Seiko Follows Up Marinemaster Comeback With New Colors; They Also Bring Back Classic King Seiko; Hamilton Adds New Colors To Khaki Field, AP's Mini Royal Oaks; Chopard's Slim Flying Tourbillon

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Bear with me, as Seiko has unveiled a bunch of (quite interesting) watches today. I couldn’t turn the entire newsletter into a Seiko affair, so they will be spread out over the next several days.

In this issue:

• Seiko Follows Up The Marinemaster Comeback With Two New Colorways

• Seiko Brings Back The Classic King Seiko 45KCM With The New KS1969 Series

• Hamilton Add New Case And Dial Colors To The Fantastic Khaki Field Mechanical 38mm

• Audemars Piguet Introduces Trio Of Frosted Gold Mini Royal Oaks

• Chopard’s New 36mm Ultra Thin L.U.C 1860 Flying Tourbillon Gets An All Gold Treatment

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 38 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko Follows Up The Marinemaster Comeback With Two New Colorways

While not as legendary as the 62MAS or the SKX007, the Seiko Marinemaster has always been near the top of the line of professional-oriented dive watches for the Japanese brand that made its name with five watches. And it was late last year that Seiko brought the Marinemaster back after being discontinued for a few years, as part of their 100th anniversary celebration, but in a smaller case and a couple of great colors. This bought on a lot of approval for the looks, and a bit less enthusiasm for the price. Now, Seiko is back with two new Marinemaster colors, the grey-green SJE117 and the blue SJE119.

Introduced in 2000 with the SBDX001, the Marinemaster was an oversized modern diver that Seiko positioned at the top of its range. It had a 44mm steel case, 300 meters of water resistance, and a helium-proof construction. The new Marinemaster ditches some of the pro-features for a sleeker case, which has led some to point out that this is more of a 62MAS rebranding than a true Marinemaster revival. The new case measures 39.5mm wide, 12.3mm thick and has a decent lug-to-lug of 47.2mm. On top is a box-shaped sapphire crystal, surrounded by a unidirectional bezel with a metal insert that comes in blue or black on the two new colorways. Water resistance is also a bit lower than the original, but still good at 200 meters.

The dial has the same texture as the three Marinemasters that Seiko introduced at the tail end of 2023, which means it has horizontal stripes cut into it. The new SJE117 gets a grey-green colorway and the SJE119 gets a dark blue. The dial has large applied and lumed markers, lumed baton hands and a circular date window at 4:30, the worst position for a date. It looks especially out of place since the grey-green dial gets a white date disc and the dark blue gets a black date disc.

Inside, like the existing Marinemaster line, is the calibre 6L37, one of Seiko’s better movements. It beats at 28,800 vph and has a mediocre 45 hour power reserve. The claimed accuracy of +15 to -10 seconds per day is also not as good as it could be for this price range (you’re getting into COSC territory), but it’s not horrible. Seiko is also notoriously conservative with their accuracy ratings. The watch comes on the new stainless steel bracelet with ellipse-shaped links with mirror-finished, dual-curved surfaces.

The new Seiko Prospex Marinemasters are priced at €3,400. That’s a lot of money for a Seiko diver - especially one that’s not what many would consider a true Marinemaster - but it looks like it’s working out well for Seiko. See more on the Seiko website.

2/

Seiko Brings Back The Classic King Seiko 45KCM With The New KS1969 Series

Back in the tail end of 2023, Seiko kicked off an important event for the company - the celebration of their 100th anniversary. And to mark this occasion, they promised us 9 special watches. It wasn’t clear what these pieces were going to be, but as they’re coming out they’re really hitting some sweet spots, ranging from recreations of 100 year old watches to hyper-modern astron models. Now we got another one to join the collection, with just three more to go, and this one is part of the brand new King Seiko line.

Let’s get a bit of context, as Seiko already has a King Seiko line, so what’s exactly new. In the 1960s, Seiko allowed their internal divisions to compete who could make the best watch. Out of this competition we got Grand Seiko and King Seiko. Over the years GS became a powerhouse, while King Seiko stuck around for a while and then dissapeared. Seiko brought the brand back several years ago and based it on the KSK model from 1965. This new line of four watches, however, takes its shape from a model that came later, in 1969, and was named the King Seiko 45KCM. The new line is called the King Seiko KS1969 Series

At first, the new KS1969 Series looks a bit like the existing King Seiko, with it’s heavily curved case with the characteristic King Seiko C-shaped case with short and pointy lugs. It’s fantastically proportioned, measuring 39.4mm wide, a fantastic 9.9mm thick and an even better lug-to-lug measurement of 43.6mm. On top is a box-shaped sapphire crystal with a minimal bezel and water resistance is 50 meters.

The dials come in four colors. The SJE109 has a burshed silver white treatment. The color of the SJE111 is Edo Purple, while the SJE113 color is called Gradient Green, both of which have a slight texture to them. They all look pretty cool, but perhaps the most interesting is the color of the SJE115 limited edition which has a much rougher texture that Seiko says is inspired by “the scales of a rising dragon” (Seiko really likes to take it all the way) and features a light teal color.

Inside is the Calibre 6L35, a version of the same movement used in the Marinemaster mentioned above. It has a slim profile, beats at 28,800vph and has 45 hours of power reserve. It has the same -10 to +15 sec/day accuracy, and much like the Marinemaster, this would be so much better with COSC precision. The watches come on a on a multi-link stainless steel bracelet, with brushed and polished surfaces that closes with a concealed triple folding clasp.

The new King Seiko KS1969 Series watches will go on sale in July of this year. The SJE115 is limited to 700 pieces and the rest will have no limitations. Price is up there at €3,200. See more on the Seiko website.

3/

Hamilton Add New Case And Dial Colors To The Fantastic Khaki Field Mechanical 38mm

Just in this past week we’ve seen asymmetrical brutalist watches made out of gold, a whole collection made out of 3D printed titanium, one made out of a completely new resin, a watch that has a movement that closely mimics one made 20 years ago for a pocket watch but is then painstakingly shrunk down for a wrist watch, and a watch that has a dial made out of a door of an old WWII plane that flew over Normandy during D-Day. It’s all a bit too much to take in. Sometimes we just need a watch. With a plain dial, three hands. Something simple. Something that won’t drain your bank account. And this is exactly what Hamilton had done with the Khaki Field Mechanical 38mm - a simple field watch with a great price. Now, the model is getting three new colorways.

The shape and size hasn’’t changed. This means it measures 38mm wide and 9.5mm thick and comes in two different materials. You can have it either steel or bronze, both of which have a mix of brushed and polished finishes. Water resistance is 50 meters and on top you’ll find a sapphire crystal surrounded by a plain bezel.

Even the dial remains technically the same. You still get the wonderful signature hands that seem like a cross between sword and syringe hands and are filled with lume - beige on two models for a more vintage look and white/green on one for a more contemporary feel. As for the colors, this is the first time the bronze model gets a white dial (with fauxtina lume), while the other two steel models get a white dial with white lume and a blue dial with faxutina lume.

Inside is the hand wound H-50 movement, which is a take on the Swatch-group Powermatic 80 and I love that they offer a non-automatic option. It beats at 21,600vph and has that fantastic power reserve of 80 hours. The steel watches get fabric NATO straps while the bronze version gets a brown leather one.

The updates to the Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical 38mm are not revolutionary, not by a long shot. But they are welcomed. The steel watches sell for $595, while the bronze version sells for $895. See more on the Hamilton website.

 4/

Audemars Piguet Introduces Trio Of Frosted Gold Mini Royal Oaks

In 1997, Audemars Piguet introduced what later became a very popular women’s watch, the Mini Royal Oak. It was tiny at 20mm wide and came in a number of luxurious materials. The brand stopped making them after a while, but now they’re bringing them back. Sure, the new Mini Royal Oak is slightly bigger, but it comes in pretty amazing shades of white, yellow, or pink frosted gold.

Growing in width from the original 20mm, the new Mini Oak measures 23mm wide and 6.6mm thick, which is still incredibly tiny. The case and bracelet are made entirely of 18k gold, and the gold treatment gets the incredible frosted finish. This means that surface of the watch is hammered with a diamond tip to create tiny indentations that catch the light and sparkle. AP hasn’t overdone it with the frosting and leaves the sides of the bezel, case, bracelet and crown unfrosted, with an either brushed or polished finish. It’s also a welcomed departure from the shrink-and-pink approach many brands (including AP) have towards creating women’s watches in which they insist on adding either pink details or heaps of diamonds and precious stones onto shrunken down watches. The frosting still gives the watch a sparkly look, without looking too excessive, especially in the white gold hue.

The dial gets AP’S signature Petite Tapisserie pattern and it matches the color of the watch, creating a monoblock color scheme. The watch has simple hands and applied indices, both of which are lumed.

Inside, just like the previous Mini Oak, is a quartz movement. The Caliber 2730 has a 94 month battery life and you can detach the battery by pulling out the crown when not in use and prolong its life. The watches come with a material-matching tapered integrated bracelet that closes with a folding clasp.

All three versions of the new Audemars Piguet Mini Royal Oak are priced at $34,400. See more on the AP website.

 5/

Chopard’s New 36mm Ultra Thin L.U.C 1860 Flying Tourbillon Gets An All Gold Treatment

Very few brands can put out an all-gold watch and say that it’s understated. And one of the brands that can pull it off is definetly Chopard. In fact, their latest all-gold watch is so understated they didn’t tell anybody about it, with the only info popping up on several asian websites. What this is the L.U.C 1860 Flying Tourbillon, a limited edition of just 10 pieces, that is a continuation of Chopard’s in-house flying tourbillon watches. This is Chopard at its best.

Chopard has been making ultra thin flying tourbillon for at least a decade now, but always in cases that were 40mm or larger in width. This new one takes on a much smaller case, one that measures just 36.5mm wide and has a thickness of 8.2mm. The case is made out of ethically mined 18k gold and, even more shockingly with such a thin case, it features a hunter caseback, meaning that it flips open to reveal a sapphire caseback and a view of the movement. The inside of the hunter caseback is engraved with a beehive and a random swarm of bees, a trademark used initially by founder Louis-Ulysse Chopard on his pocket watch movements.

Gold tones continue on the dial, which is made out of the same gold as the case, and has a central disc with a hand-guilloché circular basket-weave pattern. Surrounding the textured center is a satin-brushed chapter ring which holds the applied rhodium-plated hour markers. The Dauphine hands are faceted and rhodium-plated. At 6 o’clock you’ll find the flying tourbillon aperture and the tourbillon is fitted with a small white hand to indicate the seconds.

Inside is the incredibly thin (3mm) calibre 96.24-L which has a 22k gold micro-rotor and stacked dual barrels that give it a power reserve of 65 hours. The movement is decorated with high-end finishings and it has COSC certification. The watch comes on a alligator leather strap.

The Chopard L.U.C 1860 Flying Tourbillon is limited to 10 pieces and doesn’t show up on Chopard’s website. However, reports say that it will cost in the €144,000 range. Keep an eye out on Chopard to see if they add it to the website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Bronze

2/

Hands-On with the white dial and roman numerals Rolex Day-Date

3/

A review of the William Wood Triumph chronograph

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Venezianico Bucintoro 1969 is a rugged watch wrapped up in a glamorous Italian suit

The chapter ring and tachymeter have quirks of their own, as the 3D-printed texture returns in a small chasm between the main dial and the outer perimeter. There you’ll find a 60-second countdown in the same manner as the Apollo 11 launch sequence, from T-60 to launch. The outer ring joins in from the top left quarter, counting down the final 10 seconds during ignition and launch. Keeping the tachymeter beneath the sapphire crystal protects it against scratches, leaving the circularly-brushed steel bezel as the final ring of contrast.

Read the whole review on Time and Tide 

⏲️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

• While facing renewed accusations of cultural theft, the British Museum announced that it had been the victim of actual theft - from someone on the inside. Now, that’s awkward…

• Jay-Z is pushing to get it. Nas wants a piece. The owner of the Mets is spending a fortune to win. A subsidiary of the Yankees is trying, too. Manhattan’s biggest commercial landlord is all-in. The Hudson Yards crew wants it, and so does the man behind Coney Island. A former police commissioner is wrapped up in this. And a former governor. And Eric Adams’s closest confidant. And the guy who owns Donald Trump’s old golf course. And the head of a private intelligence firm. They all want to win the bid to print free money or, as the rest of us know it, build the first casino in Manhattan.

• Duke Ellington saw most jazz writers as part of a white world that offered Black musicians adoration but denied them basic equality. This is how he dealt with professional critics and Jim Crow.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

90s cars are reaching their peak coolness and I better hurry up with getting that SL I’ve wanted for a decade or so. But every time I hear this incredible V12 in the 600 series of any Mercedes of that time, I’m pretty sure this was peak car sound.

💵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: Here’s a crazy request. One of you is looking to buy the Ōtsuka Lotēc No. 7.5. Sure, it’s a big ask, but if any of you have one and want to sell, reach out to and I’ll put you in touch

• 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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-Vuk