Seiko Releases Pair Of Prospex GMT Divers With Shohei Ohtani; Tissot Continues NBA Deal With Supersport Chrono; Aquastar Reimagines Benthos H2; Hermès' Arceau Petite Lune; And A Flat Richard Mille

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Kind of a weird bunch of watches today, no? The Aquastar is fantastic, of course, but the Tissot and the RM are… well, let’s just call them special.

In this issue:

• Seiko Teams Up With Shohei Ohtani For A Pair Of Prospex GMT Divers In L.A. Dodgers Colors

• Tissot Continues NBA Partnership With The New Supersport Chrono

• Aquastar Reimagines The Benthos H2 As A Much Smaller And Thinner Deep Diver

• Hermès Has A New Version Of The Arceau Petite Lune, Now With A Blue Lacquered Dial

• Richard Mille Brings Back The RM 16 With An Extremely Flat, Extremely Angular, Case

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko Teams Up With Shohei Ohtani For A Pair Of Prospex GMT Divers In L.A. Dodgers Colors

As you might have gathered so far, I’m not much of a sports person. I have been known to follow a bit of (American) football, tennis and the occasional ski race. But when pressed, I could deal with the basics of pretty much all the major sports. All of them, except for baseballs. I don’t know the rules, I’ve never seen a full game, I don’t get the sport and I don’t particularly care to know more. I’ve known maybe two or three players of the game, but the name I know the best right now is Shohei Ohtani. There are two reasons why I know his name. First, because he signed one of the biggest contracts in sports history, a 10 year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers worth $700 million. Second, even better, he was at the center of a betting scandal in which millions were paid out from Ohtani’s account to off-shore bookies, placed on Ohtani’s games. Even though it seemed like an open and shut case, it turned out that it was his interpreter stealing money from Ohtani and placing bets. Yeah. Well, here’s another reason to know Ohtani’s name. The Japanese baseball hero has teamed up with Japanese legend Seiko to release a pair of Prospex divers in Dodgers colors.

On the outside, the new SBEJ023 and SBEJ025 are based on the Prospex 1968 Heritage GMT divers, which means that you get a stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide and 12.9mm thick. Both the case and the bracelet get a black coating and on top of both models are blue ceramic inserts, matching the Dodgers blue, with a white 60 minute scale. Like other Prospex 1968 Heritage GMT divers, this one has a crown at 4 o’clock with Ohtani’s number 17 engraved into it. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The difference between the two watches is the dials — you can opt for a black or white version, both of which have a 24-hour flange to track a second time zone on the edge of the dial, blue-and-white on the white variant or black-and-white on the black variant. The white dial version gets black hour and minute hands, a black seconds hand and a blue GMT hand, while the black gets steel hands and a red GMT hand. Both feature lumed hour markers and a date aperture at the 4:30 position.

Inside the watch is the Seiko 6R54, 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 watches come on black three-link bracelets with Ohtani’s signature printed on the clasp of the bracelet, a strange place to put it.

The SBEJ023 (the black one) is limited to 1,700 pieces, while the SBEJ025 is limited to just 500 pieces. So far, only the Japanese pricing has been released — 330,000 yen (~$2,101) — and Seiko doesn’t say whether it will be available worldwide. Reservations are open through February 6. See more on Seiko’s Japanese website.

2/

Tissot Continues NBA Partnership With A New Supersport Chrono

Tissot is very much linked with basketball. They made a PRX with NBA star Damian Lillard. They’ve also been releasing NBA-themed watches for exactly ten years, a fact they are celebrating now by sponsoring the NBA shot clock. However, my favorite basketball watch they made came out last year and was in fact made for the WNBA in partnership with Wilson. It was a fairly traditional Seastar watch with a spectacular strap made out of basketball material. Well, their latest release with the NBA is not as cool as that WNBA watch, but I guess I should mention it. This is the new Tissot Supersport Chrono NBA 2025.

This is a beast of a watch. Perhaps a bit unnecessary so. The stainless steel case has a black PVD coating and measures 45mm wide, a surprisingly moderate 11,92mm thick and a whopping 54mm from lug to lug (this is not a confirmed measurement, but I see other Supersport Chronos coming in at that length). On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a steel bezel with a black aluminum insert. On the side are chunky pushers, as well as pretty large crown guards. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial comes in an anthracite dial with a gradient from the centre, where it’s lighter, to a darker outside. But the cool thing about the dial is the texture, which mimics the texture you would find on a basketball. There are white hour indices, with Arabic numerals at 12, 3 and 9 o’clock. The tri-compax setup looks very familiar and reveals that there’s a quartz movement inside, thanks to those highly-positioned sub-dials. The 6 o’clock sub-dial also holds a date aperture. The central chronograph seconds hand features the NBA logo as the counterweight. Red, blue and white is all over the dial, most prominently in the 24 square second indices, an homage to the 24 second shot-clock in the NBA.

Inside, you won’t find anything special. It seems to be an unnamed quartz movement, which contributes to the unusual thinness. The watch comes on a black leather strap that once again has the same grain as a basketball, stitched with red and blue stitching.

The new Tissot Supersport Chrono NBA 2025 is available now, at a price of $475. See more on the Tissot website.

3/

Aquastar Reimagines The Benthos H2 As A Much Smaller And Thinner Deep Diver

Back in the 1970s, the Aquastar Benthos 500 was the dive watch to own. Not only was it super capable, being able to dive down to 500 meters, it had a very innovative way to tracking dive times with a chronograph that had a large central minute arrow hand. The Benthos 500 was supposed to be a jumping off point for a whole collection of Benthos, but plans were cut short by the quartz crisis. Well, the revived Aquastar is righting that wrong, having discovered the designs for a smaller Benthos with a helium release valve. Given a new lease on life by industry legend Rick Marei, you can buy a modern Benthos 500. Up until recently, you could have also bought a Benthos H1, a throwback to divers of old. Now, we’re getting the Benthos H2, a reimagining of the old fivers in a much smaller case.

The Benthos H2 hits the nail on the head when it comes to size. Made out of 904L stainless steel, it measures 40mm wide, 11.9mm thick and with a 44 lug-to-lug. This is a welcome shrinkage from the H1, which came in at 42 wide, a whopping 16mm thick and with a 47mm lug-to-lug. The short L2L of the H2 is made possible by the iconic C-shaped case. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, surrounded by a steel unidirectional bezel that has a black ceramic insert with a fully graduated 60 minute scale. On the right side of the case you’ll find two crowns — the one at 2 o’clock screws down and adjusts the time, while the one at 4 o’clock actually serves as the screw-down helium escape valve. Very nice implementation, that is. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial is a simple black, with the Aquastar logo and brand name at 12, and the Benthos H2 text at 6 o’clock. You get applied indexes, a black-and-white angled chapter ring and rectangular hands that are filled with lume. All of the lume is of the Old Radium kind, giving it a slight fauxtina look.

Inside, nothing out of the ordinary. It’s the Sellita SW200-1, a very familiar movement that beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black rubber tropic-style strap, which is perfect for a thin diver like this one, but you can also opt for a thicker ISOfrane rubber strap or, for an extra $100, you can get a beads of rice steel bracelet.

The Aquastar Benthos H2 is available for preorder now, with deliveries beginning in May. I don’t believe it will be a limited edition, but there is a huge upside if you grab one of the first 500 pieces — the price. The first 500 watches are priced at $1,190 on a Tropic or ISOfrane rubber strap, which is a fantastic price. Once the first 500 sell out, the price goes up to $1,490. See more on the Aquastar website.

4/

Hermès Has A New Version Of The Arceau Petite Lune, Now With A Blue Lacquered Dial

There’s a saying in the watch world that you shouldn’t buy your watches from the same people who make your purses. And in the vast majority of cases, this is true. But not so much when it comes to Hermès. Whether it’s a saddle, a bag or a watch, they can handle it all. And since they started out as a saddle producer, this equestrian theme can often be seen in their watches. It can be seen in the asymmetrical stirrup-shaped lugs of the Arceau Petite Lune model which now gets not just a beautiful diamond-studded eclipse on the case, it also gets a blue lacquered dial to hold the off-centre moon phase.

The 38mm wide case of this Petite Lune has a very unique construction, made up of two half-circles that overlap each other, thinner on the ends and thicker in the middle, and make up the bezel. Hermès makes use of this and gives one side of the circle a full band of diamonds, 99 briliant-cut ones, spanning the bezel from 8 to 2 o’clock. The case is made out of stainless steel and there’s another rose-cut diamond in the crown.

