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The Wildest Guarantee of All Time - AP Will Replace Your Stolen Watch, Timex Introduces Three Zone Chrono Q and Ming Has A New World Timer
Audemars Piguet has radically shaken up the entire industry with their new program
Vuk Radic
April 06, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
Hey friends, It’s About Time is back in your inbox, we hope you enjoy. We have some big news coming up next week, but in the meantime keep in mind that this is the last week for out Tissot PRX giveaway, so make sure to invite five of your friends for all of you to be entered.
In this issue:
AP profoundly shakes up the industry
Timex introduces the Q Cronograph with three timezones
Ming has a new world timer
A more elegant take on the GMT from Tutima
Brew Metric is very 80s
And… invite your friends to win a Tiffany PRX
Today’s reading time: 6 minutes and 30 seconds
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👂What’s new
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Every single edition of this newsletter has started with news of new watches being introduced. Not today. Because today Audemars Piguet introduced a service so radical, so timely and so shocking that it seems to be a belated April fools joke gone wrong.
Audemars Piguet has announced that they will now start replacing watches that might have been stolen from their clients in response to a widely reported watch-related crimewave.
Watch-related crime has been a contentious issue in past years, with media reporting on high profile thefts of very valuable watches. While crime statistics often show this might not be as prevalent an issue as reported in the media, it has a created an atmosphere of panic, with many owners of high end watches deciding not to wear them in public any more.
What AP is doing here is really radical. CEO François-Henry Bennahmias has vowed to replace, refund or repair any stolen or damaged watch bought in 2022 or 2023 for two years. “We listen to our clients and we have to look also at what’s going on in the world right now. We have important cities in Europe and in the US that are not as safe anymore,” Bennahmias told the news service. “That’s a big, big move because no one has ever done that.”
To qualify for the program, owners have to prove that they bought and still own the watch, and produce a photo of the watch and its serial number. Resold watches are not eligible under the scheme.
Should the watch of one of these registered customers be stolen and if the theft is corroborated by a police report, the clients will be offered the choice of a refund or a replacement. If the watch is no longer being produced, AP will offer a similar model from the new collection. The service will run until the end of 2024 for anyone who bought a watch in 2022. Watches bought in 2023 will be eligible for two years from the date of purchase.
AP expects 75% of eligible customers to sign up for the program, and whether it’s rolled out on an ongoing basis will depend on the uptake of clients.
It’s a crazy program, but one that instantly positions AP as a company that cares about their customers. They just one upped Patek and Vacheron and it will be difficult to make a good comeback.
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Say it with me: GMT is the complication of the year. Everyone is coming out with multiple time-zone watches. You can go out and spend 226,200 Swiss Francs on the Arnold & Son Double Tourbillon which displays two time zones on two separate dials with two independent tourbillons. Or, you can go the Timex route, as they have just introduced a new evolution of the Q Timex range - the Three Time Zone Chonograph, which, as expected, blends a chronograph with a GMT complication.
40mm wide, 48mm lug to lug and 18mm thick, the new Timex Q has a bi-directional 12-hour bezel, 50 meters of water resistance and comes on either a steel bracelet or a black synthetic rubber strap. Inside is a quartz movement and the watch comes in three dial colors - black, white or green.
As the name suggests, you can show three different time zones and there’s a date window at 4:30. The best price, obviously, is the price: $219 on the rubber or $239 on the bracelet.
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A lot of people love to hate Ming. I’m here to tell you you are wrong. These are some of the best looking watches out there. And the new 29.01 Worldtimer is just a continuation of this trend.
This is Ming’s first watch in their 29 series and an update on Ming’s well-recognized aesthetic. Like others, it has no bezel and the crystal goes all the way to the edges of the 40mm titanium case. Below the crystal is a sapphire upper dial and sapphire hands, which sit above a 24-hour metallic disc with a subtle blue-to-black gradient meant to represent day and night. It’s three dimensional like no other watch, and looks even better in the dark, since every mark on this watch is slathered in lume. The movement, once again, comes from Scwarz-Etienne.
While it is an absolutely gorgeous watch, there are two huge problems with it - it’s limited to 100 pieces and as I was writing this I checked the website and it seems that they are all sold out. There’s also the issue of the price - CHF 19,500, with a 50 percent deposit due at order, with deliveries happening in March 2024.
While the price does look steep, Ming should be commended from making their way from a watchmaker that does great design with generic Sellita movements, to working with high-end Swiss suppliers. And all of this in just 6 years.
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Unlike the rugged pilot and dive watches that make up the rest of the lineup, the Tutima Patria collection is a very elegant watch with hand finishes and in house movements. Now Tutima is adding an equally elegant take on the GMT.
We know GMT watches to be a largely sporty affair, with multiple hands and bezels to help show the second or third dime zone. However, the Tutima Patria GMT stows the second time zone in a small and inconspicuous subdial at 6 o’clock, masking it within the seconds counter. Yea, the subdial functions both as a seconds counter and a second time zone - the passing seconds are tracked by a gold lance-shaped hand, while an additional blued GMT shows the second time zone, which can also show irregular time zones with 15- 30- and 45-minute offsets thanks to the markings on the black track.
The watch is not small with a stainless steel case that measures 43mm, but with a thickness of 11.2mm and very curved lugs, it wears smaller. Inside is Tutima’s calibre 619.
The Tutima Patria GMT in steel comes on a hand-stitched alligator leather strap with a pin buckle. It is now part of the permanent Patria collection and retails for EUR 9,300.
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If for nothing else, you have to love microbrands for their diversity. You can get a luxurious and elegant dress watch for a price that won’t break the bank, or you can turn to the more sporty and avant-garde end of the spectrum, where brands like Brew live. Their sporty Metric model was an instant hit and has been almost constantly sold out since 2021 when it debuted.
Now they have a new version of the Metric, in black PVD, with a very 80s vintage vibe, like some of the best Seiko and Porsche Design watches of the decade. The Metric has a cushion style case that is nearly square, but not quite, and a bracelet that appears integrated flowing directly from the far edges of the case walls. That bracelet is designed with a heavy taper and horizontal links stacked on top of each other. The size od the case is very interesting - 36mm across and 10.75mm thick.
Like other Metrics, the black PVD version runs on a meca-quartz chronograph movement (the VK68 made by Seiko) which keeps time with a quartz regulator but has mechanical chronograph functions.
The new black Metric carries a retail price of $475.
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