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  • Seiko Ads GMT To Urushi Lacquer Dial Craftsmanship Series; Omega Releases 20 New Constellations; Norqain Has A New Movement; Isotope's First Chrono; A Beautiful Red Schwarz Etienne; And New JLC

Seiko Ads GMT To Urushi Lacquer Dial Craftsmanship Series; Omega Releases 20 New Constellations; Norqain Has A New Movement; Isotope's First Chrono; A Beautiful Red Schwarz Etienne; And New JLC

The red on the Schwarz Etienne is jus the perfect shade of cherry

Author

Vuk Radic
September 18, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 21 minutes

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Despite it being the end of Summer, I have to say we have some good weather over here. I’ll keep this super short, as I’m just about to go for a swim, so enjoy the newsletter.

For now, It’s About Time is a fully reader supported publication. If you like this newsletter, want to continue getting it and want even more of my writing, I would love if you could hop on over to Patreon and subscribe. You give me $6 a month, I give you 5 additional longform posts per week which include an overview of interesting watches for sale, early access to reviews (it’s the Seiko x Giugiaro SCED035 "Ripley"), a basic watch school, a look back at a forgotten watch, and a weekend read that looks at the history of horology.

In this issue:

  • Seiko Adds A GMT Movement To The Urushi Lacquer Dial Of The Presage Craftsmanship Series

  • Omega Adds 20 New References To The Jewellery Heavy Constellation Collection

  • Norqain Introduces Independence Skeleton Chrono And A Manufacture Flyback Chronograph Movement

  • Isotope Introduces Their First Ever Chronograph, Inspired By A Legendary Sci-Fi Comic Book

  • Schwarz Etienne Gives Their Already Beautiful Geometry An Even More Stunning Red Colorway

  • Prestigious Complications Come Together In The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 184

Today’s reading time: 10 minutes and 20 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko has had a week or two of smashing together collections. They changed the Marinemaster around a little bit, moved the King Seiko into new territory and, perhaps most radically, added the Seiko Astron innards to the Prospex Speedtimer. We have some more mashups. For their latest release, the SPB447, they took the Craftsmanship Series and the very nice Urushi lacquer dial and added to it a GMT movement.

The watch comes in a case that is characteristically elegant while remaining somewhat on the large size for some reason. It measures 40.2mm wide, 12.4mm thick and has a 48mm lug-to-lug measurement. The case is made out of stainless steel, with a hardening coat, and a combination of brushed and polished finishes. On top is a double domed sapphire crystal surrounded by a sloping, polished, fixed and markless bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The case is secondary to the dial, which has a glossy black case which is the product of Urushi lacquer, applied under the supervision of lacquer artist Isshu Tamura. Dozens of layers of the lacquer are applied and then polished to achieve the wet look you see here. The black of the dial is contrasted by gold details used for the 24-hour scale on the periphery of the dial, as well as a gold GMT hand. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture with a black disc.

Inside the watch is the Seiko 6R54, the same movement they use in the Alpinist GMT and Propex Diver GMT, and one that is a caller style GMT, meaning that you adjust the 24 hour hand independently. It’s a decent movement, robust and reliable, but not one that will be winning any accuracy competitions with a claimed accuracy of +25/-15 seconds per day. Should be noted that Seiko often does much better than their claims. The movement beats at 3Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a brown leather strap, closed with a three-fold clasp.

The new Seiko Presage GMT Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447 goes on sale on October 1st and is priced at €1,850. See more on the Seiko website.

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Over here at It’s About Time we are not great fans of the shrink and pink method of making ladies watches. It the practice that many watch brands have of taking their existing models, shrinking them down to a tiny size and throwing on pink, purple, or whatever they think is girly, dials and a handful of diamonds. There are, however, brands, that approach making watches for women in a much more thorough way and they are usually much better products. However, every now and again, you have to appreciate a good watch that hits all the stereotypes, especially when it’s a watch that looks straight out of the late 80s and early 90s. This is what Omega just did with new additions to the Constellation collection, introducing 20 new references, varying in size, color and number of diamonds.

The case of the Constellation is a special thing, a somewhat cushion shape with a very pronounced facet before the start of the integrated bracelet. The entire case gets a high polished finish and you can get them in four different sizes — five in 25mm, five in 28mm and 10 in 29mmm. And you can mix and match those sizes with a number of case materials. The watches come in either stainless steel, Moonshine Gold, Sedna Gold, or a combination of the three. Every reference’s bezel has been set with substantial diamonds too.

And it’s those dials that are the true attraction of the watches. All of them have a deeply grooved sunburst texture and come in colos like gold, silver, sage green and aubergine. And the texture seems to be emanating out of the Constellation star above 6 o’clock, which gives the watch a fantastic look. The hour markers on every dial are diamonds and you get just spectacular skeletonized hands to tell the hours and minutes.

In terms of movements, the 25mm and 28mm references use quartz movements, while the 29mm version is large enough to accommodate the calibre 8700 automatic, a METAS-certified Master Chronometer which gives you accuracy of -0/+7 seconds per day. The watches can be had on either an integrated bracelet that matches the material of the case, or on an alligator leather strap that matches the dial color.

The new Omega Constellation watches are available now and have such a large lineup and such a large range of prices, you’ll have to look them up yourself. But do know that they start at $7,300 for the steel 25mm and go up to $34k for the 29mm example made in Sedna and Moonshine gold. See more on the Omega website.

3/

Faithful readers will know I’m not a huge fan of Norqain watches. But it is impressive that this brand that was founded in 2018, albeit with a lot of money and industry support behind it, managed to develop a new movement, their first flyback chronograph movement. Of course, this is not an in-house movement, as Norqain doesn’t have its own production, but the calibre 8k, as it’s called, was made in partnership with AMT SA, the bespoke branch of Sellita where brands searching for something more advanced than off-the-shelf movements can order higher-end calibres. This is, of course, a continuation of their work on movements they have made in partnership with Kenissi. And the watches the new movement makes a debut in is a duo of Norqain Independence Skeleton Chronos.

The watch uses the same case as the rest of the Independence lineup, meaning that it’s made out of either brushed and polished stainless steel, or Grade 5 titanium with a black DLC coating, and measures 42mm wide with a hefty 49.8mm lug-to-lug. The thickness has increased to accommodate the chronograph movement, from 11.8mm for the time only to 13.9mm for this chronograph. Water resistance is pretty standard at 100 meters.

The dial is skeletonized to show off parts of the new movement. The top bridges come in either black for the steel version or purple for the black version. The details on the silver watch are rendered in gold, while on the black watch you get white details on indices and the openworked hour and minute hands. The watches have two sub-dials, arranged vertically — a 30 minute totaliser at 12 o’clock and a running seconds at 6 o’clock. Both the indices and hands are plenty filled with Super-LumiNova.

So, inside is the new movement they call the calibre 8k. It’s not, of course, completely made from scratch. AMT used the Valjoux 7750-based Sellita SW500 and modified the hell out of it. They replaced the cam-lever chronograph mechanism with a more sophisticated column wheel and added the flyback function. The watch beats at 4Hz, has a 62 hour power reserve and has COSC certification. The stainless watch can be had on a brushed-polished stainless steel bracelet closed by a folding clasp or a black textured rubber strap, while the titanium version comes on a purple rubber strap.

The new Norqain Independence Skeleton Chrono in stainless steel is technically not limited, while the black titanium DLC version is limited to 300 pieces. I say technically not limited because Norqain has only commissioned 600 examples of the 8K calibre but plans to have a second batch in time for Watches & Wonders Geneva 2025. The stainless steel version retails for CHF 5,700 on rubber and CHF 5,950 on stainless steel, while the titanium version retails for CHF 6,450. See more on the Norqain website.

4/

Watch brands often cite inspiration that cannot be seen in the final product. But when British indie Isotope says that they have been inspired by the sci-fi graphic novel The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius, I can actually see it. This is the new Isotope Chronograph Compax Moonshot, the brand’s first chronograph.

The case, milled out of a single piece of grade 5 titanium with a dark grey DLC coating, measures 41mm wide, 15mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 49.5mm. It’s a chunky case, emphasised by the broad sides, swooping lines and sharp facets. The opening for the dial has a very interesting twist to it, being mostly round, but then flattening out at the top and bottom. It’s extremely reminiscent to what F. P. Journe has been doing with their Elegante line. On top is a double-domed sapphire crystal, and the fixed bezel sits underneath the glass, displaying the tachymeter and pulsometer scales.

The dial looks like a chronograph dial should look like, but with a lot of attention to detail that makes it look quite special. It’s a traditional tri-compax layout, but with no hands in the sub-dials. Instead, each sub-dial has a snailed disc with an aperture that reveals the numerals on the sub-dial. The discs rotate, indicating the running seconds, 30 minute totalizer and a 12 hour totalizer. The hands are classic Isotope, drop shaped and partially skeletonized, while the periphery of the dial has a three-dimensional scale that has super deep groves cut into it for the minutes, with an undulating ring above it denoting the hours. You have a choice of two color schemes — Stealth, which is black and white; and the Terra Maris which is a pretty unique combination of a gradient brown, various shades of earth tones, with deep blue details.

The watches are powered by the Swiss Landeron 73 automatic chronograph movement. beating at 4Hz, it has a 42 hour power reserve. Unfortunately, I don’t known enough about this movement to say something smart. The watches come on either a blue or a black rubber strap with a butterfly clasp.

The Chronograph Compax Moonshot is not a limited edition, but it will be limited in production capacity. The initial production run will be 25 pieces of each colorway, with prices set at around €2,700 without tax. See more on the Isotope website.

5/

If the name Schwarz Etienne sounds familiar but you can’t exactly recall seeing one of their watches, you’re not having issues with your memory. It’s more the fact that you’re recalling some of their movement. You see, Schwarz Etienne is best known as a movement manufacture. But they’re also very good at making watches. As part of their pretty spectacular Geometry series, they are now introducing the Geometry Cherry, with a very unique shade of red, one that showed up on previous SE watches.

The Geometry is mostly a dress watch, one that comes in a polished stainless steel case measuring 39mm wide and 11mm thick. You get straight lugs, a small crown and not much that will take way from the view of the dial. There are sapphire crystals on top and bottom, with a water resistance of 50 meters.

The dial of the Geometry is made out of gold and decorated with a combination of fluted, azuré, and Clous de Paris hand-guilloché sections in varying sizes and visual depths. This makes it look like it was put together out of four quarters of perfectly executed watches that were put together to showcase all the possible dial setups. And then the entire thing is painted a beautiful cherry red. You get segments of a black minute track all over the dial, while at 6 o’clock is another black detail in the form of a running seconds sub-dial. The hands are lance shaped, made out of brass and rhodium treated.

The movement is, of course, made by Schwarz Etienne, and it’s the automatic calibre ASE 200.02 micro-rotor. It beast at 21,600vph and has a really nice 86 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black leather strap.

The Schwarz Etienne Geometry Cherry Edition doesn’t seem to be a limited edition, and it’s priced at CHF 21,350. See more on the Schwarz Etienne website.

6/

It’s been an exceptionally good year for Jaeger-LeCoultre and their high end watches. Be it the Duometre Heliotourbillon or the Master Grande Tradition, they have shown the best of their craft. Now, they’re continuing down this road with the introduction of the Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 184, which combines some serious complications with metiers d’art.

The pretty incredible Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 184 comes in a rose gold case that measures 43mm wide and 14.1mm thick. That sounds large, but considering the number of complications it holds, it’s positively tiny. And to illustrate this I have to break from the usual structure of these write ups where I write about the case, the dial and end up with the movement. Here, we talk about the movement first. It’s the Calibre 184, an incredible piece of engineering and art. It features a bi-axial gyrotourbillon, a perpetual calendar, a minute repeater with Westminster chime, a one-minute constant force mechanism, a dead-beat minute hand and a leaping date display. Come on… That’s just not fair.

The gyrotourbillon is the smallest JLC has done and to ensure a high level of precision, the tourbillon is equipped with a constant force mechanism, which ensures a consistent flow of power to the regulator regardless of how much power is in the system as the power reserve depletes. Interestingly, a side-effect of the one-minute constant force mechanism is the minute hand only moves once every 60-seconds, which is what is known as a dead-beat minute hand.

The minute repeater has a Westminster chime which makes it even more prestigious. The Westminster chime means that the chiming mechanism plays the complex tune of the Elizabeth clock tower, also known as the Big ben. To do that, the chiming mechanism needs four hammers.

But it’s also a beautiful watch. The dial is made from translucent black sapphire, surrounded by a black grand feu enamel display with gold geometric patterns. The dial is surrounded by a grained pointer date track. At 9 o’clock is the days of the week, at 3 o’clock is the month and below 12 is the year. At the centre are the hour and minute hands. Down at 6 o’clock is the intricate tourbillon fully on display and looking gorgeous.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 184 is limited to 5 pieces, but don’t despair, if you miss this release, the one in white gold is supposed to come out soon, presumably with a lower price point. However, the only issue is that we have no idea what the price point for this watch is. It’s on request which usually means that it will be extremely expensive. See more on the JLC Website.

🫳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

The ProTek USMC Series 1210 Automatic Carbon Dive watches are essentially the self-winding mechanical versions of the quartz Series 1010 USMC models that debuted last year, although their proportions have been slightly updated to house their larger self-winding movements. Similar to the original quartz ProTek USMC watches, the new automatic Series 1210 models appear in the official Pantone colors of the United States Marine Corps.

⏲️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

Hey, we haven’t heard from Magnus Walker for a while. This is a slight departure from this talk of all things Porsche and is a look at his house, one of my favorite houses in the world. I love these old wearhouses turned into residential buildings.

💵Pre-loved precision

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  • SOLD: Well, not really new. It’s a great looking mid-90s Tudor Submariner 75090, offered for sale by a member of the It’s About Time reader crew. I love the way it looks and seems to be in great condition. Check it out over on Chrono24.

  • 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

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