Omega Unveils 11 New Fantastic Summer Blue Seamasters In One Day, Oris Gives Divers Sixty-Five Cotton Candy Steel Case and Louis Erard Works With Massena Again For New Monopusher Chronograph

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Some brands space out their announcements. Not Omega. They prefer to flood the market, and good on them! Let’s take a look.

The giveaway for the Hamilton is coming to an end this week. Invite your friends or fill out the survey to enter while you still can. Submissions will close on Friday, 11.59 PM CET

In this issue:

• Omega Introduces 11 New Summer Blue Seamasters To Celebrate 75 Years Of The Line, Complete With Return Of Steel Ploprof

• Oris Gives The Divers Sixty-Five Cotton Candy A Stainless Steel Case

• Louis Erard Teams Up With Massena LAB Again For A New Monopusher Chronograph

• The Wilbur Leo JW1 Is A Futuristic Highly-Complicated, Crazy Expensive Experiment

• The New Voutilainen CSW Gets Radically Different Case Shape But Keeps His High End Watchmaking

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 12 seconds

Interested in sponsoring It’s About Time? Just reply to this email and we’ll put you in front of thousands of watch enthusiasts, including industry professionals from brands like Rolex, Omega and IWC.

👂What’s new

1/

Omega Introduces 11 New Summer Blue Seamasters To Celebrate 75 Years Of The Line, Steel Ploprof Returns

Some brands wait for trade shows to show pretty much all of the watches they will make in a year. Others spread out new releases through the calendar. Then there’s Omega. To celebrate 75 years of the legendary Seamaster, they announced a brand new 11 watch collection, demonstrating how radically diverse this cult model is. Omega has developed a remarkably coherent conceit behind this release, which they are subtitling “Precision at Every Level,” a nod to the brand’s high spec METAS certified movements and the range of depths Seamaster watches are certified to, all unified with the new shade of “Summer Blue” on each dial.

But it’s not just a new shade slapped onto existing watches. Each watch has a different shade on it, from lighter to darker gradients, depending on the depth rating of the watch. The Aqua Terra, for example, has only a 150m water resistance and a corresponding light blue dial. The Ploprof and Ultra Deep, on the other hand, are almost black, with a hint of blue.

Another notable aspect common to all of these watches is the caseback, which is a throwback to the original design from the 1950s featuring Poseidon with his trident and a pair of seahorses. The same design is featured on every watch in the Summer Blue series, which means that all of these watches have closed basebacks, hiding the METAS certified movements from view.

Starting with the Aqua Terra line, we get four watches in total. There’s the relatively new 38mm version with “sailboat” hour markers; the 41mm versions on both a strap and steel bracelet, both incorporating the horizontal dial texture that has become the Aqua Terra’s signature; and the new version of Omega’s Worldtimer, which gets a blue version following a very successful green one. All of the Aqua Terras share a similar light blue dial tone and moderate gradient that is reflective of the 150 meter water resistance of these watches. The Aqua Terra starts at $6,400.

The Seamaster 300 is the diver modeled on the original “professional” dive watch launched by Omega in 1957 and the depth rating double, so the dial gets darker as a result. There’s also a noticeable gradient, but there is still a great deal of light blue incorporated into the dial, specifically in the hour markers and numerals found in the dive bezel. Omega is also using a new light blue shade of Super-LumiNova on the 300. The Seamaster 300 retails for $7,400.

The Seamaster Diver 300M is the contemporary incarnation of Omega’s classic dive watch, and it has the same water resistance, the shade of blue remains the same, but with the signature texture that the watch has come to be recognized by, in this case a dramatic laser etched wave pattern on a sheet of polished ceramic. The watch will be available on either a bracelet or a rubber strap. On rubber, the 300M lists for $5,900 and goes up to $6,300 on a bracelet.

The Planet Ocean 600M is moving into Omega’s professional range. Rated to a silly 600 meters, the 39.5mm Planet Ocean gets darker blue tones that becoming more noticeable here, and they appear on dial with a subtle vertically brushed texture. The Planet Ocean’s retail price is $7,400.

We’re going much deeper now with the Ploprof, which is rated to 1,200 meters. The dial on this watch is nearly black except at the center, where a shaft of light blue peeks out. This is also a major update to the Ploprof, as the stainless steel Ploprof 1,200 has been discontinued in 2019 after 10 years in the lineup, only to be replaced with a titanium model. While titanium is cool, if you’re buying a Ploprof, you want a steel model. This watch has to have a presence on your wrist. However, Omega has shrunk it down just a bit to make the intimidating asymmetrical case more wearable. It’s not small - it’s still 55mm wide, but the lug to lug has been brought down from 48mm to 45mm and the thickness is now 15.5mm. The retail price on the Ploprof is $14,300.

And the collection ends on the insane 45.5mm Ultra Deep, with a rating of an almost incomprehensible 6,000 meters. The colorway is just as dark, if not darker, than the Ploprof, but the Ultra Deep gets a special dial that reflects the ocean floor, with a texture that is a precise representation of Challenger Deep. To drive the point home, Omega has included an Easter egg of sorts in the form of a map only visible when hit with a UV light that reveals the precise location and depth of the Five Deeps dive. The retail price on the Ultra Deep is $13,000.

2/

Oris Gives The Divers Sixty-Five Cotton Candy A Stainless Steel Case

Two years ago at Watches and Wonders, Oris caused quite a stir when they introduced a 38mm bronze Diver Sixty-Five in three variants they called the Cotton Candies. They were impressive watches to look at, with the shiny bronze and wild dial colors, but not everybody was stoked on bronze at the time. Well, lucky for those people, Oris is now releasing a trio trio of Divers Sixty-Five Cotton Candies in green, blue, and pink, this time in stainless steel instead of bronze.

Other than the case material, pretty much everything else remains the same - the new case also measures 38mm wide and a bit under 13mm thick. The only noticeable changes are slightly more saturation in dial colors and the switch from faux patina in the lume to pure white. Inside the watch is the Oris caliber 733, which is a Sellita SW200-1 with an Oris-branded rotor. That automatic movement offers a 41-hour power reserve and runs at 28,800vph. You can get the watch on a stainless steel bracelet or a Perlon strap.

The watches are available now, at a price of €2,150 on the Perlon strap and €2,350 on the stainless steel bracelet. Read more on the Oris website.

3/

Louis Erard Teams Up With Massena LAB Again For A New Monopusher Chronograph

I totally dig Massena LAB’s owner William Massena’s taste. Everything he has done in the watch world has been impeccable. I, also, adore Louis Erard and believe them to be THE most underrated watch brand today. They have specialized in bringing extremely high end watches - like those made by Konstantin Chaykin or watches with impeccable marquetry dials or watches designed by Alain Silberstein or watches with hand guilloché dials - to the masses by bringing the price from dozens of thousands to low-mid four digits. And finally, I love the monopusher chronograph, as they are so rare.

If you are anything like me, I have some good news. Louis Erard has teamed up with Massena LAB once again, following their fantastic collaboration on a regulator watch, to create he new Le Chronographe Monopoussoir Louis Erard x Massena LAB, a monopusher chronograph that costs about as much as your average Tudor.

The monopusher is an interesting counterpoint to last year’s regulator. In terms of mechanical complexity, the monopusher has a clear edge, yet the design is very restrained. While the regulator had to have numerous dials, subdials and hands to display the time, the monopusher just has an additional 30 minute counter at the 12:00 position.

Again, the dial plate is the main attraction of the watch, as even at this price point it comes in either rhodium or gold plating with a distinctive grained finish. Both watches feature a rhodium plated minute track at the dial’s perimeter, along with an opaline minute totalizer. The hands are heat blued steel in a leaf shape on both variants, and dial text is kept to an absolute minimum, with only the Massena wordmark and Louis Erard logos. It’s not a small watch, at 43mm wide and 15.7mm thick with a domed sapphire crystal and high polished stainless steel, but that’s kind of the point with Louis Erard. They have to be a bit flashy.

Since the watch provides a ton of value, they had to do something to keep the cost low. So inside is the Sellita SW500MPCa movement, a modified version of their standard SW500 chronograph caliber. It’s an automatic caliber with 48 hours of power reserve, and features an openworked rotor with Louis Erard’s logo, visible through an exhibition caseback. The watch is water resistant to 50 meters and is fitted with a grained calf leather strap.

Each version of the Le Chronographe Monopoussoir Louis Erard x Massena LAB is limited to 178 pieces and the retail price is CHF 4,250. Read more about them at the Louis Erard website.

4/ 

The Wilbur Leo JW1 Is A Futuristic Highly-Complicated, Crazy Expensive Experiment

Jason Wilbur is a car designer by trade, but the watch world will most likely know him as the designer of the crazy Tread 1 for watch brand Devon. What the watch world won’t as readily know is that Wilbur also has his own watch company - Wilbur Watches - and they are just releasing the Leo family of products, which begins with the Leo JW1 model. A Blog To Watch had a chance to test out the watch as it is released, so here are the most important takeaways:

The most impressive part of the watch is the movement, designed in collaboration with Concepto (a mechanical watch movement designer and manufacturer) and uses a strong base mechanism with a special module developed exclusively for Wilbur. It is called the “Wilbur Engine One” and features the time with jumping digital hours and moving discs for the minutes and seconds indicators. With a sandblasted finish and modern look, the Wilbur Engine One can be viewed through the sapphire crystal caseback. According to Wilbur, the Leo case is designed with shock absorption in mind, in theory protecting the movement from shocks and vibrations that could impact operation and accuracy.

There is no dial to speak of, but rather discs and dials that show the time. Wilbur implements a huge two-disc system similar to how a big date indicator works — only in this instance, the discs overlap. This overlapping allows shapes to overlay on one another creating the digital number display. One disc is black and produced from aluminum, and the other disc is transparent sapphire crystal. The fun design means that until the discs overlap the shapes printed on them look abstract. Once they perfectly overlap, they form a clear digital numeral in the middle of the dial.

Housing the Wilbur Engine One movement is a robust and aggressive-looking case. Each current version of the Wilbur Leo has a mostly titanium case with some of the titanium being naturally finished and other Leos having DLC-coated titanium for a different color. The cases are 46mm-wide, 16.5mm-thick, and have a 48.5mm lug-to-lug distance. The silicone straps are fitted with quick-release ends.

Prices for the various Wilbur Leo JW1 watches vary depending on the finishing and materials. So do the production numbers which are currently 50 pieces for the blue-accented all-natural titanium Wilbur Leo JW1.1 (priced at $32,500), 25 pieces for the black-accented Leo JW1.2 (priced at $36,500), and 25 pieces for the yellow-accented Leo JW1.3 (priced at $36,500). Learn more at the Wilbur website.

5/

The New Voutilainen CSW Gets Radically Different Case Shape But Keeps His High End Watchmaking

Kari Voutilainen is easily among the three greatest living watchmakers. His pieces are supremely elegant, classical and timeless. So it’s a big deal when he unveils something so radically different than what he usually does. This is the Voutilainen CSW, which stands for Cushion Shape Worldtime. While keeping his signature refinement, the CSW is more modern and much more sportier than what he usually makes. It’s still as expensive, though.

The furthest departure from Voutilainen’s regular watchmaking is hinted at in the name - Cushion Shape Worldtime - and refers to, duh, the cushion shape of the watch. It measures 39mm x 39mm and is 12mm thick. To separate it further from other models in the portfolio, it has been adorned with four functional screws on each corner with the brand’s signature three-hole design.

While the case is unusual for Voutilainen, the dial is very much in his style. Especially the world time complication, which he has included in many of his watches. The entire dial is plated in ruthenium, giving it an anthracite color, and a contemporary guilloché pattern has been created to enhance legibility, with the engine-turning process applied to a solid silver base. The centre is home to a delicate trivague wave motif. The central hours and minutes are handmade white gold and blued steel hollowed hands.

Inside the watch is the calibre 216TMZ. This large hand-wound movement features a new escapement with two direct impulse escape wheels linked to an oversized, 13.5mm free-sprung balance wheel with a Grossman interior curve and Philips exterior curve, beating at 18,000 vibrations/hour. The power reserve is 60 hours now. As you’d expect from Kari, the decoration is classic Haute Horlogerie. The German silver mainplate and bridges are hand-finished with large bevels and sharp internal angles. The wheels are solid rose gold, with bevelled spoke,s and the rest is… well, simply superb (just look at the bercé balance bridge.)

Like many Voutilainen watches, this will also be a very limited edition. Only 10 pieces will be made. The price will be CHF 198,000.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

Review of the Marathon Navigator In Steel

2/

Hands on with the Boulton Quartz that Indiana Jones wears in the Dial Of Destiny

3/

Diving with the Casio G-Shock Frogman MRG-BF1000R

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Vero Meridian Manual Wind, a fun summer/adventure watch 

If you get bored reading your favorite book by the pool or can’t stand the midday summer heat, turn the watch over. You will be greeted by a clear view of the Sellita SW210-1 hand-wound caliber. The case back features a sapphire exhibition window, and the movement appears to be hugging the crystal to the point that I feel I could touch it. And the version inside the Meridian is quite pleasing to look at. It showcases a mixture of black rhodium-plated parts, blue screws, and snail-finished gears. Furthermore, you should know that Vero regulates the movements in six positions to run at ±5 seconds per day.

⏲️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

• Those looking for dirty deeds to be done seem to be going no further than the Comm, a series of Discord communities in which people order violence, including commissioning robberies for bitcoin, and organizing swats against vulnerable people for perceived slights and insults. For Vice, Joseph Cox infiltrated this vile, testosterone-fuelled world of crime.

• Yesterday, we read about the cutting edge developments in penis enhancements. Today, we have a guy who is making sure they are properly protected. Meet the man trying to make condoms sexy.

• This is a fascinating story about a woman who bought a mountain for God. The country’s fastest-growing Christian movement helped fuel Trump’s rise—and is gearing up for spiritual battle.

• These recommendations are usually long from reads. But his must not be missed - photographer and filmmaker looks back at his rafting trip down the Grand Canyon he took in 1971. The photos are just stunning.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Here’s a trailer for a movie on what might be a defining moment in online culture - when a couple of degenerates from Reddit accidentally stumbled on a possible short squeeze on Game Stop. What started off as a joke almost brought down several billion dollar hedge funds and provided entertainment for months on end. The movie looks equally as fun.

💵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: 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

• FOR SALE: Longines Heritage Skin Diver, box and papers. €1400. Reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch

Want to let us know what you think about the newsletter? Go to our survey and fill it out.