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  • Montblanc Releases Sout Pole Themed Geosphere, FC's New Slimline Perpetual Calendar Is Wonderful, Furlan Marri Releases Australia Themed Time+Tide Watch, New From Nivada Grenchen And RZE

Montblanc Releases Sout Pole Themed Geosphere, FC's New Slimline Perpetual Calendar Is Wonderful, Furlan Marri Releases Australia Themed Time+Tide Watch, New From Nivada Grenchen And RZE

A jam-packed edition that just might make you spend some money

Author

It's About Time
January 19, 2024

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Geez, look at today’s edition. Not a single watch I wouldn’t want to own. Sure, some might be too expensive for what they offer, but every single one is just great. And that’s a rare thing.

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In this issue:

  • The New Montblanc 1858 Geosphere Looks Really Comfortable On The South Pole

  • Frederique Constant Introduces Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture Steel Designed by Peter Speake

  • Time+Tide Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Special Edition Furlan Marri Outback Elegy

  • Nivada Grenchen Instantly Sells Out Of NOS Dialed And Powered Depthmasters, But Also Offers Modern Recreations

  • RZE Updates Their Titanium Tool Watch Resolute Line With Brand New Colorways

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 27 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

While not completely ignored, I can’t fight the feeling that Montblanc has been unfairly excluded from many conversations on luxury watches. Sure, they may be better known for their pens, maybe even their leatherwork, but their watches are top notch, and not just because they own the legendary Minerva movement factory. And one of their best watch lines is the 1858 Geosphere, based on the ultra-high-end Minerva powerd word timer, the Villeret Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphere Vasco da Gama. This incredibly versatile line shows what Montblanc can do and there’s hardly a model I don’t like. The same can be said for the new 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen South Pole Limited Edition.

The 0 Oxygen South Pole comes in a 42mm wide and 12.8mm thick titanium case that’s fairly simple, brushed to get the sporty look and with relatively short lugs. On top is a sapphire crystal and around it is a serrated bezel with a beautiful light blue aluminum insert. The insert has a compass complication printed on it and the cardinal points are lumed green. The case back is engraved with a frozen landscape and the Aurora Australis. The 0 Oxygen in the name actually means that Montblanc puts the watch together making sure no oxygen gets in the case and they claim this “has several advantages for explorers by eliminating fogging and preventing oxidization, thus allowing the movement to last far longer”.

The blue theme continues on the dial which is pretty beautiful. It comes in a gradient blue color, darker on the outside and lighter on the inside, with a really interesting iced blue glacier pattern. The hour and minute hands are lumed green, just like the numerals. However, the biggest attraction have to be the two domed hemisphere globes at 12 and 6 o’clock which serve as day and night displays on both hemispheres and the entire globes glow an incredible blue at night. At 9 o’clock is the second time zone indicator.

After drooling about the looks of the Montblanc, now it’s time to get into some not so great things. Inside is the Montblanc caliber 29.25 movement. Sounds fancy, but it’s really not as it’s a combination of a Sellita SW300 with their proprietary world-time module. It beats at 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 42 hours. There’s nothing wrong with the Sellita SW300. In fact, it’s a fantastic, robust and easily servicable movement. However, you often find it in microbrands that offer fantastic value for money. At this price point, it’s a tough pill to swallow, despite the proprietary world-time module. The watch comes on an interchangeable titanium bracelet that matches the case and a gray rope patterned textile strap.

The Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen South Pole Limited Edition is limited to 1990 pieces, a nod to Reinhold Messner who was the first person to cross the South Pole on foot in 1990. The watch also launched to commemorate the 18th Antarctic Ice Marathon in which Reinhold’s son Simon took place. And finally, the price - $7,800. A lot for a SW300, even with the brilliant looks. See more on the Montblanc website.

2/

Educated in some of the best Swiss schools, Peter Speake spent his early years working for Renaud & Papi, the legendary movement manufacturer later bought by Audemars Piguet, where he developed and build high-end complications. He left there to found Speake-Marin, the very prestigious watch brand. But, he still likes outsourcing his vast knowledge. Now he has partnered with Frederique Constant (again) for the new Slimline Perpetual Calendar, steel coloured version of the DLC-coated watch they launched at the end of 2023.

The new Slimline Perpetual Calendar is part of the brand’s Manufacture collection of high end luxury and haute horology watches and it shows even with a cursory glance. It comes in a stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide and 12.05mm thick, with a simple round construction, sloping bezel and short lugs. The untreated silver color od the steel case suits the dressy nature of the watch much better than the previous black DLC coat.

On to the dial, designed by Speak, and you get into the more haute horology realm. It’s skeletonised with an openwork display and rendered in black with anthracite and silver accents, in addition to the hints of colors from the blued screws and red tipped hands. You get a central time display, a subdial at 9 o’clock for the day display, date at 3, months and leap year indicator at 12 and moonphase at 6. Speake’s handling of the leap year indicator is fantastic - it’s disguised as the regular index for February except that in a leap year it turns red.

Inside, and visible through both the dial and the caseback, is the FC-775 automatic. It beats at 28,800 vph and has only 38 hours of power reserve. It’s not bad, but a bit more would be welcomed as you don’t want a perpetual calendar to run out of juice and you have to set it again. It’s a nicely decorated movement with circular graining, perlage and Côtes de Genève. The watch comes on a black nylon strap.

The Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture is limited to just 135 pieces and it goes on sale for €12,995. Not a bad price for such a fantastic watch. See more on the Frederique Constant website. (Unfortunately, FC is one of those brands that uses weird geo-location on their website, so the link might not work for you if you are in a country that doesn’t match the link. Sorry about that, there’s nothing I can do. But you can click through the website until you find it.)

3/

I have a very strong feeling this will be a fantastic year for Furlan Marri. Not only have they refreshed their line of Meca-Quartz watches in 2023, they also recently released a line of fully mechanical flyback chronographs. And right of the bat they are starting the year strong, with the Furlan Marri x Time+Tide Outback Elegy, not just a collaboration with Time+Tide for their 10th anniversary but also the first of the new “Editions” initiative from the brand – a series of special versions available only from their retail locations.

The Furlan Marri x Time+Tide Outback Elegy uses the same case as the classic editions, meaning it’s made out of stainless steel and measures a very comfortable 37.5mm wide with a 46mm lug-to-lug. It’s the same case that has those beautiful cow-horn-shaped lugs, a very thin brushed bezel and plenty of polished surfaces.

The dial is the main difference for this Time+Tide edition. Seeing as how the online magazine hails from Australia, the dial is rendered in a deep and rich brown that’s supposed to represent the brown of the Australian outback. The dial has a finely grained texture and a glossy lacquered finish. It rose gold sector and tracks that are double printed to give them depth and relief. The markers are no longer Breguet but rather applied Roman numerals, there’s a red stamp saying Editions below the brand logo and the hands are polished rose gold-plated and curved.

Inside is the La Joux-Perret G100, an alternative to the basic time-only offerings from Sellita and ETA, making it easily servicable. The watch has a 68 hour power reserve and a tungsten rotor with a galvanised palladium coating. Furlan Marri also claims great accuracy of +/-7 seconds per day, with great decoration that includes stripes, sailing and blued screws. The watch comes on two straps - a brown leather a straight-cut black leather strap.

The Furlan Marri x Time+Tide Outback Elegy will be first available online in limited quantities on Time+Tide’s website on January 25th and another limited batch will be available on Furlan Marri’s website for a final online drop a few weeks later. After the first Time+Tide online drop, this piece will be available exclusively in T+T boutiques in Melbourne and London. The exact number of pieces hasn’t been reveales. Price is set at CHF 1,500. See more on the Time+Tide website.

4/

More and more watch brands have been discovering lost stock of their old movements and parts. Just look at what Ollech & Wajs and Alpina have been doing with their NOS movements, it’s fantastic. And with more brands being revived after faltering during the quartz crisis, I assume this trend will only continue to grow. And a brand like Nivada Grenchen, after being revived by French watch industry superstar Guillaume Laidet, is the perfect candidate to bring back NOS movements and parts. Especially since Laidet is steadfast in reviving their most iconic designs as almost identical recreations.

This is exactly what happened, as the folks over at Nivada found 10 new old stock dials for the Depthmaster. And they just happened to find 10 NOS movements, the ETA 2472 caliber which fit the dials perfectly. These dials are just perfection - still vibrant orange with tritium markers and just the right amount of fade on both. They used the modern 39mm Depthmaster case with a steel bezel plus a sapphire crystal, along with new hands with a cream-colored Super-Luminova to match the tritium of the markers as no NOS hands could be found. The NOS examples are priced at $2,890 and all 10 are already sold out.

But, if you like this design, don’t despair. Like I said, Nivada Grenchen is well known for recreating their most iconic designs, and this orange dial is just joining the pack as a fully modern watch in regular serial production. It comes in the same 39mm wide chunky diving case with aged Super-LumiNova to recreate the vintage look of the NOS dial. Inside is the clone of the ETA 2824, the Soprod P024 movement. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. You also get a helium escape valve at 9 o’clock. The watch comes on a black Tropic-style strap, but like most Nivada watches, there’s a huge selection of options.

The $2,890 NOS Depthmaster is sold out, but the new Depthmaster is readily available at a pretty great price - $995. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

5/

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. Not for RZE. It seems that they are very good at making best-selling watches. And they obviously know that best-selling watches need the occasional update. So that’s exactly what they are doing with their Resolute line, bringing back the familiar and loved Urban Teal and Arctic Grey colorways and throwing in a brand new one - Desert Tan.

The Resolute is as much a field or tool watch as you would want. This means it’s made out of Grade 2 titanium and measures 40mm wide, a surprisingly thin 10.5mm and has a lug-to-lug of 46mm, with drilled lug holes. The case is covered with the UltraHex coating, making it more resistant to scratches. The same material and coating is used on the case, making it not just rugged, but also quite light. On top is an AR-coated sapphire crystal and you get 100 meters of water resistance.

All three new/old colorways get a fume finish, with the color brightest in the center and fadign to black towards teh edges. They have lume-filled and brushed applied markers, and the hands get the same treatment. The split markers at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock feature a dot of green lume for added low-light legibility. Besides that, the dials have only two lines of text on the lower half and the brand’s logo below 12 o’clock.

Inside is the reliable and well known Miyota 90S5 movement which beats at 28,800vph and has a decent power reserve of 42 hours. The movement is nothing special but it will stand up to just as much abuse as the rest of the case. While the watch can be had on the titanium bracelet, you can also get it on just a great looking canvas strap that matches the color of the dial

The RZE Resolute is one of the best values for money you can get. The watches are priced at $529 on the strap, and this is including free worldwide shipping. You really can’t beat that. See more on the RZE website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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⚙️Real Time Reviews

A new segment in which we feature reviews from real users reviewing their personal watches

A small brand from Germany. And by small, I mean 120 pieces a year without the help of CNC machines.

This 38.5mm diameter bronze case houses a manufacture caliber Quintus 2010. Twin barrels in series, a mainspring beating at 2.5 Hz deliver a 55-hour power reserve. One should also notice the Malta cross, which helps to provide a constant force. Of course, the finishing is outstanding.

On the dial face, the regulator aspect of the watch shines. Not your typical regulator dial where each hand has its own subdial. On top is a power reserve, on the bottom are the hours, and a big minutes and seconds hands are showcased in the middle. All hands are plated in rose gold.

The markers are carved by a pantograph and then filled with rose gold or white.

⏲️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

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

It’s Friday, so here’s some music. Not just any music, but a nice 40-some minutes of music from my favorite music channel My Analog Journal. And not just any video from My Analog Journal, but 40 minutes of Japanese Reggae Pop. It really is incredibly groovy.

💵Pre-loved precision

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  • 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.

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