Oris Shrinks Down Divers Sixty-Five Chrono To 40mm, Louis Erard Has A New Creepy Chaykin, Furlan Marri Teams Up With seconde/seconde, ArtyA Releases Mind-Bending Color Changing Sapphire Case

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. What a fantastic day for watches today. Just look at the lineup - a couple of affordable watches, one expensive one, a Louis Erard that is spectacular, a Furlan Marri that will sell out instantly, an Oris that is just what the people wanted and a sapphire cased watch that will have you scratching your head.

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In this issue:

• Oris Shrinks Down The Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph To More Manageable 40mm

• Louis Erard Continues Konstantin Chaykin Collaboration With Much Scarier Regulator Time-Eater II “From Dusk to Dawn”

• Furlan Marri Teams Up With seconde/seconde For A Watch That Wants To Jumpstart Your Love For Quartz Watches

• ArtyA Introduces Mind-Bending Color Changing Sapphire Case For the Tiny Purity Tourbillon NanoSaphir Chameleon

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 28 seconds

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👂What’s new

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Oris Shrinks Down The Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph To More Manageable 40mm

When it was launched back in 2015 as a diver with extreme retro influences, the Oris Divers Sixty Five was met with criticism and called gimmicky and relatively low water resistance for a diver - 100 meters. However, these critics were in the minority, as the Sixty Five became a huge hit for Oris and it quickly saw new iterations that made it a more modern, but still vintage-inspired diver. In 2018, the Sixty-Five collection got a limited-edition, bronze-cased chronograph followed by regular production models, but not very much has been done with them since then. Now, Oris is introducing a new Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph and with it addresses the main criticism the old one got.

The Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph is much loved, but if there is one thing people can’t get over is it’s size - 43mm wide and almost 17mm thick. It’s a big one. The new version is still chunky at 15.6mm, but it loses 3mm in width and now measures 40mm. The case is made out of staonless steel with a mix of brushed and polished edges. Water resistance remains at 100 meters, which is a bit weird for a diver, but I imagine it will stand up to most abuse you could throw at it. You also get a very domed sapphire crystal which makes for some cool views of the dial from the edges of the crystal.

While the reintroduced Sixty Five from 2015 was a full vintage watch with with the gilt/bronze accents and bezel, this new chronograph has a more modern look with a black and white color palette. You get a traditional bi-compax layout with running seconds at 9, a 30-minute totaliser at 3 o’clock and no date window. The applied indices and hands are filled with Super-LumiNova.

Inside the watch is the same self-winding Oris 771 movement – based on the Sellita SW 510 – that was in the last release, with 48 hours of power reserve. You can get the watch on a faux-riveted bracelet or Cervo Volante deer leather strap.

The watch is available now for $4,400 on bracelet and $4,200 on a leather strap. See more on the Oris website.

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Louis Erard Continues Konstantin Chaykin Collaboration With Much Scarier Regulator Time-Eater II “From Dusk to Dawn”

For years (actually, since 1929) Louis Erard was a solid, if slightly unknown, Swiss watchmaker. They made excellent watches that were always somehow a step in front of the Swiss competition, but did not stand out in any egregious way - they just chugged along and made great things. However, lately, things have changed for Louis Erard. It seems that they are now one of the leading manufacturers of innovative, prestigious and even complicated watches for funny low prices.

They still utilize their expert knowledge of watchmaking, but now exectue it in fun and unexpected ways, especially in their collaborations with other watchmakers and artists. In just the past few years they released watches impeccable marquetry dials, watches designed by Alain Silberstein and watches with hand guilloché dials way below the price points of other brands. One of their most recent collaboration was with legendary Russian indie watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin, who redid their Regulator model into one of his bulging-eye monsters. Now they’re working together again and Chaykin cyclops monster gets even creepier with an edition called Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin Regulator Time Eater II From Dusk To Dawn.

This collaboration comes in two sizes and finishes. The 42mm wide version comes in a polished steel case and an anthracite dial, while the 39mm version gets a sandblasted steel case with a black PVD coating (has anyone else noticed a very sharp uptick in black PVD watches in the past month or two?) and a black dial. The crown of the Time-Eater II is a signature Chaykin crown, and the caseback is engraved with “Limited Edition 1 of 178”.

Apart from being one of the leading watchmakers in the world, Chaykin has an incredible sense of humor when it comes to his watches and the stories they tell. This piece is inspired by the one-eyed Likho, a legendary creature in Slavic mythology personifying evil and misfortune. Set against a dark, wavy background, the monster’s revolving blood-shot pupil indicates the hours, while the red-framed sub-dial at 6 o’clock has a black star-shaped running seconds indicator devouring time like a black hole.

The watch is powered by the same Sellita SW266-1 caliber that drives all of Louis Erard’s regulators that can be seen through the semi-transparent, tinted caseback. It comes in an élaboré grade and can run the watch for 38 hours. Considering this is a horror-themed watch, it comes on an appropriately horrific strap made out of black toad leather with a red rabbit leather lining.

Only 178 pieces of each size will be made and the two watches will be available as a box set made in only 28 pieces. The individual watches are priced at CHF 4,000, regardless of their size, while the two-watch box set are priced at CHF 7,900, but are already sold out. Which is an incredible bargain considering the level of watchmaking you are getting and the connection with Chaykin, whose watches usually sell for tens of thousands. Go see more on the watches on the Louis Erard website.

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Furlan Marri Teams Up With seconde/seconde For A Watch That Wants To Jumpstart Your Love For Quartz Watches

It’s hard to believe, but Furlan Marri, the microbrand that has become a household name and garnered legions of fans, has been started only two years ago. In 2021 they launched their Mechaquartz powered chronograph on Kickstarter to instant success from people who loved their 30s and 40s inspired chronograph design and sub €600 price point. After including the Mecaquartz into their permanent collection and creating a mechanical version of the chronograph, Furlan Marri is now teaming up with seconde/seconde/ to modify their most popular, but very serious, watch in a whimsical way to prove that quartz watches also have a heart. Or, as they put it: “For those who are still sceptic, here's an emergency kit to help you make your heart beat again for “non-entirely” mechanical watches”.

seconde/seconde/ is a brand run by Romaric André, a former financial auditor who has in recent year profiled himself as one of the leading vintage watch customizers, known especially for replacing hands with those of his own design. He has worked with a whole slew of brands, including Vulcain, Nivada Grenchen, Louis Erard, Bamford and H. Moser & Cie, creating watches that take the original and update it with fun. His intervention in the Furlan Marri is very simple - he replaced the 60 minute counter at 9 o’clock with his recognizable pixelated illustration of a heart.

Other than that, it’s the same Furlan Marri you know. The case is made out of stainless steel and measures 38mm wide and 11.3mm thick. It has a very elegant shape with sweeping, mid-century, lugs, engraved pushers, flat crown, and brushed mid-case. This limited edition is based on the Nero Sabbia reference of the Mecaquartz Furlan Marri, which has an asymmetrical dial with no running seconds subdial. It also doesn’t have applied numerals, but rather a golden-sand-colored printed sector dial. On the periphery is a doctor’s pulsometer, one of my favorite scales.

The watch is, of course, powered by a mecaquartz movement, the Seiko VK64. Mecaquartz movements are curious things, as they attempt to bring the best of the mechanical and quartz worlds into one movement. You still get the sweeping, mechanical feel of the chronograph seconds hand, while getting the accuracy and reliability of a quartz movement. Mecaquarz movements are often found in very cheap chronographs and have thus been associated with the lower end of watchmaking, but in a solidly built Furlan Marri, you get to see that it’s not such a bad movement after all. The watch comes on a beige leather strap as well as two nato straps - one black and one red.

The Furlan Marri + seconde/seconde/ will be a limited edition of only 200 pieces and will go on sale today, September 20th at 6 PM CET. Price is set at CHF 720, which is a CHF 165 over the regular Mecaquartz Nero Sabbia. It might seem like a lot of money for a quartz watch, but the build quality and incredible style easily justify the price. See more on the Furlan Marri website.

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ArtyA Introduces Mind-Bending Color Changing Sapphire Case For the Tiny Purity Tourbillon NanoSaphir Chameleon

Some brands will sell you watches made out of the rarest metals on earth for ungodly amounts of money. Some will, even, include stuff from out of this world to make the watches more special. Some will focus on making the most advanced mechanical movement possible, which will carry with it an equally large price tag. Then there are those brands that are brave enough to tackle making a watch with a sapphire case. While sapphire is not a rare metal, it is the second-hardest material on Earth, making it next to impossible to shape. Expensive, of courses.

However, then there are brands like ArtyA, started in 2010 by Yvan Arpa. Just a few months ago they introduced an affordable sapphire cased watch that would run you in the low 30 thousand range. Yes, that’s a lot of money, but it’s also cheap when compared to other sapphire case watches. Not only that, that AquaSaphir was also the first sapphire case watch that had 60 meters of water resistance. ArtyA is now introducing a new watch, the Tiny Purity Tourbillon NanoSaphir Chameleon and you are really not ready for what this one does.

According to ArtyA, they have developed a proprietary process to treat the sapphire on a molecular level to make it change colors, depending on the light you view it at. Those two watches you see in the picture above? Those are not two watches. It’s the same watch, just seen under different lights, giving the sapphire crystal radically different colors. Exposed to warm light, the case has an amber color, but shine a brighter and cooler light on it and suddenly it shifts to an electric lime-green.

The name Tiny Purity is a reference to their previous Purity Tourbillon model. That was a 46mm behemoth and the new watch is positively tiny compared to it at 39mm. Most of the width, however, is dedicated to the internals of the watch, a twin-barrel flying tourbillon calibre that has been overhauled in collaboration with Télôs Watch.

Thanks to the completely transparent case, you get to see every single detail of the case and what a movement it is. The tourbillon case is 17mm wide with three prongs and beveled survaces. It seems to float in the case, while the dauphine hour and minute hands can be read above the other stacked components. The movement beats at 4Hz and the two barrels on either side of the hour indicator get you 72 hours of power reserve.

Perhaps most interestingly, this ArtyA Tiny Purity Tourbillon NanoSaphir Chameleon is a piece unique that was created to compete in the Best Men’s Complication category at 2023’s GPHG. However, you can get it in other colors and it’s no longer the affordable sapphire watch the AquaSaphir is. It will set you back $179,000. See more on the ArtyA website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands on with the new skeletonized an glass-bezeled Royal Oak Jumbos

2/

A review of the Lebois & Co. Heritage Chronograph

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Maurice de Mauriac Rallymaster II is a refreshing summer watch

The 39mm case is fully brushed, with a slim mid-case flanked both above and below by ever-decreasing steps. The reverse sees a screw-in case back as one of two levels below the central part of the case. On the front, the fixed bezel comprises two separate strata before the sapphire crystal protrudes further still. It’s quite a complex design, simply finished, which does a good job of disguising any thickness. The drilled lugs complete the no-nonsense composition. While many straps seem to have quick-release bars, including those supplied with the Rallymaster II, strap changing is always quicker with drilled lugs. Read the whole review on Fratello.

⏲️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

• In the fall of 2022, journalist Zarina Zabrisky visits Pripyat and Chornobyl, Ukraine, after being “asked to investigate whether the Russian Army dug trenches in the radioactive zona during the invasion.” She meets with samosel—members of the community who returned to the exclusion zone to try and live out their lives in peace—despite the radioactive fallout of the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion and the Russian army’s 2022 invasion.

• In the 1960s, Westerners pilgrimaged to Nepal for its cannabis and the region’s so-called hippie trail. But King Birendra outlawed trade of the plant in the ’70s, with a complete ban of cannabis soon after. Now, decades later, Nepal is seeing a movement toward acceptance, and a man named Madan is at the forefront of this green wave, calling himself the country’s first weed influencer. Sean Williams tags along with Madan on a journey from Kathmandu to Thawang to see firsthand how the criminalization of cannabis has affected the lives of people who live there, and to learn what Madan envisions for Nepal’s future if cannabis were legalized.

• Ships without crews. Self-directed drone swarms. This is how a US Navy task force is using off-the-shelf robotics and artificial intelligence to prepare for the next age of conflict. The AI-powered, totally autonomous future of war is already here.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I like to keep these videos watch-free to give you a break at the end. However, I will call your attention to this dude, Bowl of Salmon. Go look at his videos, they’re masterfully done and it’s one dude doing it all in his apartment.

💵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

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