This New Citizen Is An Ideal Starter Mechanical Budget Option; Grand Seiko Finally Puts Out A Serious Ladies-Sized Watch; Laco's New Polar Pilot; Breguet's Valentine's Watch; And A Wild Gold Moser

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Sorry for the very late newsletter today, the platform I use to write this just kept crashing all day. But at least we have some very cool watches.

In this issue:

• The New Citizen NY4058 Collection Is An Ideal Starter Mechanical Day-Date Budget Option

• Grand Seiko Finally Puts Out A Ladies-Sized Watch Pair That Can Be Taken Seriously

• Laco Equips Their Smaller-Cased Augsburg And Aachen Pilot’s Watches With Crispy Polar Dials

• Breguet Is Cutting It Close To Valentine’s Day With The New Reine de Naples 9915

• H. Moser & Cie. Opens Silicon Valley Boutique With Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton In Yellow Gold

👂What’s new

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The New Citizen NY4058 Collection Is An Ideal Starter Mechanical Day-Date Budget Option

What is a good first watch option is the ultimate question, isn’t it? How many of you have let slip to friends and family that you like watches and are now bombarded with asks what to get first. And the more you appreciate watches, the harder it gets to come up with an answer. The ever growing price of everything on the market has desensitized us to how much watches actually cost, so when we recommend a $600 first watch as a mechanical option, we don’t think much of it. But people usually balk, asking how someone could even dream of spending so much on a watch. So you adjust and land on a couple of usual suspects — a digital Casio, a mechanical Timex or a Seiko, which is slowly exiting the affordable category. But while Seiko has been trending upwards, Citizen has been following right behind filling the gap left by the Japanese giant. Their latest release is the Citizen Mechanical Day/Date NY4058 Series which is quite the attractive option at a hair over €200.

The NY4058 Series is a pretty simple offering, with a fully round case with a polished finish that gives it a more dressy look than other models at the price point. The stainless steel case measures 40mm wide and 10.7mm thick. It also appears to have relatively short lugs so it should fit a wide span of wrists. On top and bottom you’ll find mineral glass, obviously used to keep cost low. The crown doesn’t screw down, but you still get 50 meters of water resistance.

There are three version of dials available, with all of them having a sunray-brushed finish. You can choose between black, blue or green. The dials have applied hour markers, a sloping rehaut with a minute track and lumed dots, the hands are polished and filled with lume, while at 3 o’clock you’ll find a metal-framed day and date aperture. It’s all very simple, but also unimposing.

Inside is the Miyota calibre 8200, which is technically an in-house movement since Citizen owns Miyota. It beats at 3Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. You can see it through the caseback, but there’s not much reason to look at it since these are all industrial finishes here. The watches come on different straps. The black edition, for example, comes on a black imitation crocodile leather strap, while the blue and green versions come on steel bracelets with a folding clasp.

Now, the best part. The new NY4058 collection is on sale now, not limited and priced at €219 for the black and €229 for the green and blue. See more on the Citizen website.

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Grand Seiko Finally Puts Out A Ladies-Sized Watch Pair That Can Be Taken Seriously

For years, the watch industry has had a bit of a condescending approach to watches aimed at women. While it’s hard to justify there even should be a gender divide in watch models, it’s a fact that the vast majority of women have thinner wrists and require smaller watch cases. And to address this market, watch brands have been known to do what is known as “shrink and pink”. They would shrink down their existing model and then slather them with details that would be considered “feminine” — pink dials and straps, heaps of gem stones and diamonds and overall softer details. So, when a brand shrinks down a watch while staying true to what the larger watches are, that’s a rare sight and one to be welcomed. So, welcome two new Grand Seiko 62GS models in 30mm, the STGK031 and the STGK033.

