Rolex Shocks With The Return Of Paul Newman Daytona, Junghans Redesigns The Pilot's Watch, Panerai Shows Off Mind Blowing Radiomir and Patek Releases Three New Special Complications

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I promise you I read all of your feedback and I would also like this newsletter to feature more affordable watches. But sometimes the news cycle of super expensive watches syncs up and they are the only releases around. This is one of those cycles. So, please enjoy this super-expensive edition of the newsletter and I’ll bring us back to more affordable waters tomorrow.

Also, fill out the survey or invite five friends to entered the Hamilton Khaki Field giveaway.

In this issue:

• Rolex Brings Back The Paul Newman-style Dial On The Daytona

• New Junghans Meister Pilot Redesigns The Pilot’s Watch

• Panerai Shows Of A Mind Blowing Radiomir Tourbillon Bronzo

• Patek Philippe Releases Three New Special Complications In Tokyo

• The Mademoiselle J12 La Pausa is a playful tribute to Coco Chanel

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 18 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/

Rolex Releases Special Daytona For The 100th Year Of The 24 Hours Of Le Mans With Paul Newman Inspired Dial

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, a model that the brand already updated at Watches and Wonders earlier in the year. But it also marks the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. So, in an extremely unusual move for Rolex, today, as the legendary race starts, they announced a new, original, edition of the Daytona. The new reference 126529LN is special on many levels. To name just one factor, it brings back some details of an iconic and highly-desirable “exotic” dial of the past (mostly the counters), also known as the Paul Newman dial.

The new watch comes in a 18k white gold redesigned 40mm case, using the new ceramic bezel framed in a thin band of white gold. The case retains the screw down crown and pushers, just like the sapphire crystal. Oh, and guess what - the caseback has a sapphire crystal, just like the platinum edition, and it reveals the Calibre 4132.

All of that is nice, but the dial is where it's at. It comes in the reverse panda style with unique sub-counters so well known from the Paul Newman dial, with distinctive square-shaped markers and tracks. Another specificity of this new edition of the Cosmograph Daytona is a change to the subdial at 9 o’clock which now has a 24-hour counter as a nod to the Le Mans race. There’s also a change to the black ceramic tachymeter scale that features the "100" indication in red.

At Watches & Wonders, Rolex gave the Daytona a new movement - the 4131 - and this model gets a further update and a new name - the caliber 4132. The difference? Well, the maximum chronograph measure for the 4131 is only 12 hours. The 4132 ups that to a Le Mans-appropriate 24 hours.

The new 126529LN is released as a non limited edition and carries a price tag of $51,400. While it’s cool that you get these fantastic touches - the dial, the bezel, the modified movement and a solid gold rotor on it - this is still a $9,000 premium over the regular white gold Daytona. You' decide if it’s worth it.

2/

The New Junghans Meister Pilot Tries To Redesign One Of The Most Universal Watch Designs - The Pilot’s Watch

You could try to argue that all racing chronographs or all divers look the same. However, if you look closely enough you will see a sea of different designs. I’m here to argue that the one category of watches that is pretty much universally the same is the pilot’s watch. Yes, there are deviations, but we end up in the same place at the end - flat dials in monochrome dials with fantastic legibility, verging on minimalism. Then there’s Junghans. The brand known for it’s simple, understated and minimalist watches has taken on the task to create a pilot’s watch and we got the Meister Pilot - a crazily designed case with a busy dial and great colors. What a world we live in.

It actually makes sense for Junghans to make a pilot’s watch, as they have been making mechanical cockpit clocks since the early 20th century, even though its first-ever wristwatch for pilots was made in 1955. While this watch looks much different than the likes of the brand’s Max Bill, it still carries on Junghans’ attention to detail. For example, the subdials aren’t cut-outs or bevelled drop-downs, but domed bowls, which have quite a sharp edge and a satisfyingly smooth curve to them. They have a different tone than the rest of the dial and feature a finely grained texture. You won’t find any applied indices, as the sporty Arabic numerals are printed on the dial.

The Meister Pilot Chronoscope Desert and Navy Blue feature a bi-compax chronograph display on their sand or blue dials, while the Meister Pilot Automatic has a date complication along with a small seconds sub-dial on its blue dial. All three share the same 43.3mm-wide case with a black DLC coating. Thickness varies a bit, as the Meister Pilot Chronoscope Desert and Navy Blue are 14.4mm thick, while the simpler Meister Pilot Automatic is thinner at 12.5mm. Sitting on top of these cases is a star-shaped, bi-directional turning bezel, hugging a domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides.

