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  • Omega Releases Ana-Digi Seamaster Regatta; Yema's New Rallygraph II; Rado Goes Black And White; Formex Introduces Travel Watch; Ulysse Nardin Partners With Gumball 3000; And A Breguet Type XX

Omega Releases Ana-Digi Seamaster Regatta; Yema's New Rallygraph II; Rado Goes Black And White; Formex Introduces Travel Watch; Ulysse Nardin Partners With Gumball 3000; And A Breguet Type XX

The Instrument line of watches from Omega is my absolute favorite line of watches of any brand

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Like I said, I’m traveling a bit with the family, so everything is late. I’ll make it up to you ver soon. Also, you’re lucky I’m traveling, otherwise I would fill the entire newsletter with how much I love Omega Instrument watches.

For now, It’s About Time is a fully reader supported publication. If you like this newsletter, want to continue getting it and want even more of my writing, I would love if you could hop on over to Patreon and subscribe. You give me $6 a month, I give you 5 additional longform posts per week which include an overview of interesting watches for sale, early access to reviews (it’s the Seiko x Giugiaro SCED035 "Ripley"), a basic watch school, a look back at a forgotten watch, and a weekend read that looks at the history of horology.

In this issue:

  • Omega Releases Their Most Advanced Instrument Watch, The America’s Cup Seamaster Regatta

  • Yema’s New Rallygraf Meca-Quartz II Leans Completely Into The Vintage Racing Chronograph Aesthetic

  • Rado Gives The True Square Open Heart Limited Editions A Fully Black And White Chequered Colorway

  • Formex Introduces New Model Line, The Travel Ready Stratos UTC Automatic 41

  • Ulysse Nardin Releases A Special Edition Freak X In Partnership With The Gumball 3000 Rally

  • Breguet Equips The Type XX Civilian 2067 With A Gold Case And First-Ever Ceramic Bezel

Today’s reading time: 10 minutes and 59 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

I love the Omega Speedmaster to death. It is one of the best watches ever made. And I totally understand that people have their own preferences when it comes to Omega watches. Some will adore the Aqua Terra, others will prefer the Seamaster 300. However, there is one line of watches, both in the Seamaster and Speedmaster families that sit way above everything else they do. It’s their Instruments line, within which Omega makes highly technical, highly purpose built watches, almost always analogue-digital in their form, certainly quartz powered as these are, as the name suggests, precise instruments. And if you’ve been reading this newsletter for long enough you know that my heart lies with ana-digi watches. The X-33, the Z-33, the Skywalker, the Marstimer… If I didn’t already own the Speedmaster, one of these would certainly be my first Omega. I deeply adore them, so do excuse my bias when I tell you about the new Instrument watch, the Omega Seamaster Regatta built for the 2024 America’s Cup.

The Instrument line is not your regular tool watch, as is hinted by its size. The new Seamaster Regatta measures 46mm wide and 15.6mm thick, but don’t despair just yet. The Instrument watches have been known to wear smaller and fit wrists smaller than my 8 inch/20cm tree trunk. This one, just like the majority of other ones, is made out of Grade 5 titanium, making it fairly light. You get four pushers and a crown to operate all the functions, an increase of the regular Instrument watches like the X-33 which uses two pushers and a special crown. On the Seamaster Regatta one pusher is red, while the others are blue, and all have been cast in rubber. Somewhat weirdly, as is often the case with Instrument watches from Omega, this watch gets 50 meters of water resistance. One would think more is in order.

The watch doesn’t have a dial to speak of. Instead, the entire dial surface is an LCD digital display over which Omega put a blue hour-glass shaped mask. This allows for the top and bottom parts that are exposed to show information, just like the two small circular openings at 3 and 9 o’clock. Surrounding the display is a a white flange with oversized hour markers coated with lume and a 60-minute timer bezel. That’s topped with large skeletonized sword hands, with the minute hand having a pretty cool blue to red gradient.

Inside is Omega’s caliber 5701, which is supposed to be their most accurate quartz movement ever made. But as an Instrument watch, it’s all about functions. And there are a lot of them. It tells the time, of course, in three time zones (one analogue and two digital), but it also has a perpetual calendar, a moonphase indicator, chronograph, tachymeter, telemeter, pulsometer, timer, regatta countdown with race function, sailing logbook. It also has a temperature sensor and an accelerometer. Omega also uses a resonating cavity in the case back for the three alarms, each with a distinct ringing sequence. The watch is worn on either a red, white or blue rubber strap with a titanium folding buckle.

The Omega Seamaster Regatta is not a watch for everyone. But if you are in need of a spectacular regatta timer, this one just might be the best. It sells for CHF 6,500. See more on the Omega website.

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The French brand Yema has been making watches since the late 1940s but truly made their name in the 60s and 70s with great tool watches. It started with the Superman skin diver and continued with the Flygraf pilot’s watch, Rallygraf driver’s watch and Yachtingraf regatta watch. And slowly, they are updating each of the lines for a more modern environment. The latest update comes to the Rallygraf, which gets a completely redesigned case and a meca-quartz movement to keep the price at a very interesting point.

Compared to the previous edition of the Rallygraf, the Rallygraf II grows a tiny bit in size. It measures 40mm wide (compared to the 39mm of the previous version, while keeping the same 11mm thickness and 47mm lug-to-lug. However, despite being a tiny bit larger, it looks like it could wear smaller due to the new slimmer lug design. Also new are the block pushers to operate the chrono. On top is a fixed bezel with a black aluminium insert that holds a tachymeter scale, as a racing chronograph should. You can get the watch in either an untreated silver finish or with a PVD bronze finish. That gold-hued version is made in collaboration with the Classic Racing School that’s paired with a black dial to mimic the look of the legendary John Player Special Formula 1 Lotus team single-seaters of the 1970s and 1980s.

The dial continues the racing chrono look, while also taking inspiration from the 1970s. There are two dial colors — white or black — with contrasting (or matching, on the gold version) square(ish) sub-dials at 3 and 9 o’clock. The one at 9 o’clock is a 60 minute counter, while at 3 you’ll find the very useless 24 hour indicator. At 6 o’clock is a date aperture.

Like I said, inside is the meca-quartz movement, Seiko's VK64. It’s a fine movement that gives you the accuracy of quartz when telling the time, and the sweep of a mechanical movement once you start the central chronograph hand. The watch can be had on either a Milanese mesh or a perforated leather racing-style strap in black.

The new Yema Rallygraf Meca-Quartz II can be ordered now, with shipping starting in November. I love the price — €399 for any version of the watch. See more on the Yema website.

3/

Despite their sometimes quirky look, their often high price and their silly insistence that ceramic watches are actually “High-Tech Ceramic”, I have a bit of a soft spot for Rado. They remind me of the best of the 80s and 90s. But sometimes they go a bit overboard, as they might have with their latest release, at least when it comes to my personal taste. But it’s none-the-less impressive The new Rado True Square Open Heart duo comes in black and white carmic with a pretty interesting checkerboard patter in what is their first bicolor ceramic watch.

The watches come in a square case with rounded corners, measuring 38mm wide, 9.7mm thick and with a lug-to-lug of 44.2mm, even though it doesn’t have traditional lugs. Instead it’s just a piece of ceramic that links up with the integrated ceramic bracelet. The ceramic has been polished, while keeping the scratch-resistant and hypoallergenic. On top is a sapphire crystal and you can get the watch in either white or black ceramic, with a bracelet that is white and black, but mirrored for either colorway.

The dial is openworked and divided into four quadrants, each getting its own colored border — white or black — that accts as a chapter ring. The ring is vertically brushed and set with diamond hour markers, eight white and four black diamonds to contrast the color of the chapter ring. The hands are slim, have a black veneer and are filled with white Super-LumiNova, but good luck telling the time at a glance.

Through the dial you can see parts of the movement, which is the Rado R734 calibre, an automatic based on the ETA C07.111 Powermatic. It has an antimagnetic Nivachron hairspring, beats at 21,600vph and has an 80 hour power reserve, which must sound familiar. The bridges are decorated with perlage, and the rotor and movement holder have Geneva stripe finishes.

The new two-tone True Square Open Heart Diamonds are limited editions of 888 pieces and they are priced at CHF 3,050. See more on the Rado website.

4/

The Swiss brand Formex sits at an interesting position in the watch world. Not small enough to be a micro brand, not large enough to afford to play with the big brands. They are a true independent that has focused on doing one thing right — making solid watches. And while doing so, they have developed a very unique design language. A design language that can be applied to a wide variety of model lines. Like their brand new model, the Formex Stratos UTC, a travel watch developed in partnership with legendary module constructor Dubois-Depraz.

Don’t let the photos of this watch fool you. It looks like a huge chunky watch, but it’s far from it. The stainless steel case measures 41mm wide, 12mm thick, but also has a relatively short 46.5mm lug-to-lug. The illusion of being oversized comes from the fact that it’s a very unique almost square angular case, with multiple layers. The case is brushed with polished bevels and sandblasted side cutouts. On top is a 48-click bidirectional bezel in stainless steel that has a resin filling in dark grey, blue or green, and a pretty spectacular way of displaying the 24 hour scale. On top is a sapphire crystal and the watch has 100 meters of water resistance. Also, you might notice that the watch has two pushers on the side, as if it were a chronograph, but it’s not. More on that later.

The Stratos UTC comes with three dial colors — dark gray, blue, and green. It’s a complex dial, with numerous sectors. On the other perimeter is a grained hour track, with the same finish on the date sub-dial that sits above 6 o’clock, while the centre gets a sunray brushing, creating a lot of drama with the dial. There’s a tiny aperture to the left of the central stack with an orange indicator that shows whether it’s day or night. You get skeletonized hour hands in a brushed finish for the local time, and an arrow tipped 24 hour hand which is used to track home time.

Inside the watch is an ETA 2892 which beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The movement is regulated to +/- 5 seconds/day, but that’s not the cool part. The cool part is the custom module developed by Dubois-Depraz for Formex that allows you to use the pushers to jump the local hour hand backwards and forwards in one hour increments. There’s also a small pusher on the left side of the case to quick adjust the date. This is a very similar way of setting the local time as you would get on a Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5164. Which is pretty cool. The watch can be had on a brown, black or blue leather strap that close with a pretty wild carbon fibre folding clasp or on a 3-link steel bracelet with a patented 5mm micro-extension.

Formex watches are known for being quite affordable. This one is a bit above their usual price point. The new Formex Stratos UTC sells for CHF 3,500 on leather and CHF 3,650 on steel. See more on the Formex website.

5/

The Gumball 3000 was my first experience with hyper-luxurious, wild-partying, rallies. The Gumball 3000 was started by Maximilian Cooper in 1999, who was inspired by the mythical Cannonball rally across the United States, as a way to get together with a bunch of his rich friends, travel at high speeds and party. A lot. Since then, it has become one of the most famous races in the world, taking on board celebrities and people with incredible wealths, creating a spectacle wherever they show up I was a journalist and they were traveling through Zagreb on one of their more notorious rallies. They offered me a chance to spend some time with Cooper and his wife, the wonderful rapper Eve, and boy did I learn a lot about rich people in that short time. So, with that experience, it comes as no surprise that the Gumball 3000 has teamed up with Ulysse Nardin to release a special edition of the Freak X which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the rally.

Based on the regular Freak X, the watch comes in a 43mm wide case made out of titanium that has a black DLC finish, with side parts in black carbonium with a matte finish. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, the back gets a special Gumball 3000 caseback, and you get a personalized side plate with your Gumball team number in orange. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Everything about this watch is black and orange. The standard base dial of the Freak X keeps an all black appearance, while the the instantly recognisable Freak hands/movement get a tip in iridescent orange Super-LumiNova. Powering the watch is the UN-230 calibre with automatic winding, which is actually used to indicate the hours, while the baguette-shaped one-hour carrousel indicates the minutes. The movement beats at 3Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on an orange Delugs rubber strap.

The Ulysse Nardin Freak X Gumball 3000 Edition is limited to 150 pieces and will be offered to Gumball participants first. I doubt it will ever make its way to the public then. Price is on request, but likely somewhere around the CHF 30,000 range. See more on the UN website.

6/

There’s a list of pilot’s chronographs that instantly come to ming. And at the top of the list should always be the Breguet Type XX, perhaps the most impressive of them all. The model was redesigned last year, split up into the military inspired Type 20 and civilian inspired Type XX. Now, Breguet is introducing a new version of the Type XX, one with a 18k rose gold case and a ceramic insert for the bezel. It really is a special thing.

The case is oversized, as you would expect from a pilot’s chronograph. It’s got to be a hefty thing, not just for the fact that it measures 42mm wide and 14.1mm thick, but also for the fact that it’s made out of solid rose gold. On top is a box-shaped sapphire crystal, on the side are mushroom-like pushers and a flat crown, and the bidirectional bezel is also rendered in rose gold. Like I mentioned, this is the first time that the Type XX gets a polished ceramic insert, rendered in blue and with a gold 12-hour scale.

The dial continues the blue theme, with a sunburst finish and azurage for the counters rather than a full matte finish. Speaking of the sub-dials, there’s an oversized running seconds at 3 o’clock, a 12 hour counter at 6 and a 60 minute counter at 9 o’clock. Breguet still insists on sticking the date at 4:30, but I’m close to giving up that fight.

Inside the watch is a very interesting movement. The calibre 728 is a high-beat, vertical-clutch, column-wheel chronograph. It beats at 5Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. It also includes a patent-pending flyback system that ensures constant force for a perfect reset of the central chronograph seconds hand regardless of the pressure of pusher actuation. The watch comes on a blue alligator leather strap, and an additional blue fabric NATO strap.

This new Breguet will not be a limited edition and it will retail for CHF 35,000. See more on the Breguet website.

🫳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

Micromilspec might be a relatively young brand but it’s developed a distinctive common case design, which features angular sides and lugs topped by plinth-like bezels. These sharp features give a no-nonsense yet attractive look and one that the Milgraph also sports. Also like most of Micromilspec’s range, the Milgraph features a microblasted grade 5 titanium case. Where it differs from previous models is in the design of its bezel, which features a unique “QuadGrip” design with four deep indents to make it easier to manipulate while wearing gloves – emphasising its mil-spec intentions (I mean, it’s in the name, right?) This diving-style bezel signals dive watch intentions, although the watch is ‘only’ 100m water-resistant.

⏲️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

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Rocketpoweredmohawk is getting increasingly more unhinged the longer he does this. Is that a good thing? Maybe. Maybe not. But I’ll still argue that this is the best Formula 1 commentary you will ever find. Perhaps the best commentary of anything you will every find.

💵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

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  • 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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