While much smaller, these are still classic 62GS watches. That means that you still get the box-shaped sapphire crystal and bezel-free construction, brushed surfaces with Zaratscu polished details, as well as sharp lines and cuts on the case and lugs. The new width is 30mm and it could have been a hair thinner at 10.5mm, not just for the thinness, but for better proportions. Water resistance remains just as good as the larger watch at 100 meters.

There are two models, differing in their dial colors. First, there’s the STGK031, which is a classic sakura-kakushi Grand Seiko dial, meaning that it’s inspired by the cherry blossoms hidden beneath a delicate blanket of early spring snow. It has a very gentle pink color. Then, there’s the STGK033, inspired by sakura-tsukiyo, the look of cherry blossoms illuminated by foggy moonlight. Or, if you prefer, it has a very nice silver textured finish. Both versions have applied hour markers, sharp hands and a framed date aperture at 3 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the Caliber 9S27, a small automatic that measures just 20mm wide and 4.49mm thick. It can be seen through the caseback and the view is nice, since it has a escape wheel shaped like a five-petaled flower through the use of MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) engineering. It beats at 4Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watches come on three link stainless steel bracelets.

The new Grand Seiko STGK031 and STGK033 will be available in April of this year, with a price of $6,400. See more on the Grand Seiko website.

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Laco Equips Their Smaller-Cased Augsburg And Aachen Pilot’s Watches With Crispy Polar Dials

There’s a very specific reason why so many pilot’s watches look very much the same. They have to have large hands, a clean dial and easily readable numerals because they are supposed to be used while flying a plane, obviously. And there are two options on how to approach this problem. Either create something completely new, something very modern, or rely on history and embrace the dozens of years of fliegers, both Type A and Type B. And it’s this latter option that Laco, a legendary German watchmaker, uses for its pilot’s watches. They call their Type A and Type B watches the Augsburg and Aachen. Now, they’re releasing a new duo of 39mm Augsburg and Aachen with a polar dial, like we’ve seen in the larger 42mm version.

The two watches share a case and the smaller models come in stainless steel cases that measure 39mm wide, 11.55mm thick and with a 46.5mm lug-to-lug. The cases have a brushed finish, topped off with a polished bezel. That bezel surrounds a sapphire crystal, which is where we encounter one of Laco’s many quirky customization options. The crystal comes with no anti-reflective coating, but for €50 more, you can get one. More customization is available on the case, as you can engrave either the caseback or the side. On the other side you’ll find the deeply grooved onion-shaped crown. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The Augsburg and the Aachen share the case, but differ on the dial. The Augsburg is what is called the Type A flieger which has just the minute track along the edge of the dial and big numerals for the hours, while the Aachen is a Type B, which has large minute numerals on the outside and a inner ring for the hours. There’s also a slight difference in the length of the characteristic sword-shaped hands. The new models get a stark white dial, with blue hour indices that definitely have a shimmer in sunlight. The numerals are painted in Superluminova C3 Blue Line which have a subtle greenish hue in daylight and a striking turquoise blue at night. The hands are thermally blued and filled with the same lume. All of this is a fantastic combination.

Inside, more customization options to be had. You can get the Laco S2 movement, which is essentially the Miyota 82S0. The movement beats at 21,600vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. But you can also spend €55 more and get the Laco 31, which uses the Miyota 8315, a slightly update movement that has the same beat rate and upgraded power reserve of 60 hours, along with thermally blued screws. The watches come on a brown leather strap with metal rivets.

The Laco Augsburg and Aachen Polar 39 are limited to 250 each and priced pretty fantastically. The base price is €440. Upgrade the crystal and movement, and you’ll be spending €545. See more on the Laco website.

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Breguet Is Cutting It Close To Valentine’s Day With The New Reine de Naples 9915

A couple of watch brands have started a trend of releasing watches that can make perfect Valentine’s Day gifts. The other day I wrote about the ruby ArtyA which will go on sale on Valentine’s Day. Today, we have the beautiful Breguet Reine de Naples for Valentine’s Day 2025 that comes out just two days before the holiday. Now, I know I’m not buying €50k Valentine’s Day gifts, but there’s one thing that’s puzzling in the whole process. How am I supposed to get the watch in time for Valentine’s if it goes on sale so close? Well, regardless of that, this is a really pretty release from Breguet.

The case comes in the very familiar egg-shape, made out of 18k white gold with fine fluting on the sides. The case measures 28.45mm wide, 10.4mm thick and has a lenght of 36.5mm. But despite its small size, Breguet managed to include a huge number of diamonds. There are 45 hand-set brilliant-cut diamonds along the edge of the case, while at the bottom of the watch is a round lug attachment that is covered with 52 snow-set diamonds.

More diamonds can be found towards the inside of the watch. The flange features 54 brilliant-cut diamonds that continue into a set of 18 pink sapphires at the bottom of the case. Between 6 and 8 o’clock are 23 brilliant-cut red rubies set to look like a heart. The sapphires help to create a gradient between the white diamonds and red rubies. The base of the dial is made out of mother-of-pearl onto which Breguet mounts an applied white gold Arabic 12 and rounded white gold indices that taper in size. Of course, you get blued Breguet hands.

Inside is the in-house calibre 537/3 which beats at 3.5Hz and has a 45 hour power reserve. The movement has a Breguet balance wheel, a platinum rotor decorated with hand-guilloché and a silicon balance spring. The watch comes on a red alligator leather strap closed with a white gold triple-blade folding clasp that’s also set with diamonds, 28 of them.

The new Breguet Reine de Naples 9915 is limited to 28 pieces and priced at €56,300. See more on the Breguet website.

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H. Moser & Cie. Opens Silicon Valley Boutique With Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton In Yellow Gold

H. Moser & Cie. has been announcing their Menlo Park boutique for quite a while, which meant that they were coming out with another limited edition to celebrate the opening of the store. They did the same for their stores in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. But what I like most about their limited editions liked to stores is the fact that every watch is so radically different than the previous. I mean, look at this new fully gold Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton. It’s quite something.

On the outside and on paper, not much has changed. The cushion-shaped case measures 40mm wide and 12.1mm thick. Only, gone is the brushed steel case of the previous Skeleton Streamliners. Instead, you get an extremely wild looking gold case, with the same satisfying brushing that dulls the shine of the gold a bit. This is still a sports watch, so water resistance is great at 120 meters.

As you might have noticed, there’s no dial here. Instead, you get a brushed anthracite flange on the periphery that holds gold plated faceted baton-style indices and a full view of the movement. Above the movement you’ll also see the very cool short brushed gold plated hands which are extended to their full length with Globolight blocks of lume. There’s more antracite on the movement, the HMC 814 self-winding manufacture movement. It features a huge one-minute flying tourbillon with a skeletonized bridge at 6 o’clock, beats at 21,600vph and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on an incredible full gold flat link integrated bracelet that matches the look of the case.

The Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton is limited to 17 pieces and priced at CHF 125,000. See more on the H. Moser & Cie. website.

⏲️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

• Sometimes the happiest places on Earth can also be the loneliest. For Vulture, Justine Harman goes Great Mouse Detective on Club 33–Disneyland’s “secretive, invitation-only private club”–and the couple whose memberships were revoked following a contested claim of public drunkenness. Her account is a brisk procedural, dotted with details of the club’s history and reputation (“It’s like Fight Club”) and the couple’s efforts to regain access.

• When details about a scientific study in the 1960s became public, there was shock, outrage and anxiety. Indian women in Britain were given radioactive food without their consent. But exactly what happened?

• A lovely home, gorgeous children, and an outdoorsy lifestyle: Ashley and James Schwalm seemed to have it all, but their marriage was not what it appeared. After both having affairs, things take a dark turn. Luc Rinaldi deftly guides us through this tragic story of murder in the Blue Mountains.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

A pretty wild attempt to recreate Star Wars: A New Hope without a single scene from the actual Star Wars movie.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk