Tissot Adds Winter Colorway, Automatic To The 516 Collection; Bell & Ross Works With French Precision Aerobatics Unit; Mr Jones Releases Perfect Mood Watch; A Nice Delma; And Spectacular Chopards

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I was a bit conflicted with which watch to lead today — the decent looking Tissot or the absolutely incredible Chopards. In the end, I couldn’t force myself to open the newsletter with an almost 100k watch, but do check those out. They are incredible.

In this issue:

• Tissot Adds An Automatic Chronograph And A Cool Winter Colorway To The 516 Collection

• Bell & Ross Releases New Collaboration With Iconic Patrouille de France Precision Aerobatics Unit

• Mr Jones Releases The One Watch That Perfectly Captures Our Collective Feelings

• Delma Adds A Bright Purple Dial To It’s Very 1980s Midland In Either Quartz Or Automatic

• Chopard Redesigns Its Flagships The L.U.C Lunar One And L.U.C Flying T Twin Perpetual

👂What’s new

1/

Tissot Adds An Automatic Chronograph And A Cool Winter Colorway To The 516 Collection

Tissot know they their greatest hit, the PRX, is also their greatest liability. Heaving such a best selling watch is a fantastic success, but where do you go from there? Audemars Piguet still struggles with introducing new models, let alone coming up with one that will rival the popularity of the Royal Oak. So, in an effort to come up with a new hit watch collection, kind of around the same time last year, Tissot released the PR 516 Chronograph, a recreation of one of their historic racing chronographs from the 1970s. This was a tactic that worked great for the PRX, but hasn’t exactly caught on for the PR 516. It’s kind of a shame, because I like these watches, despite their quite high price point. Now, they’re releasing a new version of the watch with a brand new colorway and an automatic movement.

On the outside, there’s a very tiny change in thickness — well, not tiny, as this is quite a large watch — but a lot remans very much the same. The stainless steel case measures 41mm wide, 14.19mm thick (up from 13.7mm of the manual wound chrono) and with a 49mm lug-to-lug. The case has a brushed and polished finish and on top is a fixed bezel with a very cool glass tachymeter/pulsometer insert done in blue. I’m usually not very pressed with the use of mineral glass, but I’m not sure it was a great option for this bezel that might get knocked around. At least the very tall box-style crystal will be safe since it’s made out of sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.

This new version continues the blue theme of the bezel insert, but contrasts it with a stark white base. That’s interrupted with a blue minute track and sub-dials outlines. Applied markers are silver and filled with lume, same as the baton-style hour and minute hands. The sub-dial hands are all blue, but the very cool thing are the tiny blue stems that hold the hour and minute hands.

Inside, a new movement. Previously, the PR 516 Chronograph came with either a quartz movement or a manual-wound one, this one comes with the Valjoux A05.231 automatic chronograph movement, an update to the legendary Valjoux 7753. It beats at 4Hz and has a 68 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a jubilee-like steel bracelet with an integrated butterfly clasp.

The new Tissot PR 516 Automatic Chronograph is available now and part of the regular collection, priced at €2,145. A lot of money, sure, but in line with what you might expect to pay for the movement in other brands. See more on the Tissot website. See more on the Tissot website.

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Bell & Ross Releases New Collaboration With Iconic Patrouille de France Precision Aerobatics Unit

When you’re one of the largest French watch brands AND you have been styling your watches after airplane instruments for three decades, is there a more logical partnership than with the Patrouille de France, France’s precision aerobatics demonstration unit? Of course there isn’t. Bell & Ross has been working with the Patrouille de France since 2021, and now they are teaming up for the third time with a special edition of the BR-05 Chrono.

While the previous watches Bell & Ross made with the Patrouille de France were part of the iconic BR-03 collection that is inspired directly by airplane instruments, the BR-05 collection is much sportier, more wearable (despite being larger) and way more inspired by the urban environment and fashionable in design than utilitarian. But there’s no getting around the size — the case measures 42 × 42mm, and the thickness sits at a hefty 14.25mm that have to house the chrono movement and automatic rotor. However, the thickness is not as obvious thanks to the several tapering layers of watch. The majority of the case is brushed, with polished bevels and details, while on top is the recognizable broad and brushed bezel held down with four exposed screw and flat sapphire crystal in the middle. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Here, it really is all about the dial. The base gets a sunray brushing with a light blue color on top. Dark blue can be seen on the inner flange and on the sub-dials. The blocky Arabic numerals are painted onto the dial in white Super-Luminova and at 6 o’clock you’ll find the logo of the Patrouille de France. There’s a tiny round aperture for the date at 4:30 with a color mated disc inside that leads me to say that Bell & Ross has the best integration of 4:30 dates on the market. Another cool tiny detail is the fact that the counterweight on the central chrono hand is a plane.

Inside, you’ll find what Bell & Ross calls the calibre BR-CAL.326. But in fact, it’s just a slightly modified Sellita SW510, an integrated automatic chronograph with a cam mechanism. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power reserve. The watch can be had on either a steel bracelet or a dark blue leather strap.

The new Bell & Ross BR-05 Chrono Patrouille de France is available now and it’s limited to 500 pieces. Deliveries are expected towards the end of February. The price is set at €6,990 on leather and €7,500 on steel. See more on the Bell & Ross website.

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Mr Jones Releases The One Watch That Perfectly Captures Our Collective Feelings

Mr Jones is best known for their watches that make you go: huh. Whether it’s something like the Perfectly Useless Afternoon with which you would really like to lounge in the pool, or one of their spooky Halloween-themed watches which just make you smile. Announced on Blue Monday, the day that’s supposed to be the most depressing day of the year, the watch so perfectly captures the collective emotions like their new one does. This is the new Mr Jones Feline Fine and I have to say, I need one on my writs today.

On the outside, this will be very familiar. You already know the case. It’s that instantly recognisable Mr Jones case with a round body and spindly lugs. It measures 37mm wide with a 46mm lug to lug and has a 50 meter water resistance. Inside is a single jewel quartz movement. The watch is mounted on a 18mm wide strap, in this case a black leather strap. Water resistance is 50 meters.

But the dial… Oh, that dial. The watch was designed by British illustrator Eleanor Dalzell and inspired by her book How To Self Sabotage, which will be given away with every watch. She says the watch was born out of love for blending humor with existential honesty on the universal truth that everything is fine … until it’s not. Square in the middle is perhaps the coolest character ever committed to a watch — a sunglasses-wearing, cigarette-smoking cat flanked by a lighter and a Molotov cocktail. It’s the lighter and Molotov that point to the time, and as it passes it reveals one of two mantras: ‘Everything is fine’ and ‘Everything is fucked’. Perfect.

Mr Jones seems to be moving away from regular limited editions and replacing it the much superior timed editions. The Mr Jones Feline Fine will be released on Wednesday, 22nd January and will be available for purchase from 12 hours (8am - 8pm GMT). All orders placed in that window will get a watch. To get one, check out the Mr Jones website tomorrow.

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Delma Adds A Bright Purple Dial To It’s Very 1980s Midland In Either Quartz Or Automatic

While not a household name to the broadest public, Delma has a cult following among enthusiasts of rugged and capable tool watches. They are chunky, they can go to incredible depths and are often built with very specific tasks in mind - like the Delma Quattro Decompression Diver which you can easily pop out of it’s housing and attach to a decompression plate. Delma is one of the hidden gems of the watch world that people need to be introduced to just once, as it’s really easy to fall in love with their watches. Last year they dipped into their archives for a new collection, the Midland, and despite Delma putting it under their dress watch, it’s clearly inspired by 1980s integrated bracelet steel sports watches. Now they have a new version of the watch, with a really nice purple dial, rendered in both automatic and quartz.

The steel case of the Midland has a classic barrel shape and measures 40.5mm wide, 10.8mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 47mm, thanks to the lack of lugs. The watch is plenty thin at 10.8mm, but if you want it even thinner you can get the quartz version which comes in at 9.5mm. The case has a satin-brushed with pronounced and polished bevels. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a fluted bezel. Note how dense the fluting is, making it look more like a coined edge than the fluted bezels we are used to. Water resistance is 100 meters.

New is the color of the dial, a purple that joins the existing white, black, dark blue, salmon, green and ice blue. And just like all those, the watch features a pyramid-stamped guilloché-style pattern, applied markers and nickel-plated hands filled with Super-LumiNova. There’a tiny opening at 3 o’clock for the date, with a white disc inside.

Inside, you have a choice of movements. You can either go for the ubiquitous Sellita SW200 which beats at 4Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve (and a customized rotor), or you can go the quartz path. If you opt for that, the movement will be the ETA F06.111 which has 68 month battery life. Both watches come on rather standard three-link steel bracelets, but with a really nice-looking trapezoid end-link connecting it to the case.

The new Delma Midland Purple models are available now as part of the regular collection and priced at €690 for the quartz and €1.328 for the automatic (I believe these prices are with my stupidly high 25% VAT included). See more on the Delma website.

