Timex Releases First ISO Dive Watch Collection With Titanium Option; Zodiac And eBay Team Up; Yema's New Model With With Alain Silberstein; A Brand New Brand; An Accurate Lederer And Patek Rumors

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I love days like these, when we have a really cool mix of new watches. The Timex just rules, but my heart bleeds for that Gagà Laboratorio. Keep your eyes open, one just might show up here. Also, what’s up Patek? You feeling OK?

Also, can I do a bit of newsletter business before we get started? First of all, check out that button at the top of the newsletter that reads Listen Online. Or, the player right above this is you are reading it on the website. There’s an option now to have this newsletter read for you. It’s still a bit rough as it’s one of those AI transcribers but I thought it might be interesting to some of you, let me know.

Next, I asked for your subscriptions about a month ago to cover the costs of hosting, some software and one or two subscriptions I need. We managed to get just enough subscribers so cover half the cost. I thought I would cover the rest with advertisement. But let me tell you, that’s a business that leaves you feeling less than clean. How about we don’t do ads and try subscriptions once again.

But I heard you… Patreon is a bit of a hassle to subscribe to. I get it. I now have a much easier process, one that’s powered by Stripe and Beehiv. Read the red square below:

In this issue:

• Timex Blows It Out Of The Water With Their First ISO Dive Watch Collection, The Deepwater Reef 200

• Zodiac And eBay Team Up For A Slightly Colorful Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver

• Yema Teams Up With French Designer Alain Silberstein For A Brand New Watch, The Marine

• Brand New Brand Gagà Laboratorio Takes A Brand New Approach To Watches While Creating A Unique Style

• Bernhard Lederer Introduces The Incredible Three-Times Certified Observatory Chronometer

• Print Ad Leaks First New Patek Philippe Model Line Since 1997, The Cubitus. Or Does It?

Today’s reading time: 12 minutes and 28 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Timex Blows It Out Of The Water With Their First ISO Dive Watch Collection, The Deepwater Reef 200

There’s no denying the fact that Timex has been on quite the roll these past years. They have put out banger, after banger, after banger, after banger. I’m not sure what’s more impressive, their designs or their ability to keep watches really affordable. However, if there’s one thing that might be a bit questionable is the quality of their watches. They’re not bad, not at all, they can just be a bit flimsy sometimes. Well, now they seem to be tackling that issue as well, with the introduction of a new collection, the Deepwater Reef 200, their firs dive watch that meets the ISO standards for a dive watch. So you know that will be durable. And to add to all of that, there’s even a titanium version.

There are three models to choose from, two movements and two materials. There’s the plain stainless steel version with quartz, a stainless quartz GMT model and an automatic movement in a titanium case. The cases share a lot of similarities — they all measure 41mm wide and 13mm thick, with the stainless quartz version coming in a bit thinner at 12mm. All three have a vintage-inspired skin diver look with super short lugs and a square stance that make it look like an H-case. On top are sapphire crystals surrounded by 60-minute unidirectional dive bezels. The cases also seem to have a nice finish to them, with vertical brushing all over and polished bevels. All three also have 200 meters of water resistance.

Next, the dials. The stainless steel version with the quartz movement comes with a really nice wave pattern grooved into the dial, with either red or yellow seconds hands as contrast, while the other two models get plain black dials. The GMT has an internal flange with a 24 hour scale that’s divided into night and day segments painted either blue and black or red and blue. The GMT and the titanium versions also have date apertures at 3 o’clock with a cyclops above it. I assume that just the time-only watch has the ISO certification, as it requires lumed plots on all 12 positions. The hands are partially skeletonized and lumed in the top half. Speaking of lume, there seems to be a lot of it, painted into circles, squares and a triangle at 12.

Inside, you’ll find three types of movement. One is an unnamed quartz time-only movement, one is an equally unnamed GMT quartz and one is the Miyota 8215 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve, which comes in the titanium watch. As for the straps, they can all be had on a selection of colors of rubber straps, while the stainless steel time-only can also be had on a stainless steel bracelet.

Now, for the best part. The most expensive of the lot is the titanium automatic movement version, priced at €479. Priced below it is the time-only on bracelet at €269, followed by the GMT version on rubber at €249 and rounding it all off is the time-only on rubber at just €199. Good on you Timex. See more on the Timex website.

2/

Zodiac And eBay Team Up For A Slightly Colorful Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver

Help me out here, has eBay ever been part of a watch collaboration? I tried googling it, but good luck searching for anything with eBay in the name, as you’ll just get tons and tons of sales listings. Well, if they haven’t check this out. They are teaming up with Zodiac to release a limited edition of a Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver with all the eBay colors on it. It’s a fun detail added to an otherwise conservative diver.

Being a Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver, you know what to expect here. It’s a farily standard sized diver with a diameter of 40mm. The angular lugs have a bit of a retro feel to them, as does the domed and polished crown. The rest of the watch has an overall brushed finish and on top you’ll find a unidirectional rotating bezel with deep notches on the side. The black bezel insert is the first reference to the eBay collaboration as the first 15 minues on the 60 minute countdown bezel don’t have numbers. Instead it’s hashes and four small colored triangles in eBay colors — red, blue, yellow and green. Interesting note on the countdown bezel: it’s a reference to the countdown on eBay auctions. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial is also very black, sunray brushed and with a white minute track on the periphery. The hour markers are the well known applied rectangles that are lumed and have colored borders, once again in the four eBay colors, each getting three markers. The hands are equally blocky and also filled with lume.

Inside is thethe STP 1-21, which is to be expected as Zodiac and STP are both owned by the Fossil group. The 1-21 is a new version of the STP 1-11 and it beats at 4Hz and has a 40 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a jubilee-style bracelet.

The Zodiac x eBay Super Sea Wolf Compression Diver will be available for purchase on December 18th and only 300 will be made. Price is set at $1,695. Unfortunately, there’s no landing page for the watch yet, so it’s supposed to show up on eBay on the 18th, but no idea at what hour.

3/

Yema Teams Up With French Designer Alain Silberstein For A Brand New Watch, The Marine

Most collaborations have an expected format to fulfil. They usually come at mid or late life cycle of a watch, once the brand has tried every single combination they wanted. Then they bring in an artist, a retailer or a publication to give their own touch to a well known model. But it seems that the French brand Yema has other ideas on how to approach collaborations. They teamed up with Alain Silberstein, a designer who has worked on many watches and is instantly recognisable for his use of bold primary colors, geometric shapes and whimsical details. But they didn’t ask him to remake one of their existing pieces. Nope, they let him design a whole new case for the watch, which is just a wild move. I just hope they’ll keep the Marine as a regular model.

So, it’s easy to sport that the new Marine model was designed by Silberstein. It’s made out of basic shapes — a round cylinder case with flat flanks for the main body and roudned rectangles for the lugs. The case sounds to be very wearable, as it measures 40mm wide, 11mm thick and with a lug-to-lug measurement of just 44.5mm, made even easier to wear since it’s made out of micro-blasted grade 5 titanium. The case gets a black DLC coating and on top is a double domed sapphire crystal. It’s a compressor style case and while it doesn’t function like an actual compressor case, it does have the two characteristic crowns, one for setting the time and the other to operate the internal bezel. Out back is a sapphire back with electro-plated Koi fishes. Water resistance is 200 meters.

But if the case hinted that Silberstein might have something to do with this watch, then the dial solidifies it. The matte black base of the dial is surrounded with a black bezel that has a yellow lumed pip at 12, a blue background for the first 20 minutes, white lumed pips for the first four marks and then the rest are white hashes. More color can be found on the hands that look nothing like hands. The hours are indicated by a huge red triangle, the minutes by an oversized yellow arrow that spans the entire diameter of the dial and the seconds are shown by a blue sea star in the centre. Quite wild.

Inside, more good news. They equipped the watch with the Oliver Mory-designed manufacture CMM.20 that’s wound with a tungsten micro-rotor. The watch beats at 28,800vph and has a pretty great 70 hour power reserve. It’s also quite accurate at -3/+7 seconds per day. The watch comes with both a black and red FKM rubber strap that’s molded to the case and it’s closed with a DLC-coated titanium folding clasp.

The Yema x Alain Silberstein will be limited to 500 pieces, so I hope why you see that introducing a brand new model only to make 500 pieces would be crazy. So, I guess the Yema Marine is coming down the line. Pre-orders open on Monday, 21 October, and deliveries should happen in February 2025. Price is set at €3,900. See more on the Yema website.

4/

Brand New Brand Gagà Laboratorio Takes A Brand New Approach To Watches While Creating A Unique Style

There are only so many ways to attach a circular watch to a wrist and have it tell time. Could we agree that more than 99% of mechanical watches will use a round case with at least two hands to indicate the time? That’s why almost every single time that we get something out of the ordinary, my ears perk up and I pay attention. The last time I was deeply fascinated with a brand new approach to a watch was when I first saw a Ressence Type 3. Well, it happened again. The Italian brand Gagà Milano, known for creating wild looking watches, spun off a new brand called Gagà Laboratorio which is supposed to be their creative outlet for mechanical innovation. Gagà Laboratorio is headed by founder Ruben Tomella and legendary tattoo artist Mo Coppoletta and their first two watches are an ode to fantastic design, Italian life (the term Gagà refers to the Dandy or gentlemen-like lifestyle of Italians in the 1920s and 1930s) with a bit of art-deco mixed in. Put all of that together and you get something that Alon Ben Joseph from Ace Jewelers christened “gagàism”. And it sure is.

Nothing about this watch is regular. The case is made out of seven parts, measuring 42mm wide and 13.3mm wide, the crown sits at noon and the lugs are unlike any you’ve seen before, curved, stepped and flared. There are two models at launch, the Cinquanta which comes in a brushed stainless steel case, and the Bauhaus, which gets a grey coating.

But if you thought that the cases were weird, wait until you see the dials. Bauhaus has a black dial, while the Cinquanta gets a wonderful sage green one, both split up into five segments laid out in a circle. The fifth segment on the top of the circle is a framed window for the running hour display. In the middle, you get a wonderful ring for the minutes, indicated by a revolving window on the Cinquanta or a red hand on the Bauhaus. And centrally, there’s a revolving disc with the Gagà Laboratorio logo that acts as the running seconds display.

Despite its seemingly incredible complexity, it’s all powered by a relatively normal La Joux-Perret G100. It’s a cool movement with a 4Hz beat rate and a great power reserve of 68 hours. Decorations include Côtes de Genève, perlage and a partially openworked rotor. Both watches come on handmade Safiano leather straps, one grey and the other black.

The new Gagà Laboratorio watches will not be limited, which is just wonderful news. But perhaps even better news is that this watch is not as outrageously priced as it looks. Sure, it’s not dirt cheap, but all things considering, this is a great price. CHF 3,900. See more on the Gagà Laboratorio website.

5/

Bernhard Lederer Introduces The Incredible Three-Times Certified Observatory Chronometer

Without a doubt, Bernhard Lederer will forever be remembered as one of the most important figures in the watchmaking world. And for good reason. At a time when advancing horology is becoming increasingly more rare, Lederer is pushing things ever forward. To show how unique his Central Impulse Chronometer is, exceeding the standard COSC accuracy certification tests, Lederer created a new watch that will undergo rigorous testing at three prestigious observatories: Besançon in France, Glashütte in Germany, and the Observatoire Chronométrique in Geneva, Switzerland. This is the Triple Certified Observatory Chronometer.

Least important with this watch is the case, but it’s still a very nice package. Made out of stainless steel, it’s quite large to house what’s inside — 44mm. But it uses short lugs to make it more wearable, as does the relatively thin 12.4mm thickness. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, while on the back you’ll find something really special and not really seen before. The entire caseback is one large crystal, all the way to the edges. And since there’s no metal part to screw to the case, the crystal is glued to the case and it’s worth it because the view of the movement is incredible.

The dial is equally as beautiful, made out of sterling silver which is treated with a traditional 19th-century technique to give the dial a near perfect shade of white. You get black-printed minute tracks, applied faceted baton indices at 3, 6, 9, and 12 and beautifully blued hands. Between the 6 and 9 o’clock positions you’ll find a recessed small seconds subdial with a sloping edge and a special minutes track next to it. This special track appears as a scale with a minute divided into six segments, each marking ten seconds. This corresponds to the rhythm set by the remontoire. On the lower surface of the sub-dial, three concentric decorative rings are engraved with the coordinates of the observatories where the watch will be tested for certification.

The movement inside is called the Calibre 9012, Lederer’s standard Central Impulse Chronometer (CIC). It’s a beautiful movement with incredible finishing, but that takes second place to the incredible architecture, and the main advancements of the CIC: two independent barrels, two independent gear trains, two constant-force mechanisms, and two independent escapement wheels. The balance wheel is flanked by two independent escapement wheels, with the two remontoires d’égalité positioned between the fourth and fifth wheels of the gilded gear trains and within the escape wheels. These remontoires operate every ten seconds, ensuring that energy is delivered every five seconds. As a constant-force mechanism, the remontoire ensures even torque distribution to the escape wheel, which directly impulses the balance. This steady flow of energy helps maintain a more consistent rate and enhances precision.

Only 8 pieces of the Lederer Observatory Chronometer will be made, each with certificates from the three observatories. While the testing still hasn’t finished, I’m guessing that Lederer will be in the lead for a GPGH win once we do find out how accurate they really are. Price is set at CHF 146,000 without tax. See more on the Bernhard Lederer website.

6/

Print Ad Leaks First New Patek Philippe Model Line Since 1997, The Cubitus. Or Does It?

What a wild ride this weekend was. First, someone posted a supposed screenshot of an ad published in the upcoming issue of Fortune magazine for a brand new model line from Patek Philippe, which is a huge deal. Then everybody made fun of it. And last, we got a lot of shade thrown at the speculation.

First, the rumors and the ad. What we se here is supposed to be the new model line from Patek Philippe, a first introduction of a new model since 1997 when they introduced the Aquanaut. Sure, there have been watches since like the Sky Moon Tourbillon, and even the Grandmaster Chime, but I wouldn’t call that a full model line. So this is a huge deal. And from what we can see, it’s… something. The Cubitus collection is angular eight sided watch with an almost square overall shape. I’m pretty certain that this will be positioned a luxury sports watch.

Then came the reactions. Let’s just say they weren’t favourable. A lot has been said about the watch, comparing it to the awkward introduction of the Code 11.59 for Audemars Piguet, but it seems that the universal consensus online is that this line will need a lot of work to make it what it should be. Sure, it will sell, but how much.

Well, it will sell if it’s real. The issue is, someone on Instagram noticed that there was a mistake in the ad. The screenshotted ad reads “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation.” This is one of the most iconic slogans in marketing, two sentences that completely define what Patek is position it at a completely unique position in the watch world. Only, it’s wrong. While the ad does read that, the actual slogan is: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation”. The difference between “merely take care of it” and “merely look after it” is gigantic for a brand that hasn’t introduced a new model line in 27 years. They wouldn’t make a mistake like that and they sure wouldn’t change an iconic line just because. But someone making a joke could miss that one detail, right?

We'll see in a few days. People are saying that Patek is holding an event this Thursday in Munich, but so far nobody has received an invitation. So, let’s pick this up then.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Atelier Wen Perception Titanium Millésime Mù

2/

Hands-On with the Breitling Premier Datora Perpetual Calendar 140th Anniversary

3/

A review of the Chopard L.U.C 1860 Flying Tourbillon

⚙️I Review A Watch

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

I Review A Watch: The Serica 8315 Travel Chronometer Is A Vintage Watch From A Parallel Reality

We all know that a watch is much more than a sum of its parts. It’s a feeling it gives you when its on your wrist, it’s a symbol that projects to others around you and it’s, very often, a sublimation of memories that were formed while the watch was in their presence. We love making connections with our watches But it’s always about the watch. Very rarely, if ever, do we form a bond with the brand itself. Hear me out. Not the watches that the brand makes, but the actual company. And yet… This is exactly what happened to me with Serica.

Read the whole review

⏲️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

• Exactly 150 years ago, Monet, Degas, Renoir and their pals spurred an artistic revolution. Can we still see the defiance behind the beauty, and the schmaltz? This is the story of how the Impressionists became the world’s favorite painters, and the most misunderstood.

• Point Nemo is the farthest place in the world from land. A lot seems to be going on there.

• Have you ever wondered how betting places form their ods? I haven’t because I deeply don’t understand how betting works. However, reading this kind of explained what happens behind the scenes.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

OK, so a bit of a backstory on me, the author of this newsletter. If you don’t know, I live in Croatia. A country that was once a part of Yugoslavia. And for all its faults, Yugoslavia was a global powerhouse in several aspects and had a very interesting position in global politics. It played with both the East and the West, all the while leading countries like India, Egypt, Ghana and Pakistan in the Non-Aligned movement. It was also working on its own atomic bomb, which would have put it in very rare company, at the time at least. Story says I had some family members working on that project. But what went so wrong with the program that was doomed to fail? This is a really well done video.

Want to let us know what you think about the newsletter? Go to our survey and fill it out.

-Vuk