- It's About Time
- Posts
- [Daily News] Tissot Introduces Quartz And Mechanical GADA Chronographs; Farer Brings Back The World Timer With New Colors; Bremont And Bamford Release Aurora-Inspired Watch; New From Spinnaker And Chronoswiss
[Daily News] Tissot Introduces Quartz And Mechanical GADA Chronographs; Farer Brings Back The World Timer With New Colors; Bremont And Bamford Release Aurora-Inspired Watch; New From Spinnaker And Chronoswiss
We are still not ready for spring to arrive, but that doesn't mean we can't get springtime watches!
It's About Time
February 23, 2024
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I’m still late, the kid is still stick, but at least there are some amazing watches today. Farer proves once again that they are the best at what they do, but I have ordered a Spinnaker to keep me company until the summer!
If you like this newsletter, you might consider supporting it. You can do so in two ways. Forward it to someone you know loves watches and ask them to subscribe, or you can directly support it through Patreon.
In this issue:
Tissot Introduces The PR516, A New Collection Of Go-Anywhere-Do-Anything Manual and Quartz Chronographs
Farer Brings Back The World Timer With New Colors And Updated Movements
Bremont Teams Up With Bamford For A Limited Edition Northern Lights-Inspired Watch
Spinnaker Updates The Great Looking And Very Affordable Hull Chronograph With New Colors
Chronoswiss Welcomes The Very Curvy Delphis Sapphire With A Mesmerising Guilloché Dials
Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 44 seconds
👂What’s new
1/
Without a doubt, the most popular model in Tissot’s lineup is the PRX. This vast and best-selling model line is not based on a historic line from the late 70s. Seeing that vintage revivals work wonders, Tissot has decided to go ahead and do more of them. Last year the relaunched the Sideral and now they’re looking back to the PR 516, first introduced as a time-only in 1965 and in 1968 as a chronograph. The ‘PR’ in the name stands for ‘Particularly Resistant’, and it seems that Tissot has taken this to heart with the relaunch in the shape of the PR516, four go-anywhere-do-anything chronograph variants, three quartz and one hand-wound.
Let’s start off with the quartz versions, as they will surely be the better selling ones, and there’s an interesting detail about the manual wind that deserves a paragraph or two on it’s own. The quartz versions feature an updated design from the 1968 original and come in stainless steel cases that measure 40mm wide, 11.9mm thick and have a lug-to-lug of 47mm. On top is a sapphire crystal and at the back is a solid caseback which all adds up to 100 meters of water resistance. Surrounding the crystal is a thin bezel which matches the color of the dial and is partly lumed.
The watch comes in three versions - a blue dial/silver case version, a black dial/silver case version and a black dial/silver-gold case. The gold, of course, is not real gold, but rather a PVD coating, giving it a very 80s look. The dials are a bit different than what you might expect from mechanical chronographs, as the subdials you would otherwise expect to sit at 3 and 9 actually sit 2 and 10 to line up with the quartz movement.
Inside is the quartz caliber G10.212 Power Drive which has a 38 month battery life. The watches come on a three-row bracelet with polished centre links and a quick-release mechanism.
Moving on to the mechanical version, things get very interesting. It’s slightly larger, with a stainless steel case that measures 41mm wide, 13.7mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 49mm. The mechanical version, with both it’s shapes and colors has a much more vintage feel to it. In line with that, you’ll find a box shaped crystal on top. There’s a sapphire crystal on the back as well. On top is the similar partially lumed bezel.
The dial of this version also lets on that this watch is a bit more refined, a bit better built and a lot more expensive. Not having to rely on the quartz placement of subdials, you get the more traditional tri-compax layout. The colors are also a lot more retro here, with a black dial, orange hands on the subdials and the centre chrono hand and a light blue marking on the first five minutes of the minute counter subdial. The central syringe hands, however, are the same on both watches.
At first, one might assume that the mechanical version of this watch features the Powermatic 80, Swatch Group’s ETA 2824-2 inspired movement that Swatch brands chose to power a bunch of their affordable watches. But this, of course, can’t be the case, as the Powermatic 80 is a time-only movement. That’s why Tissot uses the Valjoux 7753-based A05.291. They removed the self-winding mechanism to make it manual-wound, updated the barrel architecture to extend the power reserve to 68 hours and added a new regulating system. This allows it to get really commendable accuracy of + / - 5seconds per day. It comes on the same bracelet, but with a fully brushed finish.
The new Tissot PR516 are on sale right now and at two very different price points. The quartz models are priced at €545 for the all-steel versions and €595 for the two-tone version. But the mechanical version comes in at €1,975. First reviews say that the manual-wound version is a much more refined product than the quartz version, but closing in on €2,000 is a lot of money, despite it having a movement that powered the likes of Breitling, IWC, TAG Heuer and Sinn. See more on the Tissot website.
2/
Of all the watch brands, I have the toughest time with Farer when it comes to choosing what the best watch they make. Be it their amazing cases, brilliant use of color, nifty applications of lume or overall fantastic design, pretty much every single one of their watches is spectacular. But if I were forced to chose just one, then be it the World Timer. This is, of course, is a shame, as all the World Timers are sold out. Well, good news, as Farer is bring back the World timer with improved internals and new colors.
Outside, the watch remains the same. It still measures 39mm wide and has a very comfortable lug-to-lug of 45mm. The case is made out of stainless steel with a combination of brushed, polished and media-blasted finishes. The case has indents on both sides where you’ll find the blasted finish, the bezel and lug chamfers are polished, while the rest is brushed.
All three versions have a very thin bezel which allows maximum visibility to the dial and internal bezel, perhaps the most important part of the world timer. The bezel features 24 global cities and it’s paired with an internal 24-hour scale on the dial which is operated with the primary crown. You use the secondary crown to set the primary city on the bezel and then don’t touch that, instead relying on the internal rotating ring which matches up with the cities on the bezel. Sounds complicated, but actually works pretty simple. Especially when you realise that what looks like a GMT hand, with it’s prominent arrow on top, is not the GMT hand but instead a seconds hand. On the 24 city bezel you’ll find the first update, as Paris has been replaced with Bienne, the birth place of the world time complication. Also, Hong Kong has changed to Bejing and Mexico City to Chicago.
The colors are just great, as you would expect. The Roché II and Markham II are based on the original Roché and Markham, featuring the same colourways of navy blue or red, white and blue respectively. Brand new is the Foxe, my favorite, as it comes in a deep forrest green.
Inside is the a modified version of the Sellita SW330-1 Elaboré that Sellita makes for Farer. They change the GMT hand for the rotating 24-hour complication. They also upgrade the mainspring which ups the power reserve to 50 hours. The watches come on a color matched St Venere leather strap, but for an extra £150 you can opt for a stainless steel bracelet.
The new Farer World Timers are available for purchase right now on Farer’s website with a price of £1,495 (€1,695 / $1,695). See more with Farer.
3/
This is a wild story. Do you know where the term bucket list originates from? You would assume it’s always been around, at least since you were a kid, right? Well, you would be wrong. The term kick the bucket has been around since the 19th century, but the ‘bucket list’ has essentially been established by the 2007 Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman film Bucket List. The words bucket list have appeared together before, but only seldomly and not meaning what we know now to mean by bucket list. How many mediocre comedies can say that they introduced such a ubiquitous term into popular culture. I’m bringing this up because I don’t believe in bucket lists, as they put undue pressure on you having to do something. If it happens, it happens, I say. But there is one thing on my bucket list. One thing I will have to see - the Aurora Borealis, the Northern lights.
I’m obsessed with this natural phenomenon and really want to see it one time before I kick the bucket. It’s a beautiful thing to behold and numerous watches attempt to capture this beauty. Most recently, the British watchmaker Bremont and watch customiser Bremont teamed up to create the limited edition Aurora, inspited by the Northen lights.
Based on the Bremont Supermarine, the Aurora comes in Bremont’s stainless steel Trip-Tick case that measures 43mm wide and is coated in a black DLC. On top is a bi-colored polished sapphire 24-hour bezel and it’s made special with obscene amounts of green Super-LumiNova used on the watch. It’s on the bezel, it’s on the hands, it’s on the California-dial numerals… It’s everywhere.
Inside is the Bremont Modified Calibre 11, essentially a customized and upgraded ETA 2893 automatic GMT. It is chronometer-certified, antimagnetic, and has a power reserve of 50 hours. The watch comes on a on a 22mm hybrid fabric and leather strap with matching stitching.
The Bremont x Bamford Aurora is limited to 500 pieces and it launched yesterday at a price of $5,450. Unfortunately, and a bit confusingly, they are all sold out. See more on the Bremont website.
4/
At the top of the Spinnaker sub-page for their Hull Chronograph, it reads: “As February ushers in the promise of spring, Spinnaker is delighted to unveil its latest additions to the bestselling Hull Chronograph collection – a vibrant line of timepieces which embrace the season's spirit with a spectrum of captivating colors.” And I couldn’t really agree more. I was thinking how I ended up with a bunch of monochromatic watches and would love to get a fun, cheap and affordable watch for the spring/summer. It just so happens, Spinnaker updated their SP-5068 Hull Chronograph with fantastic new colors.
The Hull Chronograph comes in a really nice 42mm wide stainless steel case that has a coushion shape, almost like a Panerai Luminor would come in. The case has a polished finish with a brushed bezel on top which features a tachymeter scale. Water resistance is rated at 100 meters, which is perfect for a quick dip in the sea this summer.
The watch comes with three distinct color dials, with fantastic contrasts and good looking finishings. The basic setup is the same on all three, with a tri-compax subdial orientation with filled subdials at 3 and 6 o’clock and a floating running seconds hand at 6 o’clock. Additionally, there’s a date display at 12 o’clock. First up is Burnt Maroon which gets a deep red dial with cream subdials which looks more fall-like than suited for springtime, but I still dig it a lot. Next up is the Sky Blue with a light blue dial and dark grey subdials. And last is the Shire Green, a fantastic looking green dial with a fumé from light green in the center to dark green on the outside.
Inside is the SII-VK73 meca-quartz movement, which is to be expected for the price. Being a meca-quartz, you get the quartz powering the time and a mechanical chronograph module mounted on top. All three versions come on leather straps in colors that match the colors of the dial.
The Spinnaker SP-5068 Hull Chronograph is available now for a pretty great price - €220. See more on the Spinnaker website.
5/
I just skimmed the It’s About Time archive and it turns out that I have never written about Chronoswiss. Which is a shame, because they make some pretty intense looking pieces at surprisingly low prices. That’s not to say that they are cheap. But they look way more expensive than one would imagine. Their latest release, the Delphis Sapphire, lives up to this description.
The Delphis Sapphire comes in a 42mm wide stainless steel case that’s made out of a surprising 17 pieces. And the many pieces show, as the case has a very traditional look with an onion crown and coined edges on top and bottom of the case. There seems to be no bezel on top, in order to maximise the view of the incredible dial.
The dial is not only curved, but also finished with a guilloché that’s created by hand and after that CVD coated in a sapphire blue. On top of the dial is a digital hour display, sorrounded with a central retrograde minute and analog seconds at 6 o’clock. The minute hand is dramatically curved to follow the curve of the dial, and all the hands are skeletonized and plated in brass gold.
Inside is the C.6004 caliber co-developed with La Joux-Perret which comes with a skeletonized tungsten rotor, Côtes de Genève decoration and ruthenium-plated components. Power reserve is rated at 55 hours.
The Chronoswiss Delphis Sapphire is limited to 50 pieces and it’s priced at $16,700. Like I said, not horrible for what you get. See more on the Chronoswiss website.
🫳On hand
Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon
1/
2/
3/
⚙️Real Time Reviews
A new segment in which we feature reviews from real users reviewing their personal watches
Alain Silberstein had to close down business in 2012, so this watch is bought At first glance you might be tempted to think that you are looking at a children's watch, but the Alain Silberstein Krono Bauhaus chronograph is - as the name says - designed using the guidelines laid out by the Bauhaus school in the 1920s. Where we are accustomed to see Bauhaus to stringent black and white, minimalistic design, the Bauhaus school also had rules for use of colour and form: base colours like blue, red and yellow; forms are the square, the circle and the triangle.
The second thing you notice after the bold colours is the thickness of the watch. With its 14 mm thick case, it is not your average dress watch. This model is in polished steel so no lightweight either.
The watch has several complications: day and date, Day/night indicator, small seconds and chronograph that can register time up to 12 hours. But there are challenges.
⏲️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 love a good portrait. Something that only Esquire or GQ can drum up. And this is one such portrait. For nearly 30 years, Cillian Murphy has built an unimpeachable body of work as one of our most versatile actors—while somehow also staying cleverly out of sight. Now, as an Oscar front-runner, the Oppenheimer star pulls back the curtain (just a bit).
Jim and Sue Chilton, a couple in their 80s, own tens of thousands of grazing acres in Arizona along the U.S.-Mexico border—an area three times the size of Manhattan that has become one of the busiest corridors for illegal border crossings. In this well-reported story, Eli Saslow shows what day-to-day life is like for the couple and their cowboys on Chilton Ranch.
Stephen Mihm meets the dedicated team devoted to locating and recovering the remains of Americans—and their planes—that were lost during the Second World War. Following the meticulous process of finding, and then recovering a plane, Mihm shows the resources it takes to finally give these lost pilots a military funeral.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Since we all like watches, I’ll go ahead and assume we are all incredible nerds. And the King of Nerds, Adam Savage is here with a video so nerdy it will break your mind. He created an exact replica of Le Grand K, the object formerly used as the international prototype and standard for the measurement of a kilogram. He's finally found a kilogram cylinder that will suffice for his collection, and builds the two-bell-jar display that famously houses the metrological artifact in a vault outside Paris.
💵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
Want to sell your watch to a community of passionate horologists? Reach out to us and we’ll put your ad up.
Want to let us know what you think about the newsletter? Go to our survey and fill it out.
-Vuk