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  • I Put Together A List Of The Best Affordable Watches Of 2023, IWC Releases Outrageous Aquaman Themed Watches, Boldr Makes A Marine Odyssey, New From Riley Watch Co. And Chopard

I Put Together A List Of The Best Affordable Watches Of 2023, IWC Releases Outrageous Aquaman Themed Watches, Boldr Makes A Marine Odyssey, New From Riley Watch Co. And Chopard

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It's About Time
December 19, 2023

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Another super late edition, but it took quite a while to put together a list of the 20 best affordable watches of 2023. This list will be followed by three more in the coming days so keep your eyes open and let me know what I missed!

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In this issue:

  • IWC Releases Aquaman Themed 49mm Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar With A Truly Outrageous Price

  • Boldr Releases A Fun Take On Their Odyssey Contributing To Preserving Marine Generic Diversity

  • Riley Watch Co. Releases New Watches Inspired By The Weirdest Of All Aviation Pioneers

  • Chopard Honors The Chinese Year Of The Dragon With The L.U.C XP Urushi Dial

  • The Best Affordable Watches Of 2023, As Chosen By Me

Today’s reading time: 17 minutes

👂What’s new

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For years, DC Comics has struggled with establishing their movie universe. While Marvel cranked out hit after hit and successfully built up their lore, DC had no idea what they are doing. Think of Marvel movies whatever you want, but there’s no denying that the Marvel execs know how to make a movie people will enjoy. And it’s not like DC doesn’t have great characters. Take, for example Aquaman. Cool character, perfect casting in Jason Momoa, unwatchably bad movie. While DC has brought in creative powerhouse James Gunn to make sense of their lineup, the Aquaman sequel is just about to come out.

Most watch collaborations are not particularly inspired. They are either tangentially related or often way over the top, and this is true of most movie-watch tie ins. IWC has worked with DC to create two prop watches for the new Aquaman movie - both worn by the two villains in the movie, Black Manta and Dr. Stephen Shin - and they are now releasing them as two Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month pieces with questionable looks and a price that will have you scratching your head.

The limited edition Aquaman watches are based on the Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month, a crazy watch made out of Ceratanium, a high-tech material that fuses titanium and ceramic to get the lightness of one material and scratch resistance of the other. The case measures an almost uncomfortably large 49mm and no amount of lightness can combat that. Since the Aquatimer line is a line of divers, this watch has IWC’s SafeDive system which prevents unintentional changes to the bezel.

The watch will come in two variants. One has red Super-LumiNova on the dial, the hands, and the inner rotating bezel, and the other has blue, with each matching the color scheme of the two movie vilains. The watches feature a perpetual calendar with digital displays for date and month prominently featured on the cluttered dial.

Inside is the IWC-manufactured 89802 caliber. It beats at 4Hz and has a power reserve of 68 hours. The movement has a stopwatch function with hours, minutes and seconds, hour and minute counters combined in a totalizer at 12 o'clock, flyback function, small hacking seconds, perpetual calendar, and a leap year display. The watches come on a robust rubber strap that looks suspiciously like the iconic Citizen diver strap.

The new Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom limited edition Aquatimers will go on sale today and are limited to 25 pieces each. The price is set at $57,600. When the Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month launched in 2017, it was priced at $46,800 and widely criticized for the insane price, twice that of comparable perpetual calendars. Now it’s more than $10k over that. If you really want to, see more on the IWC website.

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Boldr Releases A Fun Take On Their Odyssey Contributing To Preserving Marine Generic Diversity

The future health of ocean life is uncertain. There’s a huge loss of marine ecosystems going on all across the world. And the Marine Genome Project is one of those non-profit organizations that’s trying to do something about it. Heir goal is to collect genetic information from marine ecosystems and trying to spread awareness that genetics can be used as a vital tool for marine conservation. In their effort to raise funds, MGP reached out to Boldr Supply Company, a company out of Singapore that has made a name for themselves making stylish and rugged watches and knives. Instead of just forking up the cash, Boldr had a different idea. They just released a watch in collaboration with the Marine Genome Project to benefit the organization - the Boldr Odyssey MGP.

Built on the Boldr Odyssey, this edition of the watch comes in at 40mm wide case that’s 12.5mm thick and has a 48mm lug-to-lug. But unlike the regular Odyssey, which is built out of 316L steel, this MGP version comes in a titanium case with a full titanium bracelet. On top is a 120-click unidirectional titanium bezel with lumed markers. The dial is covered by a domed sapphire crystal.

Speaking of the dial… It’s quite the interesting looker. It is translucent with a blue color to it to link it with the ocean. It darkens towards the indices, but details such as the date wheel are still visible. A similar shade of blue is used on the minute hand, while the hour one is silver. Also, check out the Boldr website to see what the lume looks like - the illustration of DNA and bubbles emit a green glow in the dark, while the indices, hands, and bezel use light blue Super-LumiNova.

The dial also has an illustration of Z-DNA, a left handed DNA structure observed in some biological functions. The Marine Genome Project chose to utilize a left handed DNA helix to represent the importance of marine genetics as a tool to better understand not only the health of our oceans, but how human health is directly tied to our blue planet. It also pays tribute to close family and friends of the organization who suffer from autoimmune diseases.

Inside is the Miyota automatic 9015 that can be seen through a light blue crystal on the back. The 9015 is a decent movement that’s easily servicable and beats at 28.800vph and has a power reserve of 42 hours. The watch comes on the already mentioned titanium bracelet with quick-adjust buckle and screw-in links

The Odyssey MGP is available for pre-order right now. The watches will be numbered, but they aren’t supposed to be limited. Which is a great thing, because the price is fantastic - $699. See more on the Boldr website.

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The name Howard Hughes has always been synonymous with two things - aviation and quirkiness. Three, if you count movies. But it wasn’t until Martin Scorsese made The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Hughes, that the broader world learned the extent of his eccentricities. So, it’s curious to see his name used on a watch, but hey, why not. That’s exactly what the UK-based Riley Watch Co with their first collection of watches, the Howard Hughes Chronograph HH-01. It’s a quirky, retro collection made up of 6 watches and inspired by the Hughes H1 Racer, a stunningly beautiful racing plane Hughes built.

Helping the retro look of the watch is the rectangular case that measures 40mm x 42mm, with rounded corners and a heavily polished finish. The dial makes great use of color, with six possible options - Classic has a full cream display; Deep Green has a cream dial and green scales; Sky Blue has a white dial, blue scales and orange accents; Yellow which has a white dial, yellow scales and orange accents; Matte Green, which has a sage green dial and off-white scales; and Midnight Blue in two shades of dark blue. The setup is pretty simple, a bicompax chrono display with squircle subdials that house a 60-minute timer at 9 o’clock and a 24-hour timer at 3.

Inside is the super simple but familiar Seiko VK63 meca-quartz chronograph. The meca-quartz uses a battery powered quartz system for the primary functions of the watch, while the chronograph is offloaded to a mechanical module. This means you get the accuracy of quartz time telling and the smooth sweep of a mechanical chronograph.

Now, it’s time for some good news, bad news. The bad news is that the watch is limited to 50 pieces in each colorway. Sure, that still means they will make 300 of them, but it won’t be enough. Mostly because of the good news - it’s priced at just €152, including taxes where I live. That’s a ridiculously low price for such a great looking watch. See more on the Riley Watch Co. website.

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Chopard Honors The Chinese Year Of The Dragon With The L.U.C XP Urushi Dial

A number of brands have already introduced their watches that honor the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon. Jaeger-LeCoultre showed off a subtle lacquered Reverso, TAG Heuer released a very interesting red and gold version while Hamilton introduced a completely wild Ventura with a dragon dial. Bovet knocked it out of the park with the Récital 26 Chapter 2 Golden Dragon, a truly out-there concept. And here’s Chopard with their L.U.C XP with their Usuhi lacquer dial that has a stunning dragon engraved in it.

The watch comes in the familiar L.U.C XP case that doesn’t have much going on. It’s simple, with elegant lugs, a minimalist bezel, measures 39.5mm wide and an incredible 6.8mm thick and it’s made out of ethical 18k rose gold. Not much more you would want from a dress watch case.

But the dial is where things get a bit more extravagant. The dial is made by hand in Japan by Minori Koizumi, a craftsman specialising in the delicate Maki-e technique. Several layers of Urushi lacquer are applied and decorated with paint, gold flakes and mother-of-pearl inlays and each dial takes more than 20 hours to complete.

Inside the watch is the automatic L.U.C 96.17-L, a super thin movement that has a 22k gold micro-rotor. It beats at 4Hz and has a very nice power reserve of 65 hours. With the L.U.C collection being at the top of Chopard watches, you get all the decorations you would expect - Cotes de Genève, perlage and beautiful anglage, while the micro-rotor has a sunburst pattern and the L.U.C logo. The watch comes on a hand-stitched black alligator leather with nubuck lining.

The Chopard L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Dragon is limited to just 88 pieces and it’s priced at €30,100. Sure, that’s a lot of money, but all thing considered, it does seem like fair price. See more on the Chopard website.

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The Best Affordable Watches Of 2023, As Chosen By Me

This is the first year of the It’s About Time newsletter and what a year it was. As we’re bringing it to a close, it was only right that I put together a couple of best-of-the-year lists. These are the first I’m putting together, so bear with me. We’re starting off with a list of affordable watches. What does that mean? Who knows… Everybody has their own definition of what affordable is. I tried keeping them under €1,500, maybe a few went over, but it’s always more about value for money. So, here we go, in no particular order:

Furlan Marri did not exist in 2019. In less than four years, founders Andrea Furlan and Hamad Al Marri have created a microbrand with a cult following. The entire brand was conceptualised, designed, tested and produced in the space of one year during lockdown. Their biggest release this year was a trio of new Salmon Sector, Grey Sector and White Sector vintage-inspired watches powered by La Joux-Perret mechanical movements. Priced at CHF 1,250. You can read my report on it here.

The slightly controversial French brand Yema gave their super-popular Superman a new colorway - white dial and a red/white bezel - along with one of the best looking bracelets in the business, for a special edition that will go on a solo expedition to the South Pole. Limited to just 100 pieces and priced at $1,449. Read my report here.

Arnold Schwarzenegger wore a Seiko H558-5009 in Predator, Tom Cruise wore an Orfina Porsche Design Chronograph in Top Gun and Timothy Dalton wore a Tag Heuer Ref. 980.031N in the James Bond picture The Living Daylights. The 1980s was a decade of over-the-top action, dueling fighter jets, big guns and bulging biceps. Action heroes were at the height of their bravado, and they had the watches to match. These three watches are listed on the Lorier website as the direct influence for their latest release - the Hydra Zulu. It’s a fantastic watch with the new Miyota 9075 traveler GMT and an incredible price of $599. My writeup is here.

Paris-based watch customiser seconde/seconde/ whose popularity has exploded this year. Working with pretty much everyone, this was the peak of his collaboration. He teamed up with Spinnaker to release a Haloween watch with the Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic seconde/seconde/ Fifty Phantoms. Made famous by the actual 50 phantom depicted on the dial with different lume colors, it sold out instantly. Which is no surprise as you got an amazing watch for the low price of $445. My short piece on it is here.

The market of vintage-inspired watches plucked from brands’ catalouges is getting mighty saturated these days. In fact, it’s so full, it’s my estimation that at least 60% of releases in a single month will carry significant nostalgia with it. So you really need to do something very nice to stand out. And looks like Bulova did just that with their new release - three Oceanographer GMT models, reboots of their quite famous dive line that quickly earned the nickname the Devil Divers. The price is set at $1,295 for white dial on the rubber strap and $1,350 for the two stainless steel bracelet options. You can read my writeup on it.

The Hermétique Tourer comes in a smallish vintage-inspired stainless steel case that measures 37mm wide and 10.8mm thick. To keep with the vintage style, there’s a double-domed sapphire crystal on top, with the case being brushed with a polished bezel. Just like vintage field watches, the crown is recessed into the case, but unlike vintage field watches, you get 150 meters of water resistance. If you opt for the version on the tropic strap you will have to pay €550, while the steel bracelet will cost €630, both without tax. Read my article here

The dial is engraved with a dragon that was drawn by Bruce Lee, while the hands and indices are gold-toned and filled with black lume. Sorrounding the dial is a black bezel with characters that represent the spirit of Lee’s martial art Jeet Kune Do with a phrase that translates to, “Using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation.” Seiko says this will be a limited edition, but keep in mind it’s limited to 15,000 pieces and it’s priced at €520. Read it here.

While not as widely known as their competitors, Citizen also has a higher-end version of their watches. They are called Series 8 and provide an option to a more upmarket buyer than would be looking at regular Citizens. Now, Citizen has equipped a new Series 8 with a brand-new GMT mechanical movement and gave it some very nice colors. The two steel models carrying a price tag of $1,695 while the gold-tone reference is limited to 1,300 units and will cost $1,795. Here’s my writeup.

This Chronomaster model is inspired by a vintage Chronoking dial which was special for a few reasons. One was the fact that it used the same numeral font as the ‘Paul Newman’ Rolex Daytona. The other special thing about it is who made it - Jean Singer, a leading Swiss dial maker based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the famous watchmaking town that was recently hit by a destructive storm. He is responsible for some of the most iconic and collectible exotic dials the watchmaking world ever had and has to offer like the Speedmaster Racing, the Heuer Skipper and Universal’s intensely blue Nina. It costs only $479. Read my thing here.

Enter the folks from Worn & Wound the retailer/blog that has made quite a splash lately with some of their fantastic collaborations. They’re teaming up with Boldr to release a limited edition (again) of 100 pieces of each of two colorways of the new 3xT GMT watch with great colors, a clever internal rotating bezel and the new Miyota flyer GMT. Only 100 pieces of each colorway will be made and at a price of just $699. Here’s my article on it.

This is perhaps my favorite release of the year. It holds a special place in my heart. The watch comes with five different dials combinations, four of them black and one brown. There are the OG versions, which feature large green applied hour numerals, come in either a sunray brushed version or what the brand calls popcorn or a dial with a rough asphalt texture. There are also the “white” variants, which feature white hour numerals in the same combinations of smooth and rough dials. The final version is a glossy brown dial which is a modern take on a potentially tropic degradation of an original dial. The price was just $295. Go read my writeup, as it’s quite a story.

Arken is a U.K.-based microbrand, back this year with their second watch and are jumping on another trend bandwagon - the GMT - with their titanium dual-time travel watch called the Alterum. This watch is giving me Vacheron Overseas "Everest" Dual Time vibes with the orange hand, textured dial, pusher at 4 and even the bracelet. Price is £599.99.

The case measures 42mm wide and 11.9mm thick, with the recycled nature of it giving it a fantastic look with a deep blue base with lighter blue and white specks dotted all over it. Contrasting the dark blue is a red anodized aluminum crown and matching strap buckle. Price is set at €220, without VAT. Read my writeup here. 

It’s incredibly hard to come to grips with the fact that Serica has only been around for some four years. Founded in 2019 by Jérôme Burgert, Serica became a cult hit overnight. They can do no wrong - their divers are incredible, the GMT is great and the field watches are stuffs of legends. Now, Serica is updating the field watch category with a new 6190 collection of three incredible watches with new self-winding movements, a thinner case and three new dials. The new 6190 Field Chronometer will be available for €990 (including VAT). My writeup for your enjoyment.

Ah, yes. The plastic Blancpain. Nothing more needs to be said. Right? Read more about in my writeup.

The brand ran by Tomas Baillod is celebrating their 4th birthday and to celebrate they have introduced a brand new line of watches they call Chapter 7. It is an incredible integrated bracelet steel sports watch, one that looks to rival many watches that other Swiss watchmakers sell for an incredible 10x of the price of this. If you want the steel watch on a bracelet, that will cost you CHF 595, while the anthracite pvd treatment are CHF 525 on textile and CHF 625 on steel. Read more about it here.

Silfra is a unique place, a fissure that runs through Island and is getting bigger and bigger by the day. This name Silfra shows up on two new limited edition Seikos and it makes sense - the Silfra Sumo and Tortoise will be European exclusives. The Prospex Sumo Diver European Exclusive Limited Edition SPB431J1 is limited to 2,000 pieces, available exclusively in Europe and it will set you back about €1,055. The The Seiko Silfra Prospex Tortoise European Exclusive Limited Edition SRPK77K1 is limited to just 1,400 pieces and cost just €750.

The age of looking down at Chinese watches is way behind us. Not only are brands like CIGA design, Atelier Wen and Celadon HH making high-end watches at great prices, but they’re also manufacturing the majority of Swiss Made-branded watches with a few clever workarounds to be considered Swiss. So, when I tell you that ATOWAK, the Chinese watch brand specialising in interesting movement complications, is coming out with a space-themed wandering hour piece called the Spaceship. Retail price for the ATOWAK Spaceship is $1,899, but pre-order buyers will have the option to purchase a $50 coupon to save $500 off the final purchase price, brining the price to $1,449. Read more about it here.

Tissot is expanding this 1938 offering and creating the Tissot Heritage 1938 with three new models - two Tissot Heritage 1938 Chronometers and a Tissot Heritage Small Seconds 1938. The Chronometer sits at EUR 875, while the Small Seconds will set you back EUR 1,025. Read more about them by clicking here.

This Timex is an ode to the 1970’s and the funky wath designs we have seen at the time. In fact, Timex claims this is a very faithful reissue of an original Q with a similar look. It starts with a 38mm brushed stainless-steel case that’s 9.5mm thick. It’s an incredibly strangely shaped, with a round body but an almost barrel or helmet shaped section that connects the hidden lugs to the rest of the case. It can only be described as peak 70s.

But the most attractive piece of the watch could easily be it’s domed acrylic crystal. Despite being just acrylic, it would easily command a huge premium on any other brand watch. The domed part features some incredibly intricate interior facets that catch and refract light to produce a captivating illusion of depth and texture. Almost as if a square has been cut into the interior of the crystal. The Q Timex Reissue Dégradé is available for purchase now at the incredible price of $189. Read more here.

🫳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

The Tusenö Shellback’s dial is easily its most attractive feature and demonstrative of Tusenö’s attention to detail. It features a sandwich construction with deeply recessed indices and a date window at 6 o’clock. A thin arrow-tipped seconds hand is balanced by robust hour and minute hands, the former of which features a novel hollow design that provides a bit of visual flair.

Turn the lights off and the Tusenö Shellback impresses even more. As a watch writer I’m often guilty of using the phrase “a generous amount of lume” but hot damn, this watch absolutely glows! Tusenö has been more than generous with the Super-LumiNova for this baby. A detail I appreciate is how the minute track is also lumed: this makes it so much easier to accurately read the time in the dark. The zero pip on the bezel and the edge of the date window also get a helping of lume.

⏲️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

Yesterday, I had the PBR. Today, an even more iconic military transportation - the P51D Mustang. I don’t know why I’m on such a kick of military vehicles, but this video clip full of just flying sounds is perfect ASMR to read the newsletter to.

💵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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