Tissot Brings The Mint Dial To The Automatic PRX And A Green To The Chrono PRX; Kurono Tokyo Releases Most Complicated Watch Yet; Marathon And Jeep Team Up; New From Nomadic And Grail Watch

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I’m starting today’s newsletter with an apology. I made a mistake yesterday in my writeup of the Mühle-Glashütte S.A.R Rescue-Timer. I wondered how it’s possible that a watch made for search and rescue missions in the North sea can have only 100 meters of water resistance. Well, it doesn’t and you all kindly pointed it out. It has 100 atmospheres of water resistance or 1,000 meters. I guess I’ll have to pay more attention.

In this issue:

• Tissot Brings The Very Desired Mint Green Dial To The PRX Powermatic 80 And A Much Muted Green To The PRX Chronograph

• Kurono Tokyo Says Goodbye To Their Beautiful Reiwa Line With The 2024 Anniversary Model, What Could Be Their Best Yet

• Marathon Teams Up With Jeep For A Quartet Of Watches That Will Satisfy A Very Specific Customer Base

• Nomadic Introduces New Color To Their Explorer-Themed Watch, The Turas 914 Landfall, That Pays Homage To The Greats

• Revolution’s Grail Watch Project Continues With Fully Mirrored Sartory Billard SB07 Ghost

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 30 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Tissot Brings The Very Desired Mint Green Dial To The PRX Powermatic 80 And A Much Muted Green To The PRX Chronograph

Is it just me, or has the Tissot PRX mania died down a bit lately? Not only is there not as many people showing off their new purchases on social media, it seems that Tissot themselves have slowed down a bit with their releases. Have we, finally, reached peak PRX? And does that, for the love of all that is holy, mean that we will see the integrated steel bracelet sports watch trend slowing down? The former might be true, but I don’t believe that the latter will happen any time soon. Just as I was about to ask has Tissot given up on the PRX, they come out with three new watches - a 35 and 40mm version of the mint dial for the PRX Automatic and a much deeper green for the PRX Chronograph.

Starting with the automatics, you get the same case you know and mostly love. Both the 35 and 40mm versions are made out of stainless steel, measure 10.9mm thick and have a brushed finish that extends to the integrated bracelet that made the watch as popular as it is today. A polished bezel surrounds a sapphire crystal and underneath it are the new dials. The mint green is technically not a new dial, as it was available on the quartz version which has a flat dial. Here in the automatic version they get the waffle pattern that Tissot uses for the automatic PRX models and it looks just fine. Inside is the automatic Powermatic 80 movement which is best known for its 80 hour power reserve. Price is set at €775 for both sides. You can se more about the 35mm version here and the 40mm version here.

Then there’s the slightly more complicated or even controversial PRX Chronograph. It comes in a similar looking but much larger case that measures 42mm wide and 14.5mm. The new dial also gets the waffle pattern, but now interrupted by three subdials for the chronograph movement. The color here is a really stunning green that has a gradient finish from a lighter in the center to a very dark green on the outskirts. But the color is ruined by the inclusion of a very large, very white, date window at the horrid 4:30 position. Inside is a very different movement to the Powermatic 80. This is the ETA A05.H31, a heavily upgraded Valjoux 7753 that has a 60 hour power reserve. It’s a great movement, but the price is €2,045. And that always struck me as a bit high for this watch. See more on the Tissot website.

2/

Kurono Tokyo Says Goodbye To Their Beautiful Reiwa Line With The 2024 Anniversary Model, What Could Be Their Best Yet

Some people in the online watch community will attempt to tell you that the fervour that watch fans felt for the Japanese independent brand Kurono Tokyo has died down. That they can now release watches without everyone having a complete meltdown and crashing their site. True, the site will indeed not crash, but not because interest in Kurono has waned, it’s because Kurono owner Hajime Asaoka is getting better at supplying watch fans with fantastic watches at great prices. This simple brand has become the face of indie Japanese watchmaking, representing everything we love about it - high quality minimalist pieces that would have looked good 50 years ago, look good now and will look good in 50 years. Now, Kurono is celebrating the 5th anniversary of their Reiwa model, an Art Deco masterpiece that gets the best dial yet.

The Reiwa comes in an unusually well proportioned case. It’s 37mm wide, just 7mm thick without the crystal and a 42.75mm lug-to-lug. Made out of stainless steel, the watch gets an incredibly high polished finish which, in conjunction with a very unique box style sapphire crystal that breaks up the edges of the dial - almost as if the TAG Heuer Glassbox took inspiration from this watch - gives you incredible lightplay. Out back is a solid caseback with Hajime Asaoka’s signature engraved into it. You get 30 meters of water resistance, but does that really matter?

What does matter is the dial, this wonderful and complex two-part dial. Almost too difficult to explain, it’s a black centered dial with a lapis-green perimeter, connected with three metal rings that hang over the dial with claws that act as the markers at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock. Just go look at it. Kurono also states that this is the most difficult to manufacture dial they’ve ever done due to its higher color contrast. Since manufacturing started in January 2024, only an average of 5 out of every 100 dials produced have been accepted. The company also says that they drew inspiration from Goshiki-numa, a cluster of five volcanic lakes situated at the foot of Mount Bandai that gets its unique color from rich natural minerals.

An incredible amount of attention to detail has been paid to the entire watch, which would usually bring the price into five figures, but Kurono chose to use an off the shelf movement from Miyota, the automatic 90S5, to keep costs low. This is a no-date movement from Miyota’s premium 9 Series line and ti beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black calf leather band with green embellished sides.

It should be noted that this is the end of the Reiwa model line as Kurono says they will not make any new variants of it.

Kurono releases really used to be a mess, with people fighting to get their piece. So now they do things differently. They open up an order window and the company will honor all orders placed within that window. While they do not specify how long the window will be just yet (or, at least, I couldn’t find the info on their website), orders will start on Thursday, May 16th at 11PM Japanese time (or 3PM GMT and 10AM EST). Deliveries are expected between the end of June to August 2024. The price is just unbeatable - $1,790, without VAT. See more on the Kurono website.

3/

Marathon Teams Up With Jeep For A Quartet Of Watches That Will Satisfy A Very Specific Customer Base

Rabid fan bases are something that a company should be willing to kill for. They will buy up everything you put on sale and defend to the death whatever they don’t, even if they are commercial flops. But what happens when two companies with rabid fans team up? We’re about to find out as Marathon, the legendary Canadian watch company with a cult following, is teaming up with Jeep, the automotive company that needs no introduction, for a quartet of new watches. Well, actually, two new models with two movements each. I’m not a huge fan of co-branding, especially with the Jeep logo so prominent on the dial, but this is so niche it just might work.

The watch that will surely find an enthusiastic audience is the pair of Search and Rescue (SAR) Series watches which are based on the Jeep Rubicon Wrangler, the capable off roader. And the watch is made to match the ruggedness. Both versions are made out of stainless steel, it meaasures 41mm wide, 14mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 48mm. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, surrounded by the familiar SAR chunky bezel. On the 9 o’clock side of the case is an engraving of the iconic seven-slot Jeep grille. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The dials are the same for both versions as well, other than the different text relating to their movements. The black dial is matte, there’s a red section spanning the first 15 minutes of the minute track, the Arabic numerals are tan-colored and the indices and hands use luminescent tritium tubes. There’s also a date window at 4:30, which is a bit unfortunate. The difference between the two models is the movement that powers them - the TSAR gets the ETA F06.412 quartz movement with both HeavyDrive and PreciDrive technologies, while the GSAR has the familiar and easily servicable Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. The watches come on OD green rubber straps.

While the SAR is very capable, rugged and modern oriented, just like the Wrangler, the other two watches - the General Purpose Officer’s Series - is inspired by the Jeep Willys-Overland, so the design reflects the original Marathon WWII-issued watch, at least when it comes to the dial. but first, the case. Much sleeker and simpler than the SAR, the GP comes in a steel case that measures 41mm wide, 11mm thick and with a 48mm lug-to-lug. Water resistance is much lower to go with the field watch design and hovers around the 50 meter mark.

The dial is matte black, with just a time functionality with a bright red central seconds hand. Rather than using radioactive tritium tubes like most Marathon models, the pair of new General Purpose Officer’s Series watches have the brand’s photo-reactive MaraGlo luminous material applied to their hands and Arabic numeral hour markers. The watches are also powered by either the Swiss-made ETA F06.402 quartz movement or the manually-would Sellita SW210-1. The watches come on brown straps made from Crazy Horse leather.

I’m not a huge Jeep fan, so I can’t really tell you whether these will sell like crazy or not, but knowing a few, I assume they will. This doesn’t seem to be a limited edition. The quartz General Purpose Officer’s Series SSGPQ costs $500, while the mechanical SSGPQ is priced at $650 USD. The quartz TSAR Search and Rescue Series comes in at $1,200, and the tic GSAR costs $1,500. See more on the Marathon website.

 4/

Nomadic Introduces New Color To Their Explorer-Themed Watch, The Turas 914 Landfall, That Pays Homage To The Greats 

A great watch brand name doesn’t need to have a great story behind it. But it’s better when it does. The Nomadic Watch Company falls in the latter category. Based out of Belfast, Nomadic gets their name from the SS Nomadic, the first class tender to the HMS Titanic. Both of these ships were built in the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and the SS Nomadic is now the last remaining White Star Line ship in the world. With Nomadic Watch Co. named after a famous ship, their latest release - the Emerald Green Landfall version of the Turas 914 - pays homage to the men of Shackleton’s 1914 Transantarctic Expedition, their famous life boat – the James Caird - and their struggle in pulling it across 830 icy miles.

The Turas 914 is an explorer-style watch for Nomadic, and it shows in the dimensions. Made out of stainless steel, the watch measures 39mm wide, 11mm thick and has a 47.5mm lug-to-lug measurement. On top is a flat sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating, surrounded by an unmarked, polished and fixed bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters, just what you would want from a GADA watch.

The dials emerald green color is supposed to reflect the patches of green gras among the snow covered South Georgia island where Shackleton and eight of his men sailed to following their Antarctic ordeal. You get prominent applied and very futuristic numerals for the 3-6-9-12 positions in white with black borders, applied baton markers for the rest with the same finish, and black and white sword shape hands and a yellow seconds hand. Everything glows bright blue thanks to copious amounts of SuperLuminova BGW9.

Inside is the trusty and reliable Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement which beats at 28,800vph and has about a 40 hour power reserve. The watch comes on what looks like a very solid bracelet that tapers from 20mm to 16mm and has a MicroGlide adjustment system for toolless on-the-fly micro adjustments.

The Turas 914 Landfall is limited to 100 pieces and there seems to be 69 left on sale at the time of my writing this. You can even choose which number of the 100 you would like to own. The watch is priced at €1,300. See more on the Nomadic website.

 5/

Revolution’s Grail Watch Project Continues With Fully Mirrored Sartory Billard SB07 Ghost

Wei Koh has really figured out this watch game. Putting aside the fact that his Revolution magazine is one of the most influential in the watch world, he also runs what could only be described as the dream collaboration project - Grail Watch. The concept couldn’t be simpler or more envy inducing: he is choosing his grail watches and then approaching the watchmakers to create the perfect watch to match his taste, while also selling a limited edition of the watches to the public. The Grail Watch project is up to its 11th watch and now Koh is teaming up with Sartory Billard for an incredible SB07 “Ghost” that looks unlike anything else on the market.

The Ghost comes in a stainless steel case with an integrated metal bracelet and measuring 40mm wide, 10.65mm thick and with a 48mm lug-to-lug. But what’s really special is the extremely high polish that every surface of the case and bracelet gets, turning the watch into a mirror. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to constantly wear a mirror on your wrist, but I would like to try it.

The same treatment is given to the dial, which also has a mirror finish, with a transparent disc that floats above it and has a minute track and thin stick indices printed on it. It seems that the printing is done with Super-LumiNova so it lights up readily. The same treatment is given to the beautiful and ornate hands.

Inside, and visible through the caseback, is the La Joux-Perret G100 automatic which beats at 28,800 vph and has a 56 hour power reserve. It has a modified rotor with a fluted design.

The Sartory Billard SB07 “Ghost” is limited to just 15 pieces and it’s still on sale right now for €9,950. See more on the Revolution website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

 A review of the Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon

2/

Hands on with the Doxa SUB 200T

3/

A review of the Roger Dubuis Orbis in Machina Central Monotourbillon

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The third generation Monta Oceanking is a more sportier and rugged of what was almost a dress diver

The tweaked lugs have a generous curve and an attractive polished chamfer that belie the newly tool-focused stance of the watch without diminishing it. From the second generation, the Oceanking carries forward its organic crown guards, though I still found the tapering crown a bit tricky to get a hold of. The bezel itself had a little play, but rotated with a satisfying click and did so even when wet. I did find that there were occasions where a gentle nudge could shift the bezel a notch or two, but I will add that I can’t say what torture this review sample may have endured before that which I visited upon it.

Read the whole review on A Blog To Watch

⏲️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

• Personal guides. Private chefs. Helicopter rides. Tensions are rising between Sherpas who do the hard work and the foreign climbers they escort to the top. Welcome to Mass Market Mountaineering.

• In 1994, a corrupt New Orleans cop ordered a hit on a civilian. He went away for murder, but he left a trail of other victims in his wake. They are still crying out for justice.

• Former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher was court-martialed in 2018 on charges that he attempted to kill civilians and stabbed a teenage ISIS prisoner to death while deployed in Iraq. He was acquitted of six of the seven charges against him—for the full story of the case, listen to the incredible podcast The Line—and since then has built a brand as a culture warrior promoting warrior culture. As Jasper Craven reports, Gallagher is part of a trend.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

How about a little zen from Croatia?

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

-Vuk