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  • Seiko's New Seiko 5 With A Retro Colorway; Maurice Lacroix Has Black And White Ceramic Aikons; Nivada Brings Ceramic To The F77; Eska’s Red Viper Amphibian 250; And An Incredible Ferdinand Berthoud

Seiko's New Seiko 5 With A Retro Colorway; Maurice Lacroix Has Black And White Ceramic Aikons; Nivada Brings Ceramic To The F77; Eska’s Red Viper Amphibian 250; And An Incredible Ferdinand Berthoud

It seems that we have a ceramic heavy day today

Author

Vuk Radic
November 22, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 18 minutes

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. A bit of a slow day, but some cool things happening in the micro space. However, despite it’s incredible price, do look closer at the Ferdinand Berthoud. You don’t see watches like that every day.

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In this issue:

  • Seiko Teams Up With Skate Fashion Brand HUF For A Very Pleasant Take On The Seiko 5

  • Maurice Lacroix Releases Black And White Ceramic Versions Of The Iconic Aikon

  • Nivada Grenchen Brings Black Ceramic To The F77, Equips It With Stone And Meteorite Dials

  • Eska’s Latest Red Viper Amphibian 250 Is Extremely Red And Very Limited

  • The Twelfth And Final Watch Made For The Sincere Jubilee Is This Incredible Ferdinand Berthoud

👂What’s new

1/

It’s probably a given that the watch community doesn’t particularly like collaborations. Not because they produce bad watches, on the contrary. it’s because they are necessarily always limited editions. And Limited editions are just a bummer. Well, we have a new collaboration today, one between Seiko and the legendary lifestyle and streetwear brand HUF started by iconic skateboarder Keith Hufnagel. It’s the great looking Seiko 5 Sports HUF Limited Edition SRPL33 and yes, it’s limited… but that means something completely different in the Seiko universe.

The new Seiko 5 HUF comes in the very familiar Seiko 5 case that is made out of stainless steel and measures 42.5mm wide and 13.4mm thick. The crown sits at 4 o’clock, as you would expect and on top is the unfortunate Hardlex crystal. Surrounding the crystal is the unidirectional rotating bezel that has a familiar black insert with red and silver markings. Water resistance is 100 meters.

I really like this new dial. It has a very retro colorway, something from perhaps the 1970s. The base of the dial is rendered in a shiny silver with a sunray brushing, with beige lume inserts on the applied markers, while the sloped minute track is a combination of lime green and blue. The lime green can be found on the HUF logo above the word Automatic at 6 o’clock, as well as on the central seconds hand.

Inside, you’ll find the mediocre but well known 4R36 which beats at 3Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. It will tell the time, as well as the day and date, but keep in mind that Seiko rates the accuracy of this movement at +45/-35 seconds per day. of course, this is often much better in real life, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow. The one cool thing is that you can see the movement through the caseback, but it’s covered in a lime green glass. The watch comes on a three-link stainless steel bracelet.

Like I said, the Seiko 5 Sports HUF Limited Edition SRPL33 is limited. But don’t worry, 7,000 pieces will be made, so it’s not like a regular limited edition. The watches go on sale in December at a price of $380. Correct me if I’m wrong, the last few Seiko 5 watches that came out were priced at well above €400, so this might be a rare lowering in price. See more on the Seiko website.

2/

Maurice Lacroix Releases Black And White Ceramic Versions Of The Iconic Aikon

Someone with less regard for brand history and a bit more cynicism than me would say that the Maurice Lacroix Aikon is just a budget version of the AP Royal Oak. But just the fact that it has an integrated bracelet, a slightly angular case and a patterned dial don’t make a Royal Oak knock off. The Aikon has carved out an interesting niche for itself in the past wight years, from a fun quartz alternative to high-luxury integrated bracelet sports watches into a huge collection that will now give you pretty much anything you’d like, it it’s your stile. The latest addition to the collection is a duo of ceramic cased Maurice Lacroix Aikons.

ML Claims that this is not regular ceramic that they are using, but rather ‘technical ceramic’ which adds additional oxides to zirconium oxide to produce a more durable, stronger and thermally stable than regular ceramic. There are two new technical ceramic models, one in white and the other in black and, interestingly, they aren’t the same size. Go for the black, and it comes in 42mm, while the white is smaller at 39mm. Their thickness is the same at 11mm. The finishes are also different — the black is matte, while the white is glossy. Other than that, they are largely identical, with the same tonneau-shaped case, raised bezel with six claws and 200 meters of water resistance.

The dials are made to match the color of the case, with embossed Clous de Paris patterns. Both have thin applied and rhodium-plated indices and hands, treated with lume. At 3 o’clock on both versions you’ll find a date aperture with color matched date discs.

Inside both watches is the ML115 automatic calibre, but that’s in essence just a slightly modified Sellita SW200. That makes the watch reliable and easily servicable. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watches get matching five-link integrated ceramic bracelets which look like they were a pain to produce.

The new Maurice Lacroix Aikon Technical Ceramic models are part of the regular collection, available now and priced at €3,100. See more on the Maurice Lacroix website.

3/

Despite being founded in 1926, and being one of the legendary Swiss watch manufacturers, Nivada Grenchen has had a tough time during the quartz crisis and went under. However, in recent years, watch entrepreneur Guillaume Laidet has brought the brand back and is churning out hit after hit. Today’s Nivada Grenchen is doing something pretty smart - they are going through their incredibly rich back catalogue and recreating them with modern sensibilities and materials. One of these watches is the F77, a recreation of an integrated bracelets steel sports watch first released in 1977. But now that the F77 has been around for a while in its regular steel and titanium versions, it’s time for the case to get a black ceramic version. And it’s pretty cool.

So, the new cases are made out of black ceramic and keep the same width of 37mm. It did grow a bit in thickness to 12.85mm from 11.65mm, while keeping the 45mm lug-to-lug. While steel versions of the case had a great play of brushed and polished surfaces, the black ceramic gets an all matte finish. On top is a domed sapphire crystal with a Genta-esque octagonal bezel with exposed (and aligned) screws (well, bolts, but you know what I mean). Water resistance remains the same at 100 meters.

This release is all about the case, so the dials look very familiar. But that doesn’t mean that they are bland. No, there are three versions — the instantly recognizable basket weave which comes in black, a meteorite and a lapis lazuli blue. stone. The indexes are applied and polished, while the hands have the same finish with tiny strips of lume in it.

Just like all the other F77 watches, this one gets the Soprod P024 automatic movement. This is Soprod’s version of the legendary ETA 2824, which means it beats at 28,800 vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. It also comes on an integrated black ceramic bracelet.

Nivada still hasn’t said when exactly they are launching the watch, but the pre-orders are opening very soon. The basket weave dial will be part of the permanent collection, while the meteorite and stone dials will be limited releases that can be pre-ordered only during a one month window. Prices for the meteorite and stone haven’t been revealed yet, but the black basket weave dial will sell for €1,370. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

4/

Earlier, at the start of 2024, I wrote about two French enthusiasts who were bringing back the defunct brand Eska. The original was known for its dive watches that were inspired by the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and featured fantastic oversized radium numerals and indices and a reverse black Bakelite bezel insert under acrylic. Very few of these watches were made, hence the popularity among collectors. But that original piece had one major flaw. It sold on Kickstarter for €740 or at full retail of €1,050 (without tax!), while equipped with the humble NH38. It seemed that I was the only one that saw that as an Issue, because it reached and surpassed its Kicstarter goal very easy. And I said then that they needed to either use a better movement or lower the price, and this is exactly what happened when Eska released the cool Amphibian 250 White Shark. Now, it’s time for a new limited edition, the very red Red Viper.

The Red Viper uses the same Amphibian case that measures 40mm wide, 13.5mm thick and with a lug-to-lug of 46mm, so pretty decent dimensions when it comes to chunky divers. While the unidirectional bezel is no longer bakelite, it does keep a vintage look with large numerals rendered in beige and a coin edge. To continue with the vintage aesthetic, the new Amphibian also has a double domed sapphire crystal. With the screw-down crown you get 250 meters of water resistance.

The original Amphibian featured a black dial, the White Shark got a stark white one, and the Red Viper has a wonderful red one with a gradient that fades to an almost black on the edges.. It’s also a sandwich dial with cutouts for the indices filled in with Old Radium lume. The indices have a printed red tip, while at 3, 6, 9 and 12 you’ll find oversized Arabic numerals. The hands are also filled in with Old Radium lume, with minimal writing on the dial in white. I love that font.

The Red Viper continues where the White Shark left off, so there are no more NH38 movements to be found here. It’s the Sellita SW200 which beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes with three ways of wearing it — a red tropic rubber strap, a black two piece NATO strap and a pretty sweet ladder-style steel bracelet.

Bad news. This watch is severely limited. Only 136 pieces will be made and they are on sale now — so, if you want one, hurry up. The price has increased a bit from the White Shark, likely thanks to the steel bracelet, but is still lower than the introductory NH38 powered watch. You can get this for €1,090 with taxes included. See more on the Eska website.

 5/

This will be a huge year for watch collectors in Southeast Asia. One of the most prominent retailers in the region, Sincere Watches, is celebrating their 70th anniversary. And they’re doing so with a bunch of very special watches. They already showed off their collaborations with H. Moser & Cie, Laurent Ferrier and Czapek, among 11 total watches, but their latest release… that one just might take the crown. This is the 12th and final timepiece from the Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition series and it’s the incredible Ferdinand Berthoud Chronomètre FB 1RES.3 Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition.

Starting off with that strange octagonal case, it’s made out of 950 platinum and measures 44mm wide. Not only do you get sapphire crystals on the top and bottom, the midcase has two sapphire portholes on its sides at 2 and 11 o’clock to show off as much of the internals as possible. This is the only time that the Ferdinand Berthoud’s Chronomètre FB RES model will appear in platinum, so it’s a big deal for collectors. The o’clock side of the case is engraved with Sincere’s logo. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial features a vertical brushed surface with a salmon-colored 4N rose gold finish, with printed hour markers and minute track on a ring that surrounds it. The entire lower right side of the dial is open-worked to showcase the finely finished movement. The skeletonized hour and minute hands are made out of polished 18k white gold, while the seconds hand, which is a deadbeat seconds hand, is made from bronze with a blue CVD treatment.

If all of this wasn’t enough, check out what’s inside. It’s the COSC certified Caliber FB-RES.FC manual-wind movement which is equipped with both a fusee-and-chain transmission and a one-second remontoire d’égalité device. The fusee-and-chain mechanism delivers a constant force from the barrel at the start of the gear train, while the remontoir d’égalité is positioned at the opposite end to smooth out any irregularities by temporarily storing the energy before passing it to the escapement in equal increments every second. The once-per-second impulse of the remontoir d’égalité also makes it possible for the Cal. FB-RES.FC movement to have a deadbeat seconds display. The movement beats at 2.5 Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a brown alligator leather strap with a folding clasp made from 18k white gold and 950 platinum.

If it hasn’t been obvious, this is a very special watch. To make it even more special, the Ferdinand Berthoud Chronomètre FB 1RES.3 Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition will be made in only 3 pieces and it’s priced at $336,500. See more on the Sincere Watches website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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⏲️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

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

You know how after the Oscars are given away there’s always that one movie you believe should have won but was snubbed? I used to feel like that as well, but don’t any more. Any respect I have for the Academy and their decisions melted away in early 2009 when they awarded the winners for 2008. Not only did Tropic Thunder get only one nomination — when it should have won every single category — Robert Downey Jr. lost out the Oscar to Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker. Now come on… It wasn’t even close. This is only partially a joke. I rewatched the film recently and it’s a masterpiece. Just check out this 10 minute improvisation between Downey Jr and Stiller and tell me it isn’t great.

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