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- Omega Sneakily Introduces Six New Planet Ocean 600M Models, Orient Star Releases New Open Heart Duo, Junghans Gives Meister Chrono Simple Grey Dial, New From Timex And Artisans de Genève
Omega Sneakily Introduces Six New Planet Ocean 600M Models, Orient Star Releases New Open Heart Duo, Junghans Gives Meister Chrono Simple Grey Dial, New From Timex And Artisans de Genève
We need more watches with brushed ceramic bezel inserts, they look so much better
It's About Time
February 12, 2024
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. First off, happy Lunar New Year to my many readers from Asia! I hope this year is prosperous and healthy for us all. Secondly, I know a lot of you will complain about the size of the Omega, I get it, but they have one very important feature - a brushed finish for the ceramic bezel. I love it, as one of my major pet peeves with ceramic bezels is they look a bit cheap when they are shiny.
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In this issue:
Sneaky Omega Quietly Introduces Six New Boutique Editions Of The Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M
Orient Star Releases A Duo Of Aurora Borealis And Greek Mythology Inspired M34 F7 Open Heart Watches
Junghans Gives Their Meister Chronoscope A Beautiful And Simple Grey Dial
Timex And seconde/seconde/ Team Up Again For Valentine’s Day With "All My Exes are Losers" Collection
Legendary Watch Customisers Artisans de Genève Takes On An Audemars Piguet For The First Time
Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 11 seconds
👂What’s new
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Not to be overly critical, but couple of weeks ago a substantially large watch brand announced a major release for this year. It took me 3 or 4 minutes of studying the watch to notice what the update was. There were no changes to the dial, or the case or the movement. The change amounted to a new bracelet clasp. Sure, that’s nice, but is it worthy of a huge announcement? Not really, so I didn’t really write about the watch. On the other end of the spectrum is Omega. Late on Friday afternoon, they updated their website with six brand new boutique editions of the Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M, basically without telling anyone. That’s kind of cool.
Ok, to be fair, these are not brand new watches, but rather Omega expanding the Planet Ocean 600M with new colors - three colors in total - in either a three hand configuration or a chrongoraph. The Planet Ocean, as the name would suggest, is Omega’s more hardcore diver, and it has the dimensions to back it up. The time-only setup comes in a 43.5mm wide stainless steel case that’s a hefty 16.2mm thick and has a 49.3mm lug-to-lug. That all sounds immense, but the PO models are surprisingly wearable and look smaller on the wrist. This is not the case with the chronograph version. That beast measures in at 45.5mm wide, a shocking 19mm thick and a lug-to-lug of 52.3mm.
Other than the size difference, the two models are quite similar. They both have the helium escape valve at 10, a screwdown crown and a sapphire crystal. Another slight difference between the two models is the fact that the chrono has a solid 15-minute block from 0-15, and color-coordinated chronograph pushers. All six have a brushed finish to the case, a slight departure from other PO models which have polished chamfers. Another new addition to the PO 600m collection is the finishing on the ceramic bezel, one I appreciate a lot. Instead of the high gloss, these models now get a brushed finish.
The three new colorways that apply to the dials and bezels are beige/bronze, gunmetal/black, and steel/green. The beige and gunmetal dials have a sandblasted finish with applied brushed numerals, while the steel dial gets a vertically brushed finish with varnished green cardinal numerals. All versions have the recognisable broad arrow handset with Super-Lumi nova in white for the beige and steel or Old Radium on the gunmetal. All six also have date windows, at 3 o’clock for the three hander and at 6 o’clock, but look at the photos a bit closer and you’ll notice the atrocious colors of the date wheels. The the steel gets a color matched wheel which is fine, but the beige dial gets a white date wheel and the gunmetal gets a black wheel, making them stand out like a zit.
Inside the time only is the Omega 8900 caliber which beats at 25,200 vph (3.5hz), has a 60 hour power reserve and Omega’s signature coaxial escapement. It’s a Master Chronometer, meaning an accuracy of 0/+5 seconds per day. The chronograph is powered by the Omega 9900 movement. Again, a co-axial Master Chronometer, but featuring a column wheel chronograph mechanism, beating at 28,800 vph and with the same 60-hour power reserve. All the watches come with color matched rubber straps with foldover buckles.
All six of these watches are exclusive to Omega boutiques, but aren’t limited editions. The time only Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M Boutique Editions in gunmetal and steel are priced at $7,100, while the beige is priced at $7,500. The chronograph versions are priced at $9,000 in gunmetal and steel, and $9,700 in beige. See more on the Omega website.
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Orient Star Releases A Duo Of Aurora Borealis And Greek Mythology Inspired M34 F7 Open Heart Watches
Here we go with Orient Star again. I can’t really write about them without mentioning the fact that they insist on not telling anyone when they release new watches. Not only that, their global and regional websites are horrible relics that look like they belong in the last millennium and they arbitrarily update them. So, I made it a habit to keep an eye out on their UK website, which seems to be the best maintained on. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to find out if they post just UK exclusive watches, but this wasn’t the case up to this moment. That’s how I know that they are releasing two new additions to the M-Collection with the M34 F7.
Orient Star has long been inspired by Greek mythology, especially in the M-Collection, and the same applies with these two new watches. According to the brand, the new M34 F7 is inspired by Perseus. He was the son of Zeus, both half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles (yeah, not a lot of diversity in that family tree), but you might know him best for decapitating Medusa and being the greek hero after which the Perseus costelation is named after. And it’s this starry link that Orient Star uses as inspiration for the dials of the two watches, using the palette of the Aurora Borealis.
The watch comes in a stainless steel case that’s 40mm wide, 13mm thick and it has a 47.3mm lug-to-lug measurement. On top is a sapphire crystal with almost no bezel and the watch is water resistant to 100 meters. While Orient Star calls the watch semi-skeletonized, a more recognizable term would be open heart, as you get a tiny glimpse into the insides at 9 o’clock.
As for the dials, they are rendered in rather beautiful mother of pearl in two colors - a blue/green and a brown/yellow, both combinations you might see in the Aurora. At the 6 o’clock position is a small seconds display that overlaps slightly onto the skeleton window and there’s a power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock.
Inside is what Orient calls their in-house F7F44 caliber, a hand-wound and automatic movement that has a 50 hour power reserve. Both watches come on a metal bracelet.
So, at the moment, the new M34 F7 is available on the Orient Star UK website, but I also assume they are available in other locations as well. Price is set at £1,066 which would translate to about $1,350 or €1,250. See more on the UK Orient Star website.
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Slow and steady wins the race. Or something like that. It seems that this is the approach that Junghans is applying to their watch lineup. While we best know them for their Bauhaus-inspired Max Bill line, go look at Junghans’ website and the really large offering of watches in their catalogue. They don’t push them much, but like I said, slow and steady wins the race. And that’s why they’re updating their Bauhaus Junghans Meister Chronoscope now. It’s not a huge update - just a new light grey dial - but it’s exactly in line with their philosophy.
The Junghans Meister Chronoscope comes in a fully polished stainless steel case that’s 40.7mm wide and 13,9mm thick. You will be forgiven for not noticing the polished case as this watch is all dial, with almost no bezel, making it look even larger than its stated diameter. Helping it look better on wrist are the short and downturned lugs. On top is a domed sapphire crystal.
The new dial gets a very light grey hue, a satin texture and the dial is also a bit domed. It’s a classic tri-compax setup with bowl-shaped sub-dials - 30-minute counter at 12 o’clock, the 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock, and the running seconds at 9 o’clock. The indices are applied and follow the curve of the dial. At 3 o’clock is the day and date window, which you can get with either German or English days of the week.
Inside is the calibre J880.1, which is based on the ETA Valjoux 7750. It beats at 28,800vph and has a rather modest power reserve of 48 hours. It’s a nice looking movement with rhodium-plated components, perlage on the base plates, Côtes de Genève stripes on the rotor and cover plate, and blued screws. The watch comes on a grey ostrich leather strap.
The new Junghans Meister Chronoscope is not yet available on the Junghans website, but should be soon. Price is set at €2,240. Keep an eye out on the Junghans website.
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A rather large hit fo Timex last year was their collaboration with Paris-based watch customizer seconde/seconde/ on the IYKYK collection. It was an amalgam of interesting pieces that played with cultural icons. Nothing as deep as the descriptions on the website implied, but not insulting either. And that’s the problem with seconde/seconde/ - sometimes he nails a reference perfectly and his creations are really great. Other times, he comes off as an edgy teenager. And now he’s teeming up with Timex again for a Valentine’s day collection they are calling “All My Exes are Losers” and it’s just as cringey as you would expect.
The watch is based on the 70s inspired Q Timex which comes in a 38mm wide stainless steel case that gets 50 meters of water resistance. It comes in two versions - stainless steel or gold-tone. On top is a domed acrylic crystal and a rotating bezel with a 12 hour scale. That’s all fine. Thing’s get annoying on the dial.
The dial is rendered in either silver or gold, depending on the version, and has nice circular and baton markers filled with lume. seconde/seconde/’s addition comes in the form of a customized second hand that features an L to symbolise “loser” just like the position of the fingers. At times the finger of the hand points to “ex” written on the dial, and at time points back at you. Get it? Maybe it wasn’t your ex that was the loser, maybe it was you. How deep.
The Q Timex x seconde/seconde/ Loser is on sale now, exclusively via Timex’s official site, and priced at $249 for the silver version and $259 for the gold version. See more on the Timex website.
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The Swiss atelier Artisans de Genève is famous for their incredible transformations of Rolex and Patek watches that often cause quite a stir. It’s not everyday that someone takes apart multi dozen thousand dollar watches and do weird things to them. But AdG is adamant that they will continue doing this, all at the request of their very wealthy customers that need to stand out from their friends even more. Their latest creation is quite an incredible looking modification of an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ref. 15500, a first for the atelier, they call the Cyano.
Each AdG watch is done as a private commissions and they identify the owner of this watch as Mr. Cyrus Z, a collector of 15 years who had AdG customize a Royal Oak that he bought to celebrate the birth of his daughter. Mr. Z claims that he was pondering how much time eludes us and to see the passage of time even better, he had AdG skeletonize the 4302 caliber by hand and frame it with an outer chapter ring in sky blue.
Another addition, playing contrast to the light blue and skeletonized dial, is the famous Royal Oak bezel that is now made with a Grade 5 titanium base and a 26-ply forged carbon top. A lot of work has been done to the movement - the bridges get hand-pierced openings and anglage, the balance wheel has been skeletonized, beveled, and rounded by hand. It all exudes hours and hours of meticulous work, just like the flame-blued hour markers and hands. You rarely see such a shade of blue achieved with flame-blueing.
Such intense customisations, especially of super-high end watches, are a matter of personal taste. I’m not that hot for them, but this one… this one tickles my fancy. A lot. Unfortunately, nobody knows how much a thing like this might cost you, as AdG never releases prices. See more on the Artisans de Genève 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
We start with that square-shouldered, 42mm wide, brushed stainless steel case. Short, steeply angled lugs keep the overall length to 46.5mm, which is handy when you have a 6.75″ wrist like mine. A surprising bit of detailing helps to break up the blocky shape. Tapered sides and a hint of polish on the beveled edges at the four corners make it appear even slimmer than its 12mm thickness might suggest. Exposed fasteners and an engraved serial number plate impart an industrial vibe on the left while on the opposite side, the same device highlights the crown guards and their bead-blasted insets.
⏲️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
The story of Albert Pierrepoint is absolutely incredible. Most people knew him as a jovial pub owner. But before buying the pub, Albert had a different job. He followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle and became an executioner. It is believed that Pierrepoint is the most prolific hangman in British history, having executed between 435 and 600 people, among them 200 of the vilest Nazi scum, including guards of the Begen-Belsen concentration camp. Pierrepoint has entered British legend and the Financial Times is exploring what the enduring cult of Albert Pierrepoint says about the appeal of capital punishment in the UK.
The bus made famous by Jon Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild,” has been relocated. Eva Holland explores the history of this former city transit vehicle—and how it came to hold a special place in people’s imagination. Will it be the same now it’s out of the wild?
In Noēma, Jonathon Keats unspools a thought-provoking essay about time—specifically, about how every organism other than humans experiences time, and how one key to undoing humans’ ecological impact might just be appreciating those other experiences. To wit: an “arboreal clock” that measures and displays time from the perspective of a massive tree.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
The Grand Tour is undoubtedly made by some of the best people in the industry. It’s the same team that made Top Gear, and they set the standard how car shows are conceived, shot and edited. Known this, one would expect that they can put together a good trailer. But this one for their latest GT special, set in Saharan Africa, looks just incredible. It looks to be the best thing on car-TV all year. Just wow.
💵Pre-loved precision
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-Vuk