Seiko Releases Preppy Trio In The King Seiko Collection; Farer Adds Four New Cushion Case Watches; Holthinrichs Announces Haute Horology Project; Porsche Design Updates The Chronograph 1

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s a decent day of releases today, but it seems that we might have hit a wall with new releases. So don’t be surprised if we skip a day again. Thankfully, the Patreon continues so you still get five editions a week from me.

And speaking of Patreon, thank you everyone. I think we might make it without having to go for ads if this continues, we’re almost halfway there!

In this issue:

• Seiko Releases Preppy Inspired King Seiko KSK 6R Trio In A New 36mm Case

• Farer Adds Four New Cushion Case Watches To Their Most Popular Collection

• Holthinrichs Announces Haute Horology Project And Brith Of First Dutch Watch Manufacture

• Porsche Design Updates The Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 26 seconds

👂What’s new

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Seiko Releases Preppy Inspired King Seiko KSK 6R Trio In A New 36mm Case

Bringing back the King Seiko was a big deal for Seiko in 2022. It was at the height of retro revival, something that Seiko was OK at but could do something more. And they reached back to the 1960s and grabbed the sharp cases of the original King Seiko, with a great size, standard good build quality and some fun colors. Now, Seiko has reworked the case just a little bit to shrink it down one millimetre and added three new, what they call, preppy colors. This is the King Seiko KSK 6R ‘Preppy’ collection.

The King Seiko already comes in two sizes, a 38.5mm and 37mm version, with this new edition being the smallest. The 36mm wide case is 11.62mm thick and has a strongly 60s vibe, with sharp angles, faceted lugs and a combination of brushed and Zaratsu-polished surfaces. On top is a sapphire crystal and out back is a caseback with the original King Seiko emblem. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dials carry what Seiko calls “Ivy Style” colors, which actually makes way more sense if you know where the Ivy style originated. Sure, it’s inspired by the type of clothes that students at prestigious Ivy League — oxford button-ups, rugby shirts, lots of colors, blazers and leather boat shoes. But this was a style reserved for the Northeast US, mostly in the 1950s. A decade later the style made its way to Japan, where young people started emulating the style and from there the clothes became a global sensation. So it just makes sense to have Japanese watches with a preppy colorway.

There are three colors to the dial — the Oxford shirt inspired light blue dial of the SPB457J1, the ivy green dial of the SPB459J1 and the burgundy dial of the SPB461J1. All three get applied polished rectangular indices as well as flat, faceted hands that also get Zaratsu polishing. Both the hands and the indices get Lumibrite inserts. In a great move, Seiko ditched the date window on the smallest watch so it wouldn’t take up too much space.

Inside all three is the automatic 6R51 movement which has a 72 hour power reserve. And as Seiko does, this movement isn’t the epitome of accuracy, with a claimed accuracy of +25/-15 seconds per day. The watch comes on a 7-link bracelet that no longer has integrated links into the case but instead has a straight link at the connection point, making for a more compact wearing experience. The bracelet has a hidden deployment clasp with push buttons.

The King Seiko KSK 6R ‘Preppy’ collection goes on sale September 1 at a price of €2,000. See more on the Seiko website.

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Farer Adds Four New Cushion Case Watches To Their Most Popular Collection

Very few modern brands are as good at utilising colors in their watches as the British brand Farer. But they’re not all about colors. They have great cases, interesting movements and some pretty wild styles. And it seems that one of their most popular lines so far has been the Cushion Case collection, which takes the classic cushion case and embeds within it hyper modern dials with a perfect combination of colors and indice styles. Some of them have been subdued, but many more have taken a walk on the adventurous side. So, now that Farer is adding four new watches to the collection, doubling its size, it makes perfect sense for them to be more on the subdued side to appeal to an even wider audience looking for both sporty and elegant options.

To make the cushion Case, Farer takes the best of the historic cushion cases and modernizes it. The stainless steel cases measure 38.5mm wide, 10.5mm thick and thanks to the stubby lugs pulls of a lug-to-lug of just 43.8mm. While they are all made out of steel, one of the models gets a yellow gold PVD treatment. They have a polished case with brushed bezel chamfer, while the Stanhope and Benham model get a fully brushed bezel. On top is a curved sapphire crystal while the back gets a flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 50 meters.

There are four models to choose from, and each has its own unique look. The Benham, named after English explorer and mountaineer Gertrude Benham who climed over 300 mountains and was the first woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, gets a rich cherry red with horizontal grooves and surrounded with a sunken cream ring that has a matching red printed minute track. At 6 o’clock you’ll find the sunken small seconds sub-dial, with a baby blue hand. The hour and minute hands are baton shaped and silver in color, filled with Grade X1 Super-LumiNova. The hour markers are also baton shaped. Then there’s the Mansfield Midnight which gets a deep inky blue dial, interrupted by polished batons and numerals in rose gold mounted to a raised sector dial. On the very periphery is a rose gold colored railroad minute track. The handset is dauphine shaped, with a rose gold PVD coating. Above the six o’clock position is a sunken seconds sub-dial featuring an engine-turned texture.

The third model is the very different Lethbridge, which is the first Cushion Case that gets a yellow gold PVD finish on the case. In fact, this is the first time any Farer case gets a finish. The dial is champagne colored with a satin-finished raised sector ring. The ring holds yellow gold PVD treated and polished Arabic numerals, while the hands are once again dauphine shaped and yellow gold PVD treated. Contrasting against the warm tones on the rest of the dial is the sunken silver ring of the sub-seconds dial, which adds more detail with a crisp engine-turned finish. The last model in the lineup is the Durham Pullman, limited to 100 pieces. It has a rich dark green dial with a metallic brushed finish, topped with applied Eastern Arabic numerals and hour batons. The hour markers are mounted onto a raised ring with a radial brushed finish. Paired with these hour markers is a sharp polished dauphine handset. Accenting these silver elements is the seconds sub-dial, which has a sunken silver channel with an engine-turned finish.

Inside all four new models is the Sellita SW216-1 hand-wound movement in its Elaboré Grade. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 45 hour power reserve. The watches come on leather straps with a quick release system. You can get an additional metal bracelet for an extra €180.

All four of the new Cushion Case watches are priced at €1,075 on leather, with the Benham and Mansfield Midnight shipping on August 15th, the Lethbridge Gold on October 3rd and the Durham Pullman Eastern Arabic on December 5th. See more on the Farer website.

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Holthinrichs Announces Haute Horology Project And Brith Of First Dutch Watch Manufacture

I wrote several times how much I like Dutch watchmaking. From indies like Batavi and De Rijke & Co who offer some really beautiful watches, to brands like Holthinrichs who are pushing material boundaries, all the way to up to the high horology of Grönefeld or Christiaan van der Klaauw, the Dutch have it all covered. But there was always something missing from the Dutch industry, and that would be a movement manufacture. Well, it seems that Holthinrichs is attempting to solve that issue with their new project, Holthinrichs Haute Horlogerie. According to the brand, this project will serve as an outlet for the brand’s most ambitious ideas and the first watch to be released is the Ornament Nouveau. Along with that, Holthinrichs is undertaking a serious endeavour — building the first in-house movement in the Netherlands.

Like all Holthinrichs watches, this one is an incredible sculpture. The flowing and organic shapes, with voids where you could never expect, are possible thanks to the use of 3D printing. The company prints grade 5 titanium into a case that measures 39.5mm wide, 9.5mm thick and with a 48.5mm lug-to-lug. The textures on this watch are crazy — a combination of polishing and very rough grained surfaces, one overlapping the other. Just mesmerising. Sapphire crystals are on top and bottom, while water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is equally as incredible as the dial. If you think the photo above shows two different dial options, you would be mistaken. What you’re seeing is a domed glass dial that has a treatment that makes it photochromic and UV sensitive. That means that the dial is smokey grey in UV light, such as daylight, but turns completely transparent when there are no UV lays, giving you a look at the movement inside. Pretty nifty. Other than that, you get a titanium dial ring that holds milled and hand-polished hour indicators, which are pointed to openworked stainless steel sword-shaped hands.

And finally, what should be the most impressive part, the movement. Holthinrichs says that the movement has been completely developed in-house, leaving the opening for the movement to be made by partners, but they claim it will be the first Dutch made movement. The brass mainplate can be finished in any of four custom galvanic treatments: 18K gold, 18K rose gold, white rhodium or black rhodium. The mainplate has a double concave shape, which accentuates the caliber’s three dimensional qualities. The balance wheel is held in place by a three dimensional glass bridge that the brand refers to as the “Holthinbridge.” Power reserve will be 83 hours.

Only 20 pieces of this watch will be made and it’s priced at CHF 67,138. See more on the Holthinrichs website.

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Porsche Design Updates The Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition

There’s this joke about the Porsche 911 that it hasn’t changed at all since it was introduced. And that’s equally as true as it isn’t. The formula is the same - a sports car with an engine in the very back. But every now and again we get a photo of all the 911 generations together and we see that the tiny incremental changes from generation to generation have made what is essentially a radically different car. The same could be said of the Porsche Design Chronograph 1, that it has been getting incremental changes since it’s introduction by 911 designer F. A. Porsche in 1972. Only, the Chronograph 1 seems to have never changed that much. Sure, technically, it has, but those changes are so minuscule that they are hard to catch. Take, for example, the recently released Hodinkee x Porsche Design Chronograph 1 and compare it to the what PD just introduced, the Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition, and try finding a difference. In fact, go back to the regular All Black Numbered Edition… These are watches that get almost invisible incremental changes, but that just makes them even more iconic.

As not much has changed over the years, you know very well what to expect here. The Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition is made out of titanium, with a black titanium carbide coating to pay homage to the first black coated watch ever, a pioneering move by Porsche Design. The case measures 40.8mm wide, 14mm thick, and has a sapphire crystal on top and bottom. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is exactly what you know and love. It has a matte black base with the classic tri-compax chronograph layout that takes the 6-9-12 o’clock positions, while at 3 o’clock, you’ll find the day-date aperture above which is the Porsche Design logo. On the outskirts of the dial, as part of the metal rehaut, is a traditional tachymeter scale. According to Porsche Design, the dial has been inspired by the cockpit dials of the Porsche 911, which you can really see.

Inside the WERK 01.140 which is a joint effort between Porsche Design and Concepto. The base architecture is the Valjoux 7750, but the hairspring, escapement, winding mechanism, and adjustment mechanism are all new. It has a 48 hour power reserve and a COSC certification. The watch comes on a matching titanium bracelet with matte-black titanium carbide coating.

The new Chronograph 1 – All Black Numbered Edition will obviously be individually numbered, but will also be limited to 1,000 pieces per year. With a price of $9,650, I wonder if they will sell them all. See more on the Porsche Design website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze

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Hands-On with Vacheron Constantin's Green Dial, Pink Gold Overseas

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A review of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Openworked in White Gold

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Hemel Airfoil HF15 is a practical pilot for the nostalgic soul

Pilot’s watches throughout history have tended to be quite large, as they were originally worn over flight jacket sleeves and needed to be legible with minimal lighting. By the ‘60s, sizes had shrunk thanks to some technological adjustments, but the main aesthetic cues still prioritised legibility. Contrast was the most important thing, so that you could quickly check your watch without taking your eyes off your instruments for too long. Hemel’s modernisation of the classic British pilot begins with the case size, available in either 42mm or 40mm configurations, each having 49mm or 47mm lug-to-lug lengths, respectively. The wrist presence from those long, slender lugs is still there but tailored to modern preferences of no lug overhang.

Read the whole review on Time + 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

• At the bottom of the biggest underwater cave in the world, diving deeper than almost anyone had ever gone, Dave Shaw found the body of a young man who had disappeared ten years earlier. What happened after Shaw promised to go back is nearly unbelievable—unless you believe in ghosts.

• The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. In fact, the first time I heard of it was in the story of Land Rover attempting to pass this treacherous piece of land for the first time with a car. Now hundreds of thousands of migrants are risking treacherous terrain, violence, hunger, and disease to travel through the jungle to the United States. An incredible story with photos you won’t get to see very day.

• My wife asked me a pretty funny question today: “Do you think the athletes in the Olympic village have a lot of sex?” I thought she was joking, and was sure that pretty much everyone was familiar with the lore of Olympic sex. I mean, they don’t give the athletes regular beds. Instead they sleep on carefully assembled cardboard beds that will crumple at the slightest motion of love. ESPN has a great overview of the issue of Olympic sex.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I can’t tell you how much videos of these restorations of really messed up watches relax me.

💵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 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