Zenith Kicks Of 160th Anniversary With Iconic Chrono Trio In Blue Ceramic And The G.F.J.; Bremont Takes A Step; Panerai’s Next-Generation Luminor Marina; A Thin Bulgari; And A Great New Mr Jones

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s my last day in Geneva, and you know I’m going out with a bang! And by bang, I mean a great dinner and drinks with some great people. I’ll try and write a short report on Monday with all the impressions of the fair.

In this issue:

• Zenith Kicks Of 160th Anniversary Celebration With Iconic Chrono Trio In Blue Ceramic And The G.F.J.

• Bremont Puts A Jumping Hour Into The Terra Nova And Delights With New Altitude Collection

• Panerai’s Next-Generation Luminor Marina And Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech PAM01575

• Bulgari Breaks Record For Thinnest Tourbillon With The Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon

• The New Sock And Roll Watch From Mr Jones Is The Perfect Palate Cleanser From The Opulence Of W&W

👂What’s new

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Zenith Kicks Of 160th Anniversary Celebration With Iconic Chrono Trio In Blue Ceramic And The G.F.J.

Again, another brand presenting their novelties at Watches and Wonders and limiting themselves to just a couple of releases. And the majority of them being quite familiar. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing, because the blue ceramic Zeniths are quite beautiful. The brand is celebrating its 160th anniversary, so I can only assume we will see more watches as the year goes on. For now, we have a Blue Ceramic Trilogy limited to 160 pieces each, and a new Zenith G.F.J., a vintage resurrection to honor the brand's founder.

• Starting with the ceramics, Zenith just introduced the Chronomaster Sport, Defy Skyline Chronograph and Pilot Chronograph in their signature blue ceramic case. Starting with the Chronomaster Sport, you get a very classic chronograph with faceted lugs and pump pushers. The blue ceramic case measures 41mm wide, 13.6mm thick and has a 47mm lug-to-lug, brushed and polished finishes and a blue carmic bezel on top with 1/10th of a second markings. The dial is blue, with three tri-coloured snailed sub-dials retaining their iconic look. Inside is the El Primero 3600 with a 60 hour power reserve and a 36,000vph beat rate. The watch comes on a blue ceramic bracelet, with an extra blue strap. Price is set at €23,700. See it on the Zenith website.

• Next, the more contemporary Defy Skyline Chronograph which comes in an octagonal case and faceted dodecagonal bezel, all made out of blue ceramic and measuring 42mm wide, 12.7mm thick and with a 47.4mm lug-to-lug. The dial remains blue, with a four-point star pattern and slightly overlapping snailed sub-dials. Inside is the same calibre 3600 and it comes on a blue ceramic bracelet and with a blue star-patterned rubber strap. Priced at €24,800. See more here.

• Last of the blues, we have the Pilot Big Date Flyback that comes in a 42.5mm wide and 14.25mm thick blue ceramic case with a smooth microblasted finish. The crown and rectangular pushers are made out of titanium. The dial is blue, with signature horizontal grooves, two sub-dials and an oversized date aperture at 6 o’clock. Inside is the El Primero 3652 automatic 5Hz chronograph with a flyback function and a 60-hour power reserve. Price is set at €16,500. See more here.

• As part of the 160th celebration, Zenith is releasing the G.F.J., standing for the initials of Georges Favre-Jacot, the original founder of Zenith, and with a modern re-interpretation of Zenith’s famous calibre 135.

• This is a brand new model for Zenith, so it’s a brand new case. Made out of platinum, it measures 39.15mm wide and 10.5mm thick and has a stepped bezel and stepped lugs that give it an almost art-deco look. The dial is made out of three parts, a guilloché hour scale with white gold indexes, a central disk of lapis lazuli and a large subdial for the seconds made from blue mother-of-pearl. It’s all incredibly beautiful, as ti should be to match the movement, the calibre 135 which has a special place in the history of Zenith. It is the most winning observatory movement of all time with 235 chronometry prizes. The movement in this watch is an updated take on the original 135, with a redesigned gear for a longer (72 vs. 40 hours) power reserve. It beats at 2.5Hz and has an accuracy of +/-2 seconds. Also limited to 160 pieces, it’s priced at €52,900. See it on the Zenith website.

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Bremont Puts A Jumping Hour Into The Terra Nova And Delights With New Altitude Collection

Bremont caught an incredible amount of flack last year, and a lot of it for good reason. The introduction of a brand new line, with a new case, and a new logo didn’t go over well with fans of the brand steeped in Birtish heritage. But this year at Watches and Wonders, they’re making up for it. While there are two watches in the new case, the Trip-Tick case is making a comeback with some very cool watches. You can see all of their novelties on this website.

• Starting off with the new Terra Nova Jumping Hour, built on the Terra Nova case. It comes in a 38mm wide case in bronze or in a 40.5mm wide case in stainless steel. The bronze comes with a closed brushed case, while the stainless has a black lacquered dial, but they both have jumping hour complications powered by the calibre BC634. The bronze has a white back to the hours and the black is color matches. They both have seconds indicators, on the black it’s a hand, while on the bronze it’s a small compass. The bronze is limited to 100 pieces and priced at £4,900, while the black lacquer is priced at £4,550.

• Now, on to the cool stuff. It seemed last year that Bremont has made a 180 turn on its roots of making British aviation and military inspired watches. Well, Bremont heard us and has just introduced the new Altitude collection, with three redesigned pilot watches – Altitude MB Meteor, Altitude 39 Date and Altitude Chronograph GMT, all housed in the very cool Trip-Tick case and heavily inspired by the Martin-Baker watch.

• Starting with the Altitude MB Meteor, it comes in a 42mm wide titanium Trip-Tick case that now measures 12.23mm thick and has a 49.3mm lug-to-lug. The knurling of the central titanium barrel is available with a ceramic-based coating in black or grey knurling. You still have the two crowns, one of which operates the internal bezel with clicks. The dial can be had in either black or silver, both brushed, with applied numerals and the central seconds hand having a black and white ejection pull handle counterweight. Inside is the automatic BB14 based on the G100 La Joux-Perret with a 68-hour power reserve. Priced at £4,600 on nylon or leather and £4,950 on bracelet.

• Then, there’s the Chronograph GMT which comes in a 42mm wide stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide and 14.7mm thick, with a black DLC-coated barrel.. The dials are again black or brushed silver, with two snailed and recessed chronograph sub-dials – 30 minutes at noon and 12 hours at 6 o’clock — and a running seconds at 9. The 24-hour two-tone GMT scale is printed on the flange and pointed to with a red arrow-tipped hand. Inside, you’ll find the Sellita-based BC781-AC automatic which beats at 4Hz and has a 62 hour power reserve. On nylon and leather they are priced at £5,500 and £5,700 on steel.

• And last, the Altitude 39 Date. While the simplest, it’s also the smallest of the new bunch, measuring 39mm wide, 11.19mm thick and with a 47.17mm lug-to-lug, all made out of steel. On top is a glassbox sapphire crystal, you can have the dial in black or silver and inside is the automatic BB14 based on the G100 La Joux-Perret with a 68-hour power reserve. On the leather strap it’s priced at £3,700 and on steel it comes in at £3,950.

And this is something very new for Bremont, the Altitude Perpetual Calendar GMT Mono-Pusher, a very complicated watch. It comes in a titanium three-part Trip-Tick, with a brushed blu ePVD coated mid section, that measures 42mm wide, 12.65mm thick and has a 49.62mm lug-to-lug. On top is a glassbox sapphire crystal and the case has satin and polished finishes. The crown features a GMT pusher. Despite the complication, it still has anti-magnetic shielding, shock absorbers and 100 meters of water resistance. The dial is colored RAF Blue with vertical brushing, on the periphery is a black minutes’ ring and the applied numerals and indices are outlined in black. At the top of the dial is s rotating GMT globe with a white pointer and a day/night ring. Just above 6 is the date sub dial, while the month and leap-year indicator at 3 o’clock uses a propeller-style four-blade hand to track the leap-year. At 9 is a sector-style subdial for the running seconds. All of this is powered by the Bremont BHC9192-MH calibre, which is a Sellita AMT6900 manually wound base movement and a Agenhor complication module on top. Accurate to -4/+4 seconds per day, it has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch is limited to 50 pieces and price is set at £33,500.

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Panerai’s Next-Generation Luminor Marina And Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech PAM01575

I can already hear the comments on this one, but here it is, a new trio of basic Luminor Marina models that have been slightly updated. On the other hand, we have that crazy platinum thing with a sapphire dial! Go here for all the updates in one place.

• While there’s still things that can be improved on the Luminor Marina collection, there’s a lot of very welcomed novelties. First, the case is 12% thinner and 15% lighter than previous versions, but in classic Panerai fashion, they don’t give us exact measurements. You can get the cusion cases in either steel or titanium. The big upgrade comes in water resistance, which is no 500 meters. There are no changes to the dial construction, it’s still a sandwich dial, but it gets a larger date display and rhodium small-seconds subdial. Colors are black, dark blue and wite on the steel version on leather; dark green on the titanium version and a light blue on the version that comes with a steel bracelet. Inside, you’ll find the P.980 calibre, an automatic with a 72 hour power reserve. The models also get a proprietary tool less strap exchange system. The PAM03312, PAM03313 and PAM03314, the basic trio on leather straps, are priced at CHF 7,800; the titanium PAM03325 is priced at CHF 8,700; and the PAM03323 on steel bracelet is priced at the same CHF 8,700.

• From a basic Luminor Marina, to the very intense Panerai Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech PAM01575 with sapphire dial. Made out of Panerai’s proprietary Platinumtech material, it measures 44mm wide. It has all the right looks for a Luminor, with the crown protection system and beefy case, but you only get 50 meters of water resistance. Because this isn’t a true diver, obviously. You get a transparent dark blue dial that not only shows the movement, but also the day and date disks which are huge. The rest of the display is occupied by the central hour, minute and GMT hands and a small seconds sub-dial. On the backside of the watch, you’ll find the year, month, power reserve indicator and leap year indicator. All of this is powered by the P.4100, an automatic, micro-rotor calibre with 72-hour power reserve. The Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech PAM01575 is a boutique exclusive and it’s priced at CHF 66,000, with taxes included.

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Bulgari Breaks Record For Thinnest Tourbillon With The Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon

Watches and Wonders is all about records this year it seems. Yesterday, we saw the most precise Grand Seiko Spring Drive ever made and the most complicated wristwatch in the world from Vacheron Constantin. But today, we’re here with the untouched master of thinness, Bulgari. Over the years, Bulgari has honed its Octo Finissimo into a razor sharp essence of a thin watch. And every now and again, a challenger will knock them off the throne for a few months before Bulgari comes back and shaves off a few more millimeters. Last year at Watches and Wonders, Piaget introduced the 2mm thin Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, the thinnest tourbillon in the world, taking the crown from Bulgari. Yeah, good luck with that. This is the new Meet the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon, measuring in at just 1.85mm.

A lot is familiar here. It comes in a titanium case that has a ultra-hard tungsten carbide mainplate/caseback combination to cut down on the unnecessary thickness of having this in two parts. To get so thin, pretty much everything is arranged in a single plane and a skeletonized as much as it can be. It’s so thin you can’t even use a regular crown. Instead, you get two horizontal steel wheels on either side, one to wind the watch, the other to set the time.

The movement inside is the BVF 900, similar to the movements Bulgari has used before, and developed with Concepto. The movement uses ball bearings wherever possible, to cut down on the need for jewels. The hours and minutes displays have been brought together at 2 o’clock to be able to use a tourbillon regulator. Power reserve is 42 hours. The watch comes on a titanium bracelet.

The new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon is limited to 20 pieces and prices are set at €750,000. See more on the, surprisingly, the Watches and Wonders website.

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The New Sock And Roll Watch From Mr Jones Is The Perfect Palate Cleanser From The Opulence Of W&W

The amount of €100.000+ watches I’ve seen on wrists over the past week are actually kind of sickening. It’s difficult to explain, but you get jaded very quickly, and it becomes normal to handle these incredibly expensive pieces. And it shouldn’t be normal. These special watches are meant to be saved for a special occasion, not enjoyed all at one. That’s why it brings me great pleasure to write about a watch from the good folks over at Mr Jones, which just introduced the Sock and Roll watch, and the pun pays off.

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. It also gets a black PVF coating. Inside is a single jewel quartz movement. On top is a sapphire crystal. The watch is mounted on a 18mm wide strap, in this case a black stainless steel bracelet. Water resistance is 50 meters.

This new dial was designed by Calesta Ng, a Hong Kong born, London based illustrator. For Calesta, every small detail in her work is rooted in memory. Whilst designing the watch, she was reminded of a time in childhood where she “hid” a failed maths test behind the washing machine, hoping it would disappear.

Discussing the inspiration before her design, Calesta said: “I wanted to capture something unique and something that connects with people in their everyday lives. The idea slipped to me in an unnoticeable, almost mindless moment when I was reluctantly loading my washing machine and watching the drum spinning round and round.That repetitive, almost hypnotic motion clicked me to capture that subtle, overlooked rhythm of clothes swirling, what are the clothes talking about inside the washing machine? Will my socks ever meet back as a pair in the washing machine?”

To read the time, the inner red sock shows the hour, while the outer red sock marks the minutes. They briefly meet as a pair every hour.

Mr Jones seems to be moving away from regular limited editions and replacing it the much superior timed editions. The Mr Jones Sock And Roll is available for order right now and the window remains open until tomorrow morning, 8am BST Saturday 5th April. All orders placed in that window will get a watch. Price is set at a very rational £195. See more on their 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

• In a piece with no clear answers, Nicholas Casey explores whether the rediscovered remains of fallen Nazi soldiers should be reburied in cemeteries. It’s a fraught topic, particularly at a time when the far right is rising in Europe and around the world. The group searching for these remains, the Volksbud, make some incredible discoveries (including 128 soldiers in someone’s garden), but their history—and future—is mired in controversy.

• The Guardian Angels may feel like a relic of a bygone New York City—the days when subway cars labored beneath multiple layers of both graffiti and muggers—but they’re alive and mostly well on the Gotham streets. For Harper‘s, Kent Russell brings his gimlet eye and barbed pen to the proceedings. Participatory journalism of the most entertaining kind.

• For Wired, Claire L. Evans considers the C. elegans nematode, a microscopic worm made of fewer than a thousand cells. “It can reproduce, it can eat, it can forage, it can escape,” a neuroscientist tells Evans. “It’s born and it develops, and it ages and it dies—all in a millimeter.” The knowability of the worm makes it appealing for researchers, including the team at OpenWorm, a project dedicated to creating a virtual replica of the nematode. “If OpenWorm can manage this,” Evans writes, “it would be the first virtual animal—and an embodiment of all our knowledge not only about C. elegans, which is one of the most-studied animals in science, but about how brains interact with the world to produce behavior.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

In the North of England, an underground fight club is pushing violence to new extremes. Spartan Bare Knuckle Fight Club is the UK’s only licensed 8x8ft bare-knuckle pit fighting promotion. Its fights are short and brutal, and often end in knockouts.

But beneath the violence, the club aims to be a lifeline in difficult times. It was initially set up to prevent knife crime, allowing disputes to be settled before they escalate, with one condition: you shake hands after your fight and leave the argument in the pit. Over seven years, Spartan has become a form of community and therapy for men battling addiction and poor mental health.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk