TAG Echoes Echoes Iconic Porsche Colors With New Glassbox Tourbillon; Hajime Asaoka Revives Defunct Takano Brand; Perrelet Releases Turbine Splash; Hermès Confirms Pocket Watches Are Back

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. People, I’m all tapped out! The watch industry has stopped working it seems. I got these four together and there certainly won’t be an issue on Monday as there are just not enough releases. Patreon posts will continue as regular, and we’ll see each other in the newsletter on Tuesday!

In this issue:

• TAG Heuer Echoes Iconic Porsche Colors With New Glassbox Tourbillon European Limited Edition

• Japanese Watchmaker Hajime Asaoka Revives Defunct Takano Brand With A Dress Watch

• Perrelet Releases Limited Edition Turbine Splash That Gives You Glimpses At A Lot Of Color

• Hermès Confirms Pocket Watches Are Back With The Slim d’Hermès Pocket Mysterious Rider

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 59 seconds

👂What’s new

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TAG Heuer Echoes Iconic Porsche Colors With New Glassbox Tourbillon European Limited Edition

The fact that the name Carrera is applied to both one of the most iconic cars ever made, the Porsche 911, and one of the most iconic chronographs of all time, the TAG Heuer Carrera is no coincidence. Actually, slight detour here — while we may now recognise the Porsche Carrera as a model designation for the 911, Porsche actually applied that name to the 356, 904, 924 and, of course, the Carrera GT. Back to the name not being a coincidence. Both the car and the watch were named after the iconic Carrera Panamericana race which Porsche dominated for years and Heuer was on the wrists of so many drivers. Keeping up with the racing theme and the link with Porsche, TAG Heuer is launching a new limited edition Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon which, while not an official collaboration with Porsche, mimics one of the most beautiful colors that are available in the Porsche Paint To Sample catalogue, Pozzi Blue.

To house both a chronograph and tourbillon, TAG needed a lot of space. Which is why this watch comes in a case that’s slightly larger than the regular glassbox case. It grows in both width (to 42mm) and thickness (to 14.3mm), but manages to keep a relatively compact lug-to-lug of 48mm. The thick profile of the watch gets a polished finish, but from the front you don’t see anything else except for that beautiful dial. The beauty of the Glassbox Carrera lies in that incredible crystal which is heavily domed and pushed all the way to the very edge of the case, incorporating in it an internal bezel with the 60-second/minute scale in a deep blue. The rest remains much the same, with vintage style pushers and a 100 meter water resistance. You get a special caseback that’s engraved with the words Limited Edition and a unique number out of 50.

The dial is standard TAG beutiful. A purely white base is interrupted only by the two sub-dials at 3 and 9 o’clock that are colored blue for a panda effect and a tourbillon opening at the 6 o’clock position. This is a very recognisable dial, with applied indices at the hour positions, polished hands with lume and a red central chronograph hand.

Inside is the TH20-09 movement, an evolution of the Heuer 02 launched in 2016. The movement is a column-wheel chronograph, has bi-directional winding, beats at 4Hz and has a 65 hour power reserve. It’s COSC chronometer-certified and it has a redesigned rotor that now looks like a coat of arms from the TAG Heuer logo. The watch comes on a blue perforated leather strap.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Tourbillon Chronograph Limited European Edition is, as the name suggests, both limited and available only in Europe. Limited to 50 pieces, price is set at €24,850. The watch is still not up on the TAG website, but should be available pretty soon.

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Japanese Watchmaker Hajime Asaoka Revives Defunct Takano Brand With A Dress Watch

I’ve said a couple of times that I don’t get to learn about and then write about independent Japanese watchmakers as much as I would like. But this is slowly changing. And the laters brand I learned about is Takano. The brand reaches back to 1899, when they were specalising in metalwork and then clock production. Takano started making wristwatches in 1957, but didn’t last for very long. It shut down in 1962 and has been dormant ever since. Now, they’re coming back under the leadership of Hajime Asaoka. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Asaoka is the owner of Kurono Tokyo, one of the most Western-exposed Japanese indie brands. So we know that Takano will be amazing.

The first revival of a Takano, called the Chateau Nouvelle Chronometer — hinting at a significant achievement — is a supremely elegant watch. It comes in a 37mm wide stainless steel case that gets a full Zaratsu polish finish on both the case and the small fixed bezel. The slightly curved and faceted lugs are equally as classical as they are modern, and even the tip of the crown gets a highly polished finish. On top is a box style sapphire crystal. Takano doesn’t state what their water resistance is, but does have this amazing statement on their website: “Waterproof for everyday use”. I guess they better hope they don’t have any professional divers who dive every day among their customers.

The dials are just as beautiful as you would expect from Hajime Asaoka. With a black or white base, they both have a sector dial. On the very outside is a railroad track for the minutes, followed by an hour track minute with applied and polished dot markers on the secondary hours and bar markers for the primary markers. The hands are skyscraper hands, which are symbolic of Hajime Asaoka's designs.

Inside, a bit of a mystery. They call it the automatic 90T movement and the only thing they say of its origins is: “The movement is based on an 8-beat domestically produced automatic movement and has been adjusted to chronometer specifications by Tokyo Tokei Seimitsu.” The good thing is that they have received Besançon Chronometer Observatory certification in France, the first Japanese-made watch to get one. Power reserve is 40 hours. The watches come on brown crocodile straps that vary in their shade depending on the dial color.

The Takano Chateau Nouvelle Chronometer will be sold through a lottery, as most Asaoka’s watches are. While they don’t say when the lottery opens, I assume it will happen very soon, as the website says that the watch will be released in 2024. Price is interesting at ¥880,000 or about €5,130. See more on the Takano website.

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Perrelet Releases Limited Edition Turbine Splash That Gives You Glimpses At A Lot Of Color

I complained the other day that we didn’t get a lot of releases at the Chicago Windup Watch Fair. Christopher Ward had a big release, but it seems that I missed the rest. Like, for example, this new 99 piece limited edition Perrelet called the Turbine Splash. I rarely write about Perrelet, but this is a great occasion to mention them.

The Turbine has a unique look, even before this Splash release. But before I get to the really outstanding detail, let’s cover the case first. It’s not like it’s not interesting. It’s quite large at 44mm wide, and 13,82mm thick, but thanks to the fact that it doesn’t have traditional lugs, it looks like it should fit a wrist comfortably. The case is made out of polycarbonate and forged carbon fibre, black in color, and topped off with a steel flat bezel with a black PVD finish. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Things get even crazier on the dial side. The bottom dial is covered by a spinning turbine on top, inspired by an oscillating weight. This is a homage to the fact that Abraham Louis Perrelet, who founded the company in 1777, invented the self-winding watch equipped with a bi-directional rotor. It’s made up of 12 blades that freely rotate with subtle wrist motion, delivering a dynamic dial that we don’t get to see every day. While it looks awesome, it’s purely an aesthetic feature - the turbine on the dial moves freely, while the oscillating weight is on back of the watch and that is what energises the mainspring. Underneath is the bottom dial that is made up of splashes of green, yellow, purple, fuchsia, light blue and orange that peek through the blades of the turbine. The hands on top are dagger-shaped and covered in lume, and the indices get the same color outlines as the colors on the bottom dial. The indices are actually tritium gas tubes.

Inside is the P-331-MH calibre which isn’t really based on anything. This is a manufacture movement made by one of several movement manufactures that Perrelet owns. It beast at 4Hz, has a 42 hour power reserve and has been certified by COSC and Chronofiable. It’s decorated with circular-grained bridges to the rhodium-plated, openworked oscillating weight, mounted on ball bearings and adorned with the Maison’s logo. The watch comes on a black alligator-pattern leather strap with a folding clasp.

The Perrelet Turbine Splash is limited to 99 pieces and it’s priced at €5,200. See more on the Perrelet website.

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Hermès Confirms Pocket Watches Are Back With The Slim d’Hermès Pocket Mysterious Rider

Among the many watch press annual predictions for 2024, I’ve seen a couple of people say that this will be the year of pocket watches. And indeed, we have seen a couple of major pocket watch releases in the past year or two, including a crazy one from Code 41, the ultimate retro one from Seiko, even a recent abomination from Hublot. Now, Hermès is joining up with their pocket watch release which features a champlevé enamel cover depicting the figure of the Mysterious Rider created by Dutch illustrator and comic book artist Viktor Hachmang for an Hermès scarf.

This watch is based on an already existing Hermès pocket watch, the Slim d’Hermès, which is a classic for the brand. It measures 45mm wide and 11.6mm thick, made out of 18k white gold, the case features stirrup-shaped lugs over the crown. Open the watch up and you’ll find a white enamel dial with hand-painted red numerals and hour markers.

But these watches are not about the case or the dial. It’s about the protective cover which features a miniaturised image from a Hermès silk scarf. Like I said, the image on the front is taken from a scarf illustrated in a comic book style by Viktor Hachmang. It’s done in champlevé enamel, which requires carving small cells into the metal, filling them with coloured glass powders mixed with natural oils and firing them several times in a kiln at over 800ºC. It’s a pretty amazing effect.

Inside is the ultra-thin automatic calibre H1950, designed and manufactured by Vaucher. Wound by a micro-rotor, the movement beats at 21,600vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. The bridges and rotor are decorated with an Hermès “H” pattern. The watch comes on a Hermès Rouge H (red) alligator cord.

The Slim d’Hermès Pocket Mysterious Rider is a limited edition of three pieces and comes in a matte Rouge H alligator pouch. Price is on request. See more on the Hermès website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Christopher Ward C63 Sealander GMT In Two Different Sizes

2/

Hands on with the Zenith Defy Revival Diver A3648

3/

A review of the Bravur Team Heritage

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Sherpa X TRTS OPS is a joy to handle and a delight to own.

Now, behold the twin crowns – nestled snugly within its protective bulge, each a marvel of the unique and proprietary compressor crown system inspired by EPSA Monoflex designs and improved. Here’s the kicker: no screw-down feature. Instead, this watch achieves a remarkable 200m water resistance through sheer engineering prowess. It’s a feat that defies expectations, a nod to the watchmaker’s craft, and a tribute to those bold enough to push boundaries.

Read the whole review on Monochrome

⏲️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

• 50 years ago, ‘jaws’ hit bookstores, capturing the angst of a generation. The novel became the beach read of the summer, with the shark at its center embodying the unease of an era of political and social upheaval.

• Karim Mahmoud joined Andrew Tate’s online business academy expecting to get rich, but found himself stuck in an exploitative grift that nearly derailed his life. He’s now trying to warn others away.

• Tom Chiarella is certainly one of the best magazine writers of the 21st century so far, but also one of the best American writers overall. I best remember him for his how-to series in Esquire in which he sought out to teach people how to be a good neighbour, how to drink alone, how to meet her father or how to have casual sex. But his most spectacular piece of short-form writing is him discovering how far a slipped $20 would take him and what doors it would open. Now, Esquire has a writer that is attempting to do the same. Kelly Stout gave herself a month to make a new friend as an adult. While it lacks Chiarella’s smooth writing, it sure is on the same track.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

This is the second instalment in the Atelier Wen documentary on how their watches are made. I absolutely love the way Atelier Wen is showing the world not just how their watches are made, which is rare in itself, but also highlights the incredible amount of craftsmanship that surrounds them. Kudos on this wonderful view.

💵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