Orient Star Revives Legendary 1964 Diver; Nivada Releases A Titanium F77; Hanhart Pays Homage Austrian Air Force Helicopters Of The; Bulgari Breaks Thinness Record; New From Reservoir And Moser

In this issue:

• Orient Star Revives Their Legendary 1964 Diver With The M42 Diver 1964 2nd Edition

• Nivada Grenchen Releases A Titanium F77 With Two Fantastic Dials And Stunning Blue Options For The Steel Model

• Hanhart Pays Homage To Helicopters Of The Austrian Air Force With The AW169M Limited Edition

• Reservoir’s Latest 390 Fastback Is Inspired By One Of The Most Legendary Mustangs Of All Time

• Bulgari Breaks Thinnest Watch In The World Record Once Again With A 1.7mm Thick Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra

• H. Moser & Cie. Gives Their Iconic Streamliner A Fully Skeletonized Look With The Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton

Today’s reading time: 12 minutes and 37 seconds

👂What’s new

1/

Orient Star Revives Their Legendary 1964 Diver With The M42 Diver 1964 2nd Edition

If I say it a thousand times, it won’t be enough - Orient, and their higher-end brand Orient Star, have serious issues communicating with their buyers. For a month now I have been piecing together their new releases only to now learn that all of these releases were part of their relaunch of the M Collection in Europe. And last of the M Collections to be released is the new Orient Star M42 Diver 1964 2nd Edition, an actually retro diver as it is inspired by a dive watch from 1964.

Now, it’s quite possible that this watch was released earlier in the year, or maybe even last year, and Orient Star is only now telling us this happened, but that’s how weird they are. Anyways, it’s a slightly interesting take on the diver. It comes in a chunky stainless steel case that measures 41mm wide and 14.5mm thick, with a 49.6mm lug-to-lug. However, while most dive watches are purpose built tools and therefore have a brushed finish, this one comes with a polished finish and brushed accents, something that is incredibly strange in the diving watch world. Well, it’s strange now. As dive watches were starting to come to the market back in the 60s, they were all polished. On top is a traditional aluminum bezel insert, surrounding a sapphire crystal, and the incredible thickness of the watch is counteracted with heavily angled lugs.

The watch comes in one of two colors - black or a seafoam green that has a gradient effect that goes to a very dark green on the edges of the dial. This is as traditional as a dive watch as you can see. Almost. The markers are large, applied and are a combination of circles, rectangles and a triangle, just like you would expect. They are lume filled, just like the hands which are also super traditional - lollipop for the hour and sword for the minute. I said this was almost as traditional as it gets, because there’s one unusual thing - the large power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock below the triangular index, one of Orient Star’s signature touches. I can’t say that I’m a fan, but they seem to like it. It’s not too intrusive, as it’s a simple hand that points to a scale that goes from 0 to 50, indicating the number of hours of runtime left. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture.

Inside is the Orient Star F6N47 automatic movement. Interestingly, Orient makes their own movements in-house and this exact movement has been used in the first edition of the 1964 Diver in 2021. It beats at 21,600 bph and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a five link stainless bracelet.

The Orient Star M42 Diver 1964 2nd Edition is now available and priced at €1,475. See more on the Orient Star website.

2/

Nivada Grenchen Releases A Titanium F77 With Two Fantastic Dials And Two Blue Option For The Steel Model

Despite being founded in 1926, and being one of the legendary Swiss watch manufacturers, Nivada Grenchen has had a tough time during the quartz crisis and went under. However, in recent years, watch entrepreneur Guillaume Laidet has brought the brand back and is churning out hit after hit. Today’s Nivada Grenchen is doing something pretty smart - they are going through their incredibly rich back catalogue and recreating them with modern sensibilities and materials. One of these watches is the F77, a recreation of an integrated bracelets steel sports watch first released in 1977. The modern version looked great, especially with the basket weave pattern dials, but for some reason I haven’t seen that many in the wild or on social networks. Now, Nivada Grenchen is introducing four new variants of the watch - a titanium duo and a two new dials for the steel version - that might drum up serious interest in the line.

The new titanium case comes in an almost identical shape as the steel version. Both are 37mm wide, have a 45mm lug-to-lug, with the titanium version measuring 11.65mm thick and the steel version coming in at 12.65mm. The titanium used is grade 5 and it’s used for both the case and the bracelet. The front of the case is vertically brushed with polished facets, while the sides are almost exclusively polished. On top is a domed crystal, surrounded by the recognisable angled bezel with visible screws.

Starting off with the two titanium watches, the true attraction will surely be the meteorite dial option. Nothing special about it, as we all know what a meteorite dial is, but it’s still very attractive, especially with the geometric patterns on the dial and how they match the angular shape of the watch. The other option for the titanium case is a regular basket-weave patterned dial in anthracite grey for the more conservative option.

Moving on to the steel watches, they both come with blue dials. Two very attractive and shiny blue dials that get their look from two different approaches. One dial is rendered in aventurine glass, while the other is a lapis lazuli dial. All four versions have applied baton indices and baton hands that have a slit running through them. And best of all, none of the four come in the date option, which you can get with other F77 options but which breaks up the symmetry of the dial.

Just like all the other F77 watches, these four get the Soprod P024 automatic movement. This is Soprod’s version of the legendary ETA 2824, which means it beast at 28,800 vph and has a 38 hour power reserve. All four come on an integrated bracelet that matches the material of the case.

These four new versions of the Nivada F77 Automatic will go on sale on April 25th. The steel watches with the aventurine and lapis lazuil dials are priced at €1,530, the titanium anthracite at €1,610 and the meteorite, which will be limited to just the preorder window, is priced at €1,875. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

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Hanhart Pays Homage To Helicopters Of The Austrian Air Force With The AW169M Limited Edition

It’s the little details that sometimes make or break a watch. And more often than not, these details are pretty useless in real life. I love the Tachymeter scale on the Speedmaster, but am I really going to measure speed with it? The Panerai crown guard is incredibly cool, but there are more discreet and effective ways of getting water resistance. A tourbillon is mighty pretty, but nobody needs one. I feel the same way about the Hanhart bezel. The legendary german maker of military watches is famous for their fluted bezel. It rotates in both direction with no clicks. The outside of the bezel has no markings, except for a prominent red lacquered mark at 12 o’clock. So, essentially, this bezel serves no purpose. But it’s so incredibly charming you have to love it. And the red stripe shows up on their latest watch, or, at least one of the duo of watches dubbed the Hanhart Austrian Air Force AW169M Limited Edition.

Hanhart watches are not for the faint of heart. The stainless steel case measures in at 45mm wide, a whopping 16mm thick and has a 54mm lug to lug measurement. Even the lug width is excessive at 23mm. But everything about Hanhart is oversized, not just the case. The crown, the huge red. pusher at 2 o’clock, the fluted rotating bezel, they are all larger than on other watches. If the fluted bezel is not your style, you can opt for a smooth fixed bezel. On top is a domed sapphire crystal and the case has a mix of polished and brushed finishes. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is familiar, with a bi-compax layout that has a running seconds sub-dial at 9 o’clock and a 30 minute totaliser at 3. The base of the dial is a beautiful olive green color which, in combination of an illustration of Leonardo da Vinci’s aerial screw propeller, is the homage they pay to Austrian military’s use of AW169M helicopters. The inclusion of the aerial screw has an even deeper connection, as the legendary AW169M is produced by Leonardo S.p.A. To match the red on the pusher and the bezel, the same color comes on the central chronograph and 30-minute counter hands.

Inside is an automatic movement based on the ETA7750, with a La Joux-Perret module that allows for the Mono-pusher conversion. It beats at 28,800 vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes with either a leather strap or a stainless steel bracelet.

The Hanhart Austrian Air Force AW169M is a limited edition watch that will be made in 100 pieces - 50 with the fluted bezel and 50 with the smooth bezel. Price is €2,940 for the watch on the leather strap and €3,140 on the stainless steel bracelet. See more on the Hanhart website.

 4/

Reservoir’s Latest 390 Fastback Is Inspired By One Of The Most Legendary Mustangs Of All Time

This is a weird thing to start off, but there are a few speedometers that are instantly recognisable. Show me a picture of a BMW, Mercedes or 911 speedometer and there will be no denying which care it came from. And among these recognisable speedometers is that of the Ford Mustang. There’s just no confusing it for anything else. And it’s served as the design for the dial of a new watch from Reservoir. I don’t mention Reservoir often, but they have specialised in creating watches that are recreations of instruments from planes, submarines and cars (but also music and comic books, check out their website, they have interesting watches). This makes them the ideal candidate to create a watch inspired by the Mustang speedometer. And to do this, they used the speedo from the most iconic of Mustangs, the 1967 Mustang Fastback - the one you know from the movie Bullit. Hence, the name: Reservoir 390 Fastback.

To be fair, this is not a new collection, as the watch has already been made with a blue or black dial, but new are two new dials and one new case color. Reservoir is a bit stingy with their measurements, so all we know is that the stainless steel case measures 41.5mm wide. It has both a satin finish and polished details, all untreated, with a new model for 2024 coming in a black DLC coat. The black is a limited edition made with the French magazine Heroes, known for their raven logo which appears on the caseback.

On to the dials. The two new colors are green and a black on the Heroes edition which gets a wonderful heavily grained finish. But most recognisable on the dial is the single central hand which shows the minutes and has a 240º ark. It’s a cool movement that runs from zero clockwise to 60 and then jumps retrograde back to 0. The hours also have a jumping display, but that’s situated within an aperture at 6 o’clock, almost as if it were a fuel gauge.

Inside you could expect to see an exotic and proprietary movement that provides two jumping mechanisms. But no, the movement is called the calibre RSV-240 and is in fact a regular La Joux-Perret G100 automatic which beats at 28,800 vph and has a 56 hour power reserve. To get the jumping hours and minutes, Reservoir worked with Telos to create a proprietary module, cutting down on costs.

The green version of the Reservoir 390 Fastback is unlimited and will be available for delivery in May of this year at a price of €3,800, while the Reservoir x Heroes will be limited to just 66 pieces and priced at €3,950. See more on the Reservoir website.

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Bulgari Breaks Thinnest Watch In The World Record Once Again With A 1.7mm Thick Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra

The vast majority of records are incredibly dumb and equally as useless. I mean, there’s a whole book dedicated to pointless record setting. And yet, they are also very fun to break. One of these pointless but fun record breaking races has been the dace off between Bulgari and several other watchmakers to who can make the thinnest mechanical watch. The fun was cut short in 2022 when Richard Mille, of all brands, introduced a 1.75mm thin RM UP-01, made in collaboration with Ferrari, which they sold for a whopping $1.9 million. It seemed that that was that, the record has been set and would be around for quite a while. Well, quite a while ended up being a bit under two years - Bulgari is releasing the Octo Finissimo Ultra that’s just 1.7mm thin, beating out the RM by an incredibly-insignificant-yet-so-imporant 0,05mm. Just as an illustration of how tiny that is - the tolerances on highly complex rockets that go to outer space are usually double that, about 0,1mm, except for the most vital parts of the engine.

While the RM UP-01 faced some criticism for not looking like a traditional watch, looking head on at the Bulgari, there’s no denying what it is - an Octo Finissimo. Only when you move your head to look at it from an angle do you realise that it also doesn’t really resemble a real watch. Instead, it looks like a paper cutout of a watch - it’s that thin. The watch retains the familiar octogonal case of the regular Octo Finissimo line, again made out of sandblasted titanium and a tungsten carbide caseback.

The tungsten carbide caseback was a necessity to keep things sturdy and it also acts as the mainplate for the movement because no millimetres can be spared here. The caseback gets an anthracite DLC treatment and the entire dial is made up of parts of the movement. At two o’clock is the small hour dial and right below it is a dail for the running seconds.

The movement you see is called the BVL calibre 180, which has been developed with Concepto. It’s the same movement that appeared in previous record breaking Bulgari watches and is just 1.5mm thick. However, with that thickness, it means that only 0.2mm is left over for the caseback and the sapphire crystal and this is where Bulgari says they got the additional 0.05mm to bead out RM - with a special process of thinning the sapphire crystal. Despite being impossibly thin, it’s still pretty capable, beating at 28,800 and with a 50 hour power reserve. How, you may ask, was Bulgari able to include a crown to set the watch in just 1.70mm? They haven’t. Well, they have, but you won’t have to set it yourself - you get a dedicated case with a digital readout of the time and then the case sets the time and winds the watch for you.

Oh, and one more thing. The full name of the watch is Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC. Yes, this impossibly thin movement also has COSC certification, making this not just the thinnest watch in the world, but also the thinnest COSC certified watch in the world. Pretty cool. The watch comes on an integrated titanium bracelet and don’t expect that you will be able to find a replacement for this one.

And just an aside, Bulgari also released an Octo Finissimo Ultra in platinum. This one is thicker at 1.8mm, so no significant records, other than the one for the thinnest platinum watch in the world. The titanium Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC is limited to just 20 pieces and priced at $529,000. See more at Bulgari.

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H. Moser & Cie. Gives Their Iconic Streamliner A Fully Skeletonized Look With The Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton

If you are a rabid fan of H. Moser & Cie. and are asking yourself: wait, why are we getting all of these new Mosers just before Watches and Wonders is starting? Are they really trying to ride on press hype for W&W? No, actually, they are back in the show after at the fair after a couple of years not participating! And following the two very colorful releases we saw last week, Moser is now giving their iconic Streamliner series a Tourbillon Skeleton movement and it’s as spectacular as you would expect.

The Streamliner case is very familiar. Made out of heavily brushed stainless steel, measuring 40mm wide and 12.1mm thick, it’s instantly recognisable for the Art Deco inspired look that has a cushion-shaped design, swooping lines, complete lack of lugs and a tightly integrated bracelet. On top is a slightly domed sapphire crystal and the watch gets a respectable 120m water resitsance rating.

That’s al familiar. Brand new is the Tourbillon Skeleton’s completely open dial that has an anthracite finish on the main plate and bridges. To contrast the monochromatic look of the movement, Moser gave the faceted baton indices - which float above the abyss of the movement - as well as the hands a red gold look. it looks fantastic. There’s a tourbillon cage at 6 o’clock and out back is a fully skeletonised oscillating weight in gold.

This movement is the HMC 814 self-winding calibre, derived from the HMC 804, now in its fully skeletonised form. It beats at 21,600 vph and has a 72 hour power reserve.

The Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton, which is not limited in production, is as extravagantly priced as it looks. CHF 79,000. See more on the H. Moser & Cie. website.

🫳On hand

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Hands on with the Orion Sylph

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A review of the sand gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked

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The case is a nice mix of brushed surfaces and mirrored chamfers, with gradual transitions between the two. The sunburst brushing on the bezel matches perfectly with the brushing on the case and moves seamlessly to the brushing on the bracelet. The lug chamfers taper from the bezel to the end of the case, further highlighting the transition from the wide case to the comparatively narrow bracelet.

Read the whole review on The Time Bum

⏲️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

• Have you noticed an uptick of websites that have extremely clickbaity titles and articles that could have been written by drunken AI it’s likley because of Serbian DJ turned internet entrepreneur Nebojša Vujinović Vujo. He flooded abandoned news sites with AI-generated articles. But he wants you to know he's a nice guy.

• On October 23, Charles Stuart and his pregnant wife Carol Stuart were shot during an alleged carjacking in Boston. Charles lived, Carol didn’t. The city was enthralled with the murder and the search for the killer, but the story took some wild twists and turns. The Boston Globe has an incredible 8-part interactive untold story of Mission Hill, the Stuart shooting, and the people who got caught up in it and never managed to get free.

• I always knew that fan fiction was a big thing online. And despite being heavily involved in the publishing business, I never really dove into what “fan fiction being a big thing” actually meant. Then I just took a small peek into this world and realised that these writers are getting hundreds of millions of impressions on their writing. It looked to be a huge business. Well, turns out that people are making millions on fan fiction. Everybody except for the authors themselves.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Kuoe is everywhere. I can’t tell you how many questions I have gotten about this brand, asking what’s up with it, do they make good watches and are they a good buy. Well, instead of me answering each of your questions individually, I’ll let Teddy give you a brief lesson. And then you can thank me for buying a Kuoe.