Inside are two different movements - the calibre J880.4 for the chronographs or the calibre J880.1.6 for the time and date version, sharing the same 38 hours of power reserve. Both are based on ETA calibres, the chronographs sporting versions of the ETA 2824-2 and Dubois Depraz 2030 chrono module combination, which explains the thickness.

The Chronoscope Navy Blue will be a limited edition of 300 pieces, while the other two models are part of the permanent collection. The Meister Pilot Chronoscope is priced at €2,590 while the Automatic is €1,990.

3/

Panerai Shows Of A Mind Blowing Radiomir Tourbillon Bronzo, The Most Complex Version Of Their Aesthetic

Panerai had a big week. They were all over the watch press for opening a new flagship boutique in New York City. I skipped on reporting this as it would be only marginally interesting only to people who live in NYC. However, Panerai decided to celebrate the opening of Casa Panerai boutique on Madison Avenue, the brand’s largest retail space in the world, with a new watch - the Panerai Radiomir Tourbillon Bronzo PAM01284, the second most expensive Panerai you can buy.

This is a traditional Radiomir in shape only - the case measures 45mm and has the classic wire lugs, but this one gets a brushed bronze finish with sapphire crystals on top and bottom. Just like the other Radiomir models, this one also gets a signed cone-shaped winding crown at the 3 o’clock location, without the crown guards you might associate with Panerai. Instead the crown screws down and gets you 100 meters of water resistance.

The watch gets a skeletonized dial, but gives the appearance of being somewhere between a full skeleton and full dialed watch. The mainplate accounts for a considerable portion of the watch’s front appearance and thats why it’s been given a dark green aluminum oxide ALD finish that has a coarse grain texture finish which looks very nice. The movement is the brand’s Cal. P.2015/T runs at 28,800vph (4 Hz), has a four day power reserve that’s tracked on the power reserve indicator on the backside of the watch, shows a secondary time zone with a third central hand a dedicated 24-hour day/night indicator and features a 30-second tourbillon, which rapidly rotates along an axis perpendicular to the balance wheel that can be seen from both the front and back.

This is a special watch for a special occasion, so you know it’s going to be expensive. At $166,500 it’s the the second most expensive Panerai Radiomir currently available, only behind the Goldtech Minute Repeater Tourbillon GMT PAM00600.

4/ 

Patek Philippe Releases Three New Special Complications In Tokyo Watch Art Grand Exhibition

11 years ago in Dubai, Patek Philippe launched a project that would easily become one of the most prestigious watch events of the year - the Watch Art Grand Exhibition. It is a traveling show that exhibits the best of what the brand has to offer - from unique high-art pocket watches to gems from their archives. After a pause of four years, the Watch Art Grand Exhibition is back and it just started in Tokyo. Patek introduced six new watches there - four with complications and two colorful time-only Calatravas - but I’ll stick with Hodinkee on this one and focus on the 5308R and two takes on the World Timer.

First up is the Quadruple Complication 5308P, a platinum split-seconds chronograph with both a minute repeater and an instantaneous perpetual calendar. 42mm wide and 17mm thick it’s large, but this is a quadruple complication, what would you expect? It comes in a platinum case with a wonderful salmon dial.

Inside is the self-winding R CHR 27 PS QI caliber with platinum mini-rotor which allows this monopusher chronograph and perpetual calendar to instantly change the date at midnight each night. This is an update to the ref. 5208, which was originally launched in 2011 and was the first Patek to contain an aperture-based perpetual calendar, chronograph, and minute repeater – and was thus a triple complication. So Patek decided to add a split second and make it a quadruple.

This watch will be available only in Tokyo in conjunction with the exhibition and is limited to just 15 pieces. It will come with two casebacks, one sapphire and one platinum – both with a commemorative inscription.

Next is the ref. 5531R, a Patek World Timer that adds a minute repeater with the 27 HU caliber. The patented striking mechanism allows the chime to play for local time for the time zone displayed at 12 o'clock on the dial. The dial is, of course, done in Grand Feu cloisonné enamel and for the Tokyo exhibit Patek ditched the world map and instead did a map of central Tokyo. The case features a hand-guilloched hobnail pattern, and this, too, will see a limited run of only 15 pieces.

Lastly, it’s the Plum (or, what the rest of us would call fantastic purple) 5330G World Time Date. This is the first World Time to feature a date indication synchronized with local time. To solidify this as a special limited edition for the exhibition, certain design cues call out to Japan distinctly, like the red Tokyo text and Japanese rising sun emblem in place of the usual sun symbol. Patek filed two patents on the date red-tipped date display illustrated on the beveled flange, which is made of glass. This 40mm World Time will see a larger, yet still limited, release of 300 pieces.

5/

The Chanel Mademoiselle J12 La Pausa is a playful tribute to Coco Chanel

Watch enthusiasts will look down at fashion watches and with good reason. These are usually watches produced cheaply by a Chinese company and licensing the name of a famous fashion designer like Hugo Boss, Michael Kors or Calvin Klein. But every now and then a fashion house starts making watches that are way above in quality than you would expect from them. Chanel is one of these brands. While you would expect them to give out their name to make the massive profits that come with fashion watches, they went the other way and started making very interesting piexes that have some serious credibility among Swiss watches. Now they’re introducing the The Chanel Mademoiselle J12 La Pausa, a tribute to Coco Chanel.

This is the fourth time that the Chanel J12 has featured an image of the famous founder, as previous editions have ranged from another cartoon version, to a more realistic portrait, and even a small pendant of her dangling from the crown. While images of her in the iconic two-piece suit are easily recognisable, the Chanel Mademoiselle J12 La Pausa shows her in a much more stylized image. Photographed in 1930, Chanel wore a striped marinière top and buckled black pants to match her short hair and pet dog. Oh, and the watch is named after her Côte d’Azur villa La Pausa, and was named for the legend of Mary Magdalene visiting the area following the crucifixion of Jesus.

In one of the classic watchmaking styles of animation, Chanel’s stylised likeness is stationary while her arms traverse the dial as the hands. The hour hand does disappear behind her body at around 6 o’clock, but the time shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Depending on your choice of the watch in white or black ceramic, Coco’s outfit inverts colours and the white reference becomes the most sailor-like.

The base watch is a 38mm Chanel J12. It made out of all ceramic and even has 200m water resistance. The movement is the Calibre 12.1 from Kenissi, a movement manufacturer founded by Tudor that also supplies Breitling, TAG Heuer, Norqain and Fortis. It has a power reserve of 70 hours, a 4Hz beat rate, and is COSC-certified for accuracy within -4/+6 seconds per day.

The Chanel Mademoiselle J12 La Pausa is available now as a limited edition, although it is unclear how many pieces of each colour will be made. Both are priced the same - $10,500

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

The Ball Roadmaster Ocean Explorer blends nautical utility with strong all-round specifications

2/

Hands-On with the Nivada Grenchen Antarctic Diver

3/

To round up one of our most expensive editions to date, here’s a review of the $580,000 Roger Dubuis, because why not

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

Moonstruck By The Dreamy Moritz Grossmann Tefnut Sleeping Beauty Is A Wonderful Women’s Watch

Award-winning Singapore designer Michael Koh’s design for the dial is an engaging study of asymmetry constructed around crescent-shaped motifs. The first detail that will catch your eye is the large off-centred sub-dial on the right housing a fairy tale man-in-the-moon face. Depending on the case material, the smiling face of the man on the moon is painted in brown tones on the rose gold model and in blue-grey ones for the white gold, both depicted against a white mother-of-pearl background.

⏲️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

• The Thing is one of my all time favorite movies. And this is exactly how I envision working in the (Ant)Arctic - fighting for your life against an alien, possibly awaken from the ice. Turns out, it’s not that exciting, as Leath Tonino found out. The daily routine was a bit dull—shoveling snow for the U.S. government—until a pair of skinny skis unlocked the potential of the vast snowy expanse

• I love new tech, but people often overpromise what it can do. Remember when people tried to convince you NFTs will replace museums? I’m also very skeptical about 3D printing as the barrier to entry is pretty high, but The New Yorker claims that 3D printed houses might be a solution to housing crisis. Interesting.

• I’m a fan of media. New and legacy. So to watch a media institution implode before our eyes is fascinating to me. Here’s a lengthy piece on how they tried to save CNN, but caused more harm than good.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

If you ever find yourself in need of telling a story, just follow the simple instruction in this video and don’ let the facts get in the way of the truth.

💵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.