Zenith Releases All-Green Chronomaster Sport With Aaron Rodgers, MeisterSInger Introduces Ghosted Dial One-Hander, New Spooky Watch From ArtyA And A Great Looking And Affordable Women's Watch

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Happy Halloween everyone. There are a few ghostly themed watches in the newsletter, but the star is obviously Aaron Rodgers.

Also, today is the last day to join the Longines Spirit Zulu Time giveaway. Invite your friends by clicking here and sending the invite to your friend to enter right now.

I you like this newsletter, you might consider supporting it directly through Patreon. If you were subscribed, you could have already read my lengthy piece on Only Watch and it potentially being the biggest scam of the watch world. Other subscriber-only articles include the Completely Sterile Secret Watches Of MACV-SOG and my choice of 11 vintage Heuer watches that would make the perfect basis for new TAG Heuer recreations, including a possible MoonSwatch type watch that could actually break the internet.

In this issue:

• Zenith Teams Up With NFL Superstar Aaron Rodgers For All-Green Hulk-Like Zenith Chronomaster Sport Limited Edition

• Just In Time For Halloween, MeisterSinger Releases A Spooky Ghost Version Of Their One-Hander

• Parmigiani Fleurier Teams Up With Revolution Once Again For A Truly Stunning Purple-Dial Tonda PF Micro-Rotor

• The Claude Meylan Lionne Dentelles Is The Perfect Blueprint For A Women’s Watch

• ArtyA Purity Tourbillon Halloween Collection Is The Spookiest Completely Transparent Sapphire Can Get

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 25 seconds

👂What’s new

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Zenith Teams Up With NFL Superstar Aaron Rodgers For All-Green Hulk-Like Zenith Chronomaster Sport Limited Edition

Despite being the second oldest player on the entire NFL roster, this was supposed to be Aaron Rodgers’ year. After an incredible 17 years with the Green Bay Packers, a Super Bowl win and four MVP wins, Rodgers, just like his predecessor Brett Favre, was traded to the New York Jets. Then, on just the fourth snap of his first game for the Jets, disaster struck. After a nasty tackle, Rodgers limped off the field and the prognosis was grim - a torn Achilles tendon, an injury that might end the career of the nearly 40 year old legend. But what should have been a horrible year for Rodgers is shaping up to be quite positive. It looks like he might be back in play by December, which nobody expected. Also, he just released a watch in collaboration with Zenith, the new Chronomaster Sport Aaron Rodgers Edition.

The watch is the familiar Chronomaster Sport which, interestingly, hasn’t had a limited edition before. I find this hard to believe, but I guess I’ll have to trust Zenith on this one. It comes in a 41mm wide stainless steel case that’s a hefty 13.8mm thick, but aren’t all sports chronographs? It’s a 1/10th of a second chronograph with a central chronograph hand that makes one turn in 10 seconds, a 60-minute counter at six o'clock, and 60-second counter at three o'clock.

This watch is all about the colors. While the three subdials come in various shades of grey with snailed finishings, the ceramic bezel and dial get a very particular shade of green. While the Internet has already started fighting which green it resembles more - that used by the Packers or used by the Jets, I lean more to the latter. It looks very much like the Jets green Rodgers is wearing now, but don’t worry, there are obvious hints to his tenure in Green Bay - the chronograph hand is tipped in yellow, just like Packers’ helmets.

Not only is this the first Chronomaster Sport limited edition, it’s also the first time that the watch gets applied Arabic numerals. These look suspiciously like the numbers that Rodgers wore on his jerseys. I would just like to congratulate both Zentih and Rodgers for not going over the top here and doing something with his now-retired number 12. That can often wander into tacky territory.

Inside the watch is the the relatively new Zenith calibre 3600 which is a high beat movement. This means that it beats at 36,000 vibrations per hour, giving it a buttery smooth running seconds. It also has a 60 hour power reserve and this limited edition has an etching of Aaron Rodgers’ personal ‘AR’ logo on the sapphire crystal on back. The watch comes on a steel bracelet with a folding buckle.

The Zenith Chronomaster Sport Aaron Rodgers Edition is limited to 250 pieces available worldwide and it will go on sale November 2. Price is set at $12,800. See more on the Zenith website.

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Just In Time For Halloween, MeisterSinger Releases A Spooky Ghost Version Of Their One-Hander

OK, that title might have been a bit of clickbait. This watch doesn’t really have anything to do with Halloween. However, it does have a “ghosted” dial, and since it’s the season of all thing spooky, you see how I made that connection. For almost 20 years now, MeisterSinger, the German brand that has carved a unique niche of making one-handed watches, has been creating special editions of watches made for the Dutch market. I’m not exactly sure why they chose the Dutch market for special editions (I’m sure there’s a great story, just couldn’t find it anywhere), but the results have universally been pretty spectacular, with the watches hugely in demand in other countries as well. Now, they gave the Dutch experience to their No.03 model and it has a fantastic ghosted Mystique blue dial.

On the outside, a MeisterSinger is pretty simple. A rather large 43mm stainless steel case (made to look even larger with a thin sloping steel bezel), gets a mix of brushed and polished surfaces and a large flat sapphire crystal on top. Things get weird when you get to the crown, which is situated on the left side of the case and get only stranger from there.

You will, of course, notice that the No.03 has only one hand, but this is not the strange part, as we already know that MeisterSinger uses just one hand to display time. The strange part is the deep blue sunray brushed dial. Not the dial itself, of course, but rather the choice to print the markings, numerals and indices in the exact same shade of blue, but gloss, making it a ghost dial that is equally as difficult and easy to read, depending on the light that hits it.

Inside the watch is nothing particularly special. It’s the very well known and ubiquitous Sellita SW200-1, meaning that you will get a reliable movement that can easily be serviced pretty much anywhere. The movement beats at a rate of 28,800vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes with two straps, both vintage-styled, one in yellow and one in black.

The MeisterSinger No.03 NL Edition is limited to 123 pieces and the brand says it will be available at the end of October. So now. Price is set at €2,300. See more on the MeisterSinger website.

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Parmigiani Fleurier Teams Up With Revolution Once Again For A Truly Stunning Purple-Dial Tonda PF Micro-Rotor

For quite some time now I haven’t been sure that I understand Parmigiani Fluerier. They produce some watches in one of the busiest categories in the watch world - luxury sports watches. At times they look quite ordinary and perhaps overpriced. Then they hit you with a hyper complicated watch that looks way pricier than it actually is. And then there are watches like this one. Parmigiani has teamed up once again with watch magazine Revolution to create a limited run of Tonda PF Micro-Rotor watches with a purple dial and this is it. This is where you see why the Parmigiani costs as much as it does.

The basics of the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor remain the same. You get a 40mm satin-finished case, a platinum knurled bezel, along with delta-shaped skeletonized handset and a date window at 6 o’clock. No surprises there. Everything is about the dial.

The signature grain d’orge guilloché on the dial is so small that it turns invisible in certain light. This pattern is hand-crafted into each dial. But even better is the color, an impossibly beautiful shade of purple. Seriously, click through to the Revolution article to see the watch in various lighting scenarios. It looks completely different in every photo and it’s stunning in each and every one of them.

Inside the watch is the in-house PF703, which beats at 21,600 vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. Thanks to the off-centred micro-rotor directly integrated into the main plate, it’s also impossibly thin at just 2.6mm. The watch comes on a beautiful integrated bracelet.

Only 50 pieces of the Parmigiani Fluerier x Revolution Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Purple Reign will be made and they go on sale November 2, 10 p.m. SGT/ 10 a.m. EDT on Revolution’s website. Price is set at CHF 24,200.

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The Claude Meylan Lionne Dentelles Is The Perfect Blueprint For A Women’s Watch

For a while now I’ve been saying that women need more watches. While it’s mostly silly to differentiate between watches meant for men and women based on their size or colors, the fact is that there is space for a well made, great looking and preferably affordable watch that is aimed at women. And wouldn’t you know it, there is a watch just like that, the recently introduced Claude Meylan Lionne Dentelles.

Claude Meylan doesn’t, of course, just make women’s watches. They are, however, specialized in making skeletonized watches. This is the same style they have introduced to their more feminine watch that comes in a lace style (the name Dentelle means lace in French) with soft pastel colors. There is no dial to speak of, other than an outside ring in silver that has roman numerals on it. The rest is a fully skeletonized main plate and bridges that are painted pink via Atomic Layer Deposition. The hands are dauphine style and the entire case is svelte at 35mm wide and 7mm thick.

Inside the watch is the well known Peseux 7001 that looks fantastic with this skeleton treatment. It’s a hand-wound movement that beats at 21,600 vph and has a decent power reserve of 42 hours. The watch comes on eiiter a metal mesh bracelet or a leather or technical satin strap with a steel pin buckle.

The part is the pricing. This looks like a very expensive watch, but it will set you back about CHF 2,600 for the satin strap version, which is not bad at all. See more on the Claude Meylan website.

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ArtyA Purity Tourbillon Halloween Collection Is The Spookiest Completely Transparent Sapphire Can Get

The closest to the most explicit Halloween theme among watches we got this year was likely the Spinnaker Fleuss made in collaboration with customizer seconde/seconde/ who placed 50 ghosts onto the dial. The watches sold out instantly because they were perfectly priced, very limited, well made and customized by one of the most in-demand people in the industry. However today, on the eve of Haloween, we get a true collection of Halloween watches, one that is the complete opposite of the Spinnaker. ArtyA, the absolute expert in high end sapphire-cased watches, is introducing the Purity Tourbillon Halloween Collection, a trio of skeletonized tourbillons in sapphire cases with orange and black colorways.

Three different models are on offer. First up is the Purity Tourbillon Halloween, as traditional as you will get from this collection. The 46mm wide fully clear sapphire case gets a matching sapphire crown, which is great because you get to see the offset skeletonised tourbillon even better. The internal architecture is black, while the centrally mounted (also black) hands have orange tips. Orange is used for the peripheral minute track markers and the stitching on the black leather strap. This is a limited edition of five pieces that are priced at CHF 130,000.

It only gets weirder from there. Next up is the Tiny Purity Tourbillon Halloween. Gone is the central time display, as it is displaced to the subdial at 3 o’clock. The scale on that subdial is orange and has been elongated it so that it’s pumpkin shaped. Inside the watch is the Tiny Purity Tourbillon, which has the same specs as the standard version at a reduced size that allows the watch to have a diameter of just 39mm. Like the other Purity Tourbillons, it has a 72-hour power reserve thanks to a double barrel system and a 4hz tourbillon. Again, limited to 5 pieces and priced at CHF 130,000.

The third watch is the Curvy Purity Tourbillon Halloween, their tonneau watch. 38.5mm wide and 43mm lug-to-lug, the watch gets the crown moved to 12 o’clock. The entire movement has been rotated 90 degrees, meaning that the tourbillon and off-centre time display are now stacked vertically. The Curvy Purity Toubillon is also limited to 5 pieces but at a slightly higher price of CHF 140,000. Check out the ArtyA website for more.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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Hands-On With The Stylish Trio of Nomos Club Sport Neomatik 39 Models 

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AVI-8’s Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis honours the first supersonic plane

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

The UniDesign Model One shows what microbrands are for

Knowing that square watches tend to wear larger than circular ones, UniDesign Watch Co. have been cautious and moderate with their case dimensions. The Model One has a 37mm width and a 35.5mm length, although the integration of the bracelet makes the lug-to-lug length a bit arbitrary. It wears similarly to a 39mm or 40mm watch, comfortably but with a potent wrist presence thanks to the wide steel bezel. It’s only 9.8mm thick as well, which is impressively slender considering the automatic movement and 100m water resistance with a screw-down crown. In all honesty, it’s like a more elegant, analogue version of a square G-Shock. Read the whole thing on Time + Tide.

⏲️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

• It’s Halloween so everything today will be some variation of horror, fictional on real. So get ready for a ride. Starting of strong, with THE horror of all time. In 1973 a ragtag group of Texans scrounged up $60,000 and created a film so violent and visionary that it shocked the world. But if you thought The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was strange, then you haven’t heard the story of how it got made.

• Odessa High School students know her as "Betty," a ghost that haunts the auditorium at night. But there’s more to the story. Betty Williams was a fast girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Mack Herring was a handsome football player with all the right friends. When he broke up with her during her senior year at Odessa High School, her world fell apart. But she asked him for one last favor: to kill her.

• This one is so chilling I remember reading it for the first time way back in 2010. I remember the cover of the New York Magazine, I remember the layout. It’s incredibly sad, supremely upsetting. I’ll let the first sentence do all the talking: “I didn’t put much stock in the possibility that a Dominican spiritualist working out of a basement in Union City, New Jersey, would have much to say about a lampshade that might have been made from human skin in a Nazi concentration camp.” Like I said. Chilling.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Right off the bat - I’ve only skimmed this video. I believe you will like it, I just couldn’t watch the whole thing. And for a very good reason.

Ever since I was a kid, a very young kid, I loved horror movies. You know how there’s that one memory of your very early childhood that is permanently etched into your brain? For me it’s getting up really early, way before my parents, and making my way to the living room. My dad taught me how to use the VCR so I would pop in a video on my own while they slept in. It was usually a Disney tape. Not this one day. I really liked the cover art of Ridley Scott’s Alien, so I played that. I was completely mesmerised and mom didn’t like what she saw when she walked in on me watching one of the scariest movies a three year old could ever watch.

Fast forward a couple of years and I’m in love with horror. I can deal with anything. Creepy, gory, jump scares. Doesn’t phase me at all. Until one day my dad tells me he rented a new movie - John Carpetner’s remake of Village of the Damned. Sure, I really wanted to see it. I remember the scene like it was today. The back of the chair is facing the camera. Mom is walking up to the chair, hand extended. We are in her point of view. She grabs the chair and slowly spins it around. There, calmly sitting, is a child with a completely blank stare, completely white hair and eyes.

It really wasn’t much of a scene. Shouldn’t be scary at all. But it terrified me completely. I broke down and we had to turn the movie off. I’m pretty sure that I still have a white patch of hair from that night. Ever since then, little kids in movies terrify me. And I’m approaching 40. So yeah, now you see why I couldn’t watch the video through. But it is a great subject to cover!

💵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 

• LOOKING TO BUY: One of our readers is looking to purchase three very specific watches: an Islander ISL-133 Mother of Pearl, a Sinn 556 Mother of Pearl or a Zelos 300m GMT Mosaic Mother of Pearl. If you’re selling any of these, 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

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