Seiko Releases Silk Inspired Presage Duo; Spinnaker Collaborates With SpongeBob; Horage's Omnium K2 Collection; Von Doren's Inspiration From Old HiFi; Louis Vuitton Steps Up With Escale Platinum

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It was my kid’s birthday this weekend and I’m completely drained after a two day celebration with way too many kids and family members. So I hope this edition lives up to your expectations.

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In this issue:

• Seiko Releases Silk Inspired Presage Duo, One With An Open Heart Design

• Spinnaker Has A New Collaboration With SpongeBob SquarePants And There’s Still A Chance To Get One

• Horage Introduces The Omnium K2 Collection, A Simple Dress Watch In A Variety Of Materials

• Von Doren Takes Inspiration From Old HiFi Systems For The New Tandberg Collection

• Louis Vuitton Steps It Up With The Escale Platinum Guilloché and Grand Feu Enamel Dial

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko Releases Silk Inspired Presage Duo, One With An Open Heart Design

Coming in at the tail end of a pretty good year for them, Seiko is releasing what might be their last watches for the year. The release before this was based on the aesthetics of the Japanese Zen Garden. This one takes on another very Japanese motif and implements it into the dial — silk. The two new watches from the Presage Classic Series draw on Japan’s rich history with silk, and have soft texture dials in a warm ‘Shiro-Iro’ white with gold-coloured applied hour markers and hands.

The outside of the watch should be familiar to most Presage Classic owners already. They come in at 40.2mm wide and 13mm thick with a brushed case and polished bezel on top. A new detail is a thin gold-colored band between the case and the bezel which gives off a very 80s style. I remember a chronograph my dad had that looked very much like this. On top is a double-domed sapphire crystal and water resistance is 100 meters.

Like I said, the dials of the two watches are styled after Japanese silk, both with a subtle cream color. They also share the same gold baton hour markers and leaf hands. But other than the color and the hardware, they are very different. The SPB480 features sunray irregular grooves cut into the dial, making them look like the texture of silk. It also has an openheart design, with a look at the movement inside at 9 o’clock and a 24 hour indicator at 6 o’clock. The SPB478 has a rough grained texture and a date aperture at 3 o’clock.

Inside is the 6R55, which beats at 21,600bph and has a very decent power reserve of 72 hours. Where it lacks a bit is accuracy. And while most Seiko watches are delivered with accuracy that far exceeds the rating, this one is rated at -15 to +25 seconds per day. Both watches come on a five-link bracelet with a deployant clasp.

The two new Seiko SPB480 and SPB478 models are available now and the only pricing I could find is on their UK website, where they are priced at £900 for the SPB478 and £1,050 for the SPB480. This translates roughly to €1,085 and €1,265. See more on the Seiko website.

2/

Spinnaker Has A New Collaboration With SpongeBob SquarePants And There’s Still A Chance To Get One

Easily some of the most fun and exciting watches released this year were the two collaborations between Spinnaker and the iconic cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. And it’s not just me saying that. For the first time ever, there was consensus that these watches were incredibly cool, and since they were priced way below €500, they went fast. Like, minutes fast. Before I got a chance to write about them, they sold out. Now they have a new collaboration with SpongeBob but judging just by the fact that they were released on Friday and are still available for sale, might indicate that this is not as attractive as the previous releases. But I still dig them!

The new collaborations are based on Spinnaker’s Hull Diver. This is a cushion-shaped watch with short lugs, prominent crown guards and here come in an all black coating. The watches measure 42mm wide, 15mm thick and with a substantial 50mm lug-to-lug. They look very much like that other iconic dive watch, but come in at a fraction of the cost and with 200 meters of water resistance. The unidirectional bezels on top have alternating baton and numeral markers for the 60 minute timer, with an arrow on top, all matching the colors of the dials.

And speaking of the dials, these are much less outwardly SpongeBob compared to the older releases which featured character illustrations on them. These do feature the character but rendered almost as a texture on the black dials. There are four variants of the watches — themed after SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs — and featuring the colors of each characters. The color can be found on the dial highlights, index surrounds, bezel markings and hands.

Inside the watches are the very familiar budget option of the Seiko NH35. It’s not particularly accurate, but it is easily servicable, beats at 21,600vph and has a 41 hour power reserve. The watches come on a simple rubber strap that’s color matched to the character color. .

Like I said, the previous SpongeBob watches sold out instantly. These are limited to 225 pieces each, priced at €335 and still available. See more on the Spinnaker website.

3/

Horage Introduces The Omnium K2 Collection, A Simple Dress Watch In A Variety Of Materials

You would most certainly be forgiven if you’re not familiar with Horage. It really isn’t a household name in mainstream watches, but it sure is well known by watch nerds. This 20 year old watchmaker has made some very compelling watches, often powered by one of their three in-house movements. And not only do they make cool watches, they also introduce very interesting tech into watches, like the MicroReg device that connects to their new Revolution 3 MicroReg watch and allows the owner to regulate the movement by plus or minus 0.1 second with the press of a button. But their latest release, the Omnium K2 collection, comes in interesting metals, with a faceted crystal and a dressy approach.

The new collection can be had in either 904L stainless steel, 18K 3N yellow gold or even Pt950 platinum, not something you see from an indie of Horage’s calibre. But still very appreciated. The cases measure 37.3mm wide, just 7.95mm thick and with a 43.8mm lug-to-lug. On top is a triple-faceted sapphire crystal with five layers of antireflective coating on the underside.

The dials can be had in one of three colors — blue, white or pink. They all have a frosted surface with satin finish on the small seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. A minute track lays on a sloping rehaut, but the best part have to be the awesome numerals which are made out of blocks of lume — pink on the pink dial, red on the white and white on the blue dial. The hands are diamond cut with lumed inserts.

Inside is the K2 caliber, a micro-rotor automatic that the brand has used before. It’s incredibly cool for its thinness of just 2.9mm, beats at 25,200vph and has a modern 72 hour power reserve. It also has the hairspring, escape wheel, and anchor done in silicon. The watches come on 20mm wide blue alligator straps with stainless steel pin buckles or an option of matching the pin buckle to the case at an extra cost of CHF 1,800.

Pricing is all over the place, as you would expect from a watch that has such a wide variety of materials. Starting off with the stainless steel version, it’s available now and priced at CHF 4,590. The yellow gold and platinum versions will ship in the summer of 2025, with pricing at CHF 11,990 and CHF 14,990, respectively. See more on the Horage website.

4/

Von Doren Takes Inspiration From Old HiFi Systems For The New Tandberg Collection

I’ve never been a nerd for stereo systems, but I understand how easy it is to fall down yet another nerdy rabbit-hole that requires thousands of dollars to feed a collection. While not a huge name in hi-fi systems, the Norwegian brand Tanberg, named after acclaimed engineer Vebjørn Tandberg, has a cult following. And it’s this brand that the Norwegian indie watch brand Von Doren takes inspiration from to design their new collection.

The new Tandberg collection is very groovy, with a square-ish tonneau-shaped case that measures 38mm wide, 10.6mm thick and 47.67 long, with super short, almost integrated, lugs. The case has a very 70s look, with a satin brushed steel finish and a polished bezel that’s so thin it forms a flat rim around the edge of the crystal.

There are two dial color options available — white and black. They have the same layout, inspired by the frequency indicator of the Tandberg T20, an open-reel tape deck. The jour and minute markers are drawn on the dial with contrasting colors, with quarter markers done in extra long applied brushed metal markers. The hands are silver on the white and get a dark coat on the black dial, both with lume strips and a red tip on the seconds hand.

Inside is the ubiquitous and well known Sellita SW200-1 automatic, which beats at 4Hz and has a 40 hour power reserve. The watches come on blue nylon straps

The Von Doren Tandberg is available for pre order now and if you order by January 1st at a price of €1,490. order after and you’ll pay €1,590. See more on the Von Doren website.

5/

Louis Vuitton Steps It Up With The Escale Platinum Guilloché and Grand Feu Enamel Dial

It’s kind of a universal rule that you should be buying watches from companies that make watches. If they make shoes, sweaters or handbags, you should stay clear of their watches as they tended to be cheap Chinese-made watches with the brand name slapped on them — so called fashion watches which sold for huge numbers compared to their paltry cost. Well, things have changed. A lot. Ralph Lauren is making great watches. So is Bulgari. Hell, even Leica is making watches now. But at the very tip of brands that are re-imagining what it means for a fashion house to make watches is Louis Vuitton. And their latest watch, the Escale which incorporates historical métiers d’art techniques, proves once again how good they are.

The Louis Vuitton Escale comes in a platinum case that measures 39mm wide and 10mm thick, with a lot of inspiration taken from early 20th century LV steamer trunks. For example, the lugs are shaped like the riveted brass brackets that protected the corners of those trunks. The case has a brushed case middle and polished tops and bottoms, including a polished bezel.

The dial is even more striking than the case. It takes a solid gold disc with a raised lip to contain the enamel, which is then engraved on a hand-operated rose engine to create the hypnotic radial guilloché pattern. Enamel is applied using the champlevé technique to fill the recessed cells. The dial is enamelled on both sides. Known as counter enamel, the coating on the reverse side prevents deformation during firing. The dial is then polished with a diamond paste to a mirror-like sheen. after that, holes are burned into the enamel dial for the riveted white gold hour markers at the quarters. The hands are made out of white gold, faceted and dauphine-shaped, with a central seconds hand in titanium.

Inside is the calibre LFT023 automatic with an off-centred 22k gold micro-rotor. Designed by Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps and made by Le Cercle des Horlogers, it comes with a Geneva Observatory chronometer certification. It beats at 4Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a blue calfskin leather strap with a platinum pin buckle.

The new Louis Vuitton Escale is limited to 50 pieces and priced at €75,000. See more on the Louis Vuitton website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Hamilton PSR 74

2/

Hands on with the Cartier Santos De Cartier Dual Time

3/

A review of the echo/neutra Rivanera

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Louis Erard Le Régulateur Gravé Noir is a sleek, stylish dress watch that retains enough presence and subtlety to be worn on a daily basis

This watch is what’s known as a “regulator”. A regulator dial gives the hours and the minutes (and in this case, the seconds as well) their own axis. Rather than the hour and minute hands being stacked atop one another, the hour hand occupies a sub-register at 12 o’clock, the minute hand has the central axis all to itself, and the going seconds hand occupies the six o’clock sub-dial. I’ve always enjoyed regulator dials from a stylistic perspective. I adored the much-missed Tulloch T-01, and admire the Alpina Alpiner Extreme Regulator Automatic, believing it to be the most handsome watch in that entire Alpiner family. However, whether one finds a regulator easy-to-read will come down entirely to how you interpret the information presented on a watch dial.

Read the whole review on Watch Gecko

⏲️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

• It seemed like Liza-Johanna Holgersson had crafted an elaborate and fake persona to win the hearts (and hopefully the wallets) of a number of well-off men. But she wasn’t the only one pretending to be something they weren’t. A shocking twist lies within this shifting tale of identity that turned both the writer’s life, and that of her editor, upside down

• When I was in college we used to regularly fall asleep watching Adult Swim cartoons. And if you’ve ever done the same circa 2002-2007, you would have woken up to the same sight I did — drunk college girls flashing the camera and an extremely annoying voice urging you to order a tape with more girls flashing. The whole thing was extremely strange, quite obviously exploitative and creepy. Turns out, that wasn’t that weird because the guy behind it was a massive creep.

• The benefits of human gut microbiota are well-known. For example, fecal microbiota transplants have shown to be an effective treatment for C. diff. But the idea of microbiome-based treatments hasn’t taken off on a wider commercial scale. In this Bloomberg Businessweek feature, Jason Gale writes about MaaT Pharma, a biotech company in France pioneering fecal-based therapies to treat cancer. MaaT Pharma’s research is promising, and as Gale reports, it’s very close to being the first company to gain approval for a microbiome-related product. A fascinating read—if you can stomach it.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Did you know they’re making a sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later? I heard it was in the works, but I was completely uninterested. Until I saw the trailer. This looks good.

-Vuk