Omega's New Moonphase Speedys Get Much Slimmer Cases; Longines' First Carbon Watch; Bulova’s Snorkel Is A MoonSwatch Killer; Maen's Manhattan In 40mm; Hublot's Year Of The Snake Celebration

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Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Just when you thought that Omega was done with new releases, they come out with something interesting. Good for them. But I’m calling it right now. The new Bulova Snorkel is going to make it very high on my favorite-watch-of-the-year list. Can’t wait to get my hands on one

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In this issue:

• Omega Releases Two New Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite Watches In Much Slimmer Cases

• Longines Releases Their First Carbon Watch, The Ultra-Chron Carbon

• Bulova’s New Snorkel Collection Is The MoonSwatch Killer We Needed

• Maen Completes Manhattan Collection With New 40mm Case Size

• Hublot Joins In On The Year Of The Snake Cellebration With A Spirit of Big Bang Limited Edition

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👂What’s new

1/

Omega Releases Two New Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite Watches In Much Slimmer Cases

Omega had a huge year in 2024, with a couple of releases that might go down as classics. So one would expect they would relax a bit, at least at the start of 2025. Well, no. They just introduced two new versions of the Speedmaster Moonphase, watches that aside from looking cool address one of the biggest criticisms of Speedmasters — their size. More specifically, their thickness. This is good.

Ok, straight off the bat, these are not small watches. They come in stainless steel cases that measure 43mm wide, 13.6mm thick and with a lug-to-lug of 48.6mm. You can’t call them compact. But compare them to the dimensions of the previous Moonphase — 44.25mm wide, 16.9mm thick and 50mm long — and you can see the upgrade. Especially that thickness. To drop 3.3mm in thickness is quite the feat. This is all thanks to the new Moonphase Meteorite using pretty much the same case as the Speedmaster Chronoscope. You get the lyre lugs, a fixed bezel with a ceramic insert in blue or black, with a tachymeter scale done in white enamel, as well as a box-shaped sapphire crystal on top. it also has a see-through caseback and 50 meters of water resistance.

The dials come in two versions, either a galvanic grey-coated meteorite dial on a blue PVD-coated base (which is paired with the blue bezel), with white gold hands and hour markers treated with blue PVD; or a black PVD-coated meteorite dial on a black PVD-coated base with untreated white gold hands and markers. You get a central chronograph hand, with a 12-hour and 60-minute totalizer in the 3 o’clock sub-dial, and a small second with a date by hand at 9 o’clock. At 6 o’clock is a moonphase indication with two Moons — showing the phases in both the Norther and Southern hemispheres — that are made out of genuine pieces of Moon meteorite

Inside, you’ll find a new movement for the Moonphase. It’s the manual wind calibre 9914, which starts off as manual wound calibre 9900 of the Speedmaster 57, but with the added complication. This means it has the same co-axial escapement, silicon balance, column wheel and vertical clutch. It beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve, with a Master Chronometer certification. The watches come on a brushed and polished steel bracelet that measures 21mm wide.

The new Omega Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite models are part of the regular collection and priced at €18,800. See more on the Omega website.

2/

Longines Releases Their First Carbon Watch, The Ultra-Chron Carbon

A brief glance at the archives show me that there have been at least two dozen releases last year of carbon fibre-cased watches. This is obviously a hot material. And for good reason. It looks, feels and has the aura of a super-high-tech material, while not being all that complicated to work with. At least not when it comes to some other crazy materials that watches are made out of. It seems that every single watch brand out there has their carbon-cased watch. But just a week or so ago, if you thought that Longines was among them, you would be mistaken. Interestingly, it’s only now that they get their first carbon watch. And fittingly, they match the high-tech case with their high tech movement. OK, it’s not actually that high-tech, but it is the descendant of the world’s first high-frequency diver, the 5Hz 1968 Ultra-Chron ref. 7970. Longines revived the Ulgra-Chron in 2022 and now comes in a brand new case.

Carbon-fiber has a lot of advantages. It’s super light while remaining unusually strong. It achieves those qualities by mixing carbon fibres and epoxy resin, and the process of pressure and heat treating it in moulds creates unbreakable bonds. The one issue it does have, is that it takes up a lot of space. Carbon-fiber works great as a chunk, and less great when grown down thin. So, it’s no surprise that the new carbon Ultra-Chron is quite the chunky watch. It measures 43mm wide and 14mm thick. Although, to be fair, these are the dimensions of the regular Ultra-Chron as well. But being made out of CF, it weighs only 80 grams, including the strap. It keeps the cushion shape of the metal Ultra-Chron, but shockingly loses one pretty important feature for a dive watch — a rotating bezel. Instead, this model has a fixed titanium bezel with a matte black aluminium insert and silver numerals. Extremely weird. Especially with a water resistance of 300 meters.

The dial, unlike so many other carbon-fibre watches, is, thankfully, not made out of CF. This often reads to readability issues, so Longines chose a a sandblasted black dial with applied rectangular indices and grey PVD hour and minute hands. With a monochrome colorway, it could still be a bit touch to read, but at least there’s plenty of lume.

Inside is the L836.6, which beats at 5Hz, has a anti-magnetic silicon balance spring and a 52-hour power reserve. It’s a certified as a chronometer by Time Lab. The watch comes on a black fabric strap which closes with a titanium buckle.

The new Ultra-Chron Carbon is part of the regular Longines lineup and priced at CHF 4,600. See more on the Longines website.

3/

Bulova’s New Snorkel Collection Is The MoonSwatch Killer We Needed

In the more than 500 issues of this newsletter, I learned that the more you look at watches, learn about them, the more you want to maybe, one day, make your own watch. You just can’t help yourself. Ideas keep popping up, and the few you think are interesting in the long term you tend to write down. If you were to peer into my notes you would see that on May 26th 2024, I wrote that a great watch would be one not made for scuba diving, but rather for snorkeling and all-around water fun. In fact, I noted, I should check if Bulova owns a copyright to the name Snorkel, because that’s a very cool name. The watch should be made out of colorful plastic, building on the “Swatch X” trend, but way simpler and taking on a skin-diver look and feel. Price should be under $250, preferably under $200. Well, good thing I wrote that down and did nothing with it, because the very nice folks over at Bulova had the same idea — based on the 1970s Oceanographer Snorkel, they just released a modern quartet of Bulova Snorkel watches, plastic, with fantastic colors and while not sub $200, still well priced. This just might be the MoonSwatch and Scuba Fifty Phantoms we needed.

The world of modern ceramic materials is a complicated one. While Swatch uses what they call Bioceramic, a mix of two-thirds zirconium oxide ceramic powder and one-third biosourced material derived from castor oil, the general consensus is that it feels like plastic and acts like plastic, making it essentially plastic. Now, the material that Bulova uses for the Snorkel is called Hybrid Ceramic and I haven’t handled one yet, so I can’t tell you what it actually feels like. What I can tell you is that it’s also a mix of ceramics and polymers.

The new Snorkel keeps the C-shaped case we know from the collection, as well as the 41mm diameter. And while that might sound quite large, if it lines up with previous Snorkel models of the same diameter, it should wear very nicely since the case shape gives it a compact lug-to-lug of about 43mm. If it tracks with previous releases, expect it also to be 12-13mm thick. And part of that thickness is dedicated to the pronounced double-domed sapphire crystal on top, which is a very nice addition to an affordable watch. Let me tell you, I’ve recently seen the wholesale price difference between single and double domed sapphire crystals, and it’s a 10x difference. So thanks, Bulova. The sapphire crystal is robust, but to keep the rest of the watch just as tough, it has a stainless steel core that holds the movement, along with a stainless steel crown.

There are four versions of the Snorkel and I like them all. Starting with the Great White, the most subuded, you get a light gray case, a dark gray unidirectional dive bezel with an even darker gray and light blue insert, as well as a white dial. The Clownfish gets a white case with a orange bezel (even though it looks red in the photo above) with a silver and black insert, with another white dial. The Sea Turtle has a sea-foam green case, a darker green bezel with a silver and navy bezel insert, and a brown dial. And last, there’s Blue Tang which has a light blue case, a dark blue dial and bezel and dial, and a silver and yellow bezel insert.

All of the dials have a wavy texture on the bottom half, stick markers and hour and minute hands, both filled with lume, and a date window at 3 o’clock. Each version also comes with a contrasting seconds hand.

Inside, you’ll find the Miyota 2115 quartz movement, which will get you approximately three years of power reserve and an accuracy rating of 15 seconds per month. The watches come on color matched Tropic-style rubber straps with quick-release spring bars and a stainless steel pin buckle. This is almost certainly an upgrade from straps you would get from other plastic-ceramic watches at a similar price point.

For now, it seems that the Bulova Snorkel is available only in the US, but I don’t doubt it will make its way around the world soon. It’s too cool a watch not to. The price is set at $350, which is right in the middle of the Swatch offerings ($270 for the MoonSwatch and $400 for the Scuba Fifty Fathoms). I will be getting one as soon as possible. See more on the Bulova website.

4/

Maen Completes Manhattan Collection With New 40mm Case Size

Over the past almost 10 years, Maen has been making watches that have a very unique look to them. Sure, there are only so many ways to design the watch, and the square case is certainly nothing new. But with their considered approach to finishing, including deep brushing and very nice polishing on the bevels, Maen has positioned their Manhattan into a much higher price range that it actually sits in. So far we’ve seen the Manhattan 37 Automatic, the Manhattan 39 Ultra-Thin Manual Wind, and now we’re getting the Manhattan 40 Automatic.

The look of the case remains virtually unchanged from the smaller variants, only slightly enlarged. The diameter is 40mm, with a very nice thickness of 9.6mm and a slightly concerning lug-to-lug of 49.3mm. The back screws in, but the crown doesn’t. And yet, you still get 100 meters of water resistance.

The larger model will get three dial variants, one limited and two regular editions, which can be had with or without a date aperture. The limited edition features a green Jade dial, but that’s all sold out already, so let’s move on. The two dials available will come in either blue or copper, both with vertical Côtes de Genève stripes. They feature the same hands and applied markers as the smaller models.

Inside is the Sellita SW200 movement, and you’ll have a chance to choose between two versions of the movement. And I’m not talking about the date/no date version. No, you can choose between a standard grade movement and a top-grade one which gets blued screws, perlage engraving, and rhodium plating. Regardless of the grade, the movements are supposed to be regulated in five positions for an accuracy within +/- 4 seconds per day, which is great.

The pre-orders are open now for the two regular editions, since the Jade dial has sold out, with deliveries expected in late July 2025. The price is set at $818 for the standard movement and $1,222 for the top-grade version. See more on the Maen website.

5/

Hublot Joins In On The Year Of The Snake Celebration With A Spirit of Big Bang Limited Edition

Towards the end of 2022 we saw a whole bunch of releases from all sorts of imaginable brands that were paying homage to the Year of the Dragon, even though the Chinese New Year wasn’t happening until February of 2024. There were dozens of them, it was the only thing I was writing about at the time. We didn’t see the same amount of enthusiasm about the Year of the Snake, which we will enter on January 28th. But it also could be that the brands have pushed all of these releases for 2025. Like, for example, Hublot which just introduced the special edition Spirit of Big Bang Chronograph which pays homage to the Year of the Snake. And it’s quite the statement.

Housed in the recognizable tonneau shape of the Spirit of Big Bang, the case is made out of black ceramic that has a micro-blasted and polished finish. On top of the case is a bezel that has a reptile-like pattern engraved on it, as you would expect to see on a snake. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The entire case and dial — or what’s left of it — are black, save for a gold-plated miniature snake coiling around the counters of the skeletonized dial. The same skeletonization can be found on the hands and markers, both of which have the same gold hue as the snake.

Inside is the automatic calibre HUB4700, Hublot’s variation of the legendary Zenith El Primero. It beats at 36,000 vph and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a rubber strap, with the same snakeskin engraving as the bezel. The strap closes with a black ceramic and titanium folding buckle.

The Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Year of the Snake is limited to 88 pieces and priced at €36,500. See more on the Hublot 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

• Before his death in 2019, Kevin Killian published more than one million words across nearly 2,400 Amazon reviews—a collection of writing that transcends its humdrum genre. “I have often used Amazon reviews as a springboard to doing other kinds of writing projects,” Killian, an author of numerous novels and poetry collections, once told an interviewer. “I get a lot of my kinks out there.” Oscar Schwartz traces those kinks through a collection of reviews—baby food, smelling salts, Meet the Fockers—to reveal how Killian made one of the world’s best-known corporate behemoths a publisher of experimental literature.

• For more than half a century, researchers at the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies have documented “cases of the reincarnation type.” As the division searches for its next director, Saskia Solomon details its founding and early investigations as well as its ongoing work, joining a team of researchers on a visit to interview a three-year-old with seemingly uncanny knowledge of Abraham Lincoln.

• To Tabatha Pope, an apartment in a house outside downtown Houston seemed too good to be true after living in a $35 a night motel for the past nine months. All she and her boyfriend had to do was spruce the place up according to Pamela Merritt, a woman who was also renting in the building. Merritt’s explanation for the horrific stench that wafted out when she was about to show Pope the work to be done on the second floor seemed dubious. And where exactly was Colin, the landlord who lived on the third floor? Little did Pope know she was stepping into a house of horrors.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Two things are interesting about this video. First, it’s always nice to see Croatia mentioned. Of course, it would be better if it weren’t in the context of helping the CIA run perhaps the largest shadow-prison program in the history of the world. Second, the production value of these YouTube journalists is incredible. I don’t know of a single news organization that can match this.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk