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- Nomos Celebrates 175 Years Of Watchmaking In Glashütte With Three New Watches, The Lebond Siza Is A Bold And Silly Debut, Vulcain Releases Limited Cricket And The Raketa Avant-Garde “The Horophile” Is A Soviet Art Throwback
Nomos Celebrates 175 Years Of Watchmaking In Glashütte With Three New Watches, The Lebond Siza Is A Bold And Silly Debut, Vulcain Releases Limited Cricket And The Raketa Avant-Garde “The Horophile” Is A Soviet Art Throwback
Sometimes we applaud experimentations in watch design. Sometimes we get the Lebond Siza - worthy of applause, but...
Vuk Radic
May 18, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
Hey friends, kind of a slow watch news day, but It’s About Time has your back with all the new releases! Let’s get it on:
In this issue:
Nomos Celebrates 175 Years Of Watchmaking In Glashütte With Three New Watches
The Lebond Siza Is A Bold And Silly Debut
Vulcain Teams Up With Revolution And The Rake For A Limited Cricket
The Raketa Avant-Garde “The Horophile” Is A Soviet Art Throwback
And… invite your friends to win a Seiko Alpinist
Today’s reading time: 5 minutes and 6 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
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If I say Nomos, there’s very little chance you will think of anything else other than minimalist elegant timepieces, the most famous of which would be the Tangente. But there’s another minimalist watch from Nomos that goes under the radar a bit - the Orion. And this is the model that the brand has chosen as part of the collection that celebrates 175 years of Watchmaking in Glashütte, the small town that is home to the best German watchmakers, including Nomos.
The whole idea behind this commemorative collection was to gather all the watchmakers in Glashütte and have them show of their fine watchmaking abilities, making all of these special edition somewhat higher end version of the watches the brands make usually.
This Nomos Orion “175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte” collection comprises three watches, all based on existing models, in three different sizes but all powered by the same base movement made in-house - 36mm and 38.5mm diameters without date or 40.5mm with date. They all look pretty much exacltly the same, apart from the size.
The case is typical of the Orion collection, with a dial opening as wide as possible, with almost no bezel, a smooth polished finish, curved case flanks and elongated, tapered lugs that follow the shape of the case. While we love to say watches wear smaller on the wrist, but this is not the case with the Orion, as the lug to lug measurements are quite large - 45mm for the 36mm model, 47.5mm for the 38.5mm model and 50.5mm for the 40.5mm model. All are pretty thin, though, with heights ranging from 8.5mm to 9.4mm.
The main difference for the 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte limited editions comes from the dials. They are domed, electroplated with silver and with faceted golden indices and steel-blued hands. All models have a small seconds at 6 o’clock, a simplified minute track and blued hands. The watches are worn on black, smooth leather straps. All three versions have a calibre named the Neomatik, the brand’s vision of a thin and efficient automatic movement. The smaller watches have calibre DUW 3001, while the larger date model has calibre DUW 6101.
Now available, the three Nomos Orion “175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte” are each limited to 175 pieces. Prices are EUR 3,040 for the Orion neomatik 36, EUR 3,180 for the Orion neomatik 39 and EUR 3,500 for the Orion neomatik 41 date.
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Whenever a brand is brave enough to try something new, to experiment with materials, shapes or colors I believe that they deserve a standing ovation. Even if the experiment fails, it’s nice to see something different. What you don’t see every day is a new watch brand being launched with a completely new take on shapes. That’s exactly what you get with Lebond, the new brand based out of Barcelona, which says that they will attempt to merge watch design with architecture.
Architecture inspired watches are nothing new (Junghans and Nomos with their connections to the Bauhaus school come to mind first), but this one… this one embraces moder architecture to a degree we haven’t seen before. The model name is Siza, named after the legendary 89-year-old Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, who conceptualized the watch by taking inspiration from a pool that he designed in 1968.
The Leça Swimming Pool complex was created by Siza in Portugal along the rocky coastline of Matosinhos. There the architect preserved the natural rock formations but inserted his geometric concrete shapes. This diamond shape of the pool made its way onto the watch, as well. The Grade 5 titanium case measures 41.5mm in diameter, 8.8mm thick, and 49.5mm from tip to tip. It has a matte sanded finish and features small lugs — or protrusions — at 12 and 6 o’clock, connecting to an 18mm-wide black rubber strap. The case also has a 50m water resistance rating.
Perhaps even more interesting than the case is the handset, inspired by Siza’s minimalist restroom signs that he used for a lot of his projects. While the minute hand is traditional looking, the hour hand takes on a very geometric shape that’s hard to describe. Inside the watch is a Top Grade version of the ETA 2892-A2 with an elaborate finish. It’s worn on an 18mm black rubber strap with a titanium deployant clasp.
The watch will set you back €2,700 excluding taxes.
While Lebond gets my applause for a daring first watch, I’m on the fence about the looks. Not even just the looks, but the wareability of such a watch. Those very narrow lugs look like a nightmare as I imagine the watch will catch on things frequently. This is really a piece that has to be tried on before purchase, especially for such a high price from a completely new brand.
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Wei Koh from Revolution really has some great taste when it comes to collaborations. Just the other day Revolution announced their watch with Kudoke, and it was stunning. Their new one is no less impressive, but what else could it be if you’re working with The Rake and Vulcain.
They started with a Cricket that has a special two-tone Bellini and anthracite-colored dial, and a sector track like those made popular by brands such as Patek Philippe, Omega, and Longines in the 1920s. Then they added white rhodium applied Arabic markers with the “3” and “9” oriented horizontally, just as in the vintage wristwatches from the ’30s.
The Vulcain Cricket dates back to 1947 when it was introduced as the world’s first mechanical alarm watch. It achieved this with the use of two barrels, the coiled springs that act as a power source for a watch. The original Cricket was a decidedly handsome timepiece, characterized by a smooth round 36mm-diameter case, long elegant lugs typical of the ’40s and ’50s, large easy-to-manipulate crown, and a domed pusher for switching off the alarm.
Hoever, the revived Vulcain Cricket features a modern 39mm-diameter case.
Made in just 50 examples and priced at USD 4,060, this tribute to a bygone era will be available from revolutionwatch.com today, 18 May 2023, 10pm SGT | 4pm CET | 10am EST.
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Raketa, the famed Soviet-era watchmaker, is thriving under new ownership. The brand is bringing back archived designs and coming up with new models inspired by the past. One of these new past-inspired models would be the Avant-Garde “The Horophile”. On one hand it’s heavily based on mid-century avant-garde art and design pioneered in the USSR, while on the other hand it gets its color palette from Amr Sindi, the Swiss-based watch influencer known as The Horophile.
Soviet watches are usually very uniform and not very extravagant. So the Avant-Garde is a true explosion of colors and shapes. The dial of the Avant-Garde is inspired by Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, one of the best-known works by artist El Lissitzky, one of the proponents of the Russian avant-garde movement that flourished from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
While the regular production Avant-Garde model has a dial in red, white, and black, the Horophile edition jazzes things up with a purple, white, and orange combination – purple being the trademark colour of Mr Sindi.
Dial aside, the rest of the watch is identical to the standard model. The case is steel and 40.5 mm in diameter, while the movement is the cal. 2615, an automatic movement that Raketa developed in the Soviet era but now improved and refined but still made entirely in-house.
The €1,650 (excluding taxes) price is not horrible. You could certainly do worse. But you could also do better. However, if you’re looking for an interesting watch, this might be for you.
🫳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 entry-level GMT watch segment is due to become one of the most hotly contested spaces in the industry thanks to the availability of the Seiko NH34 movement, and the Nezumi Aviera GMT is a compelling and stylish indicator of the impressive quality that these NH34-powered designs can achieve,
⏲️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
When I’m not bringing you watch news, I find myself in the world of publishing quite a lot, so I’m familiar with how it works. What I’m less familiar with is fantasy book. Never understood them, never liked them. But then I heard about Brandon Sanderson. What I assumed was just a run of the mill fantasy writer is actually a dude that managed to raise $41 million on Kickstarter for four of his new books. Yikes… So, you understand why I was very interested in this Esquire piece on how Sanderson built his empire.
After James Conaway takes a summer trip to the high Arctic on assignment for National Geographic and becomes unable to return to camp, he faces his insignificance as a single, helpless human in the vast wild terrain as he waits for a helicopter to arrive to take him to safety. “I think often of the person dropped off at the headwaters of the Lewis,” he writes. “He is down there yet, still waiting.”
I’ve always found bird spotters a curious bunch. When you don’t understand why someone does something, it’s good to learn more about them to see what drives them. Good thing I just stumbled on this article about Peter Kaestner and his epic adventure to South America in order to become the first human to spot 10,000 birds.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
A couple of weeks ago I linked to one of the best videos available on YouTube - a guy calmly reviewing the best croissants in Paris as the world around him goes up in flames during the Paris protests. Well, he’s back. This time, he’s giving you a tour of all the best food in Naples, as the football fans there celebrate their first Serie A title in 30 years. As someone said in his comments: “can't wait for the next episode: what to eat in Ukraine”
💵Pre-loved precision
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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!
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