Watches And Wonders Continues On Day Two With Surprises From Tudor, Delights From Oris And Some Seriously Cool Watches From Jaeger-LeCoultre, Chopard and A. Lange & Söhne

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. OK, today was a much calmer day, but I expect tomorrow and Friday to be even crazier, so bear with my irregular posting schedule. If you have any questions about the watches, the shows or Geneva, let me know, I can do a Q&A if there are enough questions.

Also, these posts from Watches & Wonders are rather long, so you might want to read them on the website.

In this issue:

• Tudor Adds A Burgundy BB58, Introduces The New Black Bay 68, A White Pro And A 1,000 Meter Pelagos

• A Cornucopia Of New Big Crowns From Oris, In Various Colors, Sizes And Movements Inside

• JLC Focuses On The Reverso In Every Iteration You Can Imagine

• Chopard Comes Out Strong With A Very Nice Lineup Of Dress And Sport Watches

• A. Lange & Söhne Unveils New Minute Repeater Perpetual, 1815 In 34mm And A Honeygold Odysseus

👂What’s new

1/

Tudor Adds A Burgundy BB58, Introduces The New Black Bay 68, A White Pro And A 1,000 Meter Pelagos

When a brand introduces a new model at Watches And Wonders, that tends to be their big tentpole release, something that will have everyone talking. Well, that’s not the case with Tudor. Despite the release of the brand new Black Bay 68, it’s obvious to everyone here that it is the all burgundy Black Bay 58 that has captured everyone’s heart. So let’s start with that. (Also, Tudor has one page for all of their novelties, so if you want to see them for yourself, you can do so here)

• The Black Bay 58 is Tudor’s bread and butter and comes in all sorts of colors. Now, it gets a new one — a burgundy aluminum bezel and a sunray brushed dial, also in burgundy. It’s a great, and surprisingly modern, look. Everything else remains the same. That means you get a 39mm wide stainless steel 200 meter water resistant case and you can have it on either the rubber strap, 3-link bracelet with faux rivets or a new option of a steel 5-link bracelet, all closed with Tudor’s "T-fit" clasp. What is new, however, is the movement which gets METAS Master Chronometer certification, as noted on the dial, the first for a non-complicated Black Bay 58. Price is set at CHF 3,950 on rubber, CHF 4,150 on the 3-link and CHF 4,250 on the 5-link.

• The entire industry is downsizing their watches and here comes Tudor, introducing a new model in the Black Bay family, the Black Bay 68 which comes in a 43mm wide stainless steel case. Booo, you’ll say. But it actually makes perfect sense — they have a 37mm, they have a 39mm, they have a 41mm… And there is a significant number of people who want their dive watches large. Hence, the BB68, which you can have with either a domed sun-brushed silver or blue dial. You also get the slightly larger Manufacture Calibre MT5601-U, a METAS chronometer movement, and you get a three-link bracelet without the fake rivets, but with the micro-adjust clasp. Price is set at CHF 4,350 for either variant.

• This one is simple. It’s the same Black Bay Pro, meaning a 39mm wide steel case and a fixed steel 24-hour bezel, but now paired with a stark white dial with white markers and hands bordered in black and a yellow GMT hand. Inside is the same MT5652 from the BB GMT, which is a flyer style GMT. You can have it on the faux riveted three-link, a rubber and leather hybrid or a NATO-style strap. Priced at CHF 3,700 on the straps and CHF 4,050 on the bracelet.

• Here’s Tudor with another larger watch. They have the 42mm wide Pelagos, the 39mm wide Pelagos 39, and now they introduced the Pelagos Ultra, housed in a grade 2 titanium case, measuring 43mm wide and of yet unknown thickness, and a new water resistance of a beefy 1,000 meters. Inside is the MT5612-U, a METAS Master Chronometer movement and the watch comes on a titanium bracelet with an additional rubber strap. Price is set at CHF 5,500.

• Tudor also update the Black Bay Chrono. It remains 41mm wide but gets a thinner profile thanks to a smaller sapphire crystal. They come in matte black with opaline sub-dials, or opaline with matte black sub-dials and inside is the MT5813 movement, a COSC-certified chronograph. The watches now get a choice of either the three-link or the five-link. Price is set at CHF 5,350 on the three-link and CHF 5,450 on the five-link.

2/

A Cornucopia Of New Big Crowns From Oris, In Various Colors, Sizes And Movements Inside

These first few days of reporting from Geneva are always focused on the big brands with the biggest releases, which makes sense, and then you get the indies later on in the week. Well, not when the indie is Oris, as they have just introduced a couple of deliciously cool Big Crown models.

• First, the above pictured trio of new 40mm Big Crown Pointer Date models. They have the same specs — 40mm wide, 12mm thick, 47.5mm lug-to-lug, packing the Oris 754 movement and 50 meters of water resistance — but now with three great new colors — yellow, lilac and blue. Price is CHF 2,000. See them on the Oris website.

• They we have two other great colored dials, a terracotta and a moss green, on the new Big Crown Pointer Date Calibre 403, which means that you get all the same specs as the regular model, but with Oris’ in-house movement that beats at 4Hz and has a 5 day power reserve. It comes on the new super sporty steel H link bracelet or Cervo Volante leather straps. Priced at CHF 3,600 on leather and CHF 3,800 on steel. See it here.

• While Tudor is going large with their cases, Orient is shrinking them down. This is a new 34mm wide Big Crown that comes in a brushed case and polished bezel and two beautiful textured dials — one sand and the other black, with black getting 12 lab-grown diamonds to act as hour markers. Powered by the Oris 531, the watches come on steel bracelets. The sand will run you CHF 1,900, while the black with diamonds sell for CHF 2,800. See it here.

3/

JLC Focuses On The Reverso In Every Iteration You Can Imagine

Jaeger-LeCoultre looks like they had a good year at Watches and Wonders. I appreciate how they focused on just one of their models, the Reverso, and threw everything they have at it. And it shows. You can catch up on all the releases on their website.

• This is a stunning watch pictured above, the Reverso Tribute Monoface Small Seconds rendered in pink gold. It’s truly something special. It measures 45.6mm x 27.4mm x 7.56mm, comes on a silky pink gold Milanese bracelet, with a solid gold back plate and it’s powered by the in-house manually wound calibre 822. Price is set at $41,300

• But what if you wanted your Reverso to be a bit more utilitarian. Well, here’s the new Reverso Tribute Duoface Small Seconds which has a two-dial setup allowing you to track two time-zones. You can have the watch in either blue or black, with the reverse side always being silver. The case measures 47mm x 28.3 mm x 10.34 mm and it’s powered by the calibre 854. Priced at $13,700

• Well, how about this one. This is cool. This is the first time that the Reverso Tribute gets a worldtimer and it gets a new movement for that. Powered by the new 834, it has a 42 hour power reserve. It comes in either pink gold or stainless steel, with spectacular dimensions — 49.4mm x 29.9mm x 11.4mm. On one side is the hours, minutes, small seconds and a grande date at 12 o’clock, but flip it over and you get the major cities of the world engraved into the case around the edge of the worldtime display. In the centre is an egraving of the earth and a rotating ring of hours that shows the time in noted locations. Priced at $21,200 for the steel and $34,900 for the gold version.

• It’s just getting better and better as we’re going down the list. A pink gold case of the Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater has a grand feu enamel over top of guilloché main dial, but flip it over and you’ll see another new movement, with a flange to hold up the hour markers for the second time zone. The movement is incredible, and you also get to see the beautiful blue lacquered hammer and gong at the bottom of the dial. Limited to 30 pieces and priced at $299,000.

• But then, there’s the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Artistica Calibre 179 white gold. Just look at this thing. It measures 51.1mm x 31mm x 13.63mm, comes in 18k white gold and it’s equipped with the Calibre 179 that has a multi-axis tourbillon. The watch features blue lacquer on the front and a more skeletonized back, as well as a 24-hour indicator for the second time zone. Yours for $565,000 and limited to 10 pieces.

4/

Chopard Comes Out Strong With A Very Nice Lineup Of Dress And Sport Watches

Chopard get unfairly dropped from the everyday discussions about watches. They make some truly spectacular watches, and I’m going to cover just the dress and sports watches because they came out with so many precious stones variants this year, we would be here all day. Check out their entire novelty lineup here.

• This is as classy a watch can get. Until you peek inside. And boy is there a powerhouse in it. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the L.U.C. Quattro, this model comes in either platinum with a grained light blue dial and platinum hardware, or rose gold and a dark blue grained dial. Inside, you’ll find the new L.U.C 98.09-L, with two double-stacked mainspring barrels to deliver 216 hours of power with constant force. That’s 9 days of power reserve. All packed into cases that measure just 39mm wide and 10.4mm thick. Priced at $38,400 for the gold and $47,900 for the platinum.

• Next, something that looks regular, but is far from it. This is the new Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XP CS Platinum. Yes, that’s right. This is Chopard’s first platinum sports watch and it measures 41mm wide and 8mm tall, while keeping the 100 meter water resistance. Inside is the COSC-certified L.U.C calibre 96.42-L with a platinum micro-rotor and a 65-hour power reserve. Price is set at $110,500.

• And last, we have the very cool, ultralight take on the Chopard Alpine Eagle 8HF. It has a dark grey ceramicised titanium case measuring 41mm wide and 9.75mm thick, with a 100 meter water resistance. Inside is the calibre 01.14-C, also made out of a lot of ceramicised titanium, that beats at an incredible 8Hz and has a COSC certification. Price is set at $25,500 and only 250 will be made.

5/

A. Lange & Söhne Unveils New Minute Repeater Perpetual, 1815 In 34mm And A Honeygold Odysseus

Sometimes in life you get exactly what you expect. And these watches are exactly what we expected from one of the most respected watchmakers in the world. Lange also has all the novelties in one place, so if you want to see them, click here.

• Why not, it seems that Lange asked itself, not combine two of the most prestigious complications for our next watch? Yeah, why not. That’s exactly what they did with the A. Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual in Platinum 607.091FE. This is not the first time these two complications have come together in a Lange, but it is the first time they are the only two complications. The platinum case measures 40.5mm wide and 12.1mm thick, the watch comes on a black alligator strap with a matching 950 platinum deployant clasp. The dial is black. But it’s the movement that’s so cool. manually wound, the manufacture calibre L122.2 is accurate in its perpetual calendar until 2100 and can chime in 720 unique combinations. There’s more incredible tricks to how it gongs, too many to list, and of course it’s impeccably finished. Only 50 pieces will be made and pricing is unknown at the moment.

• Then, we have the very classy move of shrinking the existing 1815 model. The model has always been super classy, and now at 34mm it fits more wrists. The case can be had in either pink or white gold, both with blue dials, Arabic numerals and a small seconds display. Price is also unknown.

• And last for today, we have the uber-cool Honeygold version of their sports watch, the Odysseus. It still measures 40.5mm by 11.1mm, has 120 meters of water resistance, and is made out of Honeygold, that is a mix of rose and yellow gold. That’s paired with a beautiful brown dial that has the same texture and finish as the blue dial of the regular Odysseus. Since you see the large day and date displays on the dial, you know it’s powered by the L155.1 Datomatic movement. Of course, price is on request.

⏲️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

• Stephen Harrigan met John White while a student at the University of Texas. He remembers him well, but Harrigan has “often wondered whether my memory of John White is so vivid because of the power of that first impression—or because only a week or so later he was murdered.” White was brutally killed along with his new girlfriend, Keitha Morris, during a trip to Bull Creek, a shallow stream to the west of Austin. The tragedy shook the community, but the murderer was never able to give a reason for his crime, and people were quick to move on.

• Wildlif biologist Sage Raymond is testing the problem-solving abilities of urban coyotes as part of her PhD work at the University of Alberta. These coyotes are thriving in the face of urbanization, as are some other species like raccoons and crows. The experiment has many ups and downs, and you will enjoy the unexpected creatures that solve the puzzle!

• This essay from Nicole Rudick examines the use of Futura Medium Oblique in Crockett Johnson’s comic strip, Barnaby and whether fonts can have a personality. In Barnaby, type and image work together in each panel to create meaning, and we’re invited to see words as pictures and pictures as a kind of type.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

A super interesting short doc about Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk