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  • New Seiko Prospex Trio Of PADI Divers Expands Conservation Collection, TAG Updates Carrera 44 With New Green And A Weird Rubber Band, Ulysse Nardin Marks The Ocean Race Jubilee, Minase Shows Off Exquisite Handmade Dials

New Seiko Prospex Trio Of PADI Divers Expands Conservation Collection, TAG Updates Carrera 44 With New Green And A Weird Rubber Band, Ulysse Nardin Marks The Ocean Race Jubilee, Minase Shows Off Exquisite Handmade Dials

On a slow day I guess all we can do is daydream about taking those PADI divers for an actual dive

Author

Vuk Radic
May 22, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 16 minutes

Hey friends, it’s a slow day in the watch world, but It’s About Time always has you covered. Let’s get started.

In this issue:

  • New Seiko PADI watches are very cool

  • TAG Updates The Carrera 44 With New Green And A Rubber Band

  • Ulysse Nardin Marks The Ocean Race Jubilee

  • The Minase 7 Windows Urushi Hakose Masterpieces Show Off The Exquisite Handmade Dials By Junichi Hakose

  • And… invite your friends to win a Seiko Alpinist

Today’s reading time: 6 minutes and 9 seconds

Everybody needs a green faced watch in their life. That’s why we have a new giveaway - it’s the Seiko SPB121J1, aka the Seiko Alpinist in a wonderful shade of green. In fact, we’re giving away two of them!
All you have to do is click the button below and have five of your friends subscribe. Both you and one of your friends will be eligible to win one of the watches
We only have two conditions when entering this giveaway - invite 5 of your friends to subscribe and live somewhere were you can buy the Alpinist, so we can get this for you and ship it to your address. That’s it!

👂What’s new

1/ 

Seiko is the quintessential dive watch, so it makes perfect sense that they have teamed up with PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, to create an collection of watches. Seiko enthusiasts know this is nothing new, as they have been working with PADI for some years now, not only to create watches, but also to use the Save the Ocean collections to contribute to global ocean conservation projects. Proceeds from the PADI collaboration watches go towards the PADI Ocean Cleanup Campaign.

For 2023, Seiko’s range of PADI watches is expanding with the new Prospex ‘Great Blue’ Scuba PADI Divers collection. The concept is quite simple. Seiko took the Turtle, Sumo and Samurai and gave them all new deep sea themed dials, along with adding Suba to their model name. Apart from the dial, the rest remains the same, meaning that the Turtle has a 45mm case with smooth, curved edges, while the Sumo is 45mm with a facetted, round shape and the Samurai has a 43.8mm, sword-sharp, angular case.

What’s new is that dial. Each of them is a vertical gradient from dark blue to light, creating the impression of oceanic depth. But you know Seiko wouldn’t stop just at that. They are, after all, the kings of dials. To show this off, the top half of the PADI dials gets an asymmetrical wave patter. The brands says this is supposed to imitate the view of scuba divers looking up at the surface of the water with the sun beating down. Corny, but it looks fantastic. The wave pattern is identical on all three watches but slight deviations in colour make them each look unique.

I’m having some trouble getting details on availability. I can’t find them on the US site, but they are available for sale right now in Europe. The ‘Great Blue’ Samurai Scuba will set you back EUR 630, the Great Blue Turtle Scuba is EUR 655 and the Great Blue Sumo Scuba is EUR 1250.

2/

The Carrera Chronograph 44mm was introduced in 2020, so it’s not really reasonable to expect a completely new model any time soon. But TAG is keeping it alive with refreshes. It gets a new green ceramic bezel and a completely new green rubber strap which will surely be a bit controversial.

That said, the green isn’t new to the Carrera Chronograph 44m. When it launched in 2020, it was available in green, but unlike to the blue and black versions which had ceramic bezels, the green came with a brushed steel bezel. So, here’s the update that rectifies that. There’s also a slight change to the tone of the green used and it’s a bit cooler of a green.

The case remains the same - steel, 44mm wide, 15mm thick. It’s still 100m water resistant and has sapphire crystals on both sides. Inside is the in-house, automatic calibre Heuer 02, a column-wheel chronograph with 4Hz frequency and 80h power reserve.

Another update is the bracelet. Yes, you can still get it on the traditional 3-link steel bracelet, but also a new rubber strap. And it’s unlike any other rubber strap - it’s made to mimic the look of a steel bracelet. But in rubber. It does come with a folding clasp with micro-adjustments, but still… I’m not really sold on those looks.

The new green Carrera 44mm will cost you EUR 6,200 on rubber strap, and EUR 6,400 on steel bracelet.

3/

Ulysse Nardin has a long connection with the sea. Over the years it has supplied more than 50 navies and merchant marine companies with precision marine deck chronometers and today it’s the official timing partner of the Ocean Race (up until a few years ago it was known as the Volvo Ocean Race, for those who owned these supremely cool special edition Volvo cars), the longest and toughest round-the-world team sailing race.

The race has been running since 1973 and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Ocean Race, Ulysse Nardin unveiled a 100-piece edition of its Ocean Race Diver Chronograph. I’m not one to judge here, but wouldn’t a 50-piece limited edition be more appropriate for a 50th anniversary?

Regardless, the new Chronograph is part of the Ulysse Nardain contemporary Diver family with a black, white and light blue colour scheme. It’s designed to look like the lightweight carbon hulls of the racing yachts competing in The Ocean Race, but it’s actually made out of titanium with a unidirectional bezel in a material the brand calls Carbonium, producing the signature marbled mottled effect associated with carbon. As Ulysse Nardain explains, the material used in the bezel is made from upcycled fibres from aeroplane fuselage offcuts that have a 40% lower impact on the environment than other carbon composites.

The case is sandblasted and satin-finished in black DLC and has two pushers, one with a light blue ring to start the chronograph, on either side of the large screw-down crown which helps with the 300m water resistance. The white numerals and markers on the concave bezel are raised, and the 0 is treated with Super-LumiNova. The black dial is also sandblasted and has three recessed sub-dials.

Inside is Ulysse Nardin’s in-house, automatic, integrated, column-wheel chronograph movement with a 48-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black rubber strap with pin buckle features a black ceramic element at 6 o’clock engraved with The Ocean Race logo.

Retail price is EUR 16,000.

4/

Japanese watches are well built, put so much attention on striving for mechanical perfection and often provide you with great value for money. They also create some of the most amazing dials in the watch game. Minase is a Japanese brand, albeit one you might not be necessarily familiar with, that is on the very top of creating fantastic handmade dials. The Minase 7 Windows is just such a watch - a rectangular piece with seven sapphire glass windows that gives you a perfect view of the handmade dials inside.

Now Minase introduces four new 7 Windows models in steel or rose gold as part of its Masterpiece collection, with exquisite dials representing the four seasons handmade by master lacquer artist Junichi Hakose.

Introduced in 2021, the 7 Windows collection is characterised by its complex, geometric case structure with seven bevelled sapphire crystals, five placed on the case flanks. It’s a sort of rectangle – measuring 38mm x 47mm, with a thickness of 13mm. Minase also uses the distortion-free Sallaz polishing technique called ‘Zaratsu’ at Grand Seiko.

Inspired by the four seasons and the flora and elements associated with each one, Junichi Hakose, one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed artists, starts by applying a layer of urushi lacquer to the dial, which is heated to prevent rusting and discoloration. Repeating the procedure three times, the urushi is then decorated with a combination of miniature painting and the sprinkling of metal powder (maki-e) and flat flakes of gold (hirame).

Hakose relies on a variety of ancestral decorative patterns to create the dials: an Ichimatsu pattern, for example, is formed by different coloured squares and was originally used in textile art, while komon refers to a miniature pattern made up of countless fine dots, often seen on Japanese kimonos. The Four Seasons dial depicts the four seasons using an Ichimatsu pattern; the Komon dial is decorated with three tiny floral patterns; the Yoshino Sakura dial features cherry blossoms of different colours and sizes using five kinds of gold, silver and metal powders; and the fourth dial, known as the Yama Sakura depicts a close-up of a cherry blossom.

Each Minase 7 Windows Hakose Masterpiece is an original work of miniature art. It comes with its certificate of authenticity inside a handmade wooden box and is wrapped in a furoshiki, a traditional Japanese folding and knotting technique for packing gifts. Presented on a hand-stitched calfskin leather strap, customers can choose from 18k rose gold or stainless steel Windows cases to house the work of art.

Here come’s the slightly bizarre thing. After putting so much effort into the case and dial, inside you’ll find the Swiss ETA 2892-A2 decorated with perlage, diamond-polished bevels and a bespoke openworked rotor with apertures that resemble the brand’s drill head logo. Beating at 28,800vph, the power reserve is of 50 hours.

The steel Minase 7 Windows Urushi Hakose Masterpieces retails for EUR 16,500, and the rose gold for EUR 32,950. This is an outrageous price for an ETA powered watch. But this is not just an ETA powered watch. It’s a work of miniature urushi lacquer art that just happens to come in the form of a watch.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The story of the Synchron Military Poseidon goes that Poseidon Diving Systems was asked by the Swedes to provide a tough mechanical dive watch. So, like the Tudor Pelagos FXD with its connection to an elite Marine Nationale diving unit, the Poseidon is a watch that also has military credentials. The Swedish Armed Forces used the watch for a COLDDIVEX exercise in Boden, Sweden. The exercise involved testing dive equipment in subarctic conditions, including temperatures of -30° Celsius. This explains the cool Poseidon logo on the watch’s dial. However, the civilian version is supposed to have some minor differences from the actual watches provided to the Swedes.

⏲️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

  • I went to university in the US, which will be a big culture shock for anyone coming from Europe. One of the things I remember vividly is the fact that you could turn on the TV at any time of day or night and there would be great programming. We would fall asleep in our dorm room watching Adult Swim and after midnight the only commercial they ran was for Girls Gone Wild, a softcore porn series with college girls that sold millions of tapes. Huffington Post has the whole story on how this empire fell apart and it’s super interesting.

  • Speaking of college, you all remember the huge scandal when a bunch of rich people paid consultants to make up stories that their kids were captains of the debate team or on the rowing team in order to get them into prestigious schools. Now, there’s a new scam - parents paying to make their teens “peer-reviewed” authors. You can’t make these things up.

  • Below you’ll find the trailer for the Killers of the Flower Moon. If you don’t know anything about the Osage murders or know something about it and want to know more, check out this excerpt from Grann’s book.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I have never posted a trailer here, so this is a first. But it’s a first for several reasons. This is the trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon, the new Martin Scorsese move. Reason number one - it’s based on the book by David Grann that details the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI which is a great read. Reason number two - after years of underwhelming movies at the Oscars, with very few notable exceptions, this looks like it’s going to sweep it all up.

💵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 

Want to sell your watch to a community of passionate horologists? Reach out to us and we’ll put your ad up. $15 per listing without photos, $25 with photos. 10 available slots per day, discounts for multiple slots.

Everybody needs a green faced watch in their life. That’s why we have a new giveaway - it’s the Seiko SPB121J1, aka the Seiko Alpinist in a wonderful shade of green. In fact, we’re giving away two of them!
All you have to do is click the button below and have five of your friends subscribe. Both you and one of your friends will be eligible to win one of the watches
We only have two conditions when entering this giveaway - invite 5 of your friends to subscribe and live somewhere were you can buy the Alpinist, so we can get this for you and ship it to your address. That’s it!

Reply

or to participate.