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- Citizen Brings Fan Favorite Line Outside of Asia; Vieren Is Bringing Back 70s Disco Cool; and Atelier de Chronométrie Introduces Gray Gold
Citizen Brings Fan Favorite Line Outside of Asia; Vieren Is Bringing Back 70s Disco Cool; and Atelier de Chronométrie Introduces Gray Gold
A very quirky mix of extremely affordable and extremely expensive watches
It's About Time
March 16, 2023
Hey friends, welcome to a new edition of It’s About Time. Yesterday’s edition was the longest we ever had to write. Today, there’s not much going on. So we’ll take it easy.
In this issue:
Citizen Brings Asian Fan Favorite Tsuyosa Line to Europe
Vieren Is Bringing Back 70s Disco Cool
Atelier de Chronométrie Introduces Gray Gold
And… invite your friends to win a Tiffany PRX
Today’s reading time: 5 minutes and 21 seconds
We’re starting off with a bang! We’re giving away TWO of this year’s hottest watches:
THE TIFFANY PRX!
This is the PRX Powermatic 80 we’re giving away. Not this one obviously. But one just like it.
That’s right! You’ve read about them, you’ve seen the videos and now you can own your own Tissot PRX with the Powermatic 80 movement and the light blue dial. All you have to do is forward this email to five of your friends and get them to click on the button below to subscribe. Both you and one of your friends will be eligible to win one of the watches
We only have two conditions when entering this giveaway - invite 5 of your friends to subscribe and live somewhere were you can buy the PRX online, so we can do this for you and ship it to your address. That’s it!
👂What’s new
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The Citizen Tsuyosa became an immediate hit in watch enthusiast circles, despite the difficulties of getting one, as it was only available in select Asian markets. Now, Citizen is introducing new dial colors and renaming the 80s vintage inspired collection to Citizen ME to launch it in Europe.
The Citizen ME’s dial looks like the Rolex Oyster Perpetual’s, with its baton-style hands and applied indices. Previously, the model was offered with black, blue, green, and yellow dials. Now, four new options enter the repertoire – a deep blue with a grained texture, a Tiffany-like blue, teal, and red – all of them with a sunray brushed and fumé effect. Other than the red variant, each colour comes in a stainless-steel case, while the red one is in a rose gold-plated one. Speaking of the case, it’s 40mm x 11.7mm, the bracelet is integrated and the watch is powered by the Citizen 8210 movement.
Citizen ME will be available from June/July in Europe (you can get it in some Asian markets already) at a price of €299 for the steel version and €349 for the rose gold plated version.
2/
The 70s are making one hell of a comeback. While those who have lived through the era will tell you that this is not necessarily a good thing. While the music and movies might have been awesome, the 70s are not always the go-to era when you think of great fashion.
However, the 70s revival in the watch game has had some success so far, with the muted brown and funky dials. Now, a young Canadian brand named Vieren is banking on this trend with their Vieren Gold Mirror Special Edition, inspired by the opulent lifestyle of Studio 54 guests.
The Vieren Gold Mirror Special Edition is 41.5mm-long by 27mm-wide and plated in 18K gold. The dial is, honestly, impressive for such a young brand. It’s equally minimal, with a matte gold hours scale with engraved line indices, augmented by a similarly elemental engraved minutes track on the polished vertical rehaut, and maximalist with a skeleton window at the center which frames elements of the gear train behind a polished gold plate. The movement inside is fairly basic - the ETA 2671, but it looks good enough.
The Vieren is very cool, very disco and not terribly expensive if you are looking for something different - $5,250
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As the official timekeeper of the Freeride World Tour, a competition in which skiers and snowboarders throw themselves down rocky mountainsides, Alpina has just debuted the Alpina Alpiner Extreme Automatic Freeride World Tour 2023.
It’s not a terrible watch. As a sports option, you could do worse. The stainless steel case measures 41 x 42.5 mm, 11.50 mm in height and seems to be fairly rugged. It’s powered by Alpina’s caliber AL-525 which is based on the robust and simple to service Sellita caliber SW200-1 a.
There’s just one bit issue with the watch - the price of €1,595. If it were a third of that price, it would be fantastic value for money.
4/
Hautlence is an interesting brand. In September 2022, after a few years of no new models, MELB Holding (also the owner of H. Moser & Cie.) decided to relaunch the brand with a collection that enjoys all the advantages of indie watchmaking - TV-shaped case and original displays. This took the shape of two watches, the Vagabonde Series 4 with wandering hours and, the most striking of the two, the Linear Series 1, a watch that takes on the classic cues of the brand. And now, it’s back in black, with the Hautlence Linear Series 2.
Hautlence watches relies on jumping indications and retrograde hands, with full exposure of the mechanism driving these complex displays. This very interesting dial is mounted on top of the calibre D50, also known as the automatic tourbillon calibre HMC 804 when encased in Moser watches. The whole assembly consists of 239 components.
The Hautlence Linear Series 2 Black PVD is released as a limited edition of 28 pieces. The retail price will be CHF 63,000 including taxes.
5/
Atelier de Chronométrie teams up with The Lavish Attic, a Hong Kong based collective that curates exclusive high craft products and experiences, to produce the AdC33 watch with some extremely interesting dials and cases.
The case is offered in a very interesting precious metal the brand calls gray gold, a gold alloy with high palladium content that apparently lands somewhere between white gold and platinum in appearance. The white grand feu dial is inspired by Chinese pottery, further aided by the blued steel applied Chinese antique indexes.
Just 8 pieces of the AdC33 are planned for production, so don’t expect to run into one at your local meet up anytime soon. The price will run around 65,000 Euros for the precious metal options, though steel will also be available for those more budget conscious at around 60,000 Euros
🫳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
The brand Pequignet and the Royale Saphir model are clearly off the beaten track, and that is their strength. This brand definitely is no microbrand, yet it still is highly individual.
⏲️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
Hodinkee has an interesting tip for why an early Roger Dubuis is worth knowing about
Watch collectors fancy themselves to be close to extreme situations in life. Don’t ask me why, but they more often do than not. So here’s a couple of extreme reads for you. The New Yorker gives you a deep dive into the world of extreme cavers, GQ reveals the secrets of the world’s greatest freediver and The Ringer drags you along for a run with the world’s greatest ultramarathon runner.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Speaking of adventure, check out this video of the incredible life od Peter Freuchen, the wildest arctic explorer to have ever lived.
😉Famous faces
Celebrities are just like us 😄
💵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
SOLD: Rolex Explorer I 39 mm Mark I, ref. 214270. Great condition, no box or papers. €7250, OBO. 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
Want to sell your watch to a community of passionate horologists? Reach out to us and we’ll put your ad up. $15 per listing without photos, $25 with photos. 10 available slots per day, discounts for multiple slots.
We’re starting off with a bang! We’re giving away TWO of this year’s hottest watches:
THE TIFFANY PRX!
This is the PRX Powermatic 80 we’re giving away. Not this one obviously. But one just like it.