Seiko Releases Three Racing Themed Speedtimer Chronos; Unimatic Goes All Black On The Modello Uno, Due And Quattro; March LA.B's Fantastic Ladies Milady Mansart; New From ALTO And GP

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. A couple of watches today reminded me that boring watches are fine and bring in money. But we need more extravagant stuff, right?

In this issue:

• Seiko Releases Three Racing Themed Prospex Solar Speedtimer Chronographs

• Unimatic Goes All Black On The Modello Uno, Modello Due and Modello Quattro

• March LA.B Expands Mansart Line With Fantastic 28mm Ladies Version Called The Milady Mansart

• New Watch Brand ALTO Unveils Their First Watch, The Very Funky ART 01

• Girard-Perregaux Introduces The Laureato 42mm Pink Gold With Ultramarine Blue And Sage Green Dials

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 44 seconds

👂What’s new

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Seiko Releases Three Racing Themed Prospex Solar Speedtimer Chronographs

Over the past several months and years, Seiko has been very deliberate with their development of the Solar Speedtimer Chronograph collection. It is expanding it towards vintage inspired chronos as much as towards more modern stuff. And now they’re releasing three watches inspired by car racing, the sport the Speedtimer was born to work with - these are the Circuit Race SSC941P1, Grand Touring SSC939P1 and Racing Sports SSC943P1.

All three come in the same 41.1mm wide and 13mm thick stainless steel case that has a surprisingly comfortable 45.9mm lug-to-lug measurement. The watch does have the slightly uncommon 21mm lug width. On top of each is a curved sapphire crystal surrounded with a colored aluminium bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters.

That’s what they have in common. Each of the models gets its own color pallet. Starting off with the Circuit Race, it comes with a black dial, white minute scale and gold coloured accents across both the dial and the case, along with a black bezel. Then there’s the Grand Touring which comes with an anthracite grey dial with a blue tachymeter bezel. And last we have the Racing Sports which gets a matte green aluminium bezel and a cream dial with black subdials. All three have a date window at the 4:30 position which blend in well with the color.

Same between the three watches is the movement, which is the V192 solar chronograph calibre. This quartz movement can be charged with light through the dial and you get a 6 month runtime when fully charged. Accuracy is ± 15 seconds per month. The watches come on either a perforated leather strap or a stainless steel bracelet.

Price is as follows: €680 for the Racing Sports on the leather strap, €700 for the Grand Tourer on the stainless steel and €720 on the Circuit Race. A bit pricy for a quartz, but I don’t doubt they will find a market. See more on the Seiko website.

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Unimatic Goes All Black On The Modello Uno, Modello Due and Modello Quattro

The Italian microbrand Unimatic is back with what could be their darkest release yet. And the black DLC coating isn’t limited to just one model (although, it is limited in numbers) - you will be able to get one in either the Modello Uno, Modello Due or Modello Quattro variant. I have a few thoughts on this, but more on that later.

Starting off is the Modelo Uno U1S-8BB, their take on a minimalist diver. The stainless steel case comes with a black DLC coat and measures 40mm wide while giving you 300 meters of water resistance. The sapphire crystal is surrounded by an unmarked rotating bezel, except for a small pip at 12. Then there’s the Modelo Quattro U4S-8BB, another take on a dive watch but more rugged. Again with a black coat and with a fixed brushed bezel on top. Lastly, there’s the Model Due U2S-8BB which measures 38mm wide and is much slender, taking the form of a more traditional field watch. A black field watch.

All three versions get the exact same dial - all black with a cream yellow minute track, cream dot and bar indices which are lumed and black hands filled with cream lume. The seconds hand is also black, with half of it colored in cream and a cream circular counterweight.

And just like all three watches have the same look, they all share a movement. Inside is the Sellita SW200-1, the reliable and easily servicable ticker. It beats at 4Hz and has an hour reserve of about 40 hours. The watches also all come on the same two-piece nylon straps with black hardware.

Interestingly, Unimatic hasn’t released the pricing for these watches. They are limited to 99 pieces each and go on sale today, May 9 at 5 p.m. CET/11 a.m. EST. I love what Unimatic is doing. However, is it just me or have they had these special black editions many times over the years? It’s a bit boring. I would love to see more adventurous designs from them. See more on the Unimatic website, when the watches go on sale.

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March LA.B Expands Mansart Line With Fantastic 28mm Ladies Version Called The Milady Mansart

I wrote about the March LA.B Mansart, a line of refreshingly simplistic and elegant watches, several times before. But it wasn’t until now that the watches broke my mind. That very unique shape of the Mansart is styled after one of the most famous squares in the world, Place Vendôme in Paris. No, really, go look at it on Google maps and tell me that the Mansart isn’t a 1/1 copy of Vendôme, down to the Vendôme Column in the center that throws a shadow that looks like hands on the Mansart. Now, March LA.B is expanding the Mansart to accommodate a more feminine clientele with the Milady Mansart. And before you call out the cringy Milady part of the name, think less creepy neckbeards online as it’s named for Milady Beach in Biarritz (which is the ‘B’ in March LA.B, while ‘LA’ stands for Los Angeles).

The Milady Mansart comes in a new sized case that keeps the same shape. The new Lady Mansart measures 28mm wide, just 6mm thick and has a 33mm lug-to-lug, placing it between the existing 26 and 34mm Mansart models. You can have it in either full stainless steel, a two tone steel and PVD gold and a full PVD gold finish. Despite being an small watch that verges on being a fully dress affair, you still get 50 meters of water resistance.

You have a huge choice of dials with this watch. Not only can you choose the color of the dial - white, green or gold - but you can also choose the finish on the dial - either sunburst of with a chevron pattern. This allows you to dial in the look just how you like it. The rest is very simple, with applied stick indices and very simple hands - gold on the white and gold dials and silver on the green dial.

Inside is the Swiss-made Ronda 762 quartz movement which helps with the 6mm thinness of the watch. The movement gets you 60 months of battery life and an end-of-life indicator. The watch comes on either a bracelet with a silver or gold finish or on an assortment of leather straps that include goat leather and funky colored alligators.

The March LA.B Milady Mansart joins the regular collection and varies in priced from $731 to $1,052, depending on the combination of materials, dials and bracelets/straps. See more on the March LA.B website.

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New Watch Brand ALTO Unveils Their First Watch, The Very Funky ART 01

Just a day or two ago, I saw a big announcement for a new brand. The press release was full of huge words, with the brand boasting they are standing out from the sea of same watches, finally brining innovation to the watch world and offering a fresh view on what a watch can be. Of course, it was just a Gerald Genta knock-off made for sub $100 in China and sold at a 10x profit in the U.S. And I’ve felt that brands like these pop up all the time. Well, today, we get a new brand, but one that really does bring something new, while remaining delightfully retro. The watch is created by the newly formed Paris-based ALTO and it’s called the ART 01.

According to the founder, Thibaud Guittard who worked for Audemars Piquet, the watch is inspired by avant-garde 1970s design, including wedge cars and architecture of the name. The brand hasn’t released the exact dimensions yet, but there’s time for that. What we have seen is that the case is made out of titanium, faceted and angular, with an even crazier sapphire crystal on top which combines curved and faceted outer surfaces and a hemispherical inner surface.

The dial is equally as radical as the case, made out of bead-blasted and black-coated brass with very dramatic hexagonal geometric lines serving as the dominant pattern. Additionally, while the hour and minute hands move clockwise, the seconds hand breaks your mind by rotating counter-clockwise. I’m not sure why this happens, but OK!

Inside is a micro-rotor movement created by Le Cercle des Horlogers on the same base architecture they use to make movements for Trilobe and Speake Marin. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 48 hour power reserve. It’s decorated, but not in an ornate way you might expect. Instead, the movement is matte black with thin geometric bridges. The watch comes on a black rubber strap.

The ALTO ART 01 is limited to just 25 pieces and priced at €19,100 without VAT. There are no details on when the watches might go on sale. See more on the ALTO website.

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Girard-Perregaux Introduces The Laureato 42mm Pink Gold With Ultramarine Blue And Sage Green Dials

Yesterday, we all rejoiced that summer is just around the corner and we might celebrate with a new Swatch NEON, a fun and affordable watch. That’s how the majority of us would welcome Summer. But people who exist in a slightly higher tax bracket than the rest of us might do it with the pretty sweet duo of the Girard-Perregaux Laureato 42mm Pink Gold Sage Green and Ultramarine Blue.

The watches are pretty much what you expect. They come in the Laureato case that measures 42mm wide and is rendered in a perfect shade of pink gold. On top is the recognisable octagonal bezel set on a round watch body. It’s the perfect luxury sports watch for a billionaire.

The Laureato flirted with gold tones last year with their steel version that had a copper dial. But in the pink gold version, you get two new colors with the same Clous de Paris pattern. Before you google it, Clous de Paris is a pattern made up of small pyramids. The two new colors are a very desaturated sage green and an ultramarine blue, both of which match the pink tones of the case perfectly.

Inside is the GP01800-2317 automatic in-house movement. It beats at 4Hz and has a 54 hour power reserve. You can see the pink gold rotor and Côte de Genève finishing through the caseback. The green version coms on a solid gold integrated bracelet, while the blue version can be had on either the bracelet or a blue alligator strap.

The Girard-Perregaux Laureato 42mm Pink Gold Sage Green and Ultramarine Blue are regular additions to the lineup, priced at €54,700 on the gold bracelet and €37,300 on the alligator strap. See more on the GP website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT

2/

Hands-On with the Louis Moinet Moon Tech 

3/

A review of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 126579RBR and the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 126589RBR with white gold cases, mother-of-pearl dials, and diamond-set bezels

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

Zelos is equally as good when they jump upmarket with the Spearfish Dual Time

The dual time subdial is a blast. It features a rotating globe disk behind a set of smaller hour and minute hands. If you bring the crown out to the second position and rotate clockwise, you can actuate the dual time hour hand, while your main home time remains in place. The globe disk will rotate proportionately to indicate the day/night in your selected time zone. All of this is brightly and beautifully lumed despite the small surface area, especially on the small dual time hands. In fact, the lume on the entire watch is top notch, as is the way with Zelos.

Read the whole review on Worn and Wound

⏲️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

• Sometimes all you need is a good title to drag you into reading. Like this one: I Read Everything Elon Musk Posted for a Week. Send Help.

• Growing up, you might have confessed your angst to a paper diary, a blog, or maybe Myspace. Now, as Jessica Lucas reports for The Verge, teens can turn to AI chatbots to pour out their woes. But what are the emotional and societal consequences of relying on bots for support? Are the kids going to be alright?

• In this well-reported, entertaining, yet depressing story, Adam Iscoe reports on how hard it is to snag a table at a trendy restaurant in NYC. The city’s restaurant reservation ecosystem is far from democratic, and services like Appointment Trader (an online marketplace for people to buy and sell reservations) and memberships like Dorsia (an exclusive club that can secure you tables at tough-to-book spots) have only made it worse.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I think I showed you a couple of these videos from Johnny Harris. He single handedly creates better documentaries on his YouTube channel than most publicly funded television stations. Here’s one of his latest ones on the role the FBI played in Martin Luther King’s murder.

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-Vuk