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Chopard Redesigns Its Flagships The L.U.C Lunar One And L.U.C Flying T Twin Perpetual

The L.U.C collection is incredibly important to Chopard. Before it was launched in 1996, Chopard was best known for their higher-middle end watches that offered great bang for your buck. But it was the L.U.C. that pushed Chopard up towards high-end watchmaking. And while these watches were incredible examples of in-house watchmaking, they were a bit long in the tooth. Well, now, Chopard is introducing the third generation of the top of the line L.U.C collection which introduces a new aesthetic — smaller bassine shaped cases inspired by 19th-century pocket watches, domed sapphire crystals and a supremely elegant approach. Launching this new generation of L.U.C. watches, Chopard is introducing the L.U.C Lunar One and the L.U.C Flying T Twin Perpetual.

Starting with the less expensive (because they aren’t cheap) of the two collections, let’s look at the two new L.U.C Lunar One watches. Two versions are available at launch, one made in ethical white gold and the other in ethical rose gold, both measuring 40.5mm wide and 11.63mm thick. These are very beautiful cases, fully round and polished, with flowing lugs and fluted crowns. On top is a slighly domed sapphire crystal.

However, the main attraction could easily be the dial. The white gold version is paired with a wonderful salmon dial, while the rose gold gets a deep blue one. Both have a hand guilloché carved into them emanating from the moon phase indicator at six o'clock. And speaking of the indicator, it shows the moon's phases from both hemispheres with astronomical precision. The moon-phase disc rotates around the sub-seconds dial and is adorned with the Big Dipper and Southern Cross star formations to emulate the night sky. At 12 o’clock you’ll see big-date, with two sub-dials at 3 and 9 for the day of the week, month and night/day indicators which are all part of the perpetual calendar function.

Inside the watch is the caliber 96.13-L which has been used in previous Lunar One models as well. It’s wound by a gold micro-rotor and has a 65 hour power reserve. The orbital moon phase is accurate down to one day over 122 years. The watches come on blue or brown alligator straps. Price starts at $85,800. See more on the Chopard website.

Then, there’s the pretty incredible Flying T Twin Perpetual which combines a flying tourbillon and perpetual calendar. It comes in the same case that measures 40.5mm wide and 11.63mm thick, which, now that I think it, is incredibly thin. The case is made out of ethical 18-carat yellow gold and has the same new crown and domed bezel.

The dial features a Forest Green PVD treatement, with the same hand-guilloché pattern that emanates from the flying tourbillon opening at 6 o'clock in a sunburst pattern. Just like with the Lunar One, this one has dauphine shaped hands and applied markers, both made in the metal that matches the case.

Inside is a new movement, the caliber 96.36-L. Made in house, it’s only 6mm thick and has a 65 hour power reserve thanks to two stacked barrels that drive the tourbillon and the perpetual calendar. The movement is COSC-certified and features the Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark. The watch comes on a green alligator strap and is priced at $184,000. See more on the Chopard 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

• James Rainey’s short, lovely, and sad piece on the LA fires is especially moving. Rainey describes returning to Malibu, where he grew up in the ’70s, to see that his parents’ house has burned down. I love his memories of an older Malibu—a laid-back town along the Pacific during a more “modest” time. “I recall young women riding their horses, bareback, to pick up snacks at Market Basket,” writes Rainey. “Surfers wandered the grocery aisles barefoot, sometimes shirtless. PCH felt like Main Street, not the driving death trap it would become.

• Running out of gas one day in Texas, Emily Gogolak is helped by the county judge. The incident stays with her, prompting an interesting reflection on life in different American states. Retracing her steps to find her former savior, Gogolak discovers a small town with special meaning.

• Aaron Colvin, a driven and hardworking teen, dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. He wanted to provide for his mother, who raised him on her own. For Wired, Brendan I. Koerner writes about Colvin’s stint doing door-to-door solar sales, which required a lot of effort for little reward. Colvin’s strange experience reveals a toxic and cult-like culture within solar companies that promise money, a glamorous influencer lifestyle, and self-improvement.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The other day I told you about that dude who did those video essays on movies. Some of you might now that I graduated in film theory, so this usually means two things: I like movies; and when I mention it people have one question — what’s the best movie ever? There is no one answer to this question, but this video might give you a couple of dozen answers. This video gives you a foundational film watchlist — see everything on it, and you will know more about movies than 99% of the population. And it seems that their upcoming videos just might be a nice film studies course in the making.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk