Timex and James Brand Team Up Again For A Cool Traveler GMT; Praesidus Homages A 70s Helicopter Pilot's Watch; A Crazy New Atowak; An Interesting Chronoswiss; And A Confusing Gold JLC Chronograph

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Is this the third time in as many weeks that I’m saying that Timex has really stepped up their game? Because they really have. And while I haven’t had the opportunity to see this one they made with The James Brand live, from everything that I hear, it’s much better built than their other watches, making for a pretty compelling package.

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In this issue:

• Timex And The James Brand Team Up Once Again On An Even Better Take On Their Titanium Traveler GMT

• Praesidus Takes Inspiration From 1970s Helicopter Pilot’s Chronographs For Their New Type H-75

• The New Atowak Cosmofleet Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hours Is As Wild As You Would Expect

• Chronoswiss Puts The Regulator On Its Side With Two New Strike Two Colorways

• Jaeger-LeCoultre Introduces The Reverso Tribute Chronograph In Full Pink Gold

👂What’s new

1/

Timex And The James Brand Team Up Once Again On An Even Better Take On Their Titanium Traveler GMT 

Not even six months ago, back in May, the watch brand Timex teamed up with The James Brand, the maker of every day carry stuff focused on minimalist design, to release very nifty Automatic GMT watch. It was a continuation of Timex’s spectacular streak of great looking watches, and also an announcement that they would be moving up in the price range. It was also great looking, well made, titanium and equipped with the flyer-style GMT Miyota 9075 movement, all very much justifying the price. Now, Timex and The James Brand are back at it, with the same Automatic GMT but now not in black, but a great shade of what they call emerald.

On the outside, nothing has changed. It’s a barrel shaped titanium case that measures 41mm wide. We don’t get any other measurements. I tried looking up reviews that mention what the other proportions are, but there is a lot of differing information out there. One blog gives the thickness of 13.2mm, another says it’s way thinner at 11.5mm. I also found a 48mm lug-to-lug measurement, but trust is as much as the two thickness measurements. The case has a matte finish and on top is a sapphire crystal, surrounded by a titanium bezel that has an emerald colored insert with 24 hour markings. Water resistance is 200 meters.

This bezel works with the internal chapter ring which also has a 24 hour scale to allow the user to track three time zones at the same time, but this time for real - none of that fiddling with the bezel and making calculations. You track one time with the hour and minute hands, you track a second with the internal bezel and the GMT hand and you track the third with the bezel that is rotated to match you third time zone and it stays there.

The dial is minimalist in its approach, but instead of a black base like the original, the dial gets a wonderful shade of emerald that matches the bezel. You get trapezoid hour markers and stick minute markers, a date aperture at 3 o’clock, two black hands filled with lume for the hours and minutes, a white seconds hand a black GMT hand. A throwback to the original is an acid green 12 o’clock dot on the internal bezel.

Inside is the very familiar Miyota 9075, which allows the wearer to jump the local hour hand, meaning that it’s a “true” or flyer-style GMT movement. It beats at 28,800 vph, 4Hz and has a power reserve of about 42 hours. The watch comes on a titanium bracelet and you get an additional rubber strap, both with a quick release mechanism.

Unfortunately, just like the original, this is also a limited edition and will be produced in just one run of 750 pieces. Price remains unchanged at $749 and you can see more on The James Brand website.

2/

Praesidus Takes Inspiration From 1970s Helicopter Pilot’s Chronographs For Their New Type H-75

I’ve written about Praesidus watches many times before. Mostly because I like them very, very much. They have a simple mission that drives them — remake the coolest vintage military watches of all time with modern materials and an (often) very affordable price. Their Rec Spec, a recreation of the Seikos worn by MACV-SOG forces in Vietnam, is one of my favorite watches released in the past few years, but you should also look at all the work they’ve done with WW2 era watches. It’s pretty incredible. But now they set their sights on something else, something cooler and something very European. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Leonidas made a pretty cool pilot’s chronograph, the CP1, for the Italian Air Force. It was particularly beloved by helicopter pilots. Praesidus recreates it and calls it the Type H-75 Chronograph.

The new Type H-75 Chronograph keeps a very vintage-size to it. The steel case measures 38mm wide, 11.5mm thick and has a 45.5mm lug-to-lug, making it pretty much perfect. The case has brushed sides, polished tops, a faux-lyre lug that’s tapered and chamfered and a piston style pushers. On top is a unidirectional bezel with a matte black aluminum insert that has a fully graduated 60 minute scale. The crystal on top is mineral glass, which is kind of a shame. I wish they opted for a plexiglass for an even more vintage look. Interestingly, the lug width is just 18mm. Water resistance is 100

The dial is a very faithful recreation of the original Leonidas. The black base gets a heavily grained texture, onto which they applied raised printed Arabic hours. The lume on the numerals appears green, while the one on the straight sword handset, as well as on the central chronograph hand, is faux-aged to appear almost yellow. I will be first in line to curse the idea of fauxtina, but I have to say I’m digging it here. There are two sub-dials, positioned at 3 and 9 o’clock, but it’s not all good news. The 3 o’clock sub-dial gives away the movement inside. You see, it’s the horrifically useless 24-hour indicator that’s present on the otherwise very nice meca-quartz movement.

Yeah, inside you’ll find the familiar Seiko VK64 meca-quartz chronograph which uses a quartz movement to keep track of the time, and a mechanical movement to run the chronograph. Like I said, overall a very cool movement, except for that dumb indicator. The watch can be had on one of three straps — a distressed brown leather, a grey canvas or black canvas.

Now, for some good news. The new Praesidus Type H-75 Chronograph is not limited and it’s very well priced at $245. The watch goes on sale very soon and you can sign up on the Praesidus website if you want one.

3/

The New Atowak Cosmofleet Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hours Is As Wild As You Would Expect

Up until a few years ago, if you wanted a watch with a wandering hours complication — one that displays the hours on various forms of rotating discs and plates — you would have to spend at least five figures. And most likely in the upper half of five figures. But complications are getting easier to simplify, as is to be expected, and brands like the Hong Kong-based Atowak are making full use of it. They are best known for their intensely designed wandering hour pieces that don’t exactly break the bank (but also aren’t THAT cheap). Their new watch is the Cosmofleet Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hours and it fits right into the brand’s lineup.

The new Cosmofleet comes in a case that’s hard to nail down. Sure, technically, it measures 39mm wide, 15.7mm thick and 46.5mm long, but it’s as far off from a conventional shape as it can get. It’s made up of layers of black-coated titanium, facets on nearly all surfaces, exposed screws, cut-out pieces… It’s a lot to take in, especially with the angled and irregularly shaped sapphire crystal that covers the majority of the top of the watch. All of this gets you 30 meters of water resistance.

At the center of the dial plate, which has a fish scale finish, is a central pivot around which are hour markers are presented on three-dimensional columns that mounted along their length and which spin horizontally to display the different hour numerals, while also rotating around their own center of axis at the same rate in the opposite direction. As the hour columns move across the dial, they point towards a minute scale at the bottom. There are two colors to choose from — while the base remains black, the numerals are painted either red or turquoise.

Inside is the secret why Atowak can keep these relatively affordable — it’s powered by the Miyota 9029 movement. Of course, the movement is heavily modified and a wandering hour module is added to the base. The watches come on either an Italian leather strap or an FKM and nylon fabric strap.

The new Atowak Cosmofleet Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hours is not technically limited in number, but it does have limited production capacity. The price is set at $2,999, but if you put down a $500 pre-order deposit, you will be able to get one before the official November 29th release date and they will lower the price to $2,699. See more on the Atowak website.

4/

Chronoswiss Puts The Regulator On Its Side With Two New Strike Two Colorways 

Very much like the Atowak I mentioned above, Chronoswiss makes watches that are visually very different from everything else, making them attractive for a very limited number of people. They are also surprisingly priced. I won’t say that a 10k watch is cheap, but they often look much more expensive than they actually are. Their latest release are two addition to their relatively new Strike Two line that brings new and beautiful colors to an unusual regulator.

The Strike Two comes in a not-so-small 40mm wide and 12.7mm thick case, but then again, how could it be small when it’s made out a whopping 17 pieces. Despite this complexity, it looks quite elegant with a fluted and polished bezel on top, polished case and a blasted caseback and sides of the lugs. On the side is the familiar onion crown, now a bit less circular and a deep groove cut into the middle. The lugs are very prominent next to the fully circular case and feature screwed strap links.

The Strike Two is a different take on the regulator display, a type of showing time that gives each of the hands - hour, minute and second - their own space on the dial and their own axis to spin on. And while most regulators are vertically aligned, since the 1990s Chronoswiss has been aligning them horizontally. The Strike Two Terra has a brown PVD-coated dial with a cracked textured surface to suggest the earth, while the Highlands gets a green CVD-coated vertically brushed dial to resemble the Scottish Highlands. There are also hand-guilloché plates on the small seconds sub-dials.

Inside is the calibre C.6000, which has been developed in collaboration with La Joux-Perret. It beats at 28,800bph and has a 55 hour power reserve. The decorations are truly next level - a ruthenium-coated finish, radial Côtes de Genève, and engravings all over the place. Both watches come on a calfskin leather strap with alligator embossing.

The new Chronoswiss Strike Two Terra and Strike Two Highland are limited to 100 pieces each and look like pieces of haute horology. That’s why the price, while not low, might seem quite reasonable - CHF 9,800. See more on the Chronoswiss website.

 5/

Jaeger-LeCoultre Introduces The Reverso Tribute Chronograph In Full Pink Gold

Despite how we perceive it today, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso has always been a sporty watch. It was developed for polo players to flip over while playing so that the crystal wouldn’t get damaged while playing. But trends have changed, and its classic shape and small size have turned the Reverso into more of a dress watch. But it seems that their latest release has JLC playing with this duality of dress and sports watches. The new Reverso Tribute is a sporty Chronograph, rendered in a fully pink gold case, taking care of the dress side.

The case of the new Reverso Tribute Chronograph remains the same as the steel version, except for using 18k pink gold on the entire case. It measures 29.9mm wide, just 11.14mm thick and is 49.4mm wide. On the right side are relatively small and discreet rectangular pushers that sit low near to the case. Oh, and despite it being a sporty watch, it only has 30 meters of water resistance. But come on, I would love to see you go swimming with your €70k+ solid gold Reverso.

Like a lot of Reversos, this one comes with two dials. The simpler one — can we call it the primary one? — is an interesting combination of a solid gold base with laser-engraved horizontal lines, with a black railroad minute track on the edge, and topped with gold hands and gold applied markets. Flip the case over and you’ll see the chronograph side which is much more elaborate. It’s a skeletonized dial that is identical to the steel version, except all the visible plate and bridges of the movement are now produced in pink gold. At the center is the 60-second track while the bottom sits a retrograde 30-minute gauge for the chronograph.

Inside is a very familiar movement, the calibre 860, except now made with a lot of gold. The 860 is based on the same movement JLC has been using since 1996 with a column-wheel and horizontal clutch, but modernized, reworked with more opened bridges and with a 52 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a tan calf leather and black alligator strap.

The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Chronograph in pink gold is limited to 250 pieces and priced at €72,000. See more on the Jaeger-LeCoultre website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Tennet Somerset

2/

Hands-On with the Tudor Black Black Chrono in Blue

3/

A review of the Two-Tone Ebel 1911 Globe

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The two-tone Titoni Seascoper 300 adds a touch of gold tone for a luxury transformation

Once I put the Seascoper 300 on my wrist, I noticed again how the size and case shape make for a wonderfully wearable watch. Despite its 42mm diameter and substantial 52mm lug-to-lug, the watch easily hides under a cuff. What also stands out is the great finishing of the case. The case sides are fully polished, while the top is almost fully brushed. Only the inside of the lugs features a polished bevel for some visual contrast.

Read the whole review on Fratello

⏲️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

• This week, Donald Trump announced that his White House chief of staff will be Susie Wiles, the first woman to ever hold the role. Wiles is a longtime political strategist and lobbyist in Florida, where she’s both respected and feared. Outside the Sunshine State, she isn’t well-known. That low profile is by design.

• The trial for the perpetrators of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris at the Bataclan and elsewhere began in the autumn of 2021, and Emmanuel Carrère was there every day, hearing every story from every side. It was a lot of trauma to absorb, and produced a harrowing, compelling, important read that drives home the scale of the human cost, to everyone involved — though some paid more than others.

• I like to think political ads are annoying background noise. You like to think so, too. But campaigns and PACs spend big bucks on advertising for a reason, and the reason isn’t that they don’t work. Alexander Sammon traveled to Montana, home of one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the US—Republican Tim Sheehy ended up flipping the seat, claiming Democrat incumbent Tester’s spot—to see what kind of advertising onslaught Montanans were subject to. Spoilers: it’s intense, and it’s only going to get worse as more ads move into the unregulated online space.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I was never a Radiohead fan while growing up. I just missed them by a few years, i believe. But lately, I’ve been listening to them more and more and see what I have missed. And this appearance on a very early show of Late Night with Conan O’Brien is just incredible. I mean, look at how shook Conan looks at the end. I can’t really imagine a performance like this on TV these days.

💵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

-Vuk