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- Patek's First Aquanaut Minute Repeater Is A Bit Controversial, TAG Pays Homage To Dubai, Bell & Ross Releases Fully Lumed Case, CW Has A New Aventurine Dial And New From Baltic And De Rijke & Co.
Patek's First Aquanaut Minute Repeater Is A Bit Controversial, TAG Pays Homage To Dubai, Bell & Ross Releases Fully Lumed Case, CW Has A New Aventurine Dial And New From Baltic And De Rijke & Co.
Dubai Watch Week is over, but we still have some watches to cover
Vuk Radic
November 20, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 19 minutes
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. We’re still dealing with leftovers from Dubai Watch Week, and will for the next few days, but I have to say my favorite watch today is the Bell & Ross.
If you like this newsletter, you might consider supporting it directly through Patreon. If you were subscribed, you could have already read my lengthy piece on Only Watch and it potentially being the biggest scam of the watch world. Other subscriber-only articles include the Completely Sterile Secret Watches Of MACV-SOG and my choice of 11 vintage Heuer watches that would make the perfect basis for new TAG Heuer recreations, including a possible MoonSwatch type watch that could actually break the internet.
In this issue:
Patek Philippe Launches First Aquanaut Minute Repeater With Two Extremely Gem Set References
TAG Heuer Closes Dubai Watch Week With A Limited Edition Carrera Tourbillon H02T Dubai Skyline
Bell & Ross Releases The BR-X5 Green Lum With A Crazy Fully Luminous Case
Christopher Ward Adds An Aventurine Dial To Their C63 Line With The Celest
The Baltic x Perpétuel Gallery Tropical Tricompax Is One Of The Best Looking Middle East Watches Out There
Revolution Teams Up With De Rijke & Co. Once Again For A Pink And Black Miffy Double Moonphase
Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 12 seconds
👂What’s new
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Virtually every complication we covet in watches today at one point had a very real and useful purpose. Take, for example, the minute repeater. It was originally developed to solve two problems - not being able to see what time it is in the dark and to allow blind people to tell the time. Following World War I, with the increase in young men who lost their eyesight in battle, the repeater complication became more and more popular. However, with the end of WWII the complication fell out of favor and has now joined the ranks of complications that were once very useful but are now used to show off the horological prowess of a brand. Now Patek Philippe is bringing this coveted feature to their Aquanaut line for the first time with the Aquanaut Luce Minute Repeaters, but with much controversy behind it.
The minute repeaters come in two references, the 5260/1455R and the 5260/355R, both of which are listed on Patek’s website as women’s watches. However, due to their size, all it takes is a man who is comfortable with this amount of precious stones and it becomes a unisex piece. This is not the controversial part.
The two watches come in a 38.5mm wide rose gold case that differ slightly in thickness. The Ref. 5260/1455R comes on a fully set rainbow bracelet and measures 10.7mm thick, while the Ref. 5260/355R is 10.1mm and comes on the composite rubber strap the sporty Aquanaut is known for. While the two references come with different straps, they have almost the same dial - fully set with baguette diamonds with colourful sapphire hour markers and colourful hands. The only difference is the 5260/355R which uses snow set diamonds instead of baguettes between the hour markers. The 5260/1455R has additional sapphires on the lugs, while the 5260/355R has diamonds.
Inside the watches is the Calibre R 27, which has a chiming complications that sound out the time to the exact minute using a series of hammers and gongs when activated. The R 27 has a 48-hour power reserve with automatic winding provided by a guilloché micro-rotor.
And lastly, the biggest controversy of the watch - it’s not waterproof. As in, be careful how you wash your hands not waterproof. While this would not be an issue for any other Patek, the whole point of an Aquanaut is that it’s waterproof. It’s right there in the name. While there is no doubt the watches will sell extremely well, despite the price being on request, it’s a shame that the first Aquanaut minute repeater is not waterproof and a bit more subdued. See more about the watch on the Patek website.
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A couple of weeks ago I said that if I were to do annual awards, the award for biggest comeback by a watch brand would easily go to TAG Heuer. Just in the past year they have introduced a couple of amazing designs that have pushed them away from the somewhat boring, often aesthetically challenged, designs that made the brand fall away in the 2010s from it’s peak. I’m not one to judge, but it seems that there is still some of that old sentiment in the company, as the new TAG Heuer Carrera Tourbillon H02T Dubai Skyline, a watch they just released at the Dubai Watch Week to pay homage to the city of Dubai, is much more in line with the old TAG. And not in a good way.
The Tourbillon H02T Dubai Skyline comes in a 45mm a black PVD titanium case with a carbon tachymeter bezel. So, it’s a large sports watch and it’s not ashamed to show it. There are additional carbon applications on the case, along with a 100 meter water resistance. The dial is fully skeletonized and has dark ink-blue accents on the indices and sub-dials counter rings. The anthracite dial has an outer flange featuring a second/minute track.All hands, including the central hour, minute, and second, are rhodium-plated.
Turn the watch over and you’ll see a blue sapphire window that has a Dubai skyline motif and a centrally positioned logo of the city engraved in it. Below the crystal you can see the Calibre Heuer 02T Tourbillon with an integrated column wheel chronograph that beats at 28,800vph and has a 65-hour power reserve. The movement is COSC-certified. The watch comes on a black alligator and leather strap with a black PVD carbon titanium grade 2 folding clasp.
This will be a hyper-limited edition and only 12 will be made at a price of €22,000. The watch is not yet up on the TAG Heuer website, but keep an eye open.
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There are so many ways to stand out from the fray. Bell & Ross chose their very early on - to differentiate themselves from the thousands of other watches, they started making watches shaped like airplane instruments. This proved to be a fantastic move as it allowed them to be instantly recognizable, from very far away. Since then they have introduced more and more watches that have something unique about them. The recently shown BR 03 Gyrocompass, for example, goes full airplane instrument with an airplane hour hand, while a couple of years ago they created the Full Lum, a watch with a fully lumed dial. While full lume dials are not that unusual, their most recent watch, the BR-X5 Green Lum, has a fully lumed case and it’s amazing!
The case measures 41mm in diameter with a multi-layered construction consisting of black DLC coated titanium and a new luminescent material developed specially for this watch, LM3D. Bell & Ross describes LM3D as a fibreglass composite consisting of quartz fibres that diffuse a strong green luminescence. In light, the watch is off-white, almost toy-like, while in the dark it looks like you are hiding Kryptonite in your watch.
Aside from the glowing case and the greater proportion of SuperLumiNova on the display’s hands, hour markers, date window and power reserve subdial, this is just a regular BR-X5 watch, with the same functions and the same movement.
This means that inside you’ll find the BR CAL.323, which is the first Bell & Ross manufacture movement, designed in collaboration with Kenissi. It beats at 4Hz and has a 70 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black open-worked rubber strap that is integrated into the case.
The Bell & Ross BR-X5 Green Lum is limited to 500 pieces and retails for €11,900. See more on the Bell & Ross website.
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After years spent as one of the premier microbrands out there, the British watch manufacturer Christopher Ward is now firmly out of these waters and a full-fledged brand. And as such they are padding their lineup with both limited editions and standard issue watches. It’s nice to see that they are bold in both limited and permanent editions to do something different, even when faced with criticism. And there was a lot of that a we months ago when they introduced the C1 Moonphase with an aventurine dial. People complained it was too big, too expensive and not legible enough. Well guess what, to prove they are growing up into a true watch powerhouse, they heard your complaints and they give you the Christopher Ward C63 Celest.
Being part of the C63 collection means that it comes in a 36mm case that’s 11.05mm thick and has a 42.87mm lug-to-lug. On top is a flat sapphire crystal and a screw-down crown, with a 150m depth rating. Overall it’s a more sporty watch than the C1 Moonphase. Under that crystal, however, is something compeltely different from the rest of the C63 lineup. It’s a gorgeous dial made out of aventurine glass that has much more going on compared to the Moonphase, but appeases all the criticisms. You get applied beveled and polished indices and a very shiny handset.
Inside the watch is the Sellita SW200-1 movement, a well known affair that’s easy to service. It beats at 28,800 vph and has a 38 hour power reserve and a quoted accuracy of -/+20 seconds per day. I have that movement in a couple of watches and have gotten much better accuracy than that, so I assume this is just Sellita covering every possibility. The watch can come on one of three strap options - a five link Consort bracelet, a three link Bader bracelet or a blue leather strap.
The Christopher Ward C63 Celest is part of the regular CW lineup and is priced at €950 on the leather strap, €1,150 on the three link bracelet and €1,165 on the five link one. See more on the CW website.
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To be very open up front, this is not a new watch. It seems that it was released in early October and I completely missed it. The only reason why I know about it is because Hodinkee published a piece on it by Mark Kauzlarich just the other day. But even as a non-new release, there was no way I was going to miss out on such a gorgeous piece. Baltic, you see, has teamed up with Perpétual Gallery, a watch dealer from Dubai, to release a limited edition of 200 pieces called Tropical Tricompax for the Middle Eastern market.
Middle Eastern market watches have always been coveted among collectors and most of them render the numerals in Arabic script. And this one is no different. The watch comes in a 39.5mm wide stainless steel case that’s 13.5mm thick and has a 47mm lug-to-lug. The case has a predominately brushed finish, a fixed bezel and a black Tachymeter insert. On top is a sapphire crystal and due to the push-in crown it only has 50 meters of water resistance.
That’s pretty much what you would expect from Baltic’s Tricompax model What’s new is the incredible dial that mimics a tropical fade, meaning you will get a lighter brown color in the center of the dial that radiates out to a darker shade. The Arabic script is painted in an off-white color and the dial has a tricompax layout with a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, a 12-hour counter at 6 and a running seconds at 9. The dial is completed with blackened Dauphine faceted hands filled with luminescent material and the brand’s lettering at noon.
Inside the watch is the Sellita SW510-M manual chronograph movement that beats at 28,800 Vph and has a respectable 60 hours of power reserve. The watch comes on a flat-link steel bracelet that has central links matching the brushed finish of the case and polished side links.
The Baltic x Perpétuel Gallery Tropical Tricompax is limited to 200 pieces and despite being released over a month ago, there are still pieces for sale. The watch is priced at €2,200 and it can be bought exclusively at Perpétuel Gallery. See more on their website.
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The Dutch brand De Rijke & Co. make very interesting unique watches. They could best be described as an elegant approach to a driver’s watch, one that you wear when you don’t need to time the perfect lap but rather want to cruise the Amalfi coast. But what really put them on the map is their collaboration with Miffy, the legendary Dutch cartoon character. The watches were whimsical, youthful, but at the same time fantasticaly designed with an eye for detail. Earlier this year, De Rijke & Co. reamed up with the watch magazine Revolution for a limited edition that used great shades of blue and a sapphire crystal dial to show a double moonphase. Now they’re back at it again, but with an even better pink dial.
This watch continues the story of not one but two Miffies sitting on crescent moons, set against a backdrop of a midnight blue sky blanketed by stars. They achieved the double hemisphere moonphase with an ingenious use of a frosted sapphire crystal on the dial. Framing the moon phase display is a raised chapter ring treated in a lovely shade of glittering pink. According to Revolution, the rosy tint transforms the watch from a fun pastel number in daylight to a deeper shade of peach against the bright luminous accents in the dark.
The technical data on this watch is less important than the dial, but still, here it is. It comes in a 38mm stainless steel case that’s water resistant to 100 meters. Inside the watch is the self-winding Sellita caliber SW 288-1 that has a 38-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grey calf leather strap with stainless steel tang buckle and a quick release system.
The Revolution x De Rijke & Co. Miffy Double Moonphase “Black & Pink” is limited to 100 pieces. It’s priced at €3,400 and for every piece sold, €250 will go towards the Singapore Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF), a social service agency dedicating itself to championing the cause of early breast cancer detection and supporting to the breast cancer community in Singapore.
The watch goes on sale on the Revolution website on 22 Nov 2023, 10pm SGT/ 4pm CET/ 10am EST.
🫳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
For the dial, Trintec has not strayed far from its original design brief. The Airfield displays a high-contrast white-on-black colorway, oversized cardinal numbers, and fat sword hands for instant legibility. A smooth, fixed bezel keeps the focus on the three-hand face. Japanese LuminNova lights it up at night. It’s a clean and purposeful watch. Trintec offers the case in a sand-blasted matte finish that looks particularly serious in a black PVD coating. Read the whole article on The Time Bum.
⏲️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
For years a shipwreck hunter has battled governments and rivals over the ocean floor’s riches. He’s kept his identity a secret, until now. This is an absolutely incredible story from Bloomberg that reveals that one of the greatest deep-sea treasure hunter in the world is actually a secretive hedge fund manager. I’m linking to an archived version of the article that lets you read the whole thing without a subscription, but if you do have one, check out the original piece because it has some nice interactive stuff.
The bizarre scene of American politics was just missing a Kennedy, it seems. And boy, did it get one. Robert Kennedy sure didn’t have an easy life, but who thought he would end up where he is now. From a celebrated environmental lawyer, he is now walking the the tight line between “the only one who speaks the truth” and a “conspiracy theorist”. One thing is for sure, his candidacy for president thrust him into the limelight, which brought with it tens of millions of dollars.
In Brian Payton’s fascinating profile, you’ll meet a highly intelligent, little-known corvid called the Canada Jay, as well as 81-year-old Dan Strickland, the world’s foremost authority on the bird species.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
There is no end to weird, but suprisingly informative, videos on YouTube. Where else can you find an hour long, extremely in-depth, guide on how to blend into medieval Europe if you happen to time travel to the time?
💵Pre-loved precision
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