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- Vulcain Goes Weird With a Salmon Dial, Boldr Dares You To Catch All Of Their Pokémon Watches and the Glacier-Inspired Titanium RZE Endeavor Models Are A True Bargain
Vulcain Goes Weird With a Salmon Dial, Boldr Dares You To Catch All Of Their Pokémon Watches and the Glacier-Inspired Titanium RZE Endeavor Models Are A True Bargain
A salmon dial is not something you see on a vintage inspired diver, but it works very well
Vuk Radic
April 25, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 16 minutes
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. After I finished writing this, I’m happy to say that this is an edition almost fully devoted to independent and micro brands. So, if you’re looking for great value for money, read on!
In this issue:
Vulcain Goes Weird With a Salmon Dial
Boldr Dares You To Catch All Of Their Pokémon Watches
Traska Rides The GMT Trend With Yet Another Tiffany Blue Dial
Glacier-Inspired Titanium RZE Endeavor Models Are A True Bargain
And… invite your friends to win a Seiko Alpinist
Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 11 seconds
Everybody needs a green faced watch in their life. That’s why we have a new giveaway - it’s the Seiko SPB121J1, aka the Seiko Alpinist in a wonderful shade of green. In fact, we’re giving away two of them!
All you have to do is click the button below and have five of your friends subscribe. Both you and one of your friends will be eligible to win one of the watches
We only have two conditions when entering this giveaway - invite 5 of your friends to subscribe and live somewhere were you can buy the Alpinist, so we can get this for you and ship it to your address. That’s it!
👂What’s new
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To start off on a personal note - Vulcain makes some of my favorite watches. The Cricket Alarm makes the most delightful noise, just listen to it, while the Vulcain Cricket Nautical and it’s diver counterpart have some of the prettiest dials ever. The watches were worn by presidents and have awesome heritage. Yet, they struggled a bit in recent years with their identity - playing on history while trying to be modern - and people strayed away a bit from them.
Enter Guillaume Laidet, the man behind Nivada and Excelsior Park, who started advising Vulcain on their watches and things are picking up. In January, Vulcain introduced the SkinDiver Nautique collection, marking the second step in the revival of the brand. But not four months later, and Vulcain is already introducing new, slightly unexpected variants - a salmon dial, which is not something you see every day on a vintage-inspired dive watch.
The SkinDiver Nautique is completely pulling off the vintage look, recently only available with a black and blue dial. The lugs are short, the bezel is slim, the crystal is domed, the crown is oversized and without guards, and the watch measures 38mm in diameter and 12mm in height. Into the vintage aesthetic, Vulcain introduces modernity. The bezel has a ceramic insert, the crystal is sapphire and mimics plexis of days past, the crown screws down to give you 200m of water resistance. And, of course, the salmon dial that replaces the black and blue.
Inside the case is a classic automatic ETA 2824 movement and it comes on a black leather strap with carbon pattern and matching stitching.
The Vulcain SkinDiver Nautique Salmon Dial is a limited edition of 50 pieces, available at CHF 1,490. For more details, please visit vulcain.ch.
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Since its introduction into the brand’s lineup, Maurice Lacroix has introduced numerous variants of their Aikon model. There were the time-and-date models, chronographs, skeletonised chronographs and even more complex models with in-house movements like the Aikon Mercury with its free-hand display. Then there’s the Grand Master Date. Say what you will, but I’ll be kind and point out that not all of your endeavours can be a hit.
The Master Grand Date was introduced to the collection in 2021 and it’s no stranger to color, as they put one up for the Only Watch 2021 auction with a bright orange dial and a carbon fiber case. Now Maurice Lacroix is bringing color to a limited number of watches - four colors in 50 pieces each.
The slightly metallic electric orange, green, blue and yellow might seem a bit aggressive, but it goes with the rest of the watch - it’s 45mm in diameter, 15mm thick and it has a black DLC coating, because of course it does. The black dial plate has an off-centred hours and minutes disc on the right side of the dial with its intersecting openworked small seconds counter revealing some of the moving parts. Featured in any of the four vibrant metallised colours, the dials are embossed with a classic Clous de Paris pattern for additional texture. Matching the colour of the time indications, the big date window at 10 o’clock features the numerals in yellow, green, blue or orange.
Colour also makes its way to the rubber straps that are integrated into the case and feature the Maurice Lacroix name embossed in relief, because of course it does. Inside is the in-house calibre ML331.
The Aikon Master Grand Date Technicolour is limited to 50 pieces per colourway. The watch is available now, for CHF 8,790, if you can get away from the feeling that you would be wearing what looks like a cheap Chinese knockoff of hypothetical love child of an AP Offshore and a Lange.
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Boldr is having so much fun with their watches. You won’t get high horology from them, but what you will get is a decently made, fantastically designed watches that have a lot of fun and offer a lot of bank for your buck. Just look at this pitch black Boldr styled after a rare tropical bird - it’s just fantastic.
Now Boldr is launching a special Pokémon collection that includes four watches styled after Pikachu, Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur in fantastically vibrant colors. If you want to catch yours, they are going on sale on April 27th. The bad news, however, is that the watches will be available in Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong due to licensing restrictions. The even worse news for us who don’t live in those regions is the price - a paltry $449.
The starting point for all four watches is Boldr’s new Voyage case, an updated version of the Voyager. The steel case has a 40mm diameter, while the Pikachu and Charizard watches have a Seiko NH38 automatic movement. The Blastoise timepiece features a Seiko NH37 automatic movement with a 24-hour indicator in a sub-dial at 10 o’clock. And the fourth watch, Venusaur, the chronograph Pokémon, is outfitted with a Seiko VK64 meca-quartz movement.
All four watches come on steel three-link bracelets with a micro-adjustable folding clasp with Boldr’s characteristic and minimalist topographic line art. Other crucial features are the 200m water resistance rating, a screw-down crown, and a domed box-type sapphire crystal.
To the readers in Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong, enjoy these watches!
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The title is aggressively harsh towards Traska, blaming them for just hopping on the trend like every single microbrand this year and putting out a GMT model, and then, to make things worse, going with a now already overused Tiffany blue dial. Both of those things are, in fact, not true. I just wanted to get your attention.
Traska has been making GMT watches since last year (yeah, I know it’s not decades, but it’s not like they’re catching up with the trend), and the first batch of watches came in four colors. The brand was one of the first indies to get its hands on the Miyota 9075. This means that the Traska GMT is a “true” (or flyer) GMT. To those that are not as passionate about GMTs - in a true GMT the local-hour hand jumps back and forth, not the GMT hand. The latter simply rotates smoothly around the dial when setting the time. True GMTs are more desirable to watch people and are not often found in lower cost watches.
The case is 38.5mm wide, 10mm thick and it comes with a box-style double-domed sapphire crystal, and a screw-down crown and case back, giving it 150m of water resistance.
Then there’s the color. This is not, in fact Tiffany blue. It’s a mint green, the same color that the brand used in 2017 for their first model, the Freediver. So we could say that it’s becoming part of Traska’s brand identity that just happens to look a bit like the most in demand color in the watch world. The tip of the GMT hand and the “GMT” text on the dial are executed in bright orange, so the whole package is very legible.
This all makes up a great watch at the $695 asking price.
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Building upon the core design of the original Endeavour, but adding both a date display and a completely redesigned clasp that now features an integrated micro-adjustment extension system, RZE is now introducing the new RZE Endeavour Glacier - an affordable titanium dive watches was pretty much spot-on in terms of its design, features, and all-around value proposition.
From an external perspective, the new RZE Endeavour Glacier models are virtually identical to the no-date watches, which means that they feature the same angular case that measures 40mm in diameter by 12.5mm-thick, with drilled 20mm lugs and an overall lug-to-lug profile of approximately 46mm. Both the case and bracelet are made of titanium. Inside is Seiko’s NH35A automatic movement - boring, but familiar.
Where the new Glacier collection differs is on the dial. All four of the dials are styled after famous glaciers. The “Yulong” model showcases a vibrant teal color inspired by the lush forests and the icy slopes of the southernmost snow-covered mountain in the Northern Hemisphere near Lijian in China. The Vatnajökull gets a pale blue dial that gets its name from Europe’s largest glacier, which is located in Iceland. The Ross Ice is a silvery white dial inspired by the largest ice shelf in Antarctica. And the Blaueis is a deep navy blue dial that pays tribute to the northernmost glacier in the Berchtesgaden Alps of Germany, and which is listed as being the EU exclusive version.
Despite featuring more intricate dials and more complicated movements, the new RZE Endeavour Glacier watches cost the exact same as their no-date counterparts, and all four dial variants have official retail price of $449 USD when purchased on a rubber strap, or $549 USD on the full-titanium bracelet. A true bargain.
🫳On hand
Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon
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⚙️Watch Worthy
A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like
You know how action movies sometimes include sleeper agents that nobody noticed and that can wreak havoc should they wish to? Well, we can also speak of sleeper watch brands that most enthusiasts have never heard of despite the fact that the brand makes some pretty neat watches. And when we hear of the brand for the first time and look at the specs sheet and design, we wonder why that’s the case. One such brand is Wolf Creek, a relative newcomer from Minnesota, USA. Quietly and inconspicuously, Wolf Creek created two models that look different from many others on the market and that come with a robust construction.
⏲️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
Every now and again we are exposed to the growing movement of people who are convinced that the Earth is flat and turn this belief into the basis of their entire existance, trying to convince everyone else that the spinning round earth is a hoax. But why do people believe this? The New Yorker tried to explain it in this article.
Somehow I stumbled on this article from 2017 by James Stacey on his time on Clipperton. Loved the read to give a taste of forgotten exploration.
As Twitter continues to sputter, Willy Staley offers an insightful examination of what the birdsite has done to the brains of the Extremely Online, and what exactly people have been doing on it for the last decade and a half.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
In yesterday’s newsletter, I mentioned BMW’s The Hire short film series from the early 2000s. Made me nostalgic to watch it again, and boy did none of the movies disappoint.
💵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
SOLD: Rolex Explorer I 39 mm Mark I, ref. 214270. Great condition, no box or papers. €7250, OBO. Reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch
For sale: Longines Heritage Skin Diver, box and papers. €1400. Reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch
Want to sell your watch to a community of passionate horologists? Reach out to us and we’ll put your ad up. $15 per listing without photos, $25 with photos. 10 available slots per day, discounts for multiple slots.
Everybody needs a green faced watch in their life. That’s why we have a new giveaway - it’s the Seiko SPB121J1, aka the Seiko Alpinist in a wonderful shade of green. In fact, we’re giving away two of them!
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