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- Longines Answers Zulu Time Fan Requests With Hodinkee, Breitling Works With Bucherer On Limited Superocean, Hanhart Releases Flyback Chrono And Stopwatch, New From RZE, Braun And Sartory Billard
Longines Answers Zulu Time Fan Requests With Hodinkee, Breitling Works With Bucherer On Limited Superocean, Hanhart Releases Flyback Chrono And Stopwatch, New From RZE, Braun And Sartory Billard
Gone are the five star reviews and fauxtina and we get something more utilitarian
It's About Time
December 06, 2023
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Sure, the Internet has agreed that the new Longines x Hodinkee Spirit Zulu Time is a snoozefest, but I love it for fixing two of the biggest issues of the original
If you like this newsletter, you might consider supporting it directly through Patreon. If you were subscribed, you could have already read my lengthy piece on Only Watch and it potentially being the biggest scam of the watch world. Other subscriber-only articles include the Completely Sterile Secret Watches Of MACV-SOG and my choice of 11 vintage Heuer watches that would make the perfect basis for new TAG Heuer recreations, including a possible MoonSwatch type watch that could actually break the internet.
In this issue:
Longines Teams Up With Hodinkee For A Slightly Boring Spirit Zulu Time That Answers Fan Requests
Breitling and Rolex-Owned Bucherer Release A Very Unusual Superocean
Hanhart Will Take Care Of Your Vintage Rally Car And Wrist With The Red X Grey & Blue Flyback Chronograph and Stopwatch Set
RZE Opens Up Preorders For Their New Titanium Resolute Pro With Enamel Dials
Industrial Design Legends Braun Team Up With Fashion Legend Paul Smith For New Bauhaus-Inspired Watches
Sartory Billard Introduces First In-House Movement For The Flying Tourbillon SB06-12 And SB06-24
Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 29 seconds
👂What’s new
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In 2022, Longines introduced the Spirit Zulu Time. It was an homage to the first dual time zone Longines from 1925. That watch featured the famous Zulu flag, denoted by the letter Z, which has been, and still is, an indicator of aviation and military Universal ZULU Time. The ‘22 version quickly became one of the most popular multi-time zone pieces that they produced. It was a great tool watch but even as such, there were a couple of criticisms lobbed at it. Not many, but so many people dislike the five star review that Longines left themselves on the dial. Now, Longines has teamed up with Hodinkee to create a limited edition of the Spirit Zulu Time that addresses some of those issues.
The watch is made out of Grade 5 titanium and measures 39mm wide and 13.5mm thick. The finishing is brushed, to match the utilitarian nature of the watch. It has a bidirectional titanium bezel featuring a laser-engraved 24-hour scale. This replaces the colored bezel of the original. The oversized screw-down crown, also in titanium, allows the time zone and time setting to be set independently. Covering the dial is a domed sapphire crystal.
The dial itself is a beautiful dark anthracite with a slight texture to it. There’s a date window at 3 o'clock, while the applied hour markers, numerals, and hands are rendered in polished PVD titanium. While the original has a cream lume applied to it, making it look a bit like faux-tina, this LE with Hodinkee uses stark white lume. The dial also loses the ridiculous five stars. Thank you, Hodinkee. The GMT hand has a yellow tip.
Inside the watch is the Longines L844.4 caliber, paired with a silicon balance-spring and components that offer a magnetic resistance that is ten times greater than the ISO 764 benchmark standard. The movement is COSC-certified and has a power reserve of 72 hours.
To be perfectly fair, the Hodinkee x Longines Spirit Zulu Time is a bit boring. It seems that the rest of the market agrees with me because there are still some for sale from the limited amount of 500. Hodinkee collaborations usually sell out within the same day, and this Longines has been released yesterday and you can still get it. Despite being a bit snoozy, I still like it. And if I were in the market for a Spirit Zulu Time, this would be the one to get. Price is set at $3,800. See more on the Longines website or Hodinkee.
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The watch world was shocked a couple of months ago when Rolex announced that they are purchasing Bucherer, one of the, if not THE, largest watch retailers in the world. It was no-doubt a huge power move from the Swiss watch brand, and many were left with the same question: what happens next? Bucherer has been widely known for their collaborations with a wide range of brands, and many feared that Rolex ownership would push these exclusives out. Well, fear no more, because Bucherer has teamed up with Breitling for a trio of exclusive edition Superoceans.
The three Superocean models made with Bucherer come in three sizes - 44, 42 and 36mm. As expected, no significant changes have been made to the original Breitlings, and the changes have been limited to new colorways. This means that you get the somewhat divisive Superocean that was redesigned in 2022 with a very recognizable square block of lume on the minute hand.
The Superocean 44 comes with a very nice baby blue dial and a unidirectional rotating bezel in black with a ceramic inlay. The rehaut, which is huge on all new Superoceans is white with black markings. The watch comes on a black rubber strap. A very similar color combination can be seen on the Superocean 36, which has the same baby blue dial and white rehaut, but it also has a white ceramic inlay. It also gets a white rubber strap.
The Superocean 42 is very different from the two. It gets a black dial, a black ceramic inlay on the bezel and a burgundy rehaut. It’s also a bit classed up as the edge of the bezel and the crown are rendered in rose gold. All three models are capable divers and can be taken down to 300 meters. This one gets the black rubber strap.
Inside all three watches is the Breitling Calibre 17, an automatic movement that is basically the ETA 2824 with a Breitling-branded rotor. This is great because you get a solid movement that’s easily repairable, but not so great because you will be paying a lot o money for a very basic movement. The movement beats at 28,800 vph and has 38 hours of power reserve.
All three watches are available from Bucherer right now with the 36 priced at CHF 5,000, the 44 priced at CHF 5,100 and the 42 priced at CHF 7,200. See more on the Bucherer website.
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On wrists of many, if not the majority, of German pilots and naval officers for decades you could find Hanhart watches. Their pilot’s watches have always been known as incredible tool watches with some nifty features, like the recognizable red pusher that prevents pilots from accidentally zeroing the timing. However, just alongside the watches, Hanhart has been making some of the best stopwatches in Germany since 1924. Now, the German brand is pairing up their most coveted pilot’s watch, a flyback chronograph, with a stopwatch that comes with a table stand to display at home or in the office and a dashboard plate to mount in your vintage rally car.
The watch comes in a stainless steel case that measures 39mm wide and 14.5mm thick and has a polished and brushed finished. The invisible features are all decent - sapphire glass on top and bottom and 100 meters of water resistance. You still get the signature Hanhart red pusher reset the chronograph and the incredible fluted rotating bezel.
There are two versions of the watch, one with a grey and one with a blue dial. Both have a bicompax setup with counters that are recessed, with white tracks and numerals and bright red hands. The outside track on the dial is white with red markings at 5-minute intervals and numerals at the even number positions and four red rectangular hour markers at 1, 5, 7 and 11 .
Inside the watch is the manual-winding Sellita AMT5100 M integrated chronograph calibre with a column wheel and an extended power reserve of 58 hours. Both models come with calfskin leather straps to match the dial colour with red cross stitching.
Then there’s the stopwatch that comes with the watch. It comes in a polished steel case that measures 55mm wide and has a smooth bezel (shame, a fluted one here would have been amazing). It comes with a dial that matches the grey and blue of the watch and has a similar design. There’s a 30-minute counter at noon and inside is the calibre 122 in house movement with a Swiss lever escapement and column wheel. It can measure down to 1/5th of a second. The stopwatch comes with a 8cm x 6cm polished steel dashboard plate and a table stand also made of steel with a brown leather cover to protect the stopwatch.
The flyback chronograph and stopwatch set is limited to 140 sets and is actually priced pretty fairly - €2,790. See more on the Hanhart website.
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Making a best-selling watch is pretty easy. Use great materials, build it super-sturdy, make it look good and sell it for a very low price. Well, that’s easier said than done. The hundreds, maybe even thousands, of watch brands that went under can atest to how difficult it is to do. And yet, RZE is able to do it. For years they have been making really handsome tool watches that seem to be built to last and sell for incredibly great prices. Their latest release is an update to their Resolute line of field watches, now called the Resolute Pro, rendered in titanium and with a trio of gorgeous enamel dials.
The Resolute Pro doesn’t have a traditional circular case but it’s more of a circle inside of a rounded square. The titanium case measures 40mm wide, 10.5mm thick and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. Being a field watch aimed at exploration, you get 100 meters of water resistance and the case is coated with a UltraHex coating that protects from scratches. And seeing how it’s made out of titanium, it’s light at 120 grams, including the titanium bracelet.
The enamel dials come in three colors - black, yellow and white. The Pro ditches the 3-6-9 layout to keep things super simple with just baton markers that are filled with off-white Super-LumiNova. But in a nice little twist, the markers at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock are divided into two parts. The smaller outer parts of these markers feature the same off-white color during the day but light up green in the dark. It’s all very simple and easy to use.
Inside the watch is the Miyota 90S5 movement, part of their Premium Automatic series. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 42-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a titanium H-link bracelet that tapers down from 20mm to 16mm wide at the clasp.
The RZE Resolute Pro is available for preorder right now and deliveries are expected late January or early February 2024. Price is fantastic at $629, but you can knock off a few more bucks if you would like. The Resolute Pro ships in RZE’s Blackcomb Pouch, a nice reusable EDC pouch that sells on their website for $39. If you decide to go with a eco package, RZE will sell you the Resolute Pro for $609. See more on the RZE website.
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You know how some things just stay embeded in your mind for years? Well, one of those things for me is the sound of the Braun AB 30 alarm clock. My parent’s had one and I remember its incredibly annoying beep and the fact that it was voice controlled so my dad would usually yell at it to get a couple of more snooze minutes. Even then, as a kid, I knew this was a beautiful object as no other alarm clocked looked like it. Only later did I learn what a design powerhouse Braun was. Now, they’re teaming up once again with Paul Smith for a duo of very minimalist and yet very Paul Smith-like watches.
Both the watches are hoamges to the first analog watch Braun made in 1989, the AW10, a simple three-hander measuring 33m wide. While that one is still on sale, these two come in more modern proportions. The first watch, the BN0279SLPS, comes in a 40mm matte silver stainless steel case with a simple display with central hour and minute hands, small seconds and a date window. The watch is powered by an ETA 2895-2 movement. The second, the BN0279GNPS, is also 40mm wide, but made out of matte gunmetal stainless-steel with a rainbow sweeping seconds hand and date at three o'clock. It's powered by an ETA 2892A2 movement. Both have the Paul Smith logo printed on them.
Each of the two references will be made in 100 units and they retail for €850. You can see more on the Paul Smith website or the Braun website.
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It’s so fun to discover new watches. I’m sure I have heard of Sartory Billard, but I haven’t really paid much attention to them. Boy, was I wrong. This manufacture makes some incredible watches, and their two latest releases, the SB06-12 and the SB06-24, are not only stunningly beautiful, they feature in-house movements with truly unique decorations and functions.
The two watches come in the same case, with the SB06-24 differing by having a 24-hour layout for the time display. The watch measures 41mm wide, 9.5mm thick and has a lug to lug of 47mm, but as for the material, that’s up to you. Pretty much everything is up for customization, including the case material. On offer is steel, titanium, tantalum, gold and platinum, with all cases being produced by Voutilainen & Cattin.
If you can customize the case, you can be sure that the dial is also customizable. You can get crazy stuff like aventurine outer elements or a scale-accurate Moon for the center dial. Again, watchmaking legends will work on the dial, so you can get guilloche by Comblemine or stonework by Groh&Ripp. The same applies to the strap which can be made out of pretty much whatever you want and it’s made by Scarlett Paris.
What isn’t customizable but is hand-made and developed over several years is the brand new in-house developed movement called the SBTV01. It’s a hand-wound movement that operates at 3 Hz with a power reserve of 96 hours and a flying tourbillon. It features incredible sapphire bridges, a customizable center guilloche plate, and delicate hand finishing. If you opt for the SB06-24, the movement is fitted with an additional gear that doubles the time required for the hour hand to circle the 24-hour dial.
Seeing as how everything is customizable, you won’t be surprised by the Sartory Billard SB06-12 and SB06-24. Pricing for the SB06-12 starts at €88,000, or €96,000 for the SB06-24, not including VAT. But that’s the start. every single cusomization bumps up the price. See more on the Sartory Billard 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
The visual appeal of that ceramic outer ring is never more impactful than when the Impetus CeramTech is worn on the rubber strap. Even if an ice-white strap is usually too bold for me, it suits the watch perfectly. Once again, this brings attention to the strong lug shape and continues the alternating color theme. One of my few requirements for a sports watch is looking good on rubber, and the Impetus CeramTech feels good too. I appreciate that the rubber strap can conform to any wrist shape, providing additional friction to keep the watch in place. As you’ll note, the lug dimensions and fixings restrict strap options to those available from Titoni. The black DLC-coated bracelet enhances the dark and stealthy aspects of the watch, but in my opinion, that’s at the expense of comfort and the overall aesthetic balance.
⏲️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
In December 2022, the chimpanzees of Furuvik Zoo escaped when a staff member tending them accidentally left one of their enclosure’s doors open. In this riveting but heartbreaking Guardian read, Imogen West-Knights recounts the chaotic 72 hours it took for the zookeepers and park staff to contain the chimps in their ape house. Be warned, though, that this is far from a happy tale. In fact, it’s distressing. But West-Knights reconstructs the incident from minute to minute in a brilliantly reported piece.
Ammon Bundy, an anti-government extremist and son of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was the central figure in the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada, seemed on the verge of another standoff with the law. Then he vanished.
Have you ever wondered why you can buy lasagne flavour snacks in Thailand but not in Italy? Which country can cope with the hottest chilli? And why do Germans like paprika so much? The Guardian goes deep into the weird, secretive world of chips flavours.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Found this one through my favorite watch podcast, The Grey Nato, so you know it will be amazing. Bark Europa is a legendary tall ship that has seen the entire world. It’s also the only tall ship to regularly visit Antarctica. They were somewhere in the Drake passage when the pandemic hit, which posed a problem when they made their way back to Argentina. They weren’t allowed to disembark due to lockdowns and the only country that would allow them ashore was the country where the ship was registered - The Netherlands. This was the longest nonstop voyage she has ever done, over 10000 nautical miles, starting in Ushuaia in the southern tip of Argentina all the way to her home port, Scheveningen in the Netherlands. This video is a first-hand account of the life on board during this voyage.
💵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: 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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