The New Baltic Looks Like a Candy Bar, A Dutch Watchmaker Makes Concrete-Looking 3D Printed Watches And FC Introduces First in-house Tourbillon

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time, the watch-themed newsletter that's always on time.

In this issue:

• Baltic makes the perfect chocolate bar

• Holthinrichs RAW embraces 3D printing

• Carl Suchy & Söhne Create Their First Sports Watch

• Frederique Constant Launches The Classic Tourbillon Manufacture

• And… Tudor gets a new building

Today’s reading time: 5 minutes and 57 seconds

👂What’s new

1/ 

Baltic Updates Their Aquascaphe With A Bronze Case and Brown Gradient Dial

You might think that Baltic has been around for at least a hundred years, because it just seems to be one of those old-but-now-revived brands that makes affordable divers, chronos and dress watches. But you would be wrong. Balltic was only started in 2017 by Etienne Malec and has since grown into a very respectable brand that does not just make a few models, but also creates variations on their most popular ones.

That’s the story with the Aquascaphe, their classic diver which now gets an update from steel with a black or blue dial, to a bronze case and brown dial. Those who know Baltic have seen the bronze case on the Aquascaphe before, but with a black or blue dial.

The base remains identical, with a CuAl8 (copper-aluminium alloy) bronze case with nice proportions; 39mm in diameter, 12mm in thickness and 47mm lug-to-lug. Unique to the bronze editions, the screw-down crown gets crown guards. Inside is the basic Miyota 9039 and the watch comes on a black tropic-style rubber strap, closed by a bronze pin buckle.

The watch is part of Baltic’s permanent collection and you can get it for EUR 625 (excl. taxes).

2/

The Holthinrichs RAW Ornament Is A Watch With A 3D Printed Case. Would You Wear One?

3D printing is nothing new. SpaceX is using it on its rockets, manufacturers are building cars with it and it’s been present in watchmaking for years, mostly for smaller, less critical points on the watch. While it’s ever present, we just haven’t reached the promised point of having a 3D printer in every house, spitting out whatever we need, whenever we need it. Mostly because the affordable printing is just too rough and to get it perfect for everyday use, and to get high fidelity results we would need very expensive printers.

On the other hand, Dutch watch brand Holthinrichs embraces the rough nature of 3D printing and uses the rough finishing to its benefit for a result that looks like raw concrete. Out of that comes the new Holthinrichs RAW Ornament.

Being a 3D printed case, you can get the RAW Ornament in a variety of sizes - 38mm across and 47mm lug-to-lug, as well as in 36mm with a slightly shorter lug to lug. It’s only 9.9mm thick, including the domed sapphire crystal. The first prototypes of Holthinrichs’ watches were fully 3D printed and fell apart when handed, so the RAW Ornament includes steel in the construction to make it rigid, and it supposedly works wonders.

The dial is a textural take on a classic dress dial, made out of 18k pink gold with a bead-blasted finishing that gives it a frosty look. The traditional Breguet numerals are cut in by laser in dial. The hands are also different - leaf-style but hollowed out and brushed. But this is only one of the available dials- you can also get it in what they call a Signature dial (a sector dial with minute hashes available in three colors) and a Roman Sector dial available only in blue. The Breguet dial is available in eight different colors.

Inside the watch is the Holthinrichs HW-R01 movement which is based on the Peseux 7001 and the decorations can be matched to the dial.

Now for the bad news. This watch is, in fact, not new. It’s been around for a while, but there is a piece of news you won’t like - Holthinrichs is discontinuing its Ornament and RAW Ornament lines on May 1, 2023. The brand is moving on to new models and an in-house movement. You can still get the Holthinrichs RAW Ornament starting at €8,200.

3/

Carl Suchy & Söhne Create Their First Sports Watches With The Belvedere Collection

Based in Vienna, the Carl Suchy & Söhne manufacture has been making time keeping devices all the way back since 1822. Now they’re taking a first tep into making a sports watch, and it’s not that bad.

The stainless steel case of the Carl Suchy & Söhne Belvedere measures 40.8mm and 12.2mm thick. Rather than having predominantly brushed surfaces and polished accents, the Belvedere case is decorated with a pearl-blasted finish that is then complimented by its mirror-polished bezel, lugs and caseback.

You can get the watch in three dials - Day (white), Night (black) and Danube (blue), each of them lacquered and continuing the textures seen in their previous Waltz collection. The outer integrated concave flange has a coined guilloche texture, with embedded metal studs as the minute markers and rounded baton hour indices filled with SuperLuminova. The central disc is where the Carl Suchy & Söhne differs from other watches further - the entire disc rotates once a day to reveal tehd ate.

Each of the Belvedere watches are offered on dial-matching, quick-release 22mm rubber straps. Inside is the automatic CSS201 (modified Dubois Dépraz DD90000).

You can get the watch for CHF 6,400 but each of the three colors will be limited to 100 pieces in 2023.

4/

In Celebration Of 35 years, Frederique Constant Launches The Classic Tourbillon Manufacture

During its relatively short history, Frederique Constant has developed more than 30 in-house calibers. To celebrate 35 years of existence, the brand has decided to develop their first in-house tourbillon, place it in a precious metal case and price it below €30,000. Not bad.

The Classic Tourbillon Manufacture has a 39mm case rendered in rose gold, less than 11mm thick and 44mm long. The watch features a see-through case back to allow for the viewing of the movement from the front and the back. Topping the watch off, quite literally, is a convex sapphire crystal with an antireflective coating. The watch is affixed to a brown leather strap with a buckle that features the Frederique Constant coat of arms.

The Classic Tourbillon Manufacture takes a slightly different approach to the dress watch. Most have either a white or black dial. However, the sunray-finished dark gray that Frederique Constant chose for this piece pairs nicely with the rose gold case, handset, and dial furniture.

A tourbillon dress watch in pink gold for the price of €25,995 is not something you see every day. While it’s not affordable, it is a bargain.

5/

A Look Inside The New Tudor Factory

In just 10 years, Tudor has gone from a slightly forgotten brand to one of the leaders in the sub $10.000 sports watch category. And in the ten years they have expanded enough to warrant a new manufacturign facility.

That’s why several media outlets, including the above linked A Blog To Watch and Worn & Wound have gotten access to these facilities. I say facilities because it’s two huge buildings - one to house Tudor’s assembly and the other to house Kenissi, the movement manufacturer they created.

Make no mistake, these are press guided tours, so don’t expect in-depth investigative journalism. But do check out all the photos of the buildings. They are mighty impressive.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

Here’s Hodinkee’s review of the METAS certified Black Bay Burgundy

2/

Monochrome goes hands on with the ridiculous De Bethune with an even more ridiculous price tag

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The Charlie Paris Alliance Moon Phase — Complicated French Chic In Blue

“Sure, Charlie Paris does have some retro but modern Explorer-esque watches, like the knockout value-for-money 38mm Concordia. But the new Alliance is different and plays its sporty but dressy hand like a pro. Going hands-on with the Charlie Paris Alliance Moon Phase unexpectedly made me change my mind about moonphase complications.”

⏲️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

• I have some great weekend reads for you. Let’s start with this one: The story of what really happened when a mountaineer fell 1,000 feet while summiting North America's tallest peak, Denali

• Recently, Jeff Bezos caused quite a stir with his megayacht. To get it out of its shipyard in the Netherlands, they would have to disassemble a centuries old bridge and then put it back together. The locals were not so happy about this. But have you ever wondered about how many megayachts are actually bought and sold every year?

• Jason Brassard spent his lifetime collecting the rarest video games. Until the heist. This is a riveting read.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I love Kurzgesagt. I love aliens. The two meet in this video.

💵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 

• SOLD: Rolex Explorer I 39 mm Mark I, ref. 214270. Great condition, no box or papers. €7250, OBO. Reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch

• For sale: Longines Heritage Skin Diver, box and papers. €1400. Reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch