TAG Heuer Pays Homage To Carrera Americana Race With A Tourbillon Glassbox; Delma Has A Different Sailing Watch; Bremont's First Ceramic Watch; A Shiny New RZE GMT; And A Stereotypical Hublot

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. RZE really knows how to put together a watch, and at a really good price.

In this issue:

• TAG Heuer Marks Start Of Iconic Race With Glassbox Take On A Vintage-Inspired Tourbillon Carrera

• Delma Has A Different Sailing Watch With A Full Lume Dial, The Oceanmaster Oliver Heer Ocean Racing

• Bremont Releases First Ceramic Case On The Cool Supermarine 500m Ceramic Jungle Green

• RZE Introduces The Great Looking Affordable Pilot’s GMT, The Fortitude GMT-S, In Blue And Grey

• Hublot Creates A Watch For The Smallest Of Niches: Veuve Clicquot Drinking Polo Players

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 38 seconds

👂What’s new

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TAG Heuer Marks Start Of Iconic Race With Glassbox Take On A Vintage-Inspired Tourbillon Carrera

Have you ever heard of the Carrera Panamericana? It was a Mexican version of the Mille Miglia, only infinitely more difficult and dangerous. It ran for 3,500 kilometres, from one border to the other, and it was considered the most dangerous race of any kind in the world. Only five races were held and 27 people lost their lives. However, the Carrera Panamericana legacy lives on. Parts of the race have since been revived, but the name Carrera is extremely important in the watch and car world. Porsche uses the Carrera name for the 911 (as well as the Panamera part of Panamericana for their sedan), while TAG Heuer uses the Carrera name for their automotive racing-inspired chronograph. Well, now, both brands are paying homage to the iconic race — and the modified version of the race that starts today in Mexico — Porsche with the unveiling of a one-of-a-kind Porsche in Mexico City to mark the 70th anniversary of the Porsche 550 Spyder’s victory in the race, and TAG Heuer with a very cool Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Porsche Panamericana.

Based on the Glassbox-based Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon that came out in 2023, the case remains the same. It’s stainless steel, 42mm wide and 15.1mm thick, with that sweet, sweet domed sapphire crystal on top that gives you a look with no external bezel. You get brushed and polished finishes, an engraved historical Spyder logo on the side and limited edition engravings on the caseback which features a sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is just as cool as the case. It’s skeletonized, but not in the way you would imagine. It’s made up of several layers of brushed steel that are cutout but layered one over the other so that the cutouts don’t completely overlap. That and the black hour and minute chronograph counters at 3 and 9 o’clock are supposed to mimic the look of the wheels of the 550 Spyder. The internal domed bezel that holds the minute track is done in black, with the Porsche logo printed between 0 and 10 markers. The short indices are applied, polished, faceted and rhodium-plated, just like the hands which are filled with white Super-Luminova. The central chronograph hand, as well as the two small ones on the subdials are lacquered yellow and at 6 o’clock you’ll find the one-minute tourbillon.

Inside is the TH20-09 movement, a column-wheel chronograph calibre which has a rotor skeletonized to resemble a steering wheel. It beats at 4Hz and has a 65 hour power reserve. It’s also COSC-certified. The watch comes on a black perforated calfskin leather strap with a yellow lining that peaks out to the front.

The new Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Porsche Panamericana is limited to 225 pieces and priced at CHF 35,000. See more on the Tag Heuer website.

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Delma Has A Different Sailing Watch With A Full Lume Dial, The Oceanmaster Oliver Heer Ocean Racing

Sailing or regatta watches are perhaps my favorite watch genre out there. They have to solve for one very specific problem, and they manage to do so in countless many variations. Delma, a slightly under the radar Swiss brand that is celebrating 100 years, has its own take on the sailing watch in which they focus on a different approach to sailing — one that’s based on speed. And they have just released a new watch, the Oceanmaster Oliver Heer Ocean Racing, which honors offshore sailor Oliver Heer, who will compete in a single-person, non-stop round the world Vendée Globe race which starts next month from Sables d’Olonne in France.

To go on a solo sail around the world, you need to be quite a tough person and you will definitely need a lot of tough equipment. And this Delma kind of matches the requirement. It’s a chunky thing that’s made out of stainless steel and measures 44mm wide, 13.8mm thick and with a 51mm lug-to-lug. Sure, overkill, but the watch can go down to 500 meters. The cushion-shaped case is brushed with polished bevels and a polished edge on the unidirectional bezel with deep grooves. The bezel has a 360 degree compass bezel which sure is useful while sailing, but if you have to use your watch for navigation you’re gonna have much bigger concerns than the size of your watch. The crown is protected with guards and there’s a helium escape valve on the case side at 9 o’clock.

The dial is just super cool. You can never go wrong with a white fully lumed dial, especially one that’s supposed to be used in rough conditions and at night. The dial glows blue, while the applied hour indices, the hour and minutes hands and the tip of the contrasting red seconds hand glow green. The red and blue rectangular and triangular marks along the dial’s perimeter, positioned between some indices, are points of sail indicators used with the nautical bezel to guide a boat.

Inside, you get a simple and robust movement, the Sellita SW200-1 which beats at 4Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a stainless-steel three-link bracelet with a deployant clasp. Check out the photo of the watch again. The side links are brushed and the central ones are polished. But look at how highly polished they are! I’m sure these will be scratch magnets but at least for a day or two they will be super cool.

The new Delma Oceanmaster Oliver Heer Ocean Racing is limited to 200 pieces and priced at €1,500. See more on the Delma website.

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Bremont Releases First Ceramic Case On The Cool Supermarine 500m Ceramic Jungle Green

Bremont has had a bumpy year or so behind them. First, there was a big upset in the leadership that saw the founders, the English brothers, depart the company and legendary former Tudor CEO Davide Cerrato take over as CEO. That was followed by the announcement that they posted an £11 million loss. Then they introduced a brand new future for the brand, cutting a lot of watches, redesigning what was left and introducing two new lines. The redesign and new lines weren’t exactly met with rave reviews, with some, like the Supermarine line, losing all of its charm. Now, Bremont is expanding the Supermarine line once again, with the Supermarine 500m in full green ceramic, a first for them.

The Supermarine of old used to be a hard-core tool watch, a chunky piece of metal, that kind of lost the schtick of being military plane inspired. But don’t think the new one is any smaller. It still measures 43mm wide and 13mm thick, retains crown guards and has a helium escape valve on the monobloc case made out of green ceramic. Holding the movement inside is a titanium container. The case is sandblasted to produce a matte. On top is a knurled unidirectional bezel which, interestingly, isn’t made out of ceramic. Sure it has a green ceramic insert with a 60 minute scale, but the bezel itself is made out of titanium with a green PVD coat. Water resistance, as the name suggests, is 500 meters.

The dial is also green, extremely matte, with a slight and almost imperceptible gradient that darkens towards the edges of the dial. The dial is simple, with applied circular and trapezoid markers filled with light green Super-LumiNova to mark the hours, pointed to with rhodium-plated hour, minute and seconds hands also filled with lume. At 12 is the new and controversial Bremont logo and there’s a small date window at 3 o’clock with a color matched date wheel. Surrounding the dial is a sloped flange with minute markings.

Another somewhat controversial move from Bremont was ceasing to make their own in-house movements. Instead, what you get now is the calibre BE92AV, an updated Sellita SW300-1A which gets a Glucydur balance wheel, an Anachron balance spring and a Nivaflex mainspring and an updated power reserve of 50 hours. The watch comes on a two-tone black and green NATO strap with a hook and loop closure or on a black rubber chevron strap.

The new Supermarine 500m Ceramic Jungle Green is limited to 250 pieces and priced at €7,750. See more on the Bremont website.

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RZE Introduces The Great Looking Affordable Pilot’s GMT, The Fortitude GMT-S, In Blue And Grey

Man, RZE seems to have their mission statement sharpened to perfection. Their only goal in this world is to make tough — often titanium — great looking watches for a really fair price. And they do it over, and over, and over again. There are many lines in which they do this, but my favorite might be their Fortitude line of pilot’s watches. While they already have a Fortitude GMT, they are now adding the Fortitude GMT-S to the lineup, with “S” standing for “sunburst”. And you can see why instantly.

The Fortitude comes in a no nonsense case made out of Grade 2 titanium and measuring 41mm wide, 12mm thick and with a 47mm lug-to-lug. A bit on the larger side, but as it should as a pilot’s tool watch. The case is coated in a scratch-resistant UltraHex coating and gets a satin finish. On top is an unmarked fixed bezel that has curved knurling over its entire surface, reminding you of somewhat of the Oris ProPilot, but not in a bad way. Water resistance is 100 meters.

There are two new dials that get the “S” designation — a blue and a grey, both of which have a sunburst finish to it and it looks very much cool. Contrasting the sunburst of the dial you get brushed hands and indices. At 6 o’clock is a trapezoidal opening for the date, framed in silver. The hands are skeletonized in a very cool manner, filled with lume at the top, while the GMT hand is bright yellow with the same skeletonisation and lume.

Inside is a movement that was long awaited by the community as it brings flyer style GMT functionality to the masses with its low price, the Miyota 9075. While everyone was happy to see the movement, I can’t say that it’s widely adopted. Flyer style means you get an independently adjustable 12-hour hand that sets to your local time. The movement beats at 4Hz, has a 42 hour power reserve and is accurate to between -10 and +30 seconds a day.

Now, the best part of the RZE Fortitude GMT-S. This is a solidly built titanium watch with a flyer style GMT that you can have for $699. I would say that’s pretty great. See more on the RZE website.

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Hublot Creates A Watch For The Smallest Of Niches: Veuve Clicquot Drinking Polo Players

OK, so here’s a watch you’re free to throw every single stereotype at. LVMH, the richest of companies, has put together a couple of its brands, intended for the riches to people, to sponsor Polo, the richest of sports. The world’s largest Champagne house Veuve Clicquot has been sponsoring the Polo Classic for years, and for the past few years they have been joined by Hublot as the Official Timekeeper. This year they are celebrating that role again with a new watch, the Spirit of Big Bang Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic.

So, the watch is based on the regular tonneau shaped case of the Big Bang only it’s made out of matte forged carbon, measuring 42mm wide and 14.1mm. On top and bottom are sapphire crystals, on the right is a rubberised crown and chrono pushers and on top and bottom are buttoms for the quick release of the strap. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The skeletonized dial and hands are all black, making for a fully monochrome look. It’s actually kind of difficult to make out the chapter ring, sub dials or the hands say. What you do see are parts of the movement, the open date ring and the bright orange central chronograph hand. Inside is the Cal. HUB4700, built on the architecture of the Zenith El Primero. That’s why it beats at 5Hz and has a power reserve of 50 hours.

The new Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic is limited to 30 pieces and comes as a set inside a Veuve Clicquot-themed box with two straps made from rubber with bright orange or black alligator leather outer sections that are completed by deployant clasps crafted from titanium and black ceramic. Price is set at $33,600. See more on the Hublot website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Bulova Super Seville

2/

Hands-On with the Nivada Grenchen Chronoking Mecaquartz with interchangeable bezels

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A review of the Hamilton Ardmore

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Certina DS Super PH1000M STC is an example of how vintage references can be made fun through the use of color

Despite the modern watch’s robust size, it feels smaller and lighter on the wrist than I anticipated it would, similar to another storied brand’s own Turtle. The top-down view presents a familiar H-shaped case, but one with a pleasing elongated curve along the sides of the case. The upper surface of the case is brushed, with a sharp transition to the polished vertical flanks of the midcase, which are then undercut by a polished bevel that transitions to the underside of the case. The thin, arcing band of those vertical surfaces and the undercut reduce the visual weight of the case, minimize the width of the watch that contacts the wrist, and add elegance to the Super Turtle’s profile.

Read the whole review on The Time Bum

⏲️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

• Early in the morning of 16th October 2012, seven valuable artworks were stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. The theft was world news. But what first seemed like a sophisticated burglary by professionals, turned out to be the work of a few small-time Romanian criminals who had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They knew about house burglaries, not art, and they certainly didn’t know about selling art. This is the story of the Kunsthal robbery, based on the case files and conversations with those involved. Oh, and it’s wonderfully laid out.

• Have you noticed that lately literary erotica has changed. And I’m not talking about women wanting to read more risqué stories. Nope. One of the best selling pieces of written erotica over the past years was smut involving dragons. Monsters, beasts, aliens and, yes, dragons, are becoming the go to porn to read, and this piece from Cosmopolitan attempts to figure out what gives.

• Has your Kia started up on its own? You might be the victim of a flaw in Kia’s web portal that allows hackers to wrest control of cars away from unsuspecting owners. For Wired, Andy Greenberg reports on a bug that researchers have discovered affects any internet-connected Kia. While the vulnerability doesn’t make it possible to move the vehicle (yet), critical safety concerns remain.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Earlier this year, Hamilton released the Khaki Pilot Air Glaciers which marked their collaboration with the Zermatt rescue helicopter pilots. Now, they’re releasing a short documentary series on the team and it’s pretty incredible how wonderfully it’s shot. Two episodes are out now, but more are coming.

💵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