Zenith's First Defy Skyline Skeleton In White Ceramic; Tissot Partners With Tour de France; Baby-G Jelly Is The Only Summer Watch You Need; Zelos Nova Will Drop Your Jaw; As Will Chronoswiss

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Pay close attention to the new Zelos releases. It is absolutely incredible that they can sell watches at such a high level of material and dial production for such low prices. They’re not for me, but I have to admire what they do.

In this issue:

• Zenith Debuts Their First Defy Skyline Skeleton In White Ceramic

• Tissot Marks Partnership With Tour De France With A New PR 100 Chronograph

• Is There Anything That Screams Summer More Than The Colors Of The New Baby-G Jelly?

• Zelos Introduces New Nova 37mm Handwound With Crazy Dials And An Incredible Tantalum Case

• Chronoswiss Brings Enameling And Guilloché To Three New Watches, Including One Dracula Themed

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 20 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Zenith Debuts Their First Defy Skyline Skeleton In White Ceramic

It wasn’t a huge week for Zenith, but still, releasing two watches within five days is a significant move. First, they introduced the Defy Skyline Edition Paris with a really pretty verdigris dial. Now, they’re releasing their first white ceramic version of the Defy Skyline Skeleton, something that rich people looking forward to their summer vacation are really looking forward to.

Seeing as both of these releases are in the Defy Skyline collection, it’s nice to point out that Zenith’s technical flagship collection is the Chronomaster. The Defy Skyline has only been around for two years, as their answer to the growing integrated bracelet sports watch trend. And now, in 2024, the Defy Skyline is not only the line to get the most updates, it’s expanding at a huge rate and is a very interesting platform for modern and sporty watchmaking. Good on them.

This watch comes in the already familiar case of the Defy Skyline Skeleton, made out of scratch resistant white ceramic for the first time, and measuring in at 41mm wide and 11.6mm thick. It’s a sporty, chunky and angular, with a faceted dodecagonal bezel on top of the case, also made out of white ceramic. Water resistance is 100 meters, which you will need as this really looks like it belongs near water, on a beach. Or, let’s be honest, a yacht.

Being the Defy Skyline Skeleton means, of course, it has an openworked dial. And Zenith is among the best when it comes to making sculpted see-through dials. The dial is rendered in a really pretty blue, with a brushed finish, with the bridges forming the Zenith signature four-pointed star. At 6 o’clock there’s the subdial that displays the 1/10th of a second running seconds which means that one revolution is completed every 10 seconds. The hands and hour markers are rhodium-plated and faceted, as well as filled with Super LumiNova, just like the applied square hour markers.

Peek through the dial and you’ll see the El Primero 3620 SK, a 3-hand version of the El Primero 3600 chronograph from the Chronomaster. It beats quickly at 36,000vph, features a silicon escapement and has a 55 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a full white ceramic bracelet matching the finishing of the case, as well as a white rubber strap.

The new Zenith Defy Skyline Skeleton in White Ceramic is not a limited edition watch, but the brand said that there won’t be many of these around. Price is set at €18,300. See more on the Zenith website.

2/

Tissot Marks Partnership With Tour De France With A New PR 100 Chronograph

As you’re reading this, a bit over 200 of the best cyclists in the world are making their way across France in one of the most important and famed cycling races in the world, the Tour de France. It won’t be another two weeks before we know who the winner is, but in the meantime we will see a lot of timing clocks that say Tissot on it. That’s, of course, because Tissot has been a partner of the Tour de France for years. To mark this partnership, we are getting the Tissot PR100 Tour De France, which is very interesting as there seems to be an influx of cycling-themed watches, like those from Tudor and Bravur.

On the outside, things are very much like the regular PR100 watch. It’s made out of stainless steel and measures 40mm wide and 11.3mm thick. The case has a fully brushed finish and it’s topped off with a polished, fixed and unmarked bezel. The bezel surrounds a sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters. From the case, the one thing that sets this watch apart from the regular PR100 is the closed steel caseback with an engraved logo of the Tour de France.

Things get a bit more specific on the dial. The base is a grained black surface, made to look like the asphalt the cyclists are racing on. But most prominent is the seconds hand shaped distinctively like a cycle, in yellow to match the colors of the Tour de France. The chronograph has a tri-compax layout and you can instantly tell it’s a quartz powered chrono, thanks to that characteristic ETA quartz layout. That movement is the G10.212 chronograph quartz, a standard quartz chronograph. The watches can be had on either a stainless steel bracelet or a leather strap in yellow and black, featuring a bicycle handlebar grip texture.

The Tissot PR100 Tour De France doesn’t seem to be limited and can be purchased now for €495. See more on the Tissot website.

3/

Is There Anything That Screams Summer More Than The Colors Of The New Baby-G Jelly?

The Casio G-Shock is a surprisingly large watch. The quintessential DW-5600 line measures 42.8mm wide and 48.8mm long, which is way larger than most regular sports watches. The size is very much justified by the incredible ruggedness, and the square shape helps with wearability, but it’s also true that small wrists, including a lot of women’s wrists, are just not large enough to pull of a traditional G-Shock. Casio fixed this problem way back in the 90s with the introduction of the Baby-G, a much more moderately sized watch that came in a range of bright colors. Now, Baby-G is releasing their offering for the summer, a trio of Jelly Summer colors that are just fantastic.

Like I said, this is a much smaller watch. Still made out of resin, this time translucent and pastel colored, it measures 37.9mm wide, 42.1mm long and has a thickness of 11.3mm. Sure, not tiny, but much more managable. Casio claims the colors are Y2K inspired (the colored translucent plastic sure does help with this - not only did I have a translucent iMac at the time, I also had a translucent orange MiniDisc player… those were the times) and come in bubblegum pink, citrus yellow and bright blue. I dig them all, a lot. These are still relatively capable watches with a water resistance of 100 meters.

Casio also packs the Baby-G with a bunch of features which include the time, date, perpetual calendar accurate to 2099, timer, stopwatch, alarms, an LED backlight, and the quartz movement is accurate to within 15 seconds per month.

The new Baby-G BGD-565 watches are available now, and retail for just $99. Picking one up to wear at the beach this summer might be a no brainer. See more on the Casio website.

 4/

Zelos Introduces New Nova 37mm Handwound With Crazy Dials And An Incredible Tantalum Case

In just a couple of years, Zelos has grown from a micorbrand pioneer that made niche-divers with interesting dial designs into a true powerhouse. In addition to divers, they make pilot’s watches, field pieces and chronographs. But with a bit of tweaking, a bit of shrinking and a bit of creative use of materials, and Zelos can put out a watch that would almost certainly be characterised as dressy. If it weren’t for those dial which, while a bit busy, are incredible at such a low price point. This is the new Zelos Nova in 37mm that comes with CNC guilloché, aventurine and mosaic mother-of-pearl dials, as well as cases made out of stainless steel and tantalum. Yeah, tantalum, for under $2K.

All five of the new Nova come in cases that have the same footprint. This means that they are 37mm wide, 7mm thick (9mm with the crystal) and have a lug-to-lug of 43.5mm. So, pretty awesome proportions. The stainless steel version gets a polished case and polished fixed and ungraduated bezel. But the stainless steel version is less interesting here, as all eyes will be on the tantalum case. Tantalum is not only a metal that is rarer than gold, it is also incredibly heavy, which must be a unique experience on such a small watch. Tantalum has a blue-gray hue to it and is notoriously difficult to work with. It cannot be polished with regular steel polishing tools, so Zelos decided to give the case a blasted matte finish, with a polished bezel. On top is a box-style sapphire crystal water resistance is 50 meters.

The dials shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to people who know the original Nova, which was all about different dial treatments. As if tantalum wasn’t enough, that model also gets a dial with a central disc made out of aventurine and surrounded by a ring of meteorite. The other finishes include aventurine surrounded by a guilloché ring, a sunray guilloché in teal, a Grain de Riz CNC guilloché in salmon and an absolutely incredible mosaic mother-of-pearl with the outer dial in ocean blue and inner dial in iridescent white. They all have a smalls econds display at 6 o’clock, applied and polished Arabic numerals and lancet shaped hands.

Inside is the manual wind ETA/Peseux 7001 which a super slim movement, which allows the case to be 7mm thick. It beats at 21,600vph and has a 45 hour power reserve. You can see the Côtes de Genève engraving and blued screws thought the transparent caseback. All five watches come on a black Horween leather strap with a pin closure.

The Zelos Nova 37mm goes on sale in 2 and a half hours at 5PM CET. The tantalum version will be limited to 50 pieces, while the rest aren’t and they all come at pretty intriguing prices. The tantalum is, of course the most expensive, but also incredibly affordable for what it is at $1,999. The aventurine dial and MOP dial sell for $799, while the two guilloché dials are priced at $749. See more on the Zelos website.

5/

Chronoswiss Brings Enameling And Guilloché To Three New Watches, Including One Dracula Themed

The watches that Chronoswiss makes are definitely not for everyone. They are highly decorated and often quite loud, but if you like one of them, you will likely fall in love with all of them. And now they are updating a relatively new watch for them, the Delphis that came out in 2023. Like all the other Chronoswiss watches, this is a sight to behold, with jumping hours, retrograde minutes and small seconds, and the three new watches get some pretty wild colors, hand-guilloché enamel dials and a choice of materials.

Let’s start with what the three watches share. They come in a case that’s the same size - 42mm wide and 14.5mm thick. Two versions come in titanium cases, while the very aptly named Dracula model gets a red gold case. On the side of all three is the signature oversized onion crown, the case is knurled underneath the bezel and on the caseback, and the finish includes polishing and vertical brushing on the sides. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The details of the dials are equally shared among the three models. They are made out of curved gold with hand-guilloché wave-like pattern in a fan shape in the upper section and in the small seconds display. The wave-like pattern is treated with seven layers of Grand Feu enamel, and there’s an opining in the center for the jumping hours with a white or black background. The arc features a semi-circular minutes scale for the openworked retrograde minutes hand and the minute scale is executed with ceramic dots.

The three colors have their own name. The Delphis Dracula comes in the 18k red gold case and has a blood-red enamel. It also comes in a presentation box shaped like a coffin. The Delphis Dune and Delphis Horizon both come in titanium with the former having an amber-coloured dial and the latter a sky-blue dial.

Inside is the automatic calibre C. 6004 developed by La Joux-Perret. Wound by an openworked tungsten rotor, it beats at 4Hz and has a 55 hour power reserve. The watches come on black rubber straps with a folding clasp.

Each color of the new Chronoswiss Delphis is limited to 50 pieces and retails for €41,800 for the Dracula and €21,800 for the titanium versions. See more on the Chronoswiss website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the revamped Sinn 903 St II

2/

Hands on with the new MeisterSinger Neo Collection

3/

 A review of the Glashütte Original Sixties

⚙️Watch Worthy

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

In a market where world timers can easily cost several times more, the Farer World Timer Roché II is an incredible proposition

On the wrist, the Roché II is a joy to wear. It’s the right size for most wrists, and the curved lugs ensure it sits comfortably. Whether you’re dressed up for a night out or keeping it casual on the weekend, this watch has the versatility to match any outfit. One thing I’ll add here is another note about the strap. This is not hyperbole, but I have to say that this is by far the favorite leather strap I’ve ever tried on a watch. It’s nice and slim, feels broken in, and contours to the wrist beautifully.

Read the whole review on Two Broke Watch Snobs

⏲️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

• Kiran Shah – the world’s smallest stuntman - has a strong claim to have appeared in more blockbuster movies than anyone else on Earth. In an truly spectacular interview for the Guardian, he discusses upbraiding Brando, smoking with Christopher Reeve, slanging matches with James Cameron – and a shocking experience at a party with Freddie Mercury.

• At a dive bar in L.A., Fred Armisen, one of the funniest people of our generation, is living a not-so-secret life as a punk musician. But here’s the punch line: It’s no joke.

• What an incredibly dramatic article this is. When Emily Grover was named homecoming queen, the school accused her and her mom of hacking students’ accounts to cast votes. They face hefty sentences—but say they’ve been framed. I mean, can you imagine going to jail for rigging a Homecoming Queen Contest?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’m gonna assume there aren’t a lot of Brad Leone fans among my readers, but I’m pretty sure there are a couple of you who can’t stand Bert Kreischer. But, when I tell you that this video is like watching 2 Golden Retrievers meet at the dog park… You might want to check it out.

💵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

Want to let us know what you think about the newsletter? Go to our survey and fill it out.

-Vuk