY035, pictured on the right above, just might be one of my top 10 favourite watches of the year. They also released the new SBGA499 which is fine, I guess.

So, lets start off with the SBGY035, housed in a C-shaped case that Grand Seiko should be using way more often, as it’s elegant, sporty and sleek, something that couldn’t be said of all of their cases. It measures 38.5mm wide and 10.2mm thick. On top is a double domed sapphire crystal with an extremely thin fixed and unmarked bezel. Water resistance is ridiculously low at 30 meters, but I’ll live with it.

But it’s the dial that’s the beauty of this watch. The obligatory Grand Seiko lamentation on nature says that it’s inspired by “the harmony of the Hotaka mountain range blushing at sunrise and the vibrant transformation of autumn leaves in the same morning light.” What you do get is a stone texture dial that has a wonderful shade of red, with a slight gradient towards black on the outskirts of the dial. This is paired with a rose gold applied logo and seconds hand perfectly.

Inside, the caliber 9R31, a hand wound Spring Drive movement which beats at 32,768Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. It’s also might accurate, with an average daily deviation of about one second. The watch comes on a beautiful burgundy crocodile strap to match the dial.

I have two pieces of bad news. The SBGA035 is limited to just 700 pieces and is priced at €9,300. You can see more of it on the Grand Seiko website.

Now, on to the SBGA499, which has everything I personally don’t like about GS — the weird proportions of the case, lack of creativity, that bracelet and, of course, the power indicator on the dial. But tastes are subjective, so do ignore me. It comes in a 40.2mm wide and 12.8mm thick case that’s fully round with a stepped bezel and a sapphire crystal on top. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial gets a much brighter red color and a much flatter finish, one that’s radially brushed. It, too, has rose gold details which appear on the GS logo as well as the power reserve indicator at 7:30. There’s a date aperture at the 3 o’clock position with a white date wheel inside.

Powering the watch you’ll find a close cousin of the 9R31, the 9R65 which is an automatic winding Spring Drive caliber. It also beats at 32,768Hz, has a 72 hour power reserve and is accurate to a second per day. The watch comes on a steel bracelet that has a single-deployant clasp with a push-button release.

The SBGA499 is limited to 1,300 pieces and is priced at €6,300. See more on the Grand Seiko website.

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Yema Releases Brand New Watch, The Diver, Paying Homage To 50s And 60s Models

Over the past year and some months that I have been writing this newsletter, the French brand Yema has been perhaps the most consistent watch brand when it comes to releases. Without missing a month, they have introduced something new. Whether it was a new colorway, a tweaked design, the introduction of a new movement, or, on the other hand, an introduction of a whole new model line, Yema has always been on point. Now, they’re introducing a brand new model line and I’ll just skip the niceties and say I love this! Simply named the Yema Diver, it’s inspired by vintage dive watches from the late '50s to early '60s.

Sure, you could say that a lot of Yema’s existing divers, the Superman and the Yachtingraf also draw their roots from the ‘50s and ‘60s, but the new Diver carries with it a lot more style. It comes in a Monnin-inspired case — meaning a flat, rounded shape, wide but not sharp bevels on the lugs, and a flared crown guard — that measures 39.5mm wide, 11.7mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 46mm. On top is a double domed acrylic crystal to keep with the vintage look, and a very unique stainless steel brushed bezel with engraved dots and hashes and no numerals. It looks pretty groovy. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial continues the vintage look, with a strong skin diver inspiration. The black base of the dial gets a slight texture for a very matte finish, over which you’ll find very long white minute markers, interrupted by longer cream colored rectangles for the hours and oversized Arabic numerals at the cardinal positions, also in cream. This cream color is, of course, lume. Perhaps most attractive are the broad arrow hands, which are designed with wide, arrow-shaped tips coated with Super-LumiNova.

Inside is the brand’s second-generation in-house Yema2000 calibre, which is their version of the basic ETA and Sellita movements. Yema was heavily criticised online for their in-house movements that have had quality issues, but these problems seem to be limited to their older movement and the issues appear to be handled. It beats at 4Hz and has a power reserve of 42 hours. The movement is regulated in 4 positions to a precision of -/+ 10 seconds/day. The watch comes on a stainless steel bracelet features a set of central links that are closely set together, creating a pattern reminiscent of grains of rice, closed with a double security buckle with a diver extension.

The Yema Diver can be ordered now and should be delivered in September. In a world where no-frills divers powered by ETA-2824 clones have firmly gone above the €1,000 mark, this one is priced at €890. See more on the Yema website.

3/

Hamilton Adds A Quartz Movement To The Khaki Field Collection At 38 and 33mm

The modern field watch is a continuation of the military watch which was built with one purpose — to tell the time in the worst conditions imaginable, while bullets are whizzing past your head. That would, of course, mean that the modern field watch should be equally as capable, despite it being intended only for the occasional hike and a bump against a doorframe. And for the most part, it is. But, if we’re being honest, the field watch has one major weak point — the mechanical movement. Sure, if you spend a few hundred thousand on a Richard Mille, you’ll get a mechanical movement that will stand up to abuse, but most will fail way before you get to any serious rough and tumbling. And adverse conditions is one area where a quartz movement shines. Kind of makes sense that field watches would be quartz, no? Well, one of the most popular field watches in the world, the Hamilton Khaki Field came with only manual wind and automatic mechanical movements. I say came, because that just changed with the introduction of the Hamilton Khaki Field Quartz Collection in both 38mm and 33mm.

The larger of the two comes in a brushed stainless steel case that measures 38mm wide and 8.3mm thick, while the smaller version is 33mm wide and 7.5mm wide. That smaller case will fit small wrists, but it is also a direct reference to military watches of WWII which were the genesis of field watches. There’s not much else to these cases other than a fixed bezel and a 50 meter water resistance.

There are three dial colors and four variants reserved for each size. There’s a black dial with white or cream lume, a white dial and a blue dial. The dials are exactly what you would expect — super simple, with large numerals between 1 and 11 and a triangle at 12 o’clock, all doused in lume. The hands are the very well known syringe type that Hamilton uses on other Khaki Field watches.

Inside, is a rather basic ETA-made quartz movement with not a lot of details provided by Hamilton. The watches come on textile NATO straps in either khaki green, blue, or black, 18mm for the smaller and 20mm for bigger one.

Another advantage of the quartz movement is its price. Regardless of the size you chose, the watches in the new Hamilton Khaki Field Quartz Collection are priced at $395. See more on the Hamilton website.

4/

MB&F's More Accessible Watch, The M.A.D., Gets Swiss Movement And Much Slimmer Case

In 2021 Max Büsser, the creative mind behind the out-there-but-still-incredible MB&F watches, sent out an almost cryptic email to friends of MB&F. The email was addressed to suppliers of the company, and in it Büsser announced that they will be creating the M.A.D.1 watch and he would like to offer it to them first. The lowest price an MB&F watch sells for is CHF 50,000 and they go way past half a million, so to expect suppliers of parts for the watches to be able to afford one would be very optimistic. But this one was different. It was still a highly complicated watch, but it was offered at a price point of CHF 2,900. This proved to be such a great move that the M.A.D.1 was soon offered to MB&Fs loyal customers in a similar email, and a legend of a highly unattainable but affordable watch was born. Four of these watches have been released, and now, the time has come for a huge change. While the previous four iterations have been colorway changes, the just announced M.A.D.Editions M.A.D.1S is a major update to the model, with a much slimmer case and a Swiss movement.

A lot remains the same with the M.A.D.1S, all the best parts, but the parts that could be criticized have all been improved. You still get the wild x-shaped caseback that holds the mineral glass container. You get the crown at 12 o’clock and the way the time is shown. What has radically changed is the size. Sure, it’s still 42mm wide, but the watch has slimmed down from 18mm to 15mm. Despite this crazy construction, you still get 100 meters of water resistance, which is really commendable.

The M.A.D. watches don’t really have a dial to speak of. Look at it head on, and you will be greeted with a rotating battle axe-shaped rotor that creates quite a different look. The time, however, is shown through a disc that features the time and can be seen on the side of the case. The correct time is displayed at the 6 o’clock position of the watch. This disc has seen one of the major updates of the M.A.D.1S as there are no longer two rotating discs there, one for the hours and one for the minutes. You now get a single disc that shows the hours and features dots marking the quarters. Two versions of the watch will be made, one for friends of the company and MB&F collectors which will have purple accents on the dial, and the other which will be sold to the public which will have ice-blue accents.

The other major change to the M.A.D.1S was the movement. In order to keep the price of the M.A.D.1 low, Max Büsser chose to use a Miyota sourced movement. Not only was it more affordable, but it also had a benefit of featuring an unidirectional rotor that would spin much faster than most Swiss bidirectional movements. Now, however, the M.A.D.1S gets a Swiss movement, the calibre G101 from La Joux-Perret. It also features unidirectional winding, beats at 4Hz and has a 68 hour power reserve.

M.A.D.Editions says 1,500 pieces of the version available to the public will be made and they will, once again, be offered through a raffle that is supposed to open just ahead of Geneva Watch Days that start this week. If I remember correctly, the previous version of the M.A.D.1 watch had in excess of 25,000 entrants to the raffle, so I can’t imagine this one being any lower. Good luck getting one. The watch is priced at CHF 2,900, without tax. See more on the M.A.D.Editions website.

5/

Blancpain Updates The Villeret Collection With Sunburst Green Dial Quartet

Blancpain is surely best known for their diving Fifty Phantoms variants. But even at their most sportiest, Blancpain flirts with being a dress watch. So it comes as no surprise that when they do make a dress watch, it’s quite nice. The Villeret collection is where Blancpain does the classic dress stuff and now they have updated the collection with four very different watches that play on the same theme - sunburst green dials.

Starting off with the Villeret Extraplate 6651, surely the simplest of the quartet, you get a beautiful stepped 40mm wide and 8.7mm thick red gold case with short lugs. On top and bottom you’ll find sapphire crystals. On the dial side you get a suburst brushed dial in green with red gold Roman numerals, central hour, minute, and second hands, and a date window at 3 o’clock. Inside is the in-house automatic calibre 1151. which features a silicone hairspring and twin barrels in series, which give you 100 hours of power reserve. The watch comes on a brown leather strap. Yours for CHF 20,300. See more here.

Bumping up the complexity a bit, we get the ladies’ Quantième Phases de Lune 6162 which comes in a red gold case that measures 33.2mm wide and 10.2mm thick. The case gets a diamond-set bezel, as well as eight diamond indices on the dial. On the dial you get red gold Roman numerals at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 positions and the centre of the dial has a date wheel with a pointer indicator. At 6 o’clock there’s an aperture for the moon phase. All of this is powered by the calibre 913QL.P which beats at 21,600vph and has a 40 hour power reserve. It comes on a green leather strap. Price is set at CHF 23,800. See it here.

A step up is offered from the rather dashing Villeret Quantième Complet. Again in the double stepped case that measures 40mm wide, it gains a bit of thickness here, but not much. It’s 10.94mm thick, which is great for a watch that has a complete calendar and houses central hands for the hours, minutes, seconds, and date, as well as apertures for the day and month above the centre and a moon phase display below. The dial is, once again, sunburst green, with red-gold Roman numerals. Inside is the in-house calibre 6654 which has a 72 hour power reserve. Price is set at CHF 26,600. See more of the watch on their website.

And at the very top is the Villeret Tourbillon Carrousel, one of the rare (if not only?) watches to feature two rotating escapements: a tourbillon at 12 o’clock and a carrousel at 6 o’clock. They are housed in a red gold case that measures 44.6mm wide and 11.94mm thick. The crown is situated at the 4 o’clock position. On the dial you’ll find the apertures for the two complications, red gold Roman numerals and a circular date indicator at the 3 o’clock position. All of this is powered by the in-house manually wound calibre 2322 which has an incredible 168 hour power reserve. A watch like this doesn’t come cheap. CHF 329,900. See it here.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Tudor Black Bay Ceramic VCARB

2/

Hands-On with the Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual Chronograph

3/

A review of the 8Hz Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Zealandic Iceborne has a look of its own and the right stuff to be a proper field and adventure watch

The Iceborne comes in three color variants and all have the same wave pattern dial inspired by the Ice Caves of Tasman Glacier in the western part of the Southern Island. The Green variant pays homage to Pounamou, a family of hard and precious stones central to the Māori Culture which are carved into pendants and various ornamental objects. The Burgundy variant refers to Central Otago, the southernmost point on earth where Pinot Noir is produced. And the Light Blue variant is named after Lake Pukaki where the waters get their distinctive blue color thanks to finely ground rock particles originating from two nearby glaciers. All three versions refer, therefore, to specific areas of the Southern Island.

Read the whole review on Worn and Wound

⏲️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

• I already linked to one report from CrimeCon, the convention for true crime fans, and that was great. This one is even better, as Luke Winkie expolores how America turned the BTK Killer’s daughter, Gabby Petito’s parents and JonBenét’s dad darkest moments into a never-ending spectacle. And why they all willingly appeared at CrimeCon.

• Not being American, I am endlessly fascinated with the stories of native people that lived in the US. These are often very violent and dramatic, but they all have the same sad arc. That’s why I love this cover story from Texas Monthly, as it explores how the Karankawa, a Gulf Coast people, emerge from a long history of oppression, slanderous folklore, and rumors of their demise to find their place in the twenty-first century.

• At the peak of their fame, they were arguably the most famous magicians since Houdini. They were original Tiger Kings. They were Siegfried and Roy.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’m a bit heavy with car videos in the past few days, but I just couldn’t pass over this video of two nerds doing nerd stuff.

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-Vuk