Swatch Breaks MoonSwatch Boring Streak With Three New Great Colors; G-Shock Takes Woodworking Inspiration; Formex Is Summer Ready; Behrens Shows Off; And LV Revamps Escale Dress Watch Line

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Oh boy, we have new MoonSwatches, which means online comments are going to go into a frenzy. But no lies from me, I LOVE that orange one. Btw, it’s day three of my keyboard going crazy and no replacement in sight, so bear with me.

In this issue:

• Swatch Breaks MoonSwatch Boring Streak With Three New Mission On Earth Editions — Lava, Polar Lights, And Desert

• G-Shock Takes Inspiration From Traditional Japanese Woodworking For A Premium Casioak

• Formex Is Summer Ready With The New Reef 39.5mm Bahama Blue Automatic COSC

• Behrens Embraces Chinese Heritage And Haute Horlogerie With The New Kung Fu Watch

• Louis Vuitton Refreshes Dressy Escale Collection With Four Brand New Watches

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 30 seconds

👂What’s new

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Swatch Breaks MoonSwatch Boring Streak With Three New Mission On Earth Editions — Lava, Polar Lights, And Desert

Like it, hate it, or if you’re just indifferent to it, the Swatch x Omega MoonSwatch is one of the most important watches released in the 21st century. Very few, if any (maybe just the Apple Watch), watches have had such a broad cultural appeal and brought as many watches to wrists that don’t usually wear watches. Not only has the MoonSwatch sold millions, it also reportedly brought a 50% sales boost to the Omega Speedmaster it’s based on. But the MoonSwatch has a huge problem, and it’s not what you think it is. It’s not the plastic case that has a tendency to crumble on their owners or the arguably high price. No, it’s that the MoonSwatch has become a bit boring.

The original release in 2022 resulted in global queues to buy up one of the eleven original models that came in pretty unexpected and radical colors. Then in 2023 Swatch insisted on releasing a bunch of grey colored models with bizarre connections to astrology that moved absolutely nobody. Then, understanding their predicament of boring watches, earlier this year they released two Snoopy watches that hinted that the MoonSwatch was becoming fun again. And then earlier this week they teased a green box that had everybody thinking that Swatch was taking on the Seamaster. This didn’t happen. What did happen are three brand new colors of the MoonSwatch. All three are pretty fantastic, but that orange… that might be a winner for me.

The basics of the watch are unchanged. It’s the same Speedmaster lookalike with a plastic (bioceramic) case that measures 42mm wide and 13.25mm thick. It has the same plastic crystal on top, same velcro strap, same quartz movement and the same water resistance of 30 meters, making it suitable to wear in the rain, but not much more.

New are the three colors that are inspired by various natural phenomena on earth, as opposed to the original 11 which were inspired by celestial bodies. Hence the new name, Mission on Earth. There’s the subdued Desert which gets a sand-colored Bioceramic case. The dial gets a slightly darker taupe color with lighter surrounds to the three sub-dials. The same taupe color shows up on the velcro strap. Then, there’s the Polar Lights version which comes in a turquoise case, which takes on the shade of the most prevalent color on the Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights. The dial is rendered in a dark blue with tiny silver specks that give an almost aventurine effect. I assume this version will be very popular.

But the best version has to be Lava, inspired by the molten innards of the Earth that often make its way to the surface. The case is made out of a striking orange color which is also found on the hands and along the hour markers. It actually looks very much like Omega’s Speedmaster Speedy Tuesday 2 “Ultraman” edition and I love it.

Like all other MoonSwatch versions, these will be available only in selected Swatch boutiques around the globe, with a limit of one per person. Retail remains unchanged at €275. See more on the Swatch website.

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G-Shock Takes Inspiration From Traditional Japanese Woodworking For A Premium Casioak

If you’ve never heard of the ancient Japanese woodworking technique of "kigumi," you’re in for a wild night of falling down a YouTube rabbit-hole. Kigumi came about in the Heian period (794-1185) and was a fantastic way of binding wood constructions without any metal or nails - it’s just wooden joints that firmly slot together and last for centuries. And it’s kigumi that Casio took as inspiration for a new G-Shock model, the MRGB2100B-1A. Part of the popular Casioak line, this watch still has to use just a couple of screws to put the 27 components together, but they do it in a highly specialised way that’s reflected in the price.

This is the first watch in the 2100 line that wears the MR-G name, which means that the watch is not only made out of metal, but also done so in a highly advanced way. The case and bezel are made out of a super-hard titanium alloy, Ti64, with the top of the bezel being made out of Cobarion, an alloy that Casio claims is four times harder than pure titanium and has a “brilliant gleam comparable to platinum.” The watch measures 44.4mm wide, 13.6mm thick and has a 49.5mm lug-to-lug measurement. Not small, but then again, no Casioak is. Pretty much all the metal surfaces are treated with sallaz polishing, giving them a mirrored finish, while parts of the inner case are gold plated. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial takes full inspiration from kigumi and is made up of what look like interlocked pieces of wood. There’s a significant amount of depth to this dial, with tiny openings in the latticework dial and the two-part structure of the indices. The openings also help to provide the solar movement with light for charging.

Speaking of charging, you get the very capable G-Shock movement inside which can connect to your smartphone and operate a number of functions on the watch. The watch comes on a bracelet made out of DAT55G, a material Casio says is stronger than titanium, and which is made out of a large number of small pieces that come together perfectly.

The G-Shock MRGB2100B-1A goes on sale on June 14 for a truly impressive price - $4,800. It sounds crazy to spend that much on a G-Shock, but there is a huge number of collectors that are after these super-high-end G-Shocks. See more on the G-Shock website.

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Formex Is Summer Ready With The New Reef 39.5mm Bahama Blue Automatic COSC 

The Reef is a highly aggressive, very angular, large and technical diver from the Swiss brand Formex. And this is what Formex is best known for, their technical achievements, including the very funky compressible case that offers great comfort. But with the Reef being such a chunky watch, many people welcomed the “Baby Reef”, a much smaller version of the same diver that came with four new dial colors. I said then, in late 2023, that Formex missed an opportunity to bring brighter colors to the smaller Reef. Well, it seems that they didn’t miss anything, they were just waiting for the summer. This is the new Reef 39.5mm Bahama Blue 300m chronometer dive watch.

While the larger Reef comes in at 42mm, the smaller one has a very wearable size - 39.5mm wide, 11mm thick and with a 45.5mm lug-to-lug measurement. The only thing that’s really large is the lug width at 22mm, but it shouldn’t present much of a problem. The case is made out of steel, with a 120-click unidirectional bezel on top. The bezel has a light blue ceramic insert with black resin numerals. Another cool thing about the bezel is that you can easily take it off if you want to try out different colors. Water resistance is 300 meters.

But it’s all about that Bahama Blue dial which is equally as light as the bezel, achieved by applying coloured lacquer onto a mirror-polished surface, followed by several layers of transparent lacquer for a polished finish. All the printing on the dial is black and the central hour, minute hands, and indices are filled with Super-LumiNova. There’s a perfectly color matched date window at 6 o’clock.

Inside is the COSC-certified Sellita SW300-1 automatic movement. It beats at 4Hz and has a 56-hour power reserve. It also features a skeletonized rotor. You can choose a number of straps for the watch, ranging from a NATO strap, through leather and rubber, all the way to a stainless steel bracelet. All of those, except for the NATO come with buckles that offer a fine-adjustment system.

The Baby Reef 39.5mm Bahama Blue Automatic COSC is available for purchase now at a price that starts at €1,790, without tax. Additional bezels will cost you €169. See more on the Formex website.

 4/

Behrens Embraces Chinese Heritage And Haute Horlogerie With The New Kung Fu Watch 

I’ve said this many times, but it requires repeating - it’s extremely unfair to look down at Chinese watchmaking just because they are capable of producing low quality, high output, low cost pieces. Sure, they can do that, but they also have some of the most lauded watchmakers in the world. Watchmakers like Mr. Qian Guobiao. Known as A Biao, he has teamed up with Behrens, a Chinese high-end independent watchmaking brand to launch the Master series of watches which will show off all the watchmaking they can do. Their first watch is the Kung Fu and it’s incredible.

You can have the Kung Fu in either a titanium or a platinum case (what a span of materials) that measures 39.5mm wide and 11.4mm thick. And despite the fact that 11.4mm doesn’t sound all that thick, the watch is actually much thinner as it seems that almost a third of the thickness is taken up by the extremely domed box-style sapphire crystal. The crystal is needed not just to house parts of the movement that are front facing, but also to give you a side view underneath these components for an incredible sense of depth.

The dial of the Kung Fu takes design cues from the Qin Dynasty and uses horological components to mimic coins, an important aspect of Qin society. These coins combined a round shape with a square hole in the center. The Kung Fu’s dial layout uses this idea and applies the concept to the four main functions (the hours/minutes display, the power reserve indicator, the balance wheel, and the regulation mechanism). All of this is overlaid over a dark grey dial.

The dial and the hand-wound in-house BM03 caliber are strongly linked, so you can’t talk about one without the other. At 11 o’clock you’II find the power reserve indicator which runs on two axis - a vertical and horizontal one: as the movement is wound the arrow rises while it progressively sweeps across the staggered-height stakes that note the power reserve. At the 2 o’clock position is the hours and minutes dial which has a raised peripheral section with polished and applied numerals and markers. All the hands are inspired by prismatic arrowheads from crossbow bolts from the Qin Dynasty and polished to a mirror finish. The balance wheel is situated at 7 o’clock and has a arrow-shaped hand protruding from it which serves as a regulating mechanism for the balance and escapement.

Only 99 pieces of the Behrens Kung Fu will be made. The 9 platinum pieces are already sold out, and the rest of the 90 will be rendered in titanium. The platinum versions sold for $28,500, while the titanium version is priced at $17,700. See more on the Behrens website.

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Louis Vuitton Refreshes Dressy Escale Collection With Four Brand New Watches

Should the definition of what a fashion watch be changed? Some argue that yeah, it should apply to all watches made by fashion brands, regardless of their quality. I’m on the other side of that argument. The side that says that it doesn’t matter if the watch has been made by a company best known for their fashion exploits. Such is the case with Luis Vuitton. You will find many people who will die on the hill of convincing everyone that LV just makes fashion watches. And then there’s the people who can just stand back and admire what they do. Just like what they’ve done with the refresh of their Escale model line, a dressy partner to the sporty Tambour that got a major rehaul last year.

The new Escale line is made up of four time-only watches, two made out rose gold and two platinum pieces that get either a meteorite dial or a diamond bezel. The Escale now gets a new case shape that measures 39mm wide, 10.2mm thick and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. The lugs have a wonderful shape to them and appear almost riveted to the case, which LV says is a nod to the brass brackets that come on the corners of travel trunks that Louis Vuitton is famous for. The case gets a mix of brushed and polished surfaces.

The LV trunk history extends to the dial, where the quarter-hour markers are designed to look like the brand's brass brackets. As far as colors, the rose gold case comes with either a silver or blue dial, while the platinum models get a meteorite dial or a black onyx dial with diamonds. The dials in the rose gold cases have a stamped fine-grained texture, while all the markers are gold. The platinum models use white gold hands, while the rose gold models have matching rose gold hands. Both have a titanium seconds hand.

Inside is a very nice movement designed by La Fabrique du Temps with Le Cercle de Horlogers. It’s called the LFT023, powered by a micro-rotor and decorated with a granular finish. One of the downsides of the movement that some will surely point out is the lack of free-sprung regulation. The watches come on a selection of leather straps, as is expected from LV.

The rose gold models of the new Escale are priced at $26,400, the platinum with meteorite dial is priced at $35,500, while the diamond covered one ups the price to an eye watering $168,000. See more on the Louis Vuitton website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Tourbillon Nanograph

2/

Hands on with the Ressence Type 1 Squared in Night Blue

3/

A review of the Chanel J12 Diamond Tourbillon Calibre 5

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Nodus Contrail GMT looks like the fanciest sports watch Nodus has released yet

Like other versions of the Contrail, Nodus went with a textured dial on this specific model. I wanted to test this one out specifically because it reminded me of an earlier version I tested. Named Laguna, this dial version has a subtle gold/sandy color to it, which matches along with the roulette date wheel as well. It’s a nice touch together with the very minimal dial text. After doing it for so long, I think Nodus is just getting better and better at designing and executing their dials.

Read the whole review on Two Broke Watch Snobs.

⏲️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

• A year after OceanGate’s sub imploded, thousands of leaked documents and interviews with ex-employees reveal how the company’s CEO cut corners, ignored warnings, and lied in his fatal quest to reach the Titanic. The Titan submersible disaster shocked the world. The exclusive inside story is more disturbing than anyone imagined

• I’ve never been to Phoenix. In fact, I’ve never been to Arizona. But I can totally imagine it being the quintessential American city as The Atlantic argues.

• In 2001, two men were killed by the FBI at a pro-marijuana campground in Michigan in a siege the type of hasn’t been seen since Waco. And it would have been remembered as such, had the siege not happened on September 3rd. September of 2001. After 9/11, nobody cared about what happened at Rainbow Farm.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I recently rediscovered my Victorinox Swiss Champ Swiss Army Knife That I’ve probably had for 30 years. Since I haven’t actually used it since I was a kid, I had no idea how actually useful it is. I fell in love with it all over again. It also reminded me of this video from the ultimate weirdo Van Nesistat, and his Swiss Champ.

💵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 Ōtsuka 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