Hamilton Releases Trio Of Black Intra-Matic Chronos; Another Moonswatch; Frosted Dials For The GO Senator Moon Phase; Speake Marin's Sporty Gold Ripples; Trilobe's Mesmerizing Une Folle Journée

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I know I should hate how many MoonSwatch options there are out there, but I just can’t. I very much dig this pink number.

In this issue:

• Hamilton Gives Their Top-Of-The-Line Intra-Matic Auto Chrono A Trio Of Black Options

• Swatch Releases Yet Another MoonSwatch, The Mission to the Pink Moonphase In Bright Pink

• Glashütte Original Updates The Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase With Frosted Dials

• Speake Marin Gives Its Sporty Ripples Model Line A Gold Case On A Casual Strap

• Trilobe Introduces New Une Folle Journée Rhodium-plated Editions In Black, Green And Blue

👂What’s new

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Hamilton Gives Their Top-Of-The-Line Intra-Matic Auto Chrono A Trio Of Black Options

While the current Intra-Matic Auto Chrono was only released not even ten years ago, you can draw a straight line from this modern chrono Hamilton to the 1960s version which served to house the the brand’s first automatic chronograph, the Chrono-Matic, introduced in 1969. While the new watch has brand new internals, the look has very much remained in the 60s. Which means you get a classic racing chronograph even from the new Intra-Matic. Only, it comes with a touch of modernity in three black case options. This is the new Hamilton Intra-Matic Auto Chrono All-Black Editions.

Like so many automatic chronographs, this is a chunky thing. It measures 40mm wide and 14.45mm, with very classic angled and faceted lugs. The entire case gets a black PVD coating, including the crown and pushers on the side. Interestingly, there’s a recessed date corrector on the left side of the case. On top is a curved sapphire crystal surrounded by a plain, fixed bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters, something we didn’t get to see often in chronograph watches but has since become a standard.

The dials continue the black theme of the cases. The bases have a matte black finish, while the two recessed subdials have a snailed finish. At 6 o’clock is a beveled date aperture. The only color comes from the tachymeter scale and central chronograph hand, which come in white, orange or yellow. The hour markers have lumed squares and more lume can be found on all the hands.

Inside, you won’t find the Calibre 11 that the vintage Chrono-Matic was made famous for, but instead the Calibre H-31 based on the ubiquitous ETA Valjoux 7753. It beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. The watches come on black perforated leather straps, with the orange and yellow models getting a matched insides on the perforated area.

The new black Hamilton Intra-Matic Auto Chrono are available now and can be yours for €2,595. See more on the Hamilton website.

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Swatch Releases Yet Another MoonSwatch, The Mission to the Pink Moonphase In Bright Pink

It’s been less than a months since the latest MoonSwatch release, and things are almost beginning to feel like a bit like the MoonSwatch in its second year, when they just started cranking out nearly identical watches with just slight differences on the central chrono hand. The key word is almost, because what Swatch is doing with MoonSwatch right now makes much more sense. They are all over the place with their design, trying to offer a MoonSwatch for everyone and every situation. Last month, it was the very cool and very controversial MoonSwatch 1965. This month, we have the equally cool and I assume equally controversial MoonSwatch Mission to the Pink Moonphase.

The pink moon is one of those moon names that have established itself in popular culture, but it’s not actually a moon that shines pink. It’s just a name for a full moon in April. And while the Mission to the Pink Moonphase launches on April 1, it does embrace the pinkness fully. Built on the already known Moonphase model, this new variant comes in a 42mm wide and slightly thicker than normal (13.75mm) case made out of bright pink Bioceramic, a material that is made up of two-thirds zirconium oxide ceramic powder, with one-third biosourced material derived from castor oil. Sounds fancy, but feels a lot like plastic. On top is the domed plastic crystal and water resistance is 30 meters.

Contrastin the pink case, you get a white dial with sunken-in tri-compax subdials and a black ring around the outside. The hands on the running seconds are at 6 o’clock and the minute totaliser at 10 o’clock are pink, as are the moons on the moonphase indicator at 2 o’clock. All of the lume on the watch — whether the one used for hour markers or the one that fils the hands is done in a very light pink.

As with previous versions, Swatch doesn’t say what movement is inside, but it’s most likely to be a variation of the ETA Caliber G10.962 quartz chronograph moonphase movement. The watch comes on a pink Velcro strap with pink Bioceramic hardware, and the strap has traditionally been the weak point of this watch, so plan ahead accordingly if you want to get one.

The new MoonSwatch Mission to the Pink Moonphase goes on sale on April 1st at the usual price of €315. See more on the Swatch website.

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Glashütte Original Updates The Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase With Frosted Dials

The very traditional German watchmaker Glashütte Original has lately been making waves with their incredible 70s inspired sports watches and some interesting divers. That’s nice, but we all know why we’re here - it’s for their incredible Senator collection that showcases the the Saxon watchmaking style to its maximum. Since 2016., when it was first introduced, the Senator Excellence line has seen a wide range of classic and modern dial variants and complications. The latest release is in the Glashütte Original Panorama Date Moon Phase sub-line and brings two great colors with a grained texture to the mix.

The watches come in a stainless steel case that measures 40mm wide, 12.2mm thick and has a 47.65mm lug-to-lug. It has a combination of satin-finished and polished surfaces and on top is a domed sapphire crystal surrounded by a thing fixed bezel. There’s also a transparent sapphire caseback. Water resistance is 50 meters.

But these watches are all about the dials. There are two colors to choose from — silver or copper — both with a very fine grained surface that makes it look like a frosted dial. Applied by hand to the dial are solid gold Roman numerals coated in a blue color, the same color that’s used for the railway minute track on the very periphery and on the pear-shaped hands. At 4 o’clock you’ll see the oversized date aperture and between 10 and 11 is a half-moon opening for the moon phase display with a silver moon and stars against a dark blue sky.

Inside is the Glashütte Original calibre 36-24, an automatic movement with a 4Hz frequency and an impressive 100 hours of power reserve. The moon phase indicator can run for 122 years without correction. The watches can be had on either an alligator strap, a synthetic fabric strap (in blue, orange, green, black or grey), or on a stainless steel bracelet with folding clasp.

The new Glashütte Original Panorama Date Moon Phase is available now, priced at €12,700 on the leather or fabric strap. See more on the Glashütte Original website.

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Speake Marin Gives Its Sporty Ripples Model Line A Gold Case On A Casual Strap

I mean, are you even a luxury watch brand if you don’t have a sports watch with an integrated bracelet? These days, it appears you can’t be one. And for Speake-Marin, that integrated sports watch lives in the Ripples Collection. The latest of the Ripples models comes in a really nice gold case that could almost be described as subtle, thanks to the unassuming strap it comes with.

But make no mistakes, this rounded-square case is still made out of 18k rose gold and measures 40.3mm wide and a svelte 9.2mm thick. The case and the flat bezel have brushed top surfaces and a dramatic polished bevel on both. You get sapphire crystals on top and bottom, as well as a polished central link to the strap. Water resistance is 50 meters.

There’s no need to question where the Ripples moniker comes from once you see the dial. Each of the dials in the collection gets satin-finished grooves that form rounded ripples — 12 of them in this case — and this one is no different. It comes in a beautiful Gold Brown color and with a rose gold-plated small seconds subdial at 1:30. You get the signature spade-and-whip hands in rose gold and polished gold-plated baton indices. Around the entire perimeter is a gold minute track.

Inside is the calibre SMA03-TD, an automatic movement made by Le Cercle des Horlogers. It beats at 28,800bph and has a decent 52-hour power reserve. Out back is a sapphire crystal so you get to see the decorations which include Côtes de Genêve stripes, perlage, anglage and a tungsten micro-rotor which is hand engraved. The watch comes on a calf leather strap that’s embossed to give it a denim motif.

The new Speake-Marin Ripples Gold is available now and priced at CHF 29,900 without tax. See more on the Speake-Marin website.

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Trilobe Introduces New Une Folle Journée Rhodium-plated Editions In Black, Green And Blue

The Parisian indie Trilobe is known for their seemingly simple watches that are perfect representations of quiet luxury, regardless of how played-out that term is after kids on TikTok discovered that rich people wear expensive clothes from brands they never heard of. But every now and again, they will go all out and show exactly why their watches are so special. Such is the case with the Une Folle Journée model line which gets rid of the dial to show off just how cool the insides of this watch are. This is the new trio of Une Folle Journée Rhodium-plated Editions

The watches come in a Grade 5 titanium case that has mirror-polished and satin-brushed finishes, that play one off the other perfectly. The case measures 40.5mm wide and has a an almost incredible thickness of 17.8mm. However, not that 10.8mm of that thickness is used for the extremely domed sapphire crystal that makes it look almost like a sculpture on your wrist. On the side is a fluted crown engraved with the Trilobe logo. Despite being more of an art piece than a watch, it still has 50 meters of water resistance.

By removing the dial, what’s left are floating discs that are used to tell the time — hours on the outermost ring, minutes in the middle, and seconds at the centre. The rings rotate and have a fixed red mark that indicates their position to make telling time easier. Through the impressive crystal you can see all of the mechanics of this movement, along with the rhodium plated baseplate. The rings are made out of titanium, DLC-coated in black, green, or blue and pad-printed with numerals.

All of this is powered by the Calibre X-centric, a movement that has been developed for Trilobe and made by Le Cercle des Horlogers. It’s a micro-rotor automatic movement that beats at 4Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. The watches come with color matched alligator leather straps.

The new Trilobe Une Folle Journée Rhodium-plated Editions are available now and priced at €20,400. See more on the Trilobe 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

• Brilliant piece by Kara Swisher on how greedy, spineless tech moguls and “egomaniacal entrepreneurs” have engineered control of media, science, education and other information systems to the point that, as Paul Virilio predicted in 1994, “virtuality will destroy reality.”

• This sad story unravels the mystery of how Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa died inside their remote 9,000-square-foot house in Santa Fe, N.M., with Hackman, suffering from Alzheimer’s and heart disease, likely unaware for almost a week that his wife was dead in a bathroom. Rick Jervis puts the pieces together, and tells us that one of the couple’s dogs led police to Hackman’s body in a mudroom.

• Doug Bock Clark’s vivid writing about an insane adventure race made more insane by the remnants of Hurricane Helene puts you in the thick of the forest, the mud, the rain and lets you see the clarity of a starry night.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Croatia (where It’s About Time is written) really is a beautiful country.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk