IWC's Big Pilot’s Shock Absorber XPL Is A Wild Looking F1 Inspired Watch; Nodus Updates Their Dive GMT With Sector II Format; ALTO Continues Developing The ART 01; Three New Louis Vuitton Tambours

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Like I said, this is a slow week for watches, so things aren’t looking good for tomorrow. We’re likely skipping a day, see you all on Thursday.

In this issue:

• IWC And Mercedes F1 Team Leader Toto Wolff team Up For A New Big Pilot’s Shock Absorber XPL

• Nodus Updates Their Dive GMT With The Newly Introduced Sector II Format

• French Indie ALTO Continues Developing The Avant Garde ART 01 With Monochrome Editions

• Louis Vuitton Updates The Tambour With A Very Cool Brown Ceramic Version And Two With Precious Stones

👂What’s new

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IWC And Mercedes F1 Team Leader Toto Wolff team Up For A New Big Pilot’s Shock Absorber XPL

The overwhelming majority of IWC watches are, to be polite, quite conservative. A lot of their catalogue are fairly conventional pieces that will tell the time with very little design flourishes and good color choices. They do, however, let down their hair from time to time and let loose. They smashed it out of the park last year with the GPGH-winning Portugieser Eternal Calendar which is accurate to 4,000 years on the calendar and 45 million years on the moonphase. But even that, while a technical marvel, had a conservative look. Then, there’s the Shock Absorber XPL, introduced in 2021 by the brand’s Experimental Engineering Team developed exclusively to withstand extreme shocks. Like 30,000G worth of shock. And to do that, it has a wild construction. Now, we’re getting a new version of the watch, once designed in partnership with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team principal Toto Wolff. This is the quite horribly named IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber XPL Toto Wolff x Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team.

So, very little has changed on the outside and with the construction of the watch. It still comes in fully round case made out of Ceratanium, which is a mix of titanium and ceramic. It measures 44mm wide and 12.6mm thick, although I’m not sure whether the 44mm width includes the two huge bumps on the side that are there to protect the case. On top is a domed sapphire crystal that extends all the way to the very edge of the case. On the right side is a huge diamond-shaped crown with very deep and dramatic grooves cut into it. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Moving onto the dial, you get to see the weirdness of the watch. A central module that holds the dial and the movement is suspended in space in a shock-absorbing device that IWC calls SPRIN-g PROTECT. It uses a mathematically calculated BMG (bulk metallic glass) spring, which has an amorphous microstructure making it significantly more elastic than conventional crystalline metals. While the previous version featured this construction in black and gold, this version comes in the Petronas colors of black and teal. Also new for this version is the rough grained textured base of the dial, which also features a sloping chapter ring with a minutes scale. The hands are a sort of very modern version of sword-style hands, openworked and painted with lume on the top part.

Inside is a rather regular movement, which makes sense since all the tech has been implemented in the shock protection system. It’s the IWC manufacture calibre 32101 which beats at 4Hz and has a 120 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a Petronas teal rubber strap and an additional black rubber strap with textile inlays.

The horribly named IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber XPL Toto Wolff x Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team is limited to 100 pieces and priced at €102,000. See more on the IWC website.

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Nodus Updates Their Dive GMT With The Newly Introduced Sector II Format

The Los Angeles-based Nodus watches has been around a bit over seven years and in that time they have managed to build up quite the cult following. And it’s easy to see why. They make great looking watches, well built and with some very cool features, at prices that are truly affordable. And among their many loved watches is the Sector line. Based on a similar overall package, Nodus has made a great diver in the Sector Deep, a slightly different pilot’s watch in the Sector Pilot, a sports watch with the Sector Sport and a cool GMT with the, you guessed it, the Sector GMT. In December of last year, they introduced the Sector II Pilot, the first watch in the updated Sector collection. Now it’s time for a second Sector II Watch, the Sector II Dive GMT, a modern reimagination of the classic dive watch.

The size of the new Sector II Dive GMT seems to be very appealing. The steel case measures 38mm wide, 11.9mm thick, with a 47mm lug-to-lug. This is one of the thinnest cases to house the Seiko NH movement. On top is a new box-shaped crystal which allows them to move the crystal much closer to the dial, slimming down the watch. It also has a very familiar, but heavily updated bezel. It’s oversized to the case, measuring 40mm wide to be easier to grip. It also has a new 120-click uni-directional piston system. And like the Sector II Pilot, you can get either a bare steel version or one with a black DLC coat. The case shape and bracelet endlinks have also been re-designed for a better fit. Water resistance is 100 meters.

There are three dial options, but all of them have the same basics. The Sector collection is, of course, inspired by sector-dial watches, and this release is no different. On the periphery is a chapter ring that holds the 24 hour power reserve. The sectors are slightly stepped, with the center being the deepest. The markers are painted with lume, as are the hands, and the second time zone is indicated with bold, skeletonized and contrast-colored arrow hands. All three dials also have a small, unobtrusive and color-matched dates at 4:30 o’clock, making it the best implementation in this unpopular position. As for the differences between the three dials, it all boils down to color. We have Seafoam, which is a really nice subtle gradient of a pastel teal; Tidal which is a deep blue gradient; and Horizon which is a gradient that shifts from yellow in the centre to orange on the edges.

Inside is the automatic Seiko NH34 which beats at 21,600vph and has a 41 hour power reserve, equipped with a caller-style GMT movement, which means that you independently adjust the GMT hand. Usually, the NH34 is not the most accurate thing in the world with a rating of -20/+40 seconds per day. However, Nodus regulates the watch to ±10 second per day. All three watches come on three-link bracelets that are, of course, paired with the NodeX clasp which allows for one-button adjustment.

Orders for the Nodus Sector II Dive GMT open on Friday, February 21, 2025, priced at $525 for the brushed stainless steel bezel and $550 for the DLC bezel. See more on the Nodus website.

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French Indie ALTO Continues Developing The Avant Garde ART 01 With Monochrome Editions

Last year was a huge year for brutalism-inspired watches. Everyone from small indie brands like Toledano & Chan to Audemars Piguet came out with avant-garde shaped watches that took on the tenants of 20th century art forms and transformed it into something quite unique. One of these watches was created by the newly formed Paris-based ALTO and it’s called the ART 01. According to the founder, Thibaud Guittard who worked for Audemars Piquet, the watch is inspired by avant-garde 1970s design, including wedge cars and architecture of the name. It was also very limited to 25 pieces. However, now, a year later, they are back with a new Creative Director, Raphaël Abeillon, and two new versions, the ART 01 Monochrome Editions.

Alto doesn’t really like talking about the dimensions of their case, and I couldn’t really get any reliable info from other sources either. What we do know is that the case is made out of grade 5 titanium and measures 41mm wide. The Monochrome Editions get two case options — either an untreated muted silver or a black DLC coated. On top of the dial is a truly impressive sapphire crystal which combines curved and faceted outer surfaces and a hemispherical inner surface, covering both the top of the watch and the two sides. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Then, there’s the dial. It’s made out of bead-blasted brass plates, each smaller the one underneath it, creating a mesmerizing and dramatic hexagonal pattern. With the two versions, you also get two dial colors — either a silver or black. The hour and minute hands are also color matched to the dial, which could make visibility an issue, if it weren’t for the bright white strips of lume in them. Oh, and if the shape of the watch wasn’t interesting enough, how about this — the hour and minute hands run clockwise, but the seconds hand runs counter clockwise. I’m not sure there’s a particularly valid reason for that, other than it’s pretty cool.

Inside is a micro-rotor movement created by Le Cercle des Horlogers on the same base architecture they use to make movements for Trilobe and Speake Marin. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 48 hour power reserve. It’s decorated, but not in an ornate way you might expect. Instead, the movement is matte black or silver with thin geometric bridges. The watches come on color matched rubber straps.

The new ALTO ART 01 Monochrome Editions is also a limited edition, with only 20 pieces of each color being made. I’m sure you are thinking that the price could be all over the place, and it’s not where you would like it to be. It’s set at €25,500, tax included. See more on the ALTO website.

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Louis Vuitton Updates The Tambour With A Very Cool Brown Ceramic Version And Two With Precious Stones

The Tambour is super important for Louis Vuitton as it is one of the lines that has been establishing the brand as real watchmaker in a world in which people look down on “fashion brands” making watches. LV has equipped the Tambour with not just some of the nicest movements produced by La Fabrique du Temps, but also with impeccable finishing that justifies (at least some of) the price they are sold at. Now, they’re releasing a trio that shows of more of what LV and La Fabrique du Temps can do, with a ceramic case, precious metals, gems and hand finishings.

Starting off with the Louis Vuitton Tambour Ceramic, it comes in a really beautiful brown ceramic case with an internal structure that’s made out of 18K pink gold. The case measures 40mm wide and 8.3mm thick, with a really cool combination of brushed, polished and sandblasted surfaces, a lot of which is done by hand. On top is a sapphire crystal and the crown is also made out of brown ceramic. Water resistance is 50 meters. The dial continues the brown theme with a stepped sector dial whose dividers, hands numerals are rendered in 18K pink gold. The outer two sectors are lacquered brown, while the central one seems to be brushed ceramic as well. Inside is the in-house LFT023.01, wound by a 22K gold micro-rotor, and offering a 50 hour power reserve with an accuracy of +6/-4 seconds per day. The watch comes on a brown ceramic flat link bracelet that’s been engineered to be adjusted from the bottom, and not the side to avoid ugly holes in the ceramic. The new Louis Vuitton Tambour Ceramic is limited in production but not number and it’s priced at a pretty eye watering €75,000.

But things only get more expensive with the Tambour Yellow Gold Onyx. It comes in the same shaped case, with the exact same dimensions and water resistance, only now it’s made out of full 18k yellow gold with the same flat-link gold bracelet. The bezel of the watch is set with 48 saffron-colored sapphires that are chosen for their color that is supposed to resemble a a “Vuittonite” travel trunk from 1911. The dial has the same sector layout, only now the base is a beautiful onyx stone, set with another 11 sapphires in the same color as the ones on the bezel. All of the hardware is 18K yellow gold, giving it a really beautiful look. Inside is the same LFT023.01 micro-rotor automatic. Only 30 pieces of this watch will be made and price is set at €130,000.

And last, we’re at the Tambour Platinum Rainbow. Same case, only made out of a beautiful platinum, with the bezel once again set on the outside with an assortment of 48 rubies and sapphires from Sri Lanka and Mozambique, assembled to create a rainbow gradient with greens, blues, violets, pinks, oranges and yellows. The opaline dial features an additional 11 of the rubies and sapphires and 18K white gold hardware. Louis Vuitton is also starting a new tradition. The display case back contains an inset 1.6mm saffron sapphire that touches your skin while wearing it. Again, inside is the LFT023.01, and the watch comes on a platinum braceletthat has the same construction method. Limited to 50 pieces, this watch is priced at €150,000. You can check out the Louis Vuitton website for more, but they are notoriously slow with uploading their new releases, so stick around for a while.

⏲️Wait a minute

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👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

There are very few things that I would really, really like to do. One such thing is flying in an U-2 plane. I’ve been obsessed with that thing for decades. And this video will show you why.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk