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  • Please, everybody copy IWC and allow us to customize watches! Also, a whole heap of brands introduce a whole heap of new colors

Please, everybody copy IWC and allow us to customize watches! Also, a whole heap of brands introduce a whole heap of new colors

Can you imagine if Omega, Breitling and maybe even Rolex or AP would allow us to customize our watches to our liking?

Author

Vuk Radic
March 13, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes

Hey friends, welcome to It’s About Time, the go-to watch themed newsletter that’s a timely distraction from the stresses of everyday life. Join us for some time-saving fun.

There’s a lot in this issue, it was an eventful weekend:

  • Custom IWC from the factory

  • New NOMOS colors

  • New Junghans colors

  • New Bamford watch, with new colors

  • New Fortis Flieger colors

  • And… invite your friends to win a Tiffany PRX

We’re starting off with a bang! We’re giving away TWO of this year’s hottest watches:
THE TIFFANY PRX!

This is the PRX Powermatic 80 we’re giving away. Not this one obviously. But one just like it.

That’s right! You’ve read about them, you’ve seen the videos and now you can own your own Tissot PRX with the Powermatic 80 movement and the light blue dial. All you have to do is forward this email to five of your friends and get them to click on the button below to subscribe. Both you and one of your friends will be eligible to win one of the watches
We only have two conditions when entering this giveaway - invite 5 of your friends to subscribe and live somewhere were you can buy the PRX online, so we can do this for you and ship it to your address. That’s it!

👂What’s new

1/ 

It’s nothing new in the world of micro-brands that you can customize your watch to order. It’s almost become a norm with some brands, a norm that has crept into some lower-tier mass produced watches like Certina, as well. But no large and established watchmaker has offered a significant customization program.

Well, hello IWC. While there is much to criticize the brand for we have to give credit where credit is due - IWC is introducing a customization program to create your personal version of the Portugieser Chronograph IW3716. Yes, the customization program will be limited in numbers as well as location availability, but it’s still a major step that other large brands might want to pay atention to.

Available only at the Dubai Mall and Shanghai Taikoo Hui Mall IWC stores, buyers of the individual Portugieser Chrono will get to chose live with the sales representative between two cases (steel and 18k rose gold), 16 dial colors, rhodium or gold-plated appliques and hands and a number of straps including colourful calfskin or alligator leather, leather alternatives such as TimberTex and rubber straps, or a stainless steel bracelet.

Once the customer builds his spec, the watch will be shipped to them in three weeks and a small “I” in a circle, placed in the small seconds sub-counter at 6 o’clock, will identify each chronograph as an individually configured version. No word on price yet, but this could be such a fantastic program if other manufacturers would introduce ti to models more interesting than the Portugieser Chrono.

2/

A couple of days ago we wrote about the new NOMOS Tangente Neomatik Blue Gold which is covered in gold and then, curiously, painted blue so you can’t see the gold. But it seems they’re coming out with a whole bunch more watches before Easter.

There’s the Tangente 33 champagne with a, duh, champagne colored dial in 33mm and an in-house movement. The Club Campus with the fantastic California dial gets two new colorways - a very loud future orange and a funky blue purple that’s almost gray. The Club Sport neomatik petrol on steel comes in a great green, with the super flat DUW 3001 automatic caliber.

To round off the releases, NOMOS is also introducing a very limited edition of only 175 units worldwide of the Tetra Neomatik in red. Looks fantastic if you’re into square watches.

3/

Speaking of minimalist watches like the NOMOS, Junghans has a couple of new ones as well. We know and love them for the Max Bill and Bauhaus aesthetics, but Junghans goes very bold on the colors and introduces some must haves - the Meister Chronoscope could be the chrono to have this year, while the Junghans Meister Damen is a women’s watch without screaming “I’m made by men, for women!”

Let’s summ it up in a few bulletpoints:

  • The Max Bill line gets a new Chronoscope Bauhaus model and two new MEGA Solar models. The Chronoscope Bauhaus gets red accents on the date wheel and hands, breaking up the clean blandness of the model and it retails for €2,295. The Max Bill MEGA Solar (€1,075) is also getting the red treatment with a red date wheel and red numerals. An additional model in gold PVD (€1,175) is new to the lineup.

  • The newest Meister Damen model (€1,340) features a sunburst green dial, with diamond cut dauphine hands and a macchiato ostrich strap further. It’s an absolute beauty and measures 33mm.

  • The Meister fein collection additions are the most varied in style. The most traditional of the new offerings is the Signatur (€1,690). At just under 40mm, the classic dress-style watch features a light gray brushed dial with diamond-cut hour markers. The latest additions to the Meister fein Automatic collection (€1,390) are much more playful. Three new colorways — Arctic Blue, Moss Green, and Blackberry. The strap colors are not matching but are complementary. It’s a lot of color, but looks good. The final additions to the Meister fein collection is the Chronoscope MEGA Solar which packs a perpetual calendar, chronograph, and connected solar movement into a 39.5mm case that is under 10mm thick. Available in stainless steel (€1,390) and a rose gold PVD version (€1,490) on leather straps they’re very nice.

  • The only potential disappointment of the collection are the three models in the new Meister Pilot line - the Meister Pilot in navy blue and a new Meister Pilot Chronoscope in navy blue and “desert” colorways. The cases are meh, the bezel is different in a wrong way and, shockingly, the dial is extremely busy. If you like them, they come in at €1,990 for the Pilot and €2,590 for the two Pilot Chronoscopes.

  • The final release, the Meister Chronoscope, could just be the best chrono release of the year. Especially if Rolex doesn’t make a new Daytona model. The sapphire-gray dial features a circular sunray finish and the brand’s beloved “dimple” sub-dials in an anthracite hue. All of the sub-dials play home to orange hands for a tasteful but vivid flash of color. Measuring 40.7mm in diameter and 13.9mm thick, it is larger than the Meister fein pieces but smaller than the Pilot chronographs. While the thickness may put some people off, keep in mind that a portion of it is due to the domed and double-AR-coated sapphire crystal. Offered on a brown ostrich strap for €2,140

4/

If you didn’t know, Bamford is actually split up into two brands - Bamford Watch Department, which produces custom versions of other brands’ designs, and Bamford London which largely produces its own original models and even collaborates with other entities from outside the world of watches.

Banford London is introducing a new collection, Bamford B80, which a bit cornily bases three models on the “pillars of the Bamford brand: heritage, modernity, and adventure”. Swiping that marketing-talk to the side, Bamford has three actually nice looking watches, differentiated by their dials and bracelets.

The case of the Bamford B80 is 39mm in diameter, 10.5mm thick, with 20mm lugs and is bead-blasted titanium. The B80 Heritage has 3-6-9 Arabic numeral hour markers and is available with either a black dial that has red accents, or a navy blue dial with yellow accents. The B80 Modern has a dial with a full track of Arabic markers, with a black dial and aqua blue highlits, as well as one with yellow Arabic numerals with bright red and blue accents set against a black surface. The B80 Adventure features a dial with simple squares and rectangles for its hour markers with three variants - green, bright orange, and walnut brown and contrasting second hands.

Powering the Bamford London B80 collection is the Sellita SW300-1 automatic movement, and the watches come in at £1,250 GBP (approximately $1,500 USD at the time of writing).

5/

Fortis only introduced the Flieger in 2020 and it’s become an instant hit, combining a Flieger with a more robust look that Fortis has been known for. Now Fortis is introducing a BUNCH of new colors. And I mean a bunch. Click through the link and you’ll see that there are 14 new possible colorway and strap combinations for their three models.

6/

One of our favorite watch sites has teamed up with Nivada to create a line of vintage inspired watches. They worked with the brand to dig up their catalogue and decided to use the the vintage Chronosport (for the case) and the Racing chronograph (for the dial) for inspiration.

Credit where credit is due - since the Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph is inspired by two vintage watches, they didn’t blow it up to 44mm. The case measures 38mm, 13.75mm thick and 44.3mm from lug tip to lug tip. The watch is available with five different dials and will run you €1,499 at a pre-order price, excluding VAT. Only 50 pieces (10 for each dial variation) for pre-order will be available from the Fratello Shop a week from now.

🫳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

To simply quote Time+Tide: “The Cyrus Genéve Klepcys Vertical Tourbillon Sapphire is an extravagant and technical force of nature representing everything that’s right with haute horological expression that doesn’t answer to a large conglomerate operation”

⏲️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

Do you think there’s a difference between a $100 watch and a $1,000,000 watch? Why don’t you watch this video and find out

😉Famous faces

Celebrities are just like us 😄 

💵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 

Want to sell your watch to a community of passionate horologists? Reach out to us and we’ll put your ad up. $15 per listing without photos, $25 with photos. 10 available slots per day, discounts for multiple slots.

We’re starting off with a bang! We’re giving away TWO of this year’s hottest watches:
THE TIFFANY PRX!

This is the PRX Powermatic 80 we’re giving away. Not this one obviously. But one just like it.

That’s right! You’ve read about them, you’ve seen the videos and now you can own your own Tissot PRX with the Powermatic 80 movement and the light blue dial. All you have to do is forward this email to five of your friends and get them to click on the button below to subscribe. Both you and one of your friends will be eligible to win one of the watches
We only have two conditions when entering this giveaway - invite 5 of your friends to subscribe and live somewhere were you can buy the PRX online, so we can do this for you and ship it to your address. That’s it!

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