The Citizen Continues To Make Great Washi Dial Watches; Certina Ads Chrono To DS-7; Eska Updates Amphibian 250; Bulgari's Cool Movement In The Octo Roma; Ulysse Nardin Joins The Sapphire Case Club

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Come on Citizen, start cranking out these The Citizen watches. We need more, unlimited and at all price points because they are just amazing. Also, don’t miss the review for the Elka x Ace Jewelers D-Series Essence I just published (unless, of course, you’re a Patreon subscriber and got to see it last week. All of you subsribers are getting an early preview of a really cool French watch tomorrow).

In this issue:

• Citizen Continues To Impress With Fantastic The Citizen Washi Paper High Accuracy Quartz Releases

• Certina Updates Its Integrated Sporty DS-7 Collection With Tree New Chronographs

• Eska Updates The Very Cool Amphibian 250 With The White Shark Edition, Drops Price, Gets Better Movement

• Bulgari Gives The Octo Finissimo Skeletonized Movement To The Octo Roma Striking 8 Days

• Ulysse Nardin Joins The Sapphire Case Club With A Transparent Movement In The Royal Sapphire

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 56 seconds

👂What’s new

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Citizen Continues To Impress With Fantastic The Citizen Washi Paper High Accuracy Quartz Releases

Despite the horrible sub-brand name and even worse model names, Citizen has managed to, in just a few years, completely revolutionise their approach to luxury watches. While Seiko has Grand Seiko, Citizen has been working on expanding their The Citizen brand with spectacular quartz and mechanical watches. And while the mechanical ones are pretty great, it’s the quartz where the company has made the stuff that I like the most. Particularly in the Iconic Nature collection, which features pretty spectacular dial made with Tosa washi paper. And now we get two new limited editions that feature the cool movement and stunning dials. These are the horribly named AQ4100-65H and AQ4106-18X.

Both of the watches come in decidedly modern cases with a classic look. A round body, beveled lugs, chamfered edges and an overall brushed surface with polished details make it suitable for everyday wear. As does the size — 38.3mm wide and 12.2mm thick. Both are made out of Citizen’s Super Titanium which gets their Duratect hardness coatings, which is just marketing speak for being light, made out of titanium. The AQ4100-65H comes in a silver case, while the AQ4106-18X gets a black DLC finish. Water resistance is 100 meters.

But it’s all about the dials. And The Citizen is taking a page from the Grand Seiko playbook and strongly linking their high-end models to nature. Not only is the collection called Iconic Nature, they write out a lot of words to describe the natural connection to the dial design. For example, they say that the AQ4100-65H uses different tones of blue to evoke the crests of sand dunes created by wind, while the AQ4106-18X is meant to depict the light of the moon diffused behind a layer of cloud. That’s weird, but who cares, because the watches are that good looking. You get the washi paper texture, the The Citizen logo and the super sharp silver handset.

Inside both watches is the calibre A060, which sits at the top of the line of Citizen high accuracy quartz movements. It’s accurate to 5 seconds per year and also features a perpetual calendar accurate to the year 2100. It also uses the natural transparency of paper on the dial to let light in and charge the battery, which is just cool. The AQ4100-65H comes on a matching titanium dial, while the AQ4106-18X gets a black goatskin leather strap.

The one thing that’s not cool about the Iconic Nature collection is that it’s limited. Only 350 pieces of each will be made, priced at $4,100 for the AQ4106-18X and $4,200 for the AQ4100-65H. See more on the Citizen website.

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Certina Updates Its Integrated Sporty DS-7 Collection With Tree New Chronographs

I have this quiet theory that Certina has been looking over at its brother from the Swatch Group Tissot in a bit of a jealous fit. Tissot’s runaway hit with the PRX has completely transformed the brand that has been searching for its purpose a bit. And while Certina has perhaps had a more focused approach to its collection, it lacked the mainstream success that Tissot had. Now, they seem to be on a path to change that. They introduced a number of super interesting divers lately, watches that are way better value for money than pretty much anything on the market. They also took a stab at the integrated-bracelet sports watch category last year with the DS-7 collection, a collection they are now updating with a automatic chronograph movement.

Certina is positioning this watch as a very middle-of-the-road sports watch, and as such it gets a stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide and 14.87mm thick. A chunky boy, for sure. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, out back is a flat one, with a brushed finish to the case and a few polished parts. Surrounding the crystal is a fixed silver bezel with an engraved tachymeter scale. On the right side you get mushroom-style chronograph pushers and the case has the distinctive integrated bracelet instead of traditional lugs. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dials all get an embossed grid pattern and come in one of three colors — black, blue or green. There are two sub-dials — the one at 3 o’clock serves as a 30-minute chronograph counter and the one at 9 is the running seconds indicator — and both of them have silver rings around them. The applied indices and baton hands are treated with lume and at 6 o’clock you’ll find a date indicator.

This is the first time that the DS-7 collection gets an automatic chronograph and Certina is using the ETA A05.231, which is a cam-actuated, integrated chronograph based on the Valjoux 7750 but significantly updated. You get a variable inertia balance wheel, a Nivachron anti-magnetic hairspring, and a silicon balance spring. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 68 hour power reserve.

The new Certina DS-7 Chrono Auto collection goes on sale in October and it’s priced at CHF 1,685 for the green and blue, while the black is priced at CHF 1,695. See more on the Certina website.

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Eska Updates The Very Cool Amphibian 250 With The White Shark Edition, Drops Price, Gets Better Movement

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 now that Eska is releasing the cool Amphibian 250 White Shark.

The white shark 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, but the White Shark gets a stark white one. It’s also a sandwich dial with cutouts for the indices filled in with Old Radium lume. The beige on white colorway is really working for me. 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 in black.

Inside, the solution to the issue of the black dial version. Instead of the fine-but-a-bit-meh-at-that-price-point NH38, you get the trusted and well known Sellita SW200. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes with a sand colored tropic style rubber strap and a two-piece NATO-style strap.

The new Eska Amphibian 250 White Shark is priced at €908 without tax (hey, when’s the last time you saw a watch get cheaper and get a better movement?). For the first 350 orders, deliveries will begin from the end of October. For subsequent orders, deliveries will take place in the first quarter of 2025. See more on the Eska website.

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Bulgari Gives The Octo Finissimo Skeletonized Movement To The Octo Roma Striking 8 Days

About a year — or maybe even two — ago, Bulgari announced that they would stop work on their iconic Octo Finissimo model to focus on their other lines, primarily the more accessible and wearable Octo Roma line. And yet, since then, I think they released at least 10 new Octo Finissimo models, including the record breaking thinnest watch in the world, while they only put out a few Roma models. So much for that promise. However, it looks like the Octo Roma is finally getting its day. This is the new Octo Roma Striking 8 Days featuring the skeletonised movement with an 8-day power reserve from the Octo Finissimo and it’s very cool.

Unlike the highly faceted case of the Octo Finissimo, the Octo Roma has an octagonal base and round bezel, a much more rounded case. It’s made out of matte black DLC titanium and measures 44.2mm wide and a very thin 9.1mm tall. On top and bottom you’ll find sapphire crystals, to make use of the skeletonized movement and dial most. You get a tiny bit of water resistance at 30 meters.

Seen through the lack of a dial is the manual-winding calibre BVL199 SK which beats at 21,600vph and uses one large single barrel, which you can see at 1 o’clock, to power the watch for 192 hours or eight days. That’s just incredible for such a thin watch. Attahced to the thin black minute track on the perimeter are baton hour markers that are painted in neon-green Super-LumiNova. You’ll find the same on the arrow tips of the skeletonized hands. At 12 is a very large Arabic numeral in the same green. At 8 o’clock is a power reserve gauge. The watch comes on a black alligator strap with green stitching, with an additional rubber strap with a textile texture.

The new Octo Roma Striking 8 Days will be available in October at a price of CHF 33,100. The watch is not yet on the Bulgari website, but should show up here soon.

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Ulysse Nardin Joins The Sapphire Case Club With A Transparent Movement In The Royal Sapphire

Just a decade or so ago, a watch housed in sapphire was such a far-fetched idea that only the craziest of watchmakers would even attempt something like that. But now, it’s becoming way more commonplace with the advancements in diamond-tipped tools and computerised cutting, along with refinements in lab-grown sapphire crystals. And Ulysse Nardin, the brand you either known for their 18th-century inspired marine chronometers or their avant-garde takes on time tellers like the Freak X, is dipping their toe into the genre as well with the Royal Sapphire. And not just with a sapphire case, but also a translucent movement.

The white sapphire case for the Royal Sapphire is large, but hey, what do you expect from a statement piece like this. It measures 44mm wide and 12 mm thick, with a fully round case and stubby sapphire lugs. I love that sapphire cases are also getting water resistance, even if it’s super low — 30 meters.

Being a sapphire case, there’s no dial to speak of. The only semblance of a dial comes in the form of the calibre UN-79 movement and colored portions of the movement made with lab-grown spinel. There are two versions, the Royal Sapphire Blue and Sapphire Ruby, both of which are kind of self explanatory. The hands are highly skeletonized to appear like they are lines floating in space, while some of the parts and bridges of the movement have been replaced with sapphire, to make it even more invisible.

Speaking of the movement, the Calibre UN-79 features a flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock, beats at 21,600 vph and has a power reserve of 100 hours. The watches come on a black or blue alligator leather strap.

Sapphire watches are still difficult to make, so these are, of course, limited. The Ulysse Nardin Royal Sapphire Blue is limited to 18 pieces, while the Ruby is limited to just 8 pieces. Price is set at $328,300. See more on the Ulysse Nardin website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Andersen Genève X BCHH Celestial Voyager “Sunset Over Cappadocia”

2/

Hands-On with the Breitling Super Chronomat Perpetual Calendar 140th Anniversary

3/

A review of the Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Automatic

⚙️I Review A Watch

Exactly what it says on the label — I get a watch, wear it and then review it

The Elka x Ace Jewelers D-Series Essence Is Minimalism Perfected

You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential. This is all you need to know about good design. Removing stuff willy-nilly, without understanding your product — without understanding the industry and its history — will not necessarily result in bad design. You might get lucky. But if you do have this understanding, you are almost certainly guaranteed to create a beautiful product. And the simple fact is, Hakim El Kadiri and Alon Ben Joseph have this understanding. And the result is a watch that never ceased to surprise me, the Elka x Ace Jewelers D-Series Essence, a truly minimalist expression.

Read the whole review here

⏲️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

• Several years ago, people warned that artificial intelligence would be an existential threat to online poker; today, bots are everywhere. So is the virtual game doomed, or can it be saved? For Bloomberg Businessweek, Kit Chellel writes a fascinating piece on the Russian operation behind the most advanced poker-playing software, and how the very people who deployed bots across the world’s poker websites could potentially change the game—for the better.

• In this short but powerful essay, Wright Thompson travels to Seville, Spain, to see in person the first map of the land he comes from, drawn by a Spanish cartographer named Alonso de Santa Cruz. It’s a 480-year-old map not only of the land on which his family’s farm has sat for more than a century, but a place full of US history—and violence.

• The week police found her dead in the woods, the woods were coming alive. It was late February, that tender time when the canopy has yet to leaf but ephemeral flowers speckle the forest floor. Under the trees, soft light pouring in: rue-anemone, round-lobed hepatica, trillium, bloodroot. And a woman’s body, dead of blunt-force trauma.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

This is one of the reasons why I loved living in New York. It’s an incredible place.

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