The dial reflects the bezel. There’s a crescent-shaped recess in the dial from 11 to 4 o’clock, also set with diamonds — 15 of them, larger in the centre of the recess and smaller towards the edges. The base of the dial is made out of blue lacquer, darker in the middle, but then with a lighter ring around the centre, once again fading to dark towards the outside. It looks like an eclipse. At 10:30, you’ll find the small moon phase aperture. The hands are leaf shaped, with dramatic cutouts in the centre.

Inside, you’ll find the H1837 automatic calibre, made by Vaucher. It’s a tiny thing that measures just 3.7mm thick, which is pretty great for a moonphase. The watch ticks at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a Hermès abyss blue alligator strap which you know will be spectacular.

The Hermès Arceau Petite Lune will be available very soon, but the price still hasn’t been announced. If other diamond-studded models are anything to go on, expect it to be between €16,000 and €19,000. See more on the Hermès website.

5/

Richard Mille Brings Back The RM 16 With An Extremely Flat, Extremely Angular, Case

If there’s one brand that’s absolutely synonymous with unusual watch shapes, it would be Richard Mille. It’s almost impossible to imagine an RM watch that isn’t tonneau shaped. Sure, they made other shapes as well, but it’s all about tonneau for them. And that was confirmed last year when they made the last RM 32, their last round case. Well, no more, because they are bringing back the RM 16, which gets a brand new square and very flat case. This is the new Richard Mille RM 16-02 Automatic Extraflat.

In photos, this watch looks huge. In reality, it’s actually quite compact at 36mm wide and 45.65mm tall. This impression of size comes from the straight lines of the watch, something we’re not used to seeing in watches — the long flanks and integrated strap make it extend visually way more. There are two options when ti comes to the case. You can either opt for a titanium version that comes in silver or a brown-red version made out of quartz TPT, a silicon composite material.

The dials are unmistakably RM, but taken even further in its abstraction. It looks almost architectural, in the most avant-garde way. It’s fully skeletonized, with each numeral being made of two parts — a traditional Arabic numeral index and an angular line that traces the numbers through the dial. Parts of those line make up some of the numerals. Impossible to explain, but it looks like a game of snake. And it’s a sea of greys, browns and whites here, making it kind of hard to read.

Through the dial, you can see the CRMA9 Calibre, which has a baseplate and bridges made from titanium and a platinum rotor. The movement has a 50 hour power reserve. The watches come on integrated rubber straps, beige on the titanium version and a matching red on the quartz TPT model.

The new Richard Mille RM 16-02 Automatic Extraflat is a strange watch which will have its audience, I don’t doubt it. The price is set at $134,000 for the titanium version and $156,000 for the TPT version. See more on the Richard Mille website.

⏲️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 British Museum has a new director, and he has a big job to do. After years of controversy over returning certain artifacts to their home countries and a museum staff member who stole thousands of pieces, the BM has an image problem. Can this huge, unwieldy organization—that does not even know everything contained in its labyrinth of storage rooms—turn over a new leaf?

• Over the past few weeks, city and county firefighters have battled the L.A. fires in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Brentwood. Private firefighters were also present, keeping vigil over properties they were paid to protect. For Rolling Stone, Joseph Bien-Kahn profiles former stuntman and private firefighter Andrew Sarvis, whose company, West Coast Water Tenders, protected 25 of the 27 homes they’d been hired to save.

• Despite the innocent-sounding name, “noodling” is terrifying: It means getting into some water, sticking your hand into whatever dark hole you can find, and seeing what bites it. Then you wrestle out whatever monster is trying to eat said appendage. Not surprisingly, it is a sport with some interesting characters, who Cameron Maynard meets whilst reporting on Lake Tawakoni’s 3rd Annual Big Cat Tournament. At one point a disagreement in the rules results in everyone shouting at the tournament director, who is “wearing a rubber catfish mask pulled back on his forehead like a swim cap with whiskers.” It’s a highly entertaining read.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

YouTube really is a magical place. For example, this channel has all the episodes of The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau. Go watch them all, it’s incredible.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk