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- Breitling Releases Hefty Solid Gold Super Bowl-Themed Chronomat B01, Orient Stars Updates Flagship Moonphase, Swatch Pulls Another Bait-and-Switch With MoonSwatch, New From Bausele And Hublot
Breitling Releases Hefty Solid Gold Super Bowl-Themed Chronomat B01, Orient Stars Updates Flagship Moonphase, Swatch Pulls Another Bait-and-Switch With MoonSwatch, New From Bausele And Hublot
Previous Breitling partnerships were a bit over the top, this one is great
It's About Time
February 01, 2024
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I know pretty much everyone dislikes the MoonSwatch for it being an overpriced plastic watch. I’m starting to hate them for their horrible baiting strategies - they heavily hinted at a Snoopy MoonSwatch and have us a briefcase of boring watches nobody can buy.
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In this issue:
Breitlign Releases A Hefty, Solid Gold, Super Bowl Themed, Chronomat B01 To Benefit Charity
Orient Star Updates Their Flagship Watch, The Mechanical Moon Phase
11 MoonSwatch Mission To Moonshine Gold Suitcase Sets Head To Auction In Another Swatch Bait-And-Switch
Australian Based Bausele Teams Up With seconde/seconde/ For A Watch That’s Both A Shark And A Surfboard
Hublot Unveils The Very Bold, Very Advanced, Big Bang Unico Saxem Green
Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 2 seconds
Number of dragon-themed watches this Year (so far, and including today): 18
👂What’s new
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Watch partnerships can be a tricky thing. Overdo it with the double-branding and you’re veering into tacky territory. When it comes to watches, Breitling has often wandered very close to this border, often crossing it. Just look at their collaborations with Bentley. Yikes. But now, they’re releasing somethign very interesting. The new Breitling Chronomat B01 42 Super Bowl LVIII Edition looks to be just a regular, great looking, Chronomat B01 42 that’s rendered in 18k red gold, with no visible links to the NFL and the Super Bowl, as the name would suggest. Which is very interesting, especially since their sale will benefit charity.
Starting of with the case, it comes in the 42mm Chronomat B01 version, meaning that it measures 42mm wide, a hefty 15.1mm thick and has a 50.5mm lug-to-lug. This is a chunky watch in the best tradition of chunky Breitling pieces. The case is made out of 18k red gold, just like the unidirectional rotating timing bezel. Despite being made out of an expensive precious metal, it still has a water resistance of 200 meters, thanks to the screw-down crown and caseback. Speaking of the caseback, that’s basically the only place where you get prominent Super Bowl branding, with a large red and purple Super Bowl LVIII logo printed on the underside surface of the display window, along with the unique production number.
The dial has a dark blue sunburst finish with black sub-dials and a matching back chapter ring that has a tachymeter scale printed in white. The hour markers are baton shaped, filled with lume, while the all the hands are rendered in red gold. There are additional bright red accents on the chapter ring and on the centrally-mounted chronograph seconds hand that pop against the blue.
Inside is the Breitling Caliber B01 automatic chronograph movement, COSC certified and beating at 28,800vph with a power reserve of 70-hours. It’s also as decorated as a Breitling gets with Geneva stripes on its uppermost bridge and a gold-finished rotor. The watch can be had on the collection’s signature Rouleaux bracelet in matching full 18k red gold or a black rubber strap. The bracelet is incredibly expensive (no, really, hang around to see what they want for it), but it transforms the watch into something really beautiful.
This watch is made in collaboration with the Boomer Esiason Foundation, headed by the legnedary Bengals quarterback and on a mission to cure cystic fibrosis. That’s why the first watch in the series will be sold at auction and 100% of the proceeds will go to the foundation. All together, 58 watches (a nod to the 58th Super Bowl that kicks off next Sunday) will be made, and of the remaining 57, 10% will go to the foundation. If you want the watch on the rubber strap, it will set you back $24,000. On the 18k red gold Rouleaux bracelet? A whooping $42,000. See more on the Breitling website.
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Every time I write about Orient watches, or their more luxurious counterpart Orient Star, I have to point out the exact same thing - I have how Orient does business. They are a Japanese watchmaking powerhouse, found in thousands of stores around the world and owned by Seiko Epson, one of the pillars of the Seiko group. They make great watches at pretty fantastic prices. And yet, and yet! They insist on not telling anyone when they release new watches, they have very limited functionality to their website, but I still masochistically try to follow them. Now, Orient Star is releasing a new addition to their legendary Mechanical Moon Phase Classic Collection, the unfortunately named M45 F7 Mechanical Moon Phase RE-AY0107N.
The Mechanical Moon Phase is an icon for Orient Star, a relatively affordable moonphase with a partially sekeltonized dial, it is an elegant classic. The new version keeps the same case which is made of stainless steel and measures 41mm wide and 13.8mm thick, with a lug to lug of 49mm. Water resistance is not great at 50 meters, but this is more of a dressy offering from the brand anyway.
The black dial has a slightly fumé look to it, with two distinct sectors. On the outer one you’ll find the recognizable Roman numerals, while the inside one has what Orient Star calls a “flowing water motif dial plate”. The moon phase display slightly overlaps the 6 o’clock mark and 9 o’clock skeleton window, while the power reserve indicator perches beneath the 12 o’clock numeral. To top things off, the watch implements a sleek diamond-shaped handset.
Inside is the F7M62 caliber movement which has a 50 hour power reserve and, according to Orient Star, has an accuracy of +15 seconds to -5 seconds per day. The watch comes on a black Cordovan strap with a folding clasp.
The only online retailer where I could find the price for the new Mechanical Moon Phase RE-AY0107N is on the UK website, where the stated price is £1,667 (around $2,119). See more on the Orient Stare website.
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11 MoonSwatch Mission To Moonshine Gold Suitcase Sets Head To Auction In Another Swatch Bait-And-Switch
Omega and Swatch broke the internet a couple of years ago when they introduced a plastic recreation of the legendary Speedmaster in a range of fantastic colors. However, since the, they have been really milking the watch. They did an entire line of 11 watches themed after the full moons of the year, (almost) all in black plastic and all with a gold seconds hands as the only differentiator. I found this whole thing of “only making and selling the watches during a full moon” very weird, but didn’t pay much attention to the MoonSwatches much. At least until I saw the teaser for a new MoonSwatch that featured Snoopy. Now, a Snoopy MoonSwatch I can get behind.
Don’t worry, there’s no Snoopy MoonSwatch. Swatch just pulled a massive bait-and-switch that just might sour what little good faith they had in the watch community. They are releasing suitcases that come with the complete Mission to Moonshine MoonSwatches. But it would be too simple if you could be able to buy one. Only 11 will be made and they will be auctioned off at Sotheby's, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Orbis – a charity dedicated to blindness prevention with which Omega has been associated since 2011. Well that’s something at least, it going to charity.
The 11 suitcases will each include all 11 MoonSwatch models released last year, including the only interesting watch of the bunch - the "Blue Moon" model based on the Mission to Neptune MoonSwatch. But, to be honest, the suitcase for the MoonSwatches is incredibly cool and something we have seen twice before. In 2022, when they launched the MoonSwatch they used the same closed cases as a teaser in Swatch stores everywhere. It also reminds me of the legendary Speedmaster Missions box set in which 22 watches dedicated to the 22 most important NASA missions came in a single briefcase lined with the same material as space suits. I’m willing to bet that there’s still an imprint of my face in the window of the watch store in Munich that had that case on display in 1997 when it came out and I couldn’t stop drooling over it.
Before the auction ends on February 24th, the 11 suitcases will be on display at 11 Omega boutiques across the globe from February 1 to 11, including Zurich, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, New York, London, Milan, Paris, and Sydney. Each of the cases will contain a golden monocle with the Omega x Swatch logo and a coin engraved with the three-letter aviation code from their displayed city, and the same code will be engraved on the side of all watches.
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Last year was a big year for watch customizer Romaric André who goes by seconde/seconde/. In fact, it was such a big year that some of his collaborations with large watchmakers ended up just being ridiculous and corny. So, it’s nice to see him start 2024 with a collaboration that brings him back to his roots of being a funny dude with great ideas. He has teamed up with the Australian based watch brand Bausele for a surf/shark themed watch called the Perspective. As it’s all about perspective with this one.
The Perspective is based on the Sydney Diver which measures 39.5mm wide, 11.6mm thick and has a 47.5mm lug-to-lug. The case is made out of stainless steel with a black IP coating. On top is a unidirectional diving bezel with colour-matched blue Super-LumiNova markings and you still have the Bausele signature crown filled with red sand from the Kimberley, the rugged northern region of Western Australia.
There are two dial variants - black and white. Both versions have bright blue hour markers and the hour and minute hands are white with a bright blue surround on them. The seconds hand is where you get the name Perspective from and all of the seconde/seconde/ humor. The seconds hand extends the entire diameter of the watch and in the center you will find a pixelated fin. Depending on its orientation, it can look like a shark fin piercing the waves or a surboard fin just underneath the surface, with the scene inverting every 30 seconds. Neat trick. An additional joke can be found at 6 o’clock on the dial where they replaced the 200m water resistance text with “deep!”.
Inside is the trusty and robust Sellita SW200 which is familiar and easily servicable. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. Both are available on either a black Tropic-style rubber strap or a blue Velcro strap, a first for the Bausele Sydney Diver.
The Bausele x seconde/seconde/ Perspective is a limited edition of 100 pieces, 50 black and 50 white. They go on sale on February 2nd 6:30 am AEDT which is February 1st 8.30pm in CET and 2.30PM in ET. Price is set at $1,400. See more on the Bausele website.
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Sapphire watches are incredibly difficult to make. Sapphire is one of the hardest materials used in watchmaking, so cutting out a case and achieving flowing lines is something only a few watchmakers could do. Interestingly, Hublot is on the cutting edge on developing sapphire cases for their watches. While working on those, they came up with a new material they call SAXEM – Sapphire Aluminium Oxide and Rare Earth Mineral – produced by blending aluminium oxide, the fundamental component of sapphire, with rare-earth elements such as thulium, holmium, and chromium. And now they’re introducing the Big Bang Unico Saxem Green.
Being a Big Bang Unico, it comes in a 42mm wide and 14.5mm thick case that’s transparent like sapphire, but not exactly sapphire. The signature H-shaped screws on the equally transparent green bezel are made from black-plated titanium, while the crown and chronograph pushers are finished in black PVD. Since SAXEM uses rare earth minerals to get its color and has a cubic form (instead of metallic oxides and a trigonal structure for sapphire), it remains equally as vibrant green regardless of the angle you’re looking at the watch.
To play on the transparent theme, Hublot skeletonized the dial and what’s left is finished with a polished black transparent resin. The hands, indices, minutes track, and registers are all green to match the case.
Inside is the MHUB1280 (Unico 2) self-winding chronograph flyback movement. It has a visible column wheel at 6 o’clock. The movement is finished in black PVD, beats at 28,800vph and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a transparent green rubber structured lined strap with a titanium buckle deployant clasp.
The Big Bang Unico Saxem Green is limited to 100 pieces and it’s just as expensive as you would imagine - €121,000. See more on the Hublot 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 likewatches
Baltic’s bronze is a unique combination of copper and aluminum alloy (CuAl8) that offers the wearer a nice patina with continued wear. Although the brand uses the French word marron in the moniker, this descriptor doesn’t fully do justice to the depth or richness of the color. A better term would be chocolate, though espresso may more accurately represent the dynamic fumé dial that is lighter in the center and deepens toward its edges. While the blue and black dials in the Aquascaphe line have a distinctive maritime flair, the marron plays nicely on or off the water. This is one of those rare divers that looks spectacular in a variety of situations. Much of that duality is thanks to the sapphire crystal bezel inlay, which provides a natural visual border and keeps the case from visually extending too far — something the black and blue dial versions lack. It would be as much at home on a lido deck in the Caribbean as on the wrist at the office, and that particular level of versatility is uncommon, especially at this price point.
⏲️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
I have never bowled in my life. I will most likely never bowl. I have no interest in bowling, other than the bowling in the two greatest bowling movies of all time - Big Lebowski and Kingpin. And yet… This was a fantastic piece on bowling. And how could it not be with a lead that read: In a bowling alley one night, Bill Fong came so close to perfection that it nearly killed him.
Archaeologist Abbas Alizadeh traveled to Iran for work. He ended up arrested, accused of espionage. This is how a U. of C. professor wound up a prisoner of Iran
A couple of years ago, the city I live in was hit by a pretty hard earthquake. It was a 5.5 on the Richter scale. Slightly destructive, but with minimal permanent consequences. But even that at 6 AM was enough to scare the bejeezus out of pretty much everyone who has faced this power of nature for the first time. One tends to be more careful after that, making loose plans on how to deal with something like that if it happens again. On the other hand, if you’re rich, you can turn to Global Rescue, the private crisis-response firm will get you out alive from disasters. If you can afford it, that is, and opening up many, many moral questions.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Guy Ritchie has a new movie and it looks like an absolute blast and return to form for him. Think of it as the World War II movie you always wanted to see, rally.
💵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 Ōtsuka 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