Grands Seiko Brings Back Kirazuri Dials To The U.S.; Bremont Pays Homage To His Majesty’s Armed Forces With A Confusing Watch; Casio Takes On Racing Livery; Timex Makes The Best Women's Watch

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. We rarely get to really admire a watch made for women, but hats off to Timex. That just might take the cake at a lot of budgets.

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In this issue:

• Grand Seiko Brings Back Kira-Zuri Dial To The U.S. With Two Exclusives, The SBGA507 And SBGA509

• Bremont Pays Homage To His Majesty’s Armed Forces With The Broadsword Recon Bronze

• Casio Takes On The Livery Of One Of The Most Legendary Teams Of All Time With New Edifice

• Timex Gives Some Extra Love For The Women’s Marlin With A Great Combination Of Pink And Gold

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 32 seconds

👂What’s new

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Grand Seiko Brings Back Kira-Zuri Dial To The U.S. With Two Exclusives, The SBGA507 And SBGA509

Both Seiko and Grand Seiko have this funny habit of not spreading out their releases throughout the year. Instead, they just select a couple of weeks per year and just dump everything they have been working on. And they don’t even do one week for Seiko, the other for GS. No, they do them both the same week, leaving me scrambling to cover everything, very annoyed. But here we are, with no major releases from either brand in a couple of months, and me being so happy that they’re back! I missed them! But on a more interesting note, Grand Seiko is releasing two limited edition watches exclusive to the U.S., the SBGA507 and SBGA509, with great looking dials, but, more importantly, a very interesting story behind them.

Grand Seiko, as we all know, was established as a separate brand from Seiko in the 1960s to offer a more high-end and luxurious experience. And for some reason, I always assumed that they had a great worldwide presence. What I didn’t realize is that Grand Seiko did not have an official presence in the U.S. until much later. Like, much, much later. Grand Seiko USA was established only in 2018. And to mark the occasion, Grand Seiko released a trio of U.S. exclusive models, of which the only steel version, the SBGA387, was admired for its Kirazuri style sparkling dial in a very light blue.

And it’s that US exclusive that Grand Seiko has had in mind with the release of the two new US exclusives, the SBGA507 and SBGA509. Because the new watches are bringing back the Kirazuri dials. Kirazuri is a traditional method used in Japanese woodblock printing that incorporates mica powder for a sparkling effect. But before we get to that, the case. Not much has changed on the outside. You still get the same 44GS stainless steel case that measures 40mm wide and 12.5mm thick. Of course, the case has a bunch of zaratsu polishing and you get 100 meters of water resistance.

Like most GS watches, it’s all about the dial. And like most GS watches, this one has an elaborate story of how the dials reflect some natural beauty of Japan. These two watches represent the transitioning sky as seen from Lake Suwa, where Grand Seiko is headquartered. There are two dial variants, both of which get the kirazuri texture that plays with the light. One gets a a rosy pink hue and the other a nice soft blue. You get all the other things you would expect — the polished hands, polished markers, power reserve indicator and date aperture at 3 o’clock.

Inside both watches is the 9R65 Spring Drive caliber. For those living under a rock, Spring Drive uses a mechanical gear train and quartz for regulation, one of the great advancements in watchmaking. The movement has a power reserve of 72 hours and is accurate within 15 seconds per month. Both watches come on the well known Grand Seiko three link bracelets that are widely criticised for not really being up to the standard of the rest of the watch.

The SBGA507 and SBGA509 are limited to 300 pieces each and sold only in the United States. Price is set at $5,600. See more on the Grand Seiko U.S. website.

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Bremont Pays Homage To His Majesty’s Armed Forces With The Broadsword Recon Bronze

Usually, the biggest watch show of the year, Watches and Wonders, brings a lot of excitement over new releases. However, this year was a bit of a quiet year. Sure, there was some great stuff, but overall, nothing that blew our minds. Except for one brand. Bremont. The ramifications of what Bremont did at Watches and Wonders are heard up to today. They unveiled a completely new direction — and a new logo — for the brand, one that was not welcomed with open hands and brought questions on the future of one of the largest watchmakers in the UK. However, the new logo and model did not push out all of the old Bremont lineup, meaning that you can now, very confusingly, but a Bremont with the old logo and a new logo and new direction. And they just released a new/old watch, one that’s inspired by the military watches of WWII and one that pays homage to the UK military, all three branches of it. This is the Bremont Broadsword Recon Bronze.

The watch is part of the partnership that Bremont has with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, which nobody is sure whether it will continue in the new direction of the company. Bremont’s Armed Forces Collection began in 2019 and has since released many watches with blessing from the MoD to include the signs, symbols and Heraldic Badges of the UK military units. This latest version is based on the Broadsword, meaning that it ditches the Trip Tick case in favor of a two-piece case made out of solid CuSn8 bronze with a brushed finish and three engraved lines on the side. It measures 40mm wide, 12.5mm thick and has a 47mm lug-to-lug. Water resistance is 100 meters and the watch will only look better with time as a patina develops on the bronze case.

The dial stands out from the other military inspired watches from Bremont is the addition of the sandwich construction to the dial. The bottom part is coated with a yellow-brown Super-LumiNova, giving a vintage look and a green glow, and that is then covered with a matte black dial with cutouts for the numerals and markers of the small seconds counter. The hands are as black as the dial, with lume inserts in the same color as the bottom dial. There’s a date aperture at 3 with a color matched wheel. Right underneath 12 o’clock is the old Bremont logo. We’ll see how long it sticks around.

Inside, is the fancily named chronometer-rated calibre BE-95- 2AV, which is based on the Sellita SW260-1. This means it beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. It also has a bit of decoration, but that’s irrelevant as it has a closed caseback, which carries the badges of all three services and states: “Approved by Her Majesty’s Armed Forces”. The watch comes on a black sailcloth strap with bronze pin buckle.

The Bremont Broadsword Recon Bronze is a limited edition of 100 pieces and retails for €4,150. A lot of money, but they sure will find 100 buyes. See more on the Bremont website.

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Casio Takes On The Livery Of One Of The Most Legendary Teams Of All Time With New Edifice

Even if you are not old enough to have been an original fan of Japanese racing series, if you are my age and have liked cars, chances are you grew up playing Gran Turismo. And Grand Turismo was your introduction to the wonderful world of Japanese Domestic Market — JDM — cars, way before they were exploited in the Fast and Furious franchise. This is where you first encountered legends like Mugen, Mine’s, Nismo, Spoon and Tommy Kaira. These were legendary Japanese tuners and racing teams that made some of the best race cars of all time. But somehow, on the top of this list, at least for me personally, was TOM’s. This was a mythical tuner that focused on Toyotas and Lexuses. They also ran their racing team since the 1970s, to great success. Now, TOM’s is celebrating their 50th anniversary and helping them celebrate is Casio, which released a special edition Edifice Sospensione TOM’s 50th Anniversary.

TOM’s most iconic car was the Toyota KP47 Starlet, a race car that dominated the Japanese racing circuit in the mid 1970s. It also had one of the best liveries of all time, made up of very 70s red and yellow squares, a colroway that TOM’s took on as its unofficial brand identity. And it’s this exact colorway that Casio used for the limited edition.

Based on the regular Edifice Sospensione, this watch comes in a carbon fiber reinforced resin case, which is a good thing as it certainly keeps weight low for such a huge watch. It measures 44.5mm wide, 13.3mm thick and has a 50.1mm lug-to-lug measurement. Water resistance is 100 meters and inside is the familiar Casio solar-powered chronograph movement.

The look is very much reminiscent of TOM’s cars. The base of the dial has a purple honeycomb pattern that emulates the Starlet’s purple front grille and 3K-R engine. The sub-dials and central seconds hand feature red and yellow color schemes, while there is also a couple of details in green, which is also a detail color found on the race car. The pattern on the inset dials draws inspiration from Igeta wheels, while the shorter end of the leather strap boasts textures that nod to KP47’s B-pillar.

The Casio Edifice Sospensione TOM’s 50th Anniversary looks to not be limited ant it’s available today for $300. See more on the Casio website.

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Timex Gives Some Extra Love For The Women’s Marlin With A Great Combination Of Pink And Gold

The differentiation of watches into men’s and women’s models is slowly being phased out in favor of more unisex pieces. We still get a few brands doing the “pink and bling” move where they differentiate their women’s watches explicitly by adding the color pink and precious stones. This often turns out quite awkward, and brands have realised as well. But then there a couple of examples when a brand just manages to pull off a clearly women’s watch, a small pink and gold thing, that just takes your breath away. You will never confuse a piece like this for a unisex watch, but you will say, that’s a good looking women’s watch. This piece is this spectacular Timex Marlin in 34mm, with a gold tone case and pink dial.

The Marlin is (or at least should be) the bread and butter for Timex, a wonderfully elegant and surreally affordable watch that’s a great starter dress watch for most people. They recently started including a lot of interesting pastel colors and one of the results is this awesome 34mm version. The case measures 34mm wide and 10mm thick, with a gold colored finish. On top is an acrylic crystal and water resistance is capped at 30 meters.

That’s all nice, but things get super nice on the dial. The pastel pink base gets gold-tone Breguet numeral markers, which have just fantastic contrast. The hands are also gold in color and a super simple baton shape. There’s not much more to it. An additional gold seconds hand, a subtle minute track on the outside and no lume on the hands or the numerals.

Inside, a bit of a mystery. It’s a manually wound movement, but Timex doesn’t give any details. We don’t know the beat rate or the hour reserve, but people much more in the know than me say it’s likely made by Miyota. But more important than the movement is the bracelet it comes on - a stretchy one made with flat links that alternate pink and gold tone, which just look amazing.

The 34mm Timex Marlin is available now and priced pretty fantastically at €250. See more on the Timex website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the DOXA SUB 300 Carbon Searambler

2/

Hands-On with three new dials of Hamilton's Khaki Field Mechanical 38

3/

A review of the Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph 5960/1A-001

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Lebond Souto Moura is an architect's take on the classic driver's watch

The famous Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura designed the new Lebond watch. He won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2011 and is famous the world over for his minimalist creations. This time, Souto de Moura decided to use his minimalist style to create a classic driver’s watch. He wanted it to be as slim as possible, and it was up to Lebond’s Asier Mateo to make that come to life in a watch that could also serve as a comfortable daily wearer. It has resulted in the Lebond Souto Moura, a lightweight timepiece with a 38.5mm Grade 5 titanium case, a micro-sanded finish, and an anti-fingerprint coating.

Read the whole review on Fratello

⏲️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

• In 1746, a vessel called the Prince de Conty foundered off the coast of France. How did its most valuable cargo end up in the hands of a semi-retired Florida couple? This is the story of a cursed ship and the fate of its sunken gold.

• The past few years have been tough for tech billionaires: after more than a decade of being hailed as visionaries, they’re no longer getting a free pass from an uncritical media, and it seems to have broken their brains. As Zoë Bernard details for Business Insider, many of them have responded to the loss of Unassailable Demigod status by going in house—launching a slew of podcasts and other owned media channels that let them tell their story, their way.

• When a man and woman were found bound in the Mojave, it was just the start of a sordid tale of kidnappings, beatings, a high-speed chase, a prison break, a secret extradition plot, and more. Go inside one of the most twisted crimes ever.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

In 1976, British alpinists Peter Boardman & Joe Tasker made the first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang, for the next four decades the route gained legendary status as climbers from around the world would come to attempt to successfully repeat this route.

In 2022, 3 climbers from the New Zealand Alpine Team would try their luck on this infamous climb. Will they succeed?

💵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