IWC Introduces Performance Chronographs 41 To Take On Daytona, Carrera And Speedmaster, TAG Celebrates Year Of The Dragon, Tissot Updates T-Touch And Squale Makes More Great New Divers

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. We don’t get brand new IWC models on a daily basis, so it’s a bit of a special day. It’s curious that it took them this long to create a true racing chronograph, but it’s even more curious that they’re keeping it under the Pilot’s line.

If you like this newsletter, you might consider supporting it directly through Patreon. If you were subscribed, you could have already read my lengthy piece on Only Watch and it potentially being the biggest scam of the watch world. Other subscriber-only articles include the Completely Sterile Secret Watches Of MACV-SOG and my choice of 11 vintage Heuer watches that would make the perfect basis for new TAG Heuer recreations, including a possible MoonSwatch type watch that could actually break the internet.

In this issue:

• IWC Introduces Two Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 To Take On The Daytona, Carrera And Speedmaster

• TAG Heuer Celebrates Chinese Year Of The Dragon With Two Limited Editions

• Tissot Updates The T-Touch Connect Sport, A Middle Ground Between Traditional And Smart Watches

• Squale Updates Their 1545 Diver And Introduces New T-183 Model, Now All In Forged Carbon

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 17 seconds

👂What’s new

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IWC Introduces Two Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 To Take On The Daytona, Carrera And Speedmaster

Since their first iterations in wristwatches, chronographs have been associated with aviation. They were used by pilots to make quick and easy calculations, often aided by the addition of various base tachymeter scales. Later, the complication became useful in space exploration and this is a tradition that Schaffhausen-based IWC embraced fully. Some of the best and most attractive chronographs are form the Pilot’s Watch family. However, what IWC seems to be lacking is that other type of chronograph, the chronograph that stems from automotive racing, chronographs like the Zenith Chronomaster Sport, the TAG Heuer Carrera, the Rolex Daytona. This is made even weirder with IWCs long involvement in Formula 1 and their partnership with Lewis Hamilton. They’re changing that now and introducing two versions of the new IWC Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41.

While it might seem a bit bizarre to have a racing-minded watch that’s part of the Pilot’s Watch collection, but IWC has been known to have a bit of confusion in their lineups. However, I won’t complain much as these things look very interesting. The two versions make up four references in total with the main differences between the four being case materials and strap options. The AMG variant comes in a grade 5 titanium case, while the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team edition comes in IWC’s Ceratanium.

Regardless of the material, both versions get the same sized case, basically built on the Pilot’s Chronograph 41. The cases measure 41.1mm wide, 14.8mm thick and have a lug-to-lug of 50mm. Both versions have a screw down crown, sapphire crystals on top and bottom and 100 meters of water resistance. The titanium version comes in a lighter shade of silver, while the Ceratanium, which is a special alloy made up of titanium and ceramic, has a dark grey matte finish.

What’s completely brand new and very much in step with motorsport chronographs is the new fixed, black and polished ceramic bezel with a tachymeter bezel to calculate average speeds, making it look like a completely new watch, despite being based on the Pilot’s Chronograph 41. The dial has a polished black lacquer base with raised and applied elements like the rings that frame the recessed snailed counters, black nickel and luminous applied numerals and glossy black hands. The usual pilot model simple minute/second track has been replaced with a much more precise scale. The dial also shows of another difference between the titanium and Ceratanium versions, as the latter gets green accents on the day-date and small-seconds hand, in line with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team connection.

Inside is IWC’s in-house calibre 69385. Horrible name, but it beats at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 46 hours. The 33-Jewel IWC Cal. 69385 movement consists of 242 components, and it uses a column wheel to control its chronograph complication. You’ll find this same movement inside the original Pilot’s Watch Chronograph model IWC produced for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team that initially debuted last year in 2022, along with the rest of the brand’s current-production Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 watches. The watches come on either a bracelet that matches the material of the case or a rubber strap.

Both versions of the IWC Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 are part of the permanent collection and aren’t limited. The titanium version is priced at €11,900 on the rubber strap and €14,200 on the bracelet, while the Ceratanium version is significantly more expensive at €14,900 on the strap and €22,400 on the bracelet. See more on the IWC website.

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TAG Heuer Celebrates Chinese Year Of The Dragon With Two Limited Editions

The dragon is an extremely important animal in Chinese culture. So important, in fact, that it is the only mythical creature of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac. The dragon represents good luck, strength, health and also the male element Yang. And the Year of the Dragon starts in Februrary 2024, marking the start of an important year in China. For years now TAG Heuer has been making special edition watches to celebrate the Lunar New Year. OK, so the tradition is not a really long one, it began in 2020, but every tradition has to start somewhere. First, there was the Autavia Year of the Rat in 2020, then the Carrera Automatic Year of the Tiger in 2022, and followed up with a 44mm Carrera Chronograph for Year of the Rabbit in 2023, all with great unique looks. Now TAG is introducing the new Carrera Chronograph Year of the Dragon in steel or rose gold.

This version of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph takes a lot of inspiration from the case of the 1960s original. It has the same polished surfaces and sharp bevels. The case measures 42mm wide, a chunky 14.33mm thick but a rather comfortable lug-to-lug of 48.6mm. Water resistance is a surprising 100 meters, which you don’t often see in dressier chronographs, especially those in gold.

Speaking of gold, like I said, there are two versions of the watch - a stainless steel and a 18k rose gold one. The stainless comes on an red alligator strap with a sunburst silver dial and red subdials. The gold follows the exact same colorways, but with the addition of a sunburst gold dial. Both versions have the character for dragon printed in a calligraphic style on the dial and an engraved dragon on the sapphire back.

inside the watch is the Heuer 02, introduced in 2016 as an in-house movement. It has column-wheel actuation, beats at 4Hz and has 80 hours of power reserve. The minute totalizer for chronograph sits at 3 o’clock while the hour one is at 9. Running seconds are at 6 o’clock with a small date display right below it.

Despite the Year of the Dragon starting in Februrary, TAG Heuer has already placed these watches on sale for a price of CHF 6,150 for the steel version and CHF 22,000 for the gold version. See more about the watches on the TAG Heuer website.

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Tissot Updates The T-Touch Connect Sport, A Middle Ground Between Traditional And Smart Watches

Smartwatches are often looked down upon by watch enthusiasts as something less. While they might not what we look for in watches, they are watches and they do have what hundreds of millions of people are looking for. And the market is pretty straightforward. Apple completely dominates with more than 30% of all smart watches being produced by them, followed by companies like Samsung, Garmin, Huawei and a whole bunch of others following, most with less than 10% of the market. What was always a bit puzzling was legacy watch brands trying to enter this market - neither did traditional watch buyers want to buy their smart watched, nor did smartwatch buyers want to pay legacy watch brands prices.

However, it looks like there is one brand that managed to marry the two - traditional watches and smart capabilities. Tissot has been making the T-Touch line since 1999 as a analogue-digital watches aimed at people who needed a watch to be active with. Now, they’re introducing the new T-Touch Connect Sport, a line that merges the looks and finishing of a proper watch with a very subtle display that tracks activity and offers some notifications.

The T-Touch Connect Sport has an almost regular analog appearance with a well-integrated pill shaped touch screen above 6 o’clock. The watches come in a 43.3mm wide titanium case that is 13.5mm thick and has 50 meters of water resistance. The two pushers are used in conjunction with the touch screen to access various functions. They come in six different color variations with four models having different ceramic bezel colors (blue, black, red, white, all with a matching strap) and two coming in PVD coated cases - black or gold - with a matching bezel.

Regardless of the colorway you chose, the dial will remain black as it hides a photovoltaic cell, allowing the watch to charge from sunlight. However, even in the dark, the watches will run for up to six months in connected mode. The watch runs the SwAlps operating system and it can track workouts like running, cycling or walking and can use the small screen to show you notifications for incoming calls, active timers, alarms, and reminders. Tissot rightfully points out that their smartwatch does not replace a phone but rather works in tandem, so you would be best advised to use the T-Touch Connect Sport to track all your activity, tell the time and show a few notifications, and then offload everything else to the phone.

The four versions with the colored bezels that come on matching rubber straps retail for CHF 945, while the two PVD versions sell for CHF 995. There’s also a titanium model with a black dial and black bezel on a titanium bracelet that retails for CHF 1,045. See more on the Tissot website.

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Squale Updates Their 1545 Diver And Introduces New T-183 Model, Now All In Forged Carbon

There is no shortage of cool diving watches out there. You can get pretty much everything you would like, from subtle recreations of 60s divers to hard-core military grade beasts that take over even the beefiest of wrists and introduce new tech to the genre. One of the brands that comfortably operates in this space is Squale, whose history dates even before 1959 when founder Charles Von Büren registers the “Squale” trademark to him making diving watches for other Swiss brands. Squale struggled during the quartz crisis, fading a bit but never truly going away. After the retirement of Charles von Büren, the Maggi family which distributed Squale watches in Italy and the former Italian distributors of von Büren watches partnered with one another and in 2005 relaunched the brand.

Since then they have been making outstanding and quite affordable diving watches that take on vintage inspiration from the old Squale watches, right along with the amazing shark logo, one of the best in the business, while also incorporating new materials. Their latest two releases reflect this sentiment perfectly - one is a couple of updates to the vintage-inspired 1545 diver and the other is a brand new line of fully carbon T-183 watches.

Starting off with the new 1545, it almost looks like a vintage skin diver, but it’s much more than that. It comes with 300 meters of water resistance, making it a very capable tool watch, but it’s design gives of more elegant vibes. Well, as elegant as a diver can get. It comes in a 40mm wide stainless steel case that’s 12mm thick and has a 48mm lug-to-lug. The case has a combination of brushed and polished surfaces and it’s modeled after the original Y1545 case from the 1970s. The same original inspires the dials. The update comes in the form of two new models, one with a bright blue and the other with a black dial. But the main difference from the regular lineup is the bezel. What previously came with a colored insert now comes as a full steel version with engraved and black colored scales.

Then there’s the T-183 in forged carbon that has been around for a couple of years. The carbon envelopes a cylindrical 316L internal steel case and the whole thing measures 42mm wide, 15.5mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 49mm. You also get 600 meters of water resistance. Differing from the previous versions of the watch is the addition of a fully carbon dial and the white painted numerals on the carbon bezel. The watch comes in three colorways if you want to call them that since the entire watch is all black with just splashes of color - blue, yellow and orange - on the shark logo and the minute hand.

All the newly introduced watches come with the same movement, the elaborè grade Sellita SW 200. The movement beats at 28,800 vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. The 1545 watches come on either a steel bracelet or a rubber tropic strap, while the T-183 comes on a rubberised strap with color matched edges.

These are all regular additions to the lineup and not limited. The T-183 is priced at CHF 1,569, while the 1545 is priced at CHF 790 with the bracelet and CHF 695 on the rubber strap. See more on the Squale website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands on with the Disney x Fossil Limited Edition Sketch Disney Mickey Mouse Watch

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A review of the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Summer Blue

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Arsène Lippens Visionario is a great looking vintage chronograph recreation with an unexpected movement

The polished stainless steel, 39.5mm case brings back vintage aesthetics while having more modern proportions. While the double-stepped bezel is inspired by the front grille of the 1941 Pontiac Streamliner, the shorter lugs span out to 45.5mm, helping with the wearability of this piece. The 20mm lug width makes it a suitable candidate to play around with straps, also helped by the fact that and they are drilled. It stays true to vintage form when it comes to water resistance though, limited to 30 metres only. As the Visionario is equipped with an automatic chronograph, the overall height is a not-insignificant 13.5mm, though it’s by no means excessive when put into perspective of some modern chronographs. Read the whole article on Time & Tide.

⏲️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

• As a great enthusiasts of actual conspiracy theories, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece on the secrets of the JFK assassination archive and how a journalist proved that the CIA lied about Oswald and Cuba and spent decades covering it up

• You might, for a second, believe deep down that this is a fiction story. Because it’s too crazy to be true. However, it’s not. It’s published by Truly Adventurous, a brilliant non-fiction online magazine, so it’s all an account of actual events. But you would be forgiven for having doubt, because it’s a story of three archeology thieves who swipe sacred American Indian artefacts and now believe they are being hunted down by spirits who want them back.

• Andrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His agency’s list of more than 1,300 clients includes Saul Bellow, Joseph Brodsky, Albert Camus, Bob Dylan, Louise Glück, Yasunari Kawabata, Czesław Miłosz, VS Naipaul, Kenzaburō Ōe, Orhan Pamuk, José Saramago and Mo Yan – and those are just the ones who have won the Nobel prize. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era and turned serious literature into big business. But is his reign coming to an end?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Just ahead of the Las Vegas F1 race which is quickly becoming the craziest produced event of the Grand Prix calendar, RM Sotheby’s will hold an auction for a Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK GTR Coupe and Roadster. These were incredible homologation cars built in 28 examples for the GT1 racing class. The pair of street going CLK GTRs is expected to fetch over $15 million. However, if you were to lift the winning paddle, consider the incredible embarrassment if you were to walk up to your new homologation cars and have no idea how to use the actual thing? Thankfully DK Engineering TV on YouTube has a very detailed video that will teach you in quick 20 minutes how to drive home.

💵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 

• NEW WATCH FOR SALE: 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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