Watches And Wonders Kicks Off With A New Model From Rolex, Colorful TAG Heuer F1s, Some Nice Things From Patek Phillipe, A Steady IWC And A Nice Surprise From Sartory Billard And Studio Underd0g

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. This is the latest I ever sent out this newsletter, but there’s good reason for it. I’m in Geneva, in meetings with brands all day and can only write in the evening. But it’s worth it, the stuff that’s coming up from some of these brands is wildly cool! Also, these posts from Watches & Wonders are rather long, so you might want to read them on the website.

It’s incredibly easy to be cynical. A lot of you will dismiss the new Rolex release as nothing special, and you just might be right. But the fact is, Rolex dominates the industry, moves as slow as a cruise ship and leaves a huge wake behind. It might be the fact that it’s my first time at Watches & Wonders, but there’s a palpable excitement in the air here. For all the new watches. The consensus here seems to be that after a slow show last year, the brands showed up with some might cool stuff. Bear with me as I fight my way through all the releases. As tradition dictates, all of the releases are revealed to the public this morning. They can’t all fit in this newsletter. So, if you see something missing, rest assured it will be covered in the coming days

In this issue:

• Rolex Introduces Brand New Land-Dweller Collection, Updates GMT, Daytona And OP Dials

• TAG Heuer Brings Back The Old-School F1, Introduces New Twin-time And Day-Dates

• Patek Releases Quadruple Complication, Smaller Cubitus, And 8-Day Movement In The Calatrava

• IWC Expands The Ingenieur Line, Adds F1 Movie Watch To Lineup, Releases A Couple Of Pilot’s Chronos

• Sartory Billard Taps Studio Underd0g For A Collaboration On The Guilloché Dial SB05 Sunfl0wer

👂What’s new

1/

Rolex Introduces Brand New Land-Dweller Collection, Updates GMT, Daytona And OP Dials

The rumors and leaks were true, Rolex introduced a brand new model today, the Land-Dweller. It is their first take on an integrated bracelet watch in decades and everyone immediately thought of the Oysterquartz when images of this watch leaked online. And the similarities are certainly there. But it’s not just a new case, Rolex fitted it with a very interesting new movement.

But first, the details. Thew Land-Dweller comes in two sizes, either 36 or 40mm, with the smaller one measuring 43.5mm from lug to lug, and the larger one measuring 46.5mm, both very much wearable. But the best measurement is the 9.6mm thickness, which along with the angular profile of case and bracelet makes it sit really close to the wrist. It’s a good look. You can get it in steel with a white gold fluted bezel, Everose gold with or without a baguette diamond-set bezel, and platinum with or without a baguette diamond-set bezel. The dials all have a fluted dial motif with an exaggerated hexagonal pattern that Rolex are calling honeycomb.

But what’s inside is potentially even more interesting than a new watch from Rolex. The movement looks familiar because the new Caliber 7135 is an evolution of the 71 series used in the 1908, but packs in some new (and patented tech). Rolex is calling this the Dynapulse Escapement system, a sequential distribution escapement made from silicon, with a Syloxi hairspring. It’s also Rolex’s first high-beat movement, since it ticks at 5Hz, it has a 66 hour power reserve and an accuracy of -2 / +2 seconds per day

The Steel Land-Dweller retails for €15,350, the Everose gold for €47,400 and the platinum for €64,200. See more on the Rolex website. Now, for the rest of the Rolex updates.

• This year is the 70th anniversary of the GMT Master and everyone hoped for something major on this front. But that’s not a game that Rolex plays often. All eyes are on the Land-Dweller, and the GMT-Master II has been refreshed with new dials and materials. The Sprite gets a white gold case while retaining the crown on the left side of the case. It comes with a full white gold bracelet and retails for €48.450. There’s also a new GMT-Master II Iron Tiger dial, which is made out o a variety of tiger’s eye known as tiger iron due to the presence of red jasper and hematite giving it a wildly cool color. That can be yours for €47,650. You can see them here.

• Don’t forget the Daytona, people. A yellow gold 40mm wide case with a black ceramic bezel gets a new dial. Rolex says it’s a turquoise and black lacquer dial, but you know it will get called the Tiffany blue dial. You get 100 meters of water resistance, the updated Rolex 4131 movement with 72 hours of power reserve and it comes on a black Oysterflex strap with a yellow gold folding clasp. Price is set at €37,400. See it here.

• The Oyster Perpetual is also getting a few updates, but mostly just in colors. The new dials include a muted lavender, a warm sandy beige, and a fresh pistachio green, according to Rolex, and they look great. What looks even better is the new red-dial Datejust 31 that has an incredibly rich red dial, comes in a gold case and is fitted with diamonds on the bezel. The lavander comes in 28mm priced at CHF 5,500, the beige comes in 36mm at CHF 5,900, and the 41mm Pistachio model is CHF 6,200. The Datejust 31 is priced at CHF 46,200. See more here.

• And last we have an update to the ever expanding 1908 collection. The Rolex 1908 Perpetual can now be had in full gold, as the model has gotten a brand new gold bracelet, called the Settimo. Priced at €36,200. See it here.

2/

TAG Heuer Brings Back The Old-School F1, Introduces New Twin-time And Day-Dates

We know that TAG Heuer was going to have to come packing at Watches and Wonders, what with all hubbub over their takeover of Formula 1 advertising from Rolex. And sure, we know that there will be a lot more from TAG this year, but for now, there are some cool things here.

• Starting off at the most obvious place, the release TAG Heuer teased with their Formula 1 on-track clocks and previous collaboration with Kith, it’s the return of the iconic Formula 1 model. After the Kith collaboration, a lot of people hoped that TAG would go after the MoonSwatch buyer with a sub-€1,000 (or even lower), quartz-powered and fun-colored watch. We’re getting the fun colors, but not the other stuff. While not huge at 38mm, they are larger than the 35mm originals. You can have them in steel or a bio-polyamide. Esentially plastic. They still come in fanatastic color combinationsWater resistant to 100 meters, they com on either a rubber strap or Bracelet. Also, you don’t get a generic quartz movement inside, it’s TAG Heuer’s very nice light-powered Solargraph movement. Price is interesting. CHF 1,750 on rubber and CHF 1,850 for the steel bracelet models. There’s a total of 9 releases that will be released over the next six months, each tied to an F1 race. See more on the TAG Heuer website.

• TAG is also updating their Twin Time Carrera with a dial that looks so good, I forgot for a second that they even have a Twin Time. I thought this was a new model, the dial is that stunning. The case remains the same, meaning it measures 41mm wide, 12.57mm thick and has a 47.5mm lug-to-lug. The case has a great combination of brushed and polished surfaces, on top is a slightly domed sapphire crystal and water resistance is 100 meters. But the main star is the dial. Around the periphery is a sloping ring that holds the 24 hour scale, with a combination of green and white to indicate day and night time. The center of the dial is a wonderful sunray brushed British racing green thing that has applied numerals and a date aperture at 6. It also gets a new GMT hand which looks like a tweezer holding a bright red rod. It’s fantastic. Available now and priced at CHF 4,750. See it on the TAG Heuer website.

• It seems that TAG Heuer didn’T forget that they also make a day-date model. It was getting a bit long in the tooth, so this new update is very welcomed. It comes in a steel case that meaures 41mm wide, 12.57mm thick and has a 47.5mm lug-to-lug. Not the smallest of watches, but should fit on a lot of wrists. There are five variants available, a fume red dial, a sunray brushed blue dial, two opaline black versions, differentiated by their bracelets — one comes on stainless steel bracelet while the other gets a steel and 18k 5N gold bracelet — and sporty black with an orange central seconds hand and blue details, on a fabric strap. Inside is a new movement, one that was developed with TAG by Sellita AMT. It’s the TH31-02, based on the same movement from the aquaracer, which beats at 4Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve. The one on the fabric is priced at CHF 3,900, the blue and red on steel are priced at CHF 4,100, the opaline at CHF 4,300 and the two-tone opaline at CHF 8,250. See more on the TAG website.

• The wildest of the TAG Heuer releases has to be this Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph F1, made out of white ceramic, with a red translucent dial and white ceramic sandblasted bridges. It’s powered by the TH81-00 high-beat movement that has a 65 hour power reserve and a split-seconds chrono. 10 will be made and they are priced at CHF 155,000. See more on the TAG Heuer website.

3/

Patek Releases Quadruple Complication, Smaller Cubitus, And 8-Day Movement In The Calatrava

When I write about novelties from Watches and Wonders, I usually put Patek Philippe in the middle of the writing for the first day as they tend to not have that many releases so it’s a nice break from keeping track of stats and prices. Well, joke’s on me, because I think I counted 12 new releases from the brand, which is strange for them. I’ll focus on the most important ones here, and cover the rest later. You can see all of the new PP releases on their website.

• Up above we have a followup to a 2023 platinum model, a white gold Quadruple Complication. The Quadruple Complication is, of course, a development of the classic triple grand complication Patek has mastered. You get the usual chime, perpetual calendar and chronograph, while also adding the rattrapante complication. The watch comes in a 42mm wide polished case and it’s priced at a pretty wild $1,237,270.

• A regular Patek Calatrava, right? Well, yeah. It comes in a 41mm wide, 10.5mm thick white gold case with a broad polished bezel and textured sides. The dial is grained, with a railway track minute scale, Arabic numerals, a day and date indicator at 6 and a power reserve indicator that’s there just to show off. That’s because the Calatrava gets a brand new 8-day movement. Priced at $70,700.

• Is there any other brand that does brown as well as Patek? This gold Split-Seconds Chronograph ref. 5370R has a gold case, a sensational brown grand feu enamel dial with a cream surround and cream sub-dials. Powered by the manually wound CHR 29‑535 PS, it comes on a brown alligator strap and can be yours for $288,700.

• The Retrograde Perpetual Calendar ref. 6159G brings a more modern style to a very traditional calibre 26-330 S QR. The hobnail bezel and smoked sapphire do all the heavy lifting here, and you still get the retrograde perpetual calendar indication at the center of the dial with openings for the day, date, leap year and moonphase. Yours for $117,840.

• Patek can still make an incredibly classy watch. The case measures 38mm wide, made out of white gold and it’s paired with a salmon dial. This super traditional setup is paired with anthracite white gold markers and hands. Beautiful. Priced at $47,130.

• Speaking of classy, like everyone expected the day they were announced, Patek is introducing a smaller version of the Cubitus. In white or rose gold, with a blue or brown dial, the new Cubitus now comes in 40mm. Btw, the watch world poo-pooed the Cubitus when it came out, but people here in Geneva say that they are selling like gangbusters. This smaller 40mm version comes with the same 26-330 movement and it’s priced at $76,600.

Last night at dinner, we were talking about how clocks don’t get love any more. And here comes Patek with the ultimate desk clock. The case is beautiful, inspired by desk clocks commissioned in the 1920s by James Ward Packard and Henry Graves Junior. It’s decorated with flinqué grand feu enamel, housed in walnut veneer, has a regulator-style display, a perpetual calendar and a deadbeat seconds. It’s also manually wound with a 31-day reserve. Priced at an ungodly $1,178,350.

4/

IWC Expands The Ingenieur Line, Adds F1 Movie Watch To Lineup, Releases A Couple Of Pilot’s Chronos

IWC is focusing on the Ingenieur model this year, and it makes sense. The collection was a bit sparse and these new materials and complications make it all the more appealing. But for good measure, they threw in a few curveballs. See all the IWC novelties on their website.

• Starting with what will likely be the most popular of the releases, a new black ceramic IWC Ingenieur. It measures 42mm wide, with a brushed finish to the ceramic and polished bevels. Good looking watch. The dial continues the characteristic Ingenieur grid pattern that has a black finish, as do the hands and hour markers, made visible only by the white lume. Price is CHF 20,000.

• The Ingenieur is also a great platform for complications. This 41.6mm and 13.3mm thick steel version gets a perpetual calendar developed by Kurt Klaus. The dial has the grid pattern and three subdials display the date, day of the week, month and perpetual moon phase. Rhodium-plated hands and metal markers are filled with lume. Price is set at CHF 38,000.

• And hey, every decent model line needs a gold watch. This is it for the Ingenieur. Satin finished 18-carat 5N gold with polished bevels, paired with a solid gold bracelet make this a looker. The black dial with the same pattern is paired with gold hands and gold applied markers, both lumed. Price is set at CHF 47,800.

• It’s not just TAG Heuer that’s riding the Formula 1 gravy train. IWC just released a special edition Ingenieur worn by the main character Sonny Hayes, played by Brad Pitt, in the movie in the upcoming F1 movie. Based on the 40mm stainless steel version of the watch it gets a fantastic green dial paired with gold hands, gold coated hour markers and a gold surround on the date. Limited to 1,000 pieces, it’s priced at CHF 13,200.

• Not to circumvent the overall trend of shrinking watches, IWC just introduced a trio of 35mm wide Ingenieurs. One model is made from 18-carat 5N gold featuring a gold-coloured dial, while two come in stainless steel with either a black or a silver-plated dial. Other than the new size, it’s pretty much the same watch as the larger one, which is very welcome. Price is set at CHF 10,500 for the steel versions and CHF 37,400 for the gold one.

• Now, on to some wilder stuff. This is the Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month. It comes in a case and bracelet made out ceratanium, a mixture of titanium and ceramic. On top is a black ceramic bezel with a tachymeter scale and you get a black dial with a hammered texture. The date and the month are shown with the two oversized gold-coloured discs in a digital fashion, and out back is a tinted sapphire glass case back that gives you a view of the calibre 89802.

• And last, and most certainly most impressive, is a new Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber Tourbillon Skeleton XPL. We’ve recently seen IWC release the Shocok Absorber with Toto Wolff from the Mercedes F1 team, but this takes it a step further by adding a tourbillon to the mix. Because why not. I couldn’t find a price on this just yet, but it’s not going to be cheap.

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Sartory Billard Taps Studio Underd0g For A Collaboration On The Guilloché Dial SB05 Sunfl0wer

Watches and Wonders has done wonders for the Geneva watch scene. Excuse the pun. The main fair is held in a huge hall right next to the airport and that’s where you’ll find all the big brands that I have to cover on the first day (and many that don’t fit in this issue). But the city is also full of other shows and events. There’s the Time To Watches show that’s held in a villa right next to the W&W hall, as well as brands setting up shops in one of the grand hotels along the lake. So let’s take a break from the big brands for something a bit more fun.

Since I’ve been either traveling or in meetings over the past two days, you can only imagine my surprise and delight when I walked into Hotel Beau-Rivage to see Studio Underd0g, the mighty British indie, sharing a booth with the incredible Sartory Billard, known for their exquisite and expensive watches. Sure, both brands showed their offerings, but there was a reason why they were sharing a booth — they just released a watch together, the Sartory Billard By Studio Underd0g SB05 Sunfl0wer.

Studio Underd0g picked up a lot of flack when they teamed up with Moser last year, selling a duo of watches — one Moser and one SU, both with the same theme on the dial. People didn’t like that it was such an expensive package for what was essentially still just a regular Studio Underd0g (plus a Moser). I liked it because I think that the Underd0g team has a lot of design chops to bring to the table. And others seem to share that belief. That’s why we now have a Sartory Billard with a dial designed by SU. Very cool.

The base watch is a standard Sartory Billard SB05. That means you get a 38.5mm wide and 8.5mm thick stainless steel case with a 50 meter water resistance. Insde, you’ll find the SMB01 movement based on the manually wound La Joux-Perret 7380 which has a 90-hour power reserve and a daily accuracy of +/-7 seconds.

It’s all about that beautiful dial which obviously looks like a sunflower. There’s a central guilloché spiralling hobnail pattern done in a dark brown, surrounded by the same pattern in yellow to represent the seeds and petals of the sunflower, respectively. There are also thin golden lines marking the shapes of the petals with 12 in the foreground marking the position of the 12 hours. The hands are even more impressive, with a green base and sharply defined upper parts.

This is a very limited edition. The Sartory Billard By Studio Underd0g SB05 Sunfl0wer will only be made in 10 parts and they are priced at €12,700, without tax. They go on sale April 4th at 3PM CET. See more on the Sartory Billard 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

• George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father. The literary giant’s only child reflects on his father’s devotion in their days together in rural Scotland, his early death, his genius as a writer – and his reputation as a womaniser

• ‘America is more divided than ever — but how is it affecting our love lives? I spent a year dating conservative men to find out’. That title pretty much tells it all.

• In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan villainized a Chicago woman for bilking the government. Her other sins—including possible kidnappings and murders—were far worse.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I dig this deconstruction of one of my favorite Stones songs.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk