King Seiko VANAC Is Back With Tokyo-Inspired Dials, Grand Seiko Adjacent Movement; MING Lets Their Imagination Loose With Concept 21; Squale Brings Back Funky 2001; Havid Nagan Makes A Masterpiece

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I was pretty sure that the Ming was going to be my favorite watch today because it really is incredible. But then that Havid Nagan crept up on me and I kind of fell in love. The off-white dial is even better, click through to their website to see that.

In this issue:

• King Seiko VANAC Is Back With An Integrated Bracelet, Tokyo-Inspired Dials, Grand Seiko Adjacent Movement

• The New MING 21.01 “Project 21” Is A Stunning Watch With A Tantalum Case And Vintage Piguet Movement

• Squale Brings Back The Funky 2001 Diver As A Permanent Collection

• LA-Based Indie Havid Nagan Releases Third Watch, The Classic One

👂What’s new

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King Seiko VANAC Is Back With An Integrated Bracelet, Tokyo-Inspired Dials, Grand Seiko Adjacent Movement

Seiko just released a bunch of new watches for 2025, and perhaps the most interesting thing they showed — perhaps the most interesting thing from Seiko in years — is the expansion of the King Seiko collection that they started working on bringing back last year. The new watches are the revival of the King Seiko VANAC, originally released in the early 1970s, produced for two years, and beloved even today for their great colors, fantastic dial textures, angular cases and faceted crystals. But before we give Seiko a round applause for the new watches, that name. While introducing the new watches, Seiko said they don’t exactly know what VANAC stood for originally, but today, they decided to turn the letters into an acronym. An acronym for what, you ask? VANAC stands for Vibrant, Active, Novel, Alternative, Comfortable. Yeah, it’s better you haven’t asked and Seiko should have stuck with having no idea what VANAC stands for.

But while the acronym is a bit silly, the five new watches are far from it. While the original releases were all sub 38mm, Seiko is moving this more towards a modern sporty watch with a retro design. That means that it’s quite wide at 41mm, but that shouldn’t be a problem for the vast majority of wrists, since the integrated bracelet gives a lug-to-lug measurement of just 45.1mm. Where the watch does stumble, however, is its thickness, which measures a surprising 14.3mm. Part of that is due to the movement they are using, part due to the box-style crystal that stands very proud of the case, with no bezel around it. I think people would have much less of an issue with the thickness had Seiko decided to bring back the amazing faceted crystals of the originals. But we don’t get those. You do get a screw down crown and 100 meters of water resistance.

OK, so there’s no faceted crystal, but at least the dials reflect the ethos of the 1970s, with color and finishing choices, as well as blocky indices and hands. There are three dials available as regular production and inspired by the Tokyo skyline — the SLA087 comes with a silver dial with gold accents and represents the city in daylight; the SLA083 has a purple dial with gold hands to represent the city at twilight; and the SLA085 gets a blue dial with silver accents and represents the city at midnight. There are also two limited editions — the SLA089 which represents sunrise in Tokyo with a spectacularly 70s brown dial; and the SLA091 which comes in white and blue to represent a clear blue sky in the city. All of the dials have thick horizontal bars defining the inner section, surrounded by a ring that holds the hour and minute tracks. The marker at 12 is V-shaped, just like the counter balance of the seconds hand.

Now, the insides. There, you’ll find the new cal. 8L45 which, for what I think might be the first time, combines a 4Hz beat rate and a 72 hour power reserve. The 8L line is based on Grand Seiko mechanical movements, but give you less decoration and lower accuracy (although it’s still decent at +10/-5 seconds per day), and the new 8L45 is the new top-of-the-line Seiko mechanical movement in its mid-tier watches. But it’s major downside is the thickness at 6mm, which is quite a lot. For example, the plane jane ETA 2824 measures 4.6mm thick. The watch comes on a new three-link bracelet, but changing them will be a pain. Not because they will be hard to take off, they have quick-release spring bars, but more because of the integrated nature of the bracelet with a 17mm lug width.

The new King Seiko VANAC collection will be available for purchase in July, with the SLA083, SLA085 and SLA087 being unlimited editions, the SLA089 being limited to 700 pieces and the SLA089 being a Seiko boutique exclusive. Price for all five is set at $3,300. See more on the Seiko website.

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The New MING 21.01 “Project 21” Is A Stunning Watch With A Tantalum Case And Vintage Piguet Movement

What a path MING watches have been down. From incredibly cool and unique watches that had a few deliverability hick-ups, to creating some of the most interesting watches we see today while also winning awards often reserved for much, much larger brands. Two years ago, MING founder Ming Thein was at a dinner for a group of collectors and was asked how would a watch designed entirely for himself would look like. His response was pretty bad-ass: fund it, and we’ll find out. And fund it they did, with just a price cap, and an estimated delivery date and no other details. 10 collectors put their money into this idea and MING 21.01 “Project 21” was born. It is Thein’s perfect watch, one that has so many interesting facts about it, I’m not sure they will fit in this newsletter.

Ming started out with an idea for the movement, but to house it, he would need an appropriately sized case. That meant that it would need to be much smaller than even their smallest case option at 38mm. So, while keeping the iconic MING look of flared lugs and a fully round case, Project 21 measures just 35mm wide and 6.9mm thick. However, to keep its presence on the wrist, Thein wanted to make it as heavy as possible. That’s why it’s made out of tantalum, an increasingly more popular metal in high-end watches that’s also notoriously difficult to machine. That’s why the monobloc case was made by Joshua Shapiro, watchmaker and “machining savant” based in Los Angeles, and it’s made even more impressive with polished, circular brushed and sandblasted finishes. You get flat sapphire crystals on top and bottom, as well as 50 meters of water resistance.

Despite being well known for their use of lume, there is non on the Project 21. but what you do get is really something. The dial is made up of two layers. The bottom one is a CVD-coated brass plate that’s just 400 microns thick that’s engraved with a sunburst pattern. Over that, there’s a repetition of the pattern, only now constrained within a fused borosilicate layer made by FEMTOprint. The indices are engraved onto the crystal and the skeletonized hands have polished and angled flanks. There are two versions of the dial — the one you see above, with the gold tone, that some of you will be able to buy, and a blue CVC dial, which was made exclusively for the 10 backers.

Now, we get to the movement, the reason for the small size and consequently the use of tantalum. Thein wanted to use the Frederic Piguet Calibre 21, a movement created in 1925 and used famously by Patek, AP, VC, JLC, IWC, Blancpain, Cartier and others. It’s also one of the thinnest movements ever made at 1.75mm thick, which allows the watch to be sub 7mm thick and still have a dual-layer dial. MING sourced old movements and had them modified and reworked by Mathis Horlogerie and TitAl SA. And there’s been a lot of modification. You still get 38 hours of power reserve and a 3Hz beat rate, but the look is completely different. The movement has been coated in 5N gold, it features a skeletonized titanium train bridge with jewels in chatons, and sandblasted surfaces with polished anglage. The watch comes on a brown calf leather strap by Jean Rousseau Paris closed with a flying blade brushed titanium tuck buckle. But check this out — a matching tantalum bracelet by J.N Shapiro is available upon request.

Only 15 pieces of the MING 21.01 “Project 21” will be available to the public, in addition to the 10 that have already been delivered to the backers, and the price is set at CHF 32,500. A lot of money, sure, but it seems reasonable for such a watch. See more on the MING website.

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Squale Brings Back The Funky 2001 Diver As A Permanent Collection

While they aren’t a mainstream household name, Squale has been making pretty cool dive watches for some time. In fact, they just celebrated their 65th birthday last year. But in fact, the brands 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. Last year, as part of the celebration of the 65th anniversary, they recreated one of their coolest watches, the 1960s barrel-shaped Squale 2001. That was a limited edition, but it was obviously very well received. Because the watch is back now as a new collection for Squale.

Just like the limited edition, this is a quite faithful recreation of the original from the 1960s. That means it still keeps the steel case that measures 40mm wide, 13 thick and a pretty fantastic lug-to-lug of 43.6mm, thanks to the barrel shape. On top is a bezel with a really nice function. It has a cool push-to-release system which only unlocks the bezel for turning with perpendicular pressure. Unfortunately, the insert in the bezel is no longer made out of bakelite, but we get the second best option — a single-color sapphire glass insert. The crown is set into the case, and water resistance is impressively high (deep?) at 600 meters.

At launch, the collection will have three colorways. A matte orange dial is paired with a black bezel. The same bezel is paired with a sunray-brushed dark blue dial. And last, there’s the matte black dial which gets a beige-colored fully lumed bezel. Despite the color differences, all three get the same dial setup, with a white minute track surrounding the dial, applied metal and lume hour indices and lumed hands. On the blue and lumed bezel versions, the minute hand comes in bright orange.

Inside, no surprises, as you’ll find the tried and true Sellita SW200 movement. It’s easy to service and robust. It also beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watches come on the always cool ladder-style stainless steel bracelet, just like the originals did, only this one has a modern folding clasp.

The new Squale 2001 collection is available now, priced at €1,770. See more on the Squale website.

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LA-Based Indie Havid Nagan Releases Third Watch, The Classic One

We are definitely living in the golden age of independent watch brands. The democratisation of access to production methods and complex movements have made it so that pretty much anyone with an idea and a a couple of thousand dollars can launch a successful watch brand. This, unfortunately, leads to many, many watches looking very much alike, with the same movements and ideas behind it. Then there are people like Aren Bazerkanian who runs Havid Nagan, whose first model the HN00 was very much different than everything else. Then, for his second, the HN01 Lucine, he did the same — a different take on the moonphase. Now, we’re getting their third watch, the Havid Nagan Classic One. And as the name suggests, this is their most classic watch to date. But with some pretty cool stuff, still.

The Classic One moves away from the cushion-shaped case of the HN00 series, replacing it with a more rounded case. And the size is so close to perfection. It measures 38mm wide, 9mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 47mm. It’s also a super complex case, made out of 29 parts, which give you an interplay of brushed and polished surfaces. While cool, especially those sculpted lugs, I’m sure that a little less complexity could have upped the water resistance from the existing 30 meters.

Then, there’s the dial. There’s not much more to say about it, other than it’s gorgeous. It was developed for Havid Nagan by the Swiss company Cadranor and features multiple layers. The bottom part is made out of brass with a clous de Paris tronqué guilloché pattern. Above that, you’ll find the finely grained brass disc with a galvanized coating that’s made smaller than the bottom dial in order to show off the bottom piece. That layer also holds the applied diamond-cut hour markers. Above that further is a transparent sapphire disc with the minutes track. You also get a small seconds counter at 6 and gorgeous faceted Alpha hands. There are two options for color: ebony, with a black central area, ivory bottom layer and silver logo; or ivory with an off-white central section, a varnished ruthenium underlying textured area and orange accents.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre AMT6600, which was developed for Havid Nagan by AMT manufacture, the high-end division of Sellita. Interestingly, AMT uses the gear train calculation, assortment and kinetic chain of a Valjoux 7750, despite this not being a chronograph. The movement is then modified with a new ratchet wheel and crown wheel and a click spring on the ratchet. The movement beats at 4Hz, has a 63 hour power reserve and is a COSC-certified chronometer. It’s also incredible to look at, with partially skeletonized bridges, finished with minor anglage and a brushed decoration before being ruthenium-coated. The ratchet wheel and crown wheel feature solarization, the screw heads have been polished, and the main bridge features a recessed, grained section with a gold-toned treatment. The mainplate has also been galvanized in 5N gold. The watch can be had on a selection of Jean-Rousseau Paris straps.

The new Havid Nagan Classic One is available now and priced at a pretty fair $9,000. See more on the Havid Nagan 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

• In this personal essay for The Bitter Southerner, Rebecca Burns writes about ophidiophobia, an extreme phobia of snakes that causes anxiety. Burns reflects on this lifelong fear, one that is rooted in her childhood experiences in India and has persisted into adulthood, dictating where she walks and what she does, even within her own Georgia home.

• Jaewon Kang and Devin Leonard’s story for Bloomberg Businessweek paints an interesting picture of Walmart and its CEO, Doug McMillon, who has led the company over the past decade through political and economic shifts, upgraded its stores and attracted higher-income customers, and transformed it into a leading ecommerce business (watch out, Amazon). Walmart is thriving, but can it continue growing as it faces new challenges, including Trump-imposed tariffs and an unpredictable consumer landscape?

• Following a vacation, Ronald W. Dworkin returns to work as an anaesthesiologist, carrying within him a feeling of uncertainty he had previously held off. For Aeon, Dworkin sketches a history of professional intuition, from the cultural attitudes that shape our conceptions to individual efforts to regain that inner harmony. He also brings us into the operating room, where an unlikely succession of complications—touched off by chewing gum, of all things—briefly bewilders him, a harrowing moment whose resolution remains enigmatic to the author.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Restomods are cool. No, really, every single one of these cars is absolutely incredible.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk