Hamilton's New Khaki Field Colors In All The Right Sizes; Nomos And Ace Put Out Orange Metros; Doxa Has Gulf Of Mexico Themed Sub 250Ts; Carl Suchy Goes Full Minimalist; And A Wonderful Parmigiani

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I really like when retailers team up with watch brands, they always come up with some pretty cool stuff. We have two of those today — both the Ace Jewelers and Exquisite Timepieces collaborations are something that I would gladly wear, any time.

Oh, and do check out part one of a three part series on Indian watchmaking. I really enjoyed writing it, learned a lot, and can’t wait to put out more of these long form series.

In this issue:

• Hamilton Brings New Colors To The Khaki Field In All The Right Sizes

• Nomos And Ace Jewelers Release A Dutch-Orange Duo Of Metro Neomatiks

• Doxa Teams Up With Exquisite Timepieces For A Gulf Of Mexico Sub 250T GMT Duo

• Carl Suchy & Söhne Goes Full Minimalist With The New Vienna Watch

• The Armoriale Répétition Minute Mystérieuse Celebrates Michel Parmigiani

👂What’s new

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Hamilton Brings New Colors To The Khaki Field In All The Right Sizes

We’ve seen a lot of pretty wild watches in April, thanks to Watches and Wonders. But sometimes, you just want a watch. You know the type. Three hands, a simple dial, something that won’t decimate your bank account. There are several brands that excel in watches just like this, but it could be argued that Hamilton sits at the very top of watches that fit that exact description. And it’s the Khaki Field, with its subtle World War II inspiration, that perfectly exemplifies a watch that is just a watch. But even in such a simple watch, you want some diversity. A bit of style. That’s why the Khaki Field collection is so large, and just got larger with two new dial colors — a khaki green and dark blue — in both of the most popular sizes of the watch — 38mm and 42mm.

The new Khaki Field models come in stainless steel cases that measure either 38mm x 11.5mm or 42mm x 11mm. But other than the size difference, the cases are the same. They feature a brush finish with a polished bezel and crown, sapphire crystals on top and bottom, as well as 100 meters of water resistance.

The cases haven7t changed at all. What’s new are the two new dial colors — khaki green and dark blue. They both get a very prominent sunray finish that plays with the light perfectly. The layout here is similar, with oversized Arabic numerals for the hours and a smaller double-digit scale for the minutes. Those hour numerals sit on a matte snailed finished ring. There’s a date aperture at 3 o’clock and you get syringe-style hour and minute hands filled with lume.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre H-10, Hamilton’s version of Swatch Group’s Powermatic 80. That means that it has a Nivachron hairspring, beats at 3Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve. The watches come on either a brushed stainless steel bracelet with a folding clasp or on a brown leather strap.

The new colors of the Khaki Field Automatic are on sale right now, priced at €745 on leather and €825 on the bracelet, regardless of size. See more on the Hamilton website.

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Nomos And Ace Jewelers Release A Dutch-Orange Duo Of Metro Neomatiks

Despite the fact that one of its owners, Alon Ben Joseph, has become a very good friend and now business partner (more on that later), I can try to remain impartial and say that Ace Jewelers out of Amsterdam makes some of the best collaborative limited editions in the watch game. Their approach is often very unique, with great use of color, and with a lot of details referencing Amsterdam, a city that is near and dear to my heart. Now, Ace is celebrating 50 years and they are teaming up with Nomos Glashütte and the designer of the Nomos Metro, Mark Braun, to release to limited editions of the Metro Neomatik, with pretty cool Dutch orange dials.

The edition is available in two sizes — the larger measures 38.5mm wide and 8.4mm thick, while the smaller one is 35mm wide and 8.1mm thick. The cases are Metro cases, with their signature wire lugs that, like many Nomos watches, adds a bit of exaggerated length to the watch — a 42.1mm lug-to-lug on the smaller model and 45.4mm lug-to-lug. These are polished cases with beautifully domed sapphire crystals that are pushed all the way to the edge of the case. You also get a transparent caseback and 50 meters of water resistance.

But it’s all about the incredible orange dials. While the Dutch flag is red, white and blue, the entire nation embraces their connection with the color orange. The larger model comes with a lighter orange dial with a darker orange snaled small seconds counter, while the smaller inverts the colors. The architectural hands with super long tips are rendered in black, as are all the printed elements on the dial, including the logo and the minutes track with a mix of Arabic numerals at 5-minute intervals and dots.

Inside you’ll find the ultra slim in-house DUW 3001, which measures just 3.2mm thick, pretty cool for an automatic. The movement beats at 21,600vph and has a 43 hour power reserve. It’s also fairly nice, in a Glashütte-way, with ribbing on the three-quarter plate, tempered blued screws and perlage. The watches come on black leather straps.

The new Nomos Metro Neomatik X Ace Jewelers are limited to 50 pieces per size, individually numbered, and are sold through Ace Jewelers. The smaller watch is priced at €3,400 and the larger one at €3,540. See more on the Ace Jewelers website.

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Doxa Teams Up With Exquisite Timepieces For A Gulf Of Mexico Sub 250T GMT Duo

It’s not even been a month since Doxa introduced the new Sub 250T GMT collection, their pretty cool take on a two time zone diver, available in nine variants. And here we are with two new limited editions of the watch. That was quick. These two are made in partnership with U.S. retailer Exquisite Timepieces, based in Naples, Florida and are called the ‘Gulfshore’ and ‘Afterglow’, taking inspiration from the Gulf of Mexico that Naples sits on.

On the outside, nothing new. The stainless steel case measures 40mm wide and a very perfect 10.85mm thick. But best of all, thanks to the rounded case shape, the L2L is just 42.9mm, making this a very wearable watch. On top is Doxa’s recognisable no-decompression bezel with a 60 minute scale and depth inscriptions in coraline orange and black. Water resistance is, as the name suggests, 250 meters.

The collaboration is all about the dials. The Gulfshore edition features a matte blue dial with contrasting white and coraline orange accents. This is a much lighter color than Doxa has with Caribbean blue, and I’ll say I like it more. The Afterglow has a metallic sunburst pink dial, with white and coraline orange accents. The hands are done in a metallic finish, even the skeletonized GMT hand that points to the 24-hour scale.

Inside, you’ll find the SW330-2 which beats at 4Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watches come on stainless steel beads of rice bracelet and a one-piece fabric strap.

The new Doxa Sub 250T GMT Gulfshore and Afterglow are limited to 50 pieces each and priced at $2,790. See more on the Exquisite Timepieces website.

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Carl Suchy & Söhne Goes Full Minimalist With The New Vienna Watch

Carl Suchy & Söhne comes from a city not known for it’s watchmaking - Vienna. While a beautiful city, neither it, nor Austria are particularly known as birthplaces of fantastic watches (except for, of course, the wonderful Habring2). And yet, Carl Suchy & Söhne has been doing exactly that for well over a hundred years. Joining their lineup of Austrian-named watches now is the Vienna, which keeps all the signature Carl Suchy & Söhne elements, but now with an even more minimalist approach.

The minimalism starts with the case. Made out of stainless steel, it measures 39mm thick and an exceptionally cool 7.9mm thick. Carl Suchy & Söhne lists the lug-to-lug as just 41.2mm. Sure, looking at the photos, the lugs are obviously super short, but the 41.2mm measurement just seems unreal. Almost like a mistake maybe? But if true, that’s spectacular. There are sapphire cases on top and bottom, the crown gets an engraving of the Carl Suchy & Söhne pattern and water resistance is an acceptable 30 meters.

The dial carries over a lot of the characteristics of the Waltz No.1 which is best known for its horizontal and vertical lines that cut into the dial and create a really unique pattern. On the Vienna, the lines are much thicker and bolder, now designed by renowned watch designer Eric Giroud. There are three options for the dial — an all cream-white or two colored versions which keep the cream white and fill in the cut-in lines with either blue or black. The hour scale has also been simplified with round markers coated with lume. The small seconds have been turned into just a running indicator at 6 o’clock that blends into the rest of the dial. The logo of the company lost its coat of arms and the brand’s date of founding, replaced by a super simple wordmark.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre 5401, produced in collaboration with Vaucher Fleurier Manufacture. It’s wound by a golden micro-rotor to get a 48 hour power reserve and finished with Côte-de-Vienne decoration. The watch comes on a black leather strap.

The new Carl Suchy & Söhne Vienna is available now and priced at €18,900. See more on the brand website.

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The Armoriale Répétition Minute Mystérieuse Celebrates Michel Parmigiani

What is the one thing that is a constant in watches? You can play with the case shapes, dials, ways of indicating time. You could go analogue or digital, automatic or quartz. But the one necessity is that you have an aperture of some sorts that will indicate the time. Or, maybe, you don’t. Parmigiani Fleurier just introduced the Armoriale Mysterious Repeater, a fascinating secret watch with a minute repeater and no traditional way of telling time at all. It’s also an homage to Michel Parmigiani, his decades long contribution to the watch industry and a celebration of his birthday.

The case of the watch is made out of 18k white gold, fully polished and measuring 41.6mm wide and 12.65mm thick. It has straight, angular lugs, with a slider for the minute repeater on the left case flank. The entire side of the case is fluted to emulate the profile of Doric columns. On the side is a 6.4mm crown with Grand Feu enamel decoration. You get 10 meters of water resistance, but come on…

On top, there is no crystal because there is no dial. Instead, you get a sensational light pink Grand Feu enamel cover executed by Vanessa Lecci with delicate hand-guilloché work done by Yann Von Kaenel and hand-engraved details by Eddy Jacquet. Underneath the cover are extra-long cathedral gongs that wrap almost twice around the movement, and they must make a spectacular sound. As they should be since the chimes for the hours, quarters and minutes is the only way to tell the time. Actually, no. That’s the only way to tell the time when the watch is on your hand. Take it off and flip it over, and you’ll see a beautiful white Guatemalan jade chapter ring with spherical dots and rose gold hands in the shape of the letters ‘H’ and ‘M’.

Inside the watch is the PF355, a manual winding calibre created by Renaud Papi. It has a 72-hour power reserve and it makes space for resonance chambers built into the case for an even deeper sound. The watch comes on a taupe hand-stitched alligator leather strap.

Only five Armorial Mysterious Repeaters will be produced, each one a unique piece, thanks to the invitation to personalise certain features of the watch. The price is on request. See more on the Parmigiani Fleurier website.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Watchmakers’ Raj — The Unknown History Of Watches In India

I’ve teamed up with the very fine folks over at Bangalore Watch Company to bring you a three-part series on Indian watchmaking, from the British occupation and the invention of the JLC Reverso, through homebrew mass production, the rise of the Mumbai special, all the way to the modern rise of Indian brands.

Today, I’m publishing part one, on the origins of Indian watchmaking and I’ve learned a lot writing it. Read it here.

⏲️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

• Earlier this month, New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Agency unveiled new maps for the city’s famously complex subway system—well, diagrams, technically, since they’re too abstracted to be considered maps. The new design marks the first major visual overhaul since 1979; ironically enough, it’s based on Massimo Vignelli’s predecessor, which riled straphangers almost immediately after its 1972 debut (but enthralled designers). For The New York Review, Zoe Guttenplan descends into the tunnels to trace the winding path of cartographic evolution.

• During the past century, “creativity” evolved from a mess of privately held notions to a cultural panacea. Beginning in the 1950s, some psychologists interviewed and tested prominent intellectuals, including the architect I.M. Pei and the writer Truman Capote, to better understand the creative individual. Others developed novel tests to quantify “divergent thinking”; in one, an individual was provided a common object, like a brick, and given a limited time in which to identify as many inventive uses for it as possible. So, how has creativity become the reigning value of our time.

• The 1980 execution of four American churchwomen was one of the most shocking human rights crimes of the twentieth century. No one has ever really gotten to the bottom of it—until now.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Conan O’Brien is deranged in the best possible way.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk