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- Zenith Teams Up With Collective For A Very Monochrome Defy Skyline; Awake Pays Homage To Remembrance Day; A New Union Glashütte Chrono; Doxa's Silly Diamond Divers; JLC's Year Of The Snake Reverso
Zenith Teams Up With Collective For A Very Monochrome Defy Skyline; Awake Pays Homage To Remembrance Day; A New Union Glashütte Chrono; Doxa's Silly Diamond Divers; JLC's Year Of The Snake Reverso
Why would anyone make a diver that's covered in diamonds? Don't know, but thank you!
Vuk Radic
November 19, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 19 minutes
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I really, really like the Zenith. Like really. But… I know it’s stupid… I’m actually in love with the Doxa. Not that I would ever wear one, not at all. I just love that it exists because I love silly watches.
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In this issue:
Zenith Teams Up With Collective Horology For The Very Subtle Zenith Defy Skyline C.X Edition
Awake Pays Homage To Remembrance Day With A Stunning Red Dial On Their New Son Mài Collection
Union Glashütte Introduces Their Latest Belisar Chronograph Speedster Limited Edition
Doxa Releases A Completely Silly Collection Of Diamond Studded SUB 200T Dive Watches
Jaeger-LeCoultre Unveils A New Made-To-Order Reverso Tribute for the Year of the Snake
👂What’s new
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I believe more people should know about Collective Horology. They are a California-based members-only collectors club and retailer that has brought independent brands with limited distribution to the US. They’re also very well known for their collaborations into which they inject their incredible sense of style. They really know how to make a good watch. The heavily California-influenced Czapek, or the gorgeous 1858 Minerva Monopusher Chronograph “Blue Arrow” P.05. and the very groovy 1970s Oris Divers Seventy-Five are all examples of how amazing their designs are. Now, they’re teaming up with Zenith for the Defy Skyline CX Edition, another really good release.
The Defy Skyline is a fairly new model line for Zenith, but it’s already incredibly broad, with dozens of both regular and special edition releases. It’s a simple sports watch that comes here in a 41mm stainless steel case that has a sandblasted matte finish and polished accents on the screwed-in crown, edges of the dodecagonal bezel and the caseback. Water resistance is 100 meters.
The dial of this edition continues the monochromatic look of the case, almost matching the matte grey exactly. It’s engraved with the now signature starry sky motif and it uses that almost as a color. That’s because they managed to turn the engravings into a gradient. They are deep and dark in the center and they become shallower and lighter towards the edges. I don’t think I’ve seen something like this before and it’s spectacular. The edition ditches the date window and moves the 1/10th of a second indicator from 9 o’clock to 6 o’clock. While this is not a revolutionary move, I have to say it completely transforms the look of the watch and I’ll wonder forever if every Defy Skyline should move it. You get rhodium-plated, faceted hour indices and baton-style hands filled with Super-LumiNova SLN C1. The tip of the 1/10th of a second hand and the “10” mark on the sub-dial are painted in orange, which is the only color on the dial, making it pop intensely.
Inside is a slightly modified El Primero 3620 automatic movement. It beats at 36,000vph and has a power reserve of 55 hours. The watch comes with two ways of carrying — either a stainless steel bracelet that matches the case, or an orange textured rubber strap that matches the small orange details on the dial.
Of course, this is a limited edition, but at least it’s not some bizarrely small number like 12. The new Zenith Defy Skyline CX Edition for Collective Horology is limited to 200 pieces and is available for purchase right now. Price is set at €12,900. See more on the Collective Horology website.
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Some two weeks ago, the French brand Awake introduced their first permanent collection. It is radically different from the stuff they made before, high-concept watches that had a strong sporty line to them. This new collection, called the Son Mài, is a very elegant piece with incredible Vietnamese sanded lacquer dials and silver leaf gilding. A bit surprisingly, this new collection is already getting its first limited edition. This is the Awake Son Mài The Poppies made in honor of Remembrance Day, a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour fallen soldiers, and benefiting a charity helping children whose parents died in war.
On the outside, zero has changed. It’s made out of recycled stainless steel and measures 39mm wide, 11.8mm thick with the crystal and a fairly compact 45.6mm from lug to lug. On top is domed sapphire crystal that’s surrounded by a rounded of bezel that is highly polished, along with the tops of the lugs. The rest of the case is brushed, with a polished chamfer stretching from lug to lug. Water resistance is 50 meters.
What’s new is the dial. Once again, it’s made with the Vietnamese technique of Son Maì sanded lacquer, followed by the application of pure silver leaf for additional texture and relief. It’s rendered in a bright red color to mimic the poppy flowers that are worn on lapels during Remembrance Day. The indices and hands are made out of Super-LumiNova BGW9, and then covered with faceted steel caps. That way the lume doesn’t shine towards the viewer, but rather underneath the silver caps for a backlit look.
Inside is the increasingly more popular La Joux-Perret G101 which beats at 4Hz and has a much more modern power reserve of 68 hours when compared to competitors from Sellita and the like. It features three centrally located hands and a customised rotor with a bead-blasted centre that reads La Joux-Perret Pour Awake. The watch comes on a red NATO-style calfskin strap.
The new Awake Son Mài The Poppies is not limited in number, but will only be available for a limited time. Pre-orders opened yesterday and will be open through December 1st. If you order one in that period, you’re guaranteed a watch, after which it won’t be offered any more. 10% of the price of each watch will be donated to Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a British charity supporting children whose parents have died while serving in the armed forces. Price is set at €2,000, a €50 premium over the non-limited version. See more on the Awake website.
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I very much appreciate how Union Glashütte is approaching their collections. Whether it’s something dress-like or something sporty, they carry themselves with a very distinct air of Germaness about them. And I love it. I most love their Belisar Chronographs which are very much inspired by 1970s racing chronographs. And this is the latest edition of the Belisar Chronograph Speedster which gets a more subdued colorway than previous Speedster versions.
OK, while the inspiration comes from the 1970s, the dimensions are very much from the early 2000s. The new Belisar Chronograph Speedster comes in a stainless steel case that measures 44mm wide, 15.01mm thick and 52.9mm long. It’s massive and there’s no two ways about it. On top is a domed sapphire crystal , surrounded by an unmarked polished bezel. On the side are pump-style chronograph pushers, and a very significant diamond-shaped crown. At 10 you’ll find a smaller pusher that’s used to correct the date. Water resistance is 100 meters.
The case is very much the same as previous versions, while the dial is all new. It has an anthracite base with a very dramatic red strip going down the left side of it. It’s a tri-compax layout with a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock with an integrated date window and small seconds at 9 o’clock. The sub-dials at 3 and 6 are black and snailed, while the one at 9, which sits largely on the red stripe, is the same color and finish as the dial. The rest of the dial is similar to previous versions, with oversized black Arabic numerals, a railway seconds track on the edge and a black tachymeter surrounding it all.
Inside the watch is the UNG.27.S1 automatic movement, based on the Valjoux 7750. However, Uninon claims they buy the movement in pieces, assemble it themselves and manufacture some of their own components. You get a silicon balance spring and a 65 hour power reserve. It’s decorated with Côtes de Genève and perlage. The watch comes with two straps, a black perforated racing leather with red stitching and a red rubber strap, both with quick release mechanisms.
The new Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Speedster Limited Edition is limited to 388 pieces and priced at €3,450. I see this watch having a very specific clientele in mind, so I don’t doubt they will sell easy. See more on the Union Glashütte website.
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A lot of people will argue that mechanical watches are a silly thing. A useless endeavor in a world where we not only can we check a myriad of devices for the time, smart watches provide so much more utility than a mechanical watch. And that’s a fair thing to say. But if you’re reading this, you like watches because they are silly, anachronistic and a bit useless. So why not take that notion to its extreme once in a while? It seems that Doxa decided to see how far they can take it, by releasing the new SUB 200T Diamonds collection. Yes, Doxa, the company best known for their hard core divers, just released a diver that’s absolutely slathered in diamonds.
The SUB 200T is the smallest of the Doxa divers, introduced only a few months ago. Thanks to their iconic barrel shaped cases, most Doxa models wear much different to what you might picture with their measurements, but here they are anyway: 39mm wide, 10.7mm thick and a 41.5mm lug-to-lug. The base of the case is the same as the regular SUB 200T, but it’s topped with a new bezel. Instead of the 60-minute and no-deco insert, you get a bezel with a ton of gemstones — 107 diamonds with 13 coloured stones: orange sapphires, blue sapphires, pink sapphires, black diamonds, Paraiba tourmalines, or emeralds depending on the colour of the dial.
The dials look familiar, but are so much more intense than the regular versions. Sure, they come in the 6 recognizable colors: Professional Orange, Sharkhunter Black, Caribbean Deep Blue, Aquamarine Turquoise, White Pearl White and Sea Emerald Green, but they are now made out of mother-of-pearl. And the texture of the MOP shines right through the colors, looking pretty fantastic.
Inside, you’ll find the very well known Sellita SW200, a solid movement that’s easy to service pretty much anywhere in the world. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a beads of rice bracelet that closes with a folding clasp with a wetsuit extension.
The new Doxa SUB 200T Diamonds collection is available now and priced quite aggressively at €9,400. But after all, you get the MOP dial and a bunch of precious stones. See more on the Doxa website.
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Jaeger-LeCoultre has been making watches that pay tribute to the Lunar New Year for some time, but they seriously upped their game two years ago when they released the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Enamel "Tiger." This was a stunning tribute to the opening of a new boutique in Shanghai, and it featured an enamel dial and caseback featuring grande feu enamel and hand engraving with the image of a tiger on the back. It was a challenging feat that asked an engraver to engrave on a layer of enamel, making it much more difficult. The image of the leaping tiger on the caseback was made using a technique called modeled engraving, in which different-sized chisels are used to remove material, step by step. They did the same last year by paying tribute to the year of the Dragon. And wouldn’t you guess it, the watch is back for the third time, with a watch that pays tribute to the Year of the Snake.
The watch comes in the familiar Reverso Tribute 18K pink gold Art Deco-inspired rectangular shape. The time-telling side, just like the reverse side, feature Grand Feu enamel in a high-gloss finish. On the time side you get faceted applied hour markers, chemin de fer minutes track, and Dauphin-shaped hands in matching pink gold. The reverse side gets a snake engraved by the same modeled engraving technique.
Inside the watch is the in-house Calibre 822, a manually wound movement that has a power reserve of 45 hours. It comes on a black alligator strap.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel Snake, just like the Tiger and Dragon before it, is available only on a made-to-order basis. No pricing is given, if previous versions are anything to go on, expect this piece to cost more than €90,000. See more on the Jaeger-LeCoultre website.
🫳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
Two colour options exist for the limited edition Taucher Lume Infused Forged Carbon V2, and quite striking ones at that. Available in blue or brown hues, the dials and bezels are colour-coordinated and manufactured from forged carbon fibre, a process borrowed from the high-tech world of motorsport and aerospace, involving fusing chopped carbon fibres with resins at high pressure and heat to create complex and technical components. Recently, we’ve been seeing the watch industry adopt this style of manufacturing with carbon, as it’s somewhat easier to produce certain shapes and designs and certainly looks more interesting than the usual chequered appearance of carbon fibre. The real benefit is that each piece made using the forged technique is completely unique.
⏲️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
Ruby Cramer of the Washington Post sets out to write about the epidemic of road rage sweeping America. She comes back with a series of vignettes not about anger but about empathy. Understanding. And the power of a story.
It turns out that the solution to Italy’s climate change-induced agricultural woes might come from two things Italy has in abundance: Renaissance paintings and Catholic saints. The super-realistic 15th and 16th century art captures dozens of almost or entirely extinct fruits, and central Italy’s many monasteries—monasteries that have refused to sell their land to agribusiness—remain surrounded by orchards planted hundreds of years ago, where many of the ancient cultivars bloom on. Who knew? Isabella Dalla Ragione did, and now we do too, thanks to Mark Schapiro’s fascinating feature-slash-profile of the (world’s first?) fruit detective.
In riveting, moment-by-moment prose, Jared Sullivan takes us back to the December 2008 night when a coal ash disaster bulldozed a Tennessee town named Kingston—one of the worst environmental disasters in American history.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Despite not posting videos that often any more, Casey Neistat will often do a video that reminds you why he is the best at the vlog thing.
💵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: Here’s a crazy request. One of you is looking to buy the Lotēc No. 7.5. Sure, it’s a big ask, but if any of you have one and want to sell, reach out to and I’ll put you in touch
SOLD: Well, not really new. It’s a great looking mid-90s Tudor Submariner 75090, offered for sale by a member of the It’s About Time reader crew. I love the way it looks and seems to be in great condition. Check it out over on Chrono24.
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
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-Vuk
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