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- Seiko Partners With Peanuts For Another Affordable Snoopy Watch, Citizen Brings Colorful Integrated Bracelet Sports Watch To The US, Aera Updates their D-1 Diver and P-1 Pilot Watch And Cuervo y Sobrinos Shows Off New Cuban Waters Inspired Colors
Seiko Partners With Peanuts For Another Affordable Snoopy Watch, Citizen Brings Colorful Integrated Bracelet Sports Watch To The US, Aera Updates their D-1 Diver and P-1 Pilot Watch And Cuervo y Sobrinos Shows Off New Cuban Waters Inspired Colors
If you can't find a Silver Snoopy Speedmaster or just can't afford one, this would be a great option
Vuk Radic
May 16, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 17 minutes
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time where we love watches just as much as we love Peanuts and Snoopy.
In this issue:
Seiko Partners With Peanuts For Another Affordable Snoopy Watch
Citizen Brings Colorful Integrated Bracelet Sports Watch To The US
Aera Updates their D-1 Diver and P-1 Pilot Watch
Cuervo y Sobrinos Shows Off New Buceador Caribe With Cuban Waters Inspired Colors
And… invite your friends to win a Seiko Alpinist
Today’s reading time: 6 minutes and 1 second
Everybody needs a green faced watch in their life. That’s why we have a new giveaway - it’s the Seiko SPB121J1, aka the Seiko Alpinist in a wonderful shade of green. In fact, we’re giving away two of them!
All you have to do is click the button below and have five of your friends 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 Alpinist, so we can get this for you and ship it to your address. That’s it!
👂What’s new
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Go out and try to score a Silver Snoopy Speedmaster that Omega released in 2020. Good luck. You will either not be able to find one, or you will pay an exorbanat amount of money or you. But if you’re hell bent on having a Snoopy on your watch, there are luckily several more affordable and accessible options. Both Timex and Swatch had great collabs with Peanuts comics, and now Seiko is joining the party with two new Seiko 5 Sports limited editions that are both Snoopy themed, and capture a lot of the charm from the original comics in subtle ways
The new watches use the smaller Seiko 5 Sports platforms, the 38mm case size with a dive bezel, and the 36mm field watch style case without a bezel. Each has a white dial with graphics pulled right from the comic. The larger dive style watch has an image of Snoopy with a surfboard (with the words “Seiko 5 Sports” printed on in).The smaller watch features Snoopy and Woodstock flying in an imaginary helicopter with the back of the case featuring Woodstock parachuting down to safety.
Since these watches are part of the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the Seiko 5 Sports, the artwork for the new watches was pulled from Peanuts comics dating to 1968. Another extra touch is Seiko changing all the numerals on the watch into the Schultz font, making the watches seem more grounded in their original comic strip roots.
Other than the artwork on the watches, the basics are the same as the recently updated Seiko 5 Sports. 100 meters of water resistance on each reference, push/pull crowns, hardlex crystals, and the 4R36 movement. The watches both ship on a leather strap, but also include an additional NATO style strap.
Availability of these special editions is not immediately clear. It looks that they will be limited to markets outside the US and they will most likely be available in June.
At press time, availability appears limited to markets outside of the United States, but pre-orders listing a June delivery date are open at several well known international retailers. The retail price for the “Surfboard” model is £350, and is limited to 8,900 pieces. The “Parachute” is priced at £330 and is a limited edition of 6,500.
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In 2022, Citizen introduced the NJ015 “Tsuyosa”, a budget-friendly steel integrated bracelet watch with an automatic movement and a number of great dial colors. It was an instant hit, but also caused some controversy - it was available only in select markets and the U.S. was not one of them.
Now, that changes as Citizen is introducing the NJ015 series to the U.S. It’s the exact same Tsuyosa you find in the rest of the world, with a variety of colorful dial configurations, a 40mm case with a four o'clock crown and an integrated steel bracelet. Inside the watch is the Citizen in-house caliber 8210 visible through an exhibition caseback featuring a beat rate of 21,600VPH and 40 hours of power reserve. In addition to the colors the dial features a three o'clock date aperture with a magnifier as well as luminescent baton markers
You can get it in five variations: Black, blue, green, yellow, and turquoise. The bracelet features polished center links and you have water resistance of 50m.
This newly announced collection is available beginning May 23, and are as affordable as expected - $450.
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There are new brands and then there are new brands. You could call Baltic, which started in 2016, a new watch brand. But then there are brands like the British Aera, which only launched last year with two models - the D-1 diver and P-1 pilot watch. A year later, they’re back with major and minor updates to the pair.
Aera watches are bit. Unapologetically so. The steel cases measure 43mm in diameter, while the pilot’s is 15mm thick and the diver is 16mm thick. A lot of the thickness comes from dramatically domed, double curved sapphire crystals. There’s also a lot of curviness with these watches. The case is also very curved, just like the dial.
For the new D-1 Ocean Diver and P-1 Moon Pilot, Aera has introduced new color options along with some internal upgrades. Blue, of course, is a natural choice for a dive watch, and for the Ocean Diver they appear to have done a nice job of matching the tone of the bezel to the dial (and the strap). The P-1 Moon Pilot’s gray tone is inspired by the color of moon dust. The Moon Pilot still features big Arabic numerals with a smaller outer track counting off the minutes.
The two key improvements made to these latest Aeras concern the lume and the movement. The brand is now using Globolight luminescent material on the markers and numerals for each watch, which should provide a significantly brighter and longer lasting lume experience. Aera has also improved the movement, moving up to an Elabore grade Sellita SW200-1. This grade of Sellita caliber promises more accurate and consistent timekeeping, and Aera says their calibers have been adjusted to work within a -7 to +20 rate per day.
Both watches are limited editions of 300 pieces each. The retail price for the D-1 Ocean Diver is $1,600, and the P-1 Moon Pilot sells for $1,500.
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Cuervo y Sobrinos is a different kind of Swiss watch. You don’t see many Swiss brands that have Cuban roots, and Cuervo y Sobrinos is not shy about expressing its colourful and exuberant Caribbean personality. Introduced two years ago, the Buceador Caribe dive watch flaunts an original and complex case construction. Now the brand is updating the line with three new color variants that are inspired by the different tonalities of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic Ocean - navy blue, light blue and black.
The Buceador Caribe is a dive watch, which is fitting seeing as Buceador means diver in Spanish and it measures 43mm across with a thickness of 15.8mm in a stainless case that gives it 200m water resistance. At 2 o’clock is a crown that adjusts the internal rotating bezel, while the crown at 9 o’clock adjusts the time and winds the mainspring. The pusher at 4 o’clock is an extra safety precaution and unlocks the blue bezel crown. All models feature two-tone rotating inner dive bezels with a luminous pip at noon, large luminous indices and hands, an octagonal-framed date window at 6 o’clock and the brand’s coat of arms at noon.
The navy blue model (2860.1BL) has a high contrast red 15-min area on the dive bezel, followed by a lighter blue area. The numerals on the dive bezel and dial are filled with sand-coloured Super-LumiNova. It comes on a navy blue rubber strap and a more elegant dark blue calfskin strap, but you can also get it on the new stainless steel Milanese bracelet. The light blue reference (2860.1LB) is the only one with a gradient dial. The all-important 15-min countdown area of the dive bezel is picked out in white with red numerals, while the remaining area of the bezel is a bright light blue colour. The luminescence on this model is white.
The black dial reference (2860.3NY) is cased in a black DLC-coated stainless steel case and is not available with the Milanese steel bracelet. By far the boldest of the trilogy, the black dial is combined with yellow accents. It is delivered with a black rubber strap and a complementary black calfskin strap. Inside is the CYS 8126 automatic movement based on a Soprod P024, an alternative to the ETA 2824.
The price of the new models with the Milanese bracelet is CHF 3,100 (excl. VAT) while the models delivered with two straps (rubber and calfskin) will retail for CHF 3,000 (excl. VAT).
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Take a better look at the Hermès Arceau watch and you will notice the unusual shape of it’s case. It’s supposed to be shaped like a stirrup, which is a nod to the beginnings of the brand in 1837 when founder founder Thierry Hermès began making harnesses and saddles. The Arceau has, therefore, always seemed very important to Hermès, and most attention is paid to them. The latest Arceau is this Petite Lune moon phase floating in a radiant aventurine night sky with celestial bodies crafted from semi-precious materials.
Housed in a 38mm Arceau white gold case with a rose-cut diamond in the crown, the bezel is set with 70 brilliant-cut diamonds. The galactic landscape is staged against a sparkling aventurine glass background enhanced with five different-sized diamonds to evoke twinkling stars. The recessed moon phase aperture floats in an unusual position at 10:30 on the dial, eclipsed somewhat by the presence of three large celestial bodies dominating the night sky.
The Arceau Petite Lune is powered by the automatic movement H1837, a reference to the year that Hermès was founded. Designed in collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture in 2012, this automatic is only 3.7mm thick and is fitted with a double barrel, runs at a frequency of 4 Hz and delivers a power reserve of 42 hours. The watch is delivered on a Hermès sapphire-blue alligator leather strap with a white gold pin buckle.
The Hermès Arceau Petite Lune joins the Arceau collection and retails for EUR 40,000.
🫳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
Escapism is the source for a lot of humanity’s great works, whether it’s the novels of Jules Verne or the post-impressionist paintings of Van Gogh. For the legendary fashion designer Ralph Lauren, it was the John Wayne and Gary Cooper led Hollywood Westerns of the 1940s and ‘50s. When his company reached its 50th anniversary of making clothes other than neckties in 2018, the Ralph Lauren American Western Watch Collection was created to honour the founder’s love for cowboy culture. Ever since the introduction of the Polo Western range in 1978, the crossover between denim workwear and Western style has been deftly explored by Ralph Lauren and is perhaps their most sought-after output besides the Polo shirt and Polo Bear.
⏲️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
Adventure tourism is big business, whether it’s climbing Everest, or sailing around the world. But it can come at a cost. In this piece, Sally Williams investigates the death of Simon Speirs, a customer who was swept overboard while on the Clipper Round the World yacht race.
Today, I’m on a food kick. Sushi restaurants are everywhere in Los Angeles. But what’s the origin story? When and how was the Japanese cuisine introduced in the region? Daniel Miller recounts the story of L.A.’s sushi revolution, and a friendship between two men who connected through food.
A couple of years ago, just before the pandemic, my wife and I traveled to Rome. We got to our AirBnB earlier than expected and accidentally saw that the Vatican has night tours on Friday. Going there before unpacking was our best decision ever. The Vatican is magical at night and the number of tourists is one tenth than during the day. Cullen Murphy from the Atlantic, on the other hand, had a chance to go into the Vatican in the dead of night, when nobody is there. And it looks even better.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
If you follow this section of the newsletter, you’ll notice that most of the videos are related to adventures or watches, with the occasional car video thrown in mostly because these are the videos I watch on a daily basis and want to share with you. But I also devour food videos. So here’s one about pizza with Action Bronson, the super talented rapper/chef and one of the greatest chefs of our time Wylie Dufresne
💵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 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.
Everybody needs a green faced watch in their life. That’s why we have a new giveaway - it’s the Seiko SPB121J1, aka the Seiko Alpinist in a wonderful shade of green. In fact, we’re giving away two of them!
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