Omega Debuts Aqua Terra Titanium Ultra-Light During World Record Attempt; Orient Star Takes Inspiration From Space; MeisterSinger Has A Summer One-Hander; ID Geneve's Red Wine Grape Strap

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. That Omega… Things must be changing as I find myself really liking an Aqua Terra. I thought that would never happen.

Woah, the needle really is moving up significantly. Thank you everyone who subscribed to the Patreon to help with the cost of sending this newsletter every day. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the red square just below.

In this issue:

• Omega Announces Aqua Terra Titanium Ultra-Light On Duplantis’ World Record Breaking Wrist

• Orient Star Introduces An All-Black Version Of The M45 F7 Mechanical Moon Phase

• MeisterSinger Uses Bright Blue For Their One-Hadnded Summer Special

• ID Genève Continues Sustainability Promise With Circular 1 Grenat And Grape-Made LE Strap

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 32 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Omega Announces Aqua Terra Titanium Ultra-Light On Duplantis’ World Record Breaking Wrist

It’s been two days since Mondo Duplantis managed to break the pole vault world record at the Paris Olympics for the 9th time in his career and nobody, including me, noticed that he was wearing a brand new, previously unseen, Omega on his wrist. It’s pretty obvious why none of us noticed. Mostly because his attempt to break the record had an almost movie-like drama to it. First of all, his world record breaks have always been significant, because he did it nine times and, not counting for Renaud Lavillenie and his single WR set in 2014, has been the only one to break these records since Sergey Bubka broke the last one 1994. But even the attempts looked like they were scripted. His first attempt at 6 meters and 25 centimetres was cleared easy, by at least another 10cm, but he caught the bar with the tiniest touch of his shin. His attempts got progressively worse. And with only one attempt to make the jump, pretty much everyone watch held their breath, erupting into cheers as he finally did it. I’m telling you, it was so exhilarating that we missed the watch. Only today did Omega point out the release. And boy what a watch it is.

Right before the start of the Olympics in Paris, Omega announced they will be releasing a Mondo Duplantis themed Seamaster Aqua Terra 150m 41mm with a blue dial and yellow details to match the Swedish flag Duplantis is competing under. It was a somewhat polarising watch and one of the first times I told you all here that I don’t particularly like the Aqua Terra model. Well, let me tell you something. I sure do like this new one. The watch they just released is not a regular Aqua Terra. No, it’s the highly technical Seamaster Aqua Terra 150m Titanium Ultra-light, with a Duplantis twist.

The Titanium Ultra-Light Aqua Terra has been around since 2021, and it’s not a particularly well known model from Omega. Perhaps because of its price, but more on that later. The watch comes in a material Omega calls Gamma Titanium which is supposed to be harder and lighter than normal Grade 5 Titanium. The case measures 41mm wide, 13.5mm thick and has a substantial 49.2mm lug-to-lug. It’s an unusual asymmetrical case design that integrates the crown into sloping crown guards and has quite the interesting twisted lug design that integrates with two rubber end links for the strap. This looks hyper modern and I love it. Water resistance is 150 meters.

The dial is a bit similar in look to the existing Duplantis AT, but only in look. It’s also made out of titanium, with grooves cut into it, and a blue anodized finish. The markers and hands have a dark anthracite finish, filled with white lume. There are a couple of yellow details on the dial, the most significant of which is the yellow seconds hand that has a white tip to match Duplantis’ pole vault.

Inside is a very special movement that was first introduced in the Ultra-Light and I believe is only used on this watch. It’s the Calibre 8982 Ti. Not only does it have a super-unique look, with a dark sandblasted finish, that you can see through the caseback, it’s completely made out titanium. It beats at 25,200vph, had twin barrels and a 72 hour power reserve. Of course, it also has Master Chronometer certification. The watch comes on a special yellow nylong strap that has blue end links.

The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Titanium Ultra-Light is quite an achievement for Omega. All told, with the titanium case and movement, the watch weighs only about 55 grams. And this version of the watch, with the blue and yellow is not a limited edition but rather joins the regular collection. But don’t go pulling out your credit card yet, because it better be a black American Express. This watch is priced at €56,900. See more on the Omega website.

2/

Orient Star Introduces An All-Black Version Of The M45 F7 Mechanical Moon Phase

Ah yes, here we are, back with Orient Star. Both Orient and their higher-end Orient Star (think Seiko and Grand Seiko) have been fan favorites for decades now, but the brands have also done everything in their power to make it as difficult to learn about them or even buy their watches as possible. For example, they have a brand new moonphase complication on their M45 watch, but for the life of me I can’t figure out where you can buy it and for how much money. To spoil the ending, I did find where you can get one and for how much, but it sure wasn’t easy. Anyways, this is the Orient Star Classic M45 F7 Mechanical Moon Phase.

The moonphase is not a new thing for Orient Star. We’ve seen ones with mother-of-pearl dials and others with more regular setups, but this latest release is a very special homage to the M45 star cluster, which is also known as the Pleiades. To keep with the space theme, Orient Star gave the entire case a black finish. The watch comes in the familiar M45 case that’s made out of stainless steel and measures 41mm wide, 13.8mm thick, with a lug to lug of 49mm. Water resistance is not great at 50 meters.

The star reference continues on the dial, where you get a gradient dial ranging from dark grey to a speckled white, mimicking the starts in a night sky, presumably the Pleiades. You get black Roman numerals, grey hands, a power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock and monochromatic moonphase and pointer date subdial at 6 o’clock.

Inside is the in-house automatic movement F7M65, which has some decent stats. Apart from the moonphase complication, it has a rated accuracy of +15/-5 seconds per day and a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a Cordovan leather strap.

Now, I told you that I found out where you can buy it and for how much. This is mostly true. The watch is available online from Orient UK, at a price of £2,199, but you should be able to get one in other regions of the world (if they aren’t sold out already — only 120 will be made) with a price that should be around €2,550. That’s a lot of money for an Orient Star, I know, but I don’t doubt they will have their fans. See more on the Orient Star website.

3/

MeisterSinger Uses Bright Blue For Their One-Hadnded Summer Special

Hey, look! Another one-handed MeisterSinger! Yes, I know, nobody is surprised. But what we should be is delighted. It’s just fantastic that one company has managed, for more than 20 years, to produce watches that use only one hand, all while offering different styles and complications. That’s why I love them. Now, they have a new release (actually two sizes), one that they call their summer special and that uses a bright blue color to be a very attractive summer watch. This is the MeisterSinger Special №3 edition.

The new watch comes as an identical duo, differentiated only by their size. You can have the stainless steel case in a smaller 38mm wide and 10.5mm thick, or the larger 43mm wide and 11.5mm thick. The lug width is also a bit different — 20mm on the larger and 18mm on the smaller. Both have a round brushed case with a polished bezel, sharp lugs, an oversized crown, sapphire crystals on top and bottom, as well as 50 meters of water resistance.

MeisterSinger keeps it subdued despite this being a summer-themed watch. The dial gets a black base, with double-digit hours rendered in light blue that glows in the dark. There is, of course, one hand to point to the hours, which is white and lumed. Near the top of the dial is the MeisterSinger name and at the bottom is the №3 Automatic text.

Inside, two different movements. The 43mm gets the much more ubiquitous SW200, while the smaller gets a step up in movement with the SW300. Both of them beat at 4Hz and have 38 and 42 hours of power reserve respectively. The watches come on a light blue vintage saddle leather straps that matches the numerals on the dial.

The MeisterSinger Special №3 are limited editions, but with no word as to how many will be made, and are available now at a price of €2,190. See more on the MeisterSinger website.

4/

ID Genève Continues Sustainability Promise With Circular 1 Grenat And Grape-Made LE Strap

The Swiss upstart watch brand ID Genéve’s made it to a lot of headlines last year, even beyond watch publications. Mostly because of the high-profile investment they received from Leonardo DiCaprio. Why would the famous actor invest in a small Swiss watch brand? Well, it’s most likely because their values align so much. DiCaprio has been a vocal proponent of environmental protection for decades now, while ID Genéve has uniquely positioned itself as a manufacturer that deeply cares about sustainability. Their latest release, the Circular 1 “Nisiar” Limited Edition, demonstrates this not just with it’s extensive use of recycled materials, but also with their new collaboration with MONDIN, an independent company that specializes in valorizing vine by-products, for a very special strap.

The case might seem familiar. That’s because you’ve seen it from the brand before. It measures 40mm wide and 9.65mm thick, made out of 100% recycled stainless steel. Not only that, all of the raw materials have been sourced locally and are traceable. ID Genève describes the 4441 grade as the Rolls Royce of steel, and that the carbon footprint of this material is ten times lower than that of standard steel. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial of the watch is rendered with a nicely brushed sunray finish, done in red, shimmering in the light like a glass of red wine, hinting at the party trick of the wathc. You get lume-filled steel indices and hands, as well as the ID logo instead of the 12 o’clock market. Inside the watch is the very familiar ETA 2824, but not just any ETA 2824. Rather than using a new calibre, ID Genève upcycles by sourcing unsold stock of the calibre in order to not create any further waste.

But the main attraction is surely the strap, which is made from raw 35% grape marc from Chateauneuf-du-Pape — a renowned region for cultivating wine in the Southern Rhône Valley, France. The strap is made by Nisiar and features 75% natural material, boasting textile durability and resistance that is comparable to animal leather.

All of the effort that ID Genève goes through to ensure the high sustainability mark doesn’t come cheap. The Circular 1 Grenat with Nisiar strap is limited to 40 pieces and priced at CHF 4,210. See more on the ID Genève website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Nivada Grenchen Chronosport

2/

Hands-On with the Ulysse Nardin Diver Net Wempe Signature Collection

3/

A review of the Norqain Wild ONE Skeleton Gecko Green and Coral Red

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Héron Marinor Ghost is an anonymous spectre for the wrist

Sterile dials used to be far more common when watchmakers mainly assembled components from a range of manufacturers in the early days. Brand names wouldn’t always be the ones who made the watch, but rather the ones who sold it. Occasionally, they were sold plain. Logos and brand names also weren’t welcome for military-spec watches issued to soldiers, as they had to conform with each other even when made by different factories. As the Héron Marinor Ghost takes plenty of inspiration from military divers of the ‘50s and ‘60s, the Canadian brand has elected to leave its name off the dial. Instead, the North Star at 12 o’clock signals its Canuck pride.

Read the whole review 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

• Once upon a time, the most iconic sounds in hip-hop were from earlier music. A Lou Donaldson drum break, a Bob James loop. As synthesizers’ sample packs gained prominence, though, those sounds became anonymized, their provenance dating back only as far as the plugin kit. Ashwin Rodrigues does the good kind of doxxing in this Wired piece, tracking down John Lehmkuhl, the man who made the instantly recognizable—and damn near ubiquitous—metallic thunk sound known as Tribe.

• If you’re not on TikTok, you might have wondered what the big deal with the network is. Yi-Ling Liu, a technology writer working on a book about the Chinese internet, has the answer and discusses the history and future of TikTok; ByteDance, the $50 billion company behind it; and what would be lost if the US banned the app.

• I’ve mentioned Marnaut watches several times over the past few weeks, and how they’re styled after an exoskeleton of a sea urchin. By chance I stumbled on this article from Hakai on how sea urchins are unsung heroes that are being bred by scientists in a bid to control algae that would otherwise threaten Caribbean coral ecosystems. Good urchins.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’ve been watching a lot of surfing in the Olympics over the past few days, and I can’t stop thinking about French Polynesia, where the competition is being held. The area looks fine right now, but I was pretty sure that the area must still be experiencing a lot of consequences of the decimation caused by French nuclear tests. And just as I was thinking what the consequences might be, Vice releases a video on what the US nuclear test did to the Marshall Islands.

💵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

• LOOKING TO BUY: Here’s a crazy request. One of you is looking to buy the Lotēc No. 7.5. Sure, it’s a big ask, but if any of you have one and want to sell, reach out to and I’ll put you in touch

• SOLD: 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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-Vuk