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- Rolex Sneakily Unveils New Day-Date 40 In Everose Gold; The Citizen Releases Two New Stunning Washi Paper Dial LEs; Bulova Adds Fantastic New Colors To Their 70s Inspired Surveyor Collection; New RZE x Fratello Collab And An Arken LE
Rolex Sneakily Unveils New Day-Date 40 In Everose Gold; The Citizen Releases Two New Stunning Washi Paper Dial LEs; Bulova Adds Fantastic New Colors To Their 70s Inspired Surveyor Collection; New RZE x Fratello Collab And An Arken LE
You rarely get a surprise from Rolex, but when you do, it's also very confusing
It's About Time
March 11, 2024
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I was really happy with this issue, as the main story was supposed to be the Citizen, which I’m deeply in love with. Then I noticed this new quietly introduced Rolex. Not fair, Rolex. Not fair.
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In this issue:
Rolex Sneakily Unveils A New Day-Date 40 In Everose Gold For The 2024 Academy Awards
The Citizen Releases Two New Stunning Washi Paper Dial Limited Editions
Bulova Adds Fantastic New Colors To Their 70s Inspired Surveyor Collection
RZE Teams Up With Fratello To Create A Limited Edition Fit For An Off-Road Adventure
Arken Launches First Limited Edition Watch In Honor Of British Watchmakers’ Day And The Lunar New Year
Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 22 seconds
👂What’s new
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Watch shows are a big deal for a lot of watchmakers. They usually happen once or twice per year and offer a chance for brands of all sizes to have one location where they are going to show off the majority, if not all, of their watches for that year. And a brand like Rolex has been very vigilant about doing exactly that. Known as a not particularly adventurous brand, Rolex would roll into a show like Watches and Wonder, formerly known as SIHH, and just dump out all the novelties they have. But lately, Rolex has been stepping out on this predictable schedule and just releasing a watch completely quietly. It happened in 2022 with the Deep-Sea Challenge and twice last year, with the Le Mans Daytona and the Day-Date that celebrates the Vienna Philharmonic. Well, it happened again over the weekend - this is the new Day-Date 40 in Everose Gold, released just in time for the 2024 Oscars.
Why would Rolex release a watch with the Oscars, you ask? Well, technically, they wouldn’t. It’s not an Oscars-themed watch in any way, they just used the occasion of the 96th Academy Awards to introduce it. The watch has been making the rounds in paper ads and on forum leaks over the weekend, but has officially appeared in a video Rolex made celebrating their appearance on movie screens. Rolex is a partner of the Academy Awards and sponsor of the Oscar Green Room, so it is a nice occasion to debut a new watch, but one with more cinema connection would have maybe been more interesting, whatever that would have been.
The new watch is a Day-Date we all know already, coming in a 40mm wide case made out of Rolex’s Everose pink gold. It also comes with an Ombre or shadow rhodium-type grey dial with Roman hour markers. A combination like this has not been available up to this moment.
At the moment there is no additional info about availability, price or release date. But be sure that games will have to be played with your ADs to get your hands on this one. See more on the Rolex website.
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What Grand Seiko is to Seiko, The Citizen is to Citizen. Yes, it’s a horrible, horrible name and it’s been pretty much available only in Japan, but recently they are moving their upmarket brand to other parts of the world, so get to know The Citizen. Because they make some seriously beautiful watches that I’m personally only starting to get acquainted with - pieces that include impeccable finishing, stunning dials and both very interesting mechanical movements and even more intriguing quartz ones. Now, they are releasing an update to the Citizen Iconic Nature Collection, which originally came out in 2022, with two new models with just stunning washi paper dials.
The two watches, the unfortunately named AQ4100-22W and AQ4106-00W, come in identically shaped case that are made out of Citizen’s Super Titanium and measure 38.2mm wide and 12.2mm thick. Both watches get a Duratect coatings making them not only more resistant to scratches, but also giving them a color - the AQ4100-22W gets a platinum color, while the AQ4106-00W gets a Sakura pink shade. It’s a relatively simple case with a smooth bezel and short, sharply faceted lugs. The finishing looks to be impeccable, with brushed and highly polished surfaces.
Then there’s the dials. They are stunningly crafted with washi paper, the traditional Japanese material you would find in paper screens for doors and dividers. And on these watches it serves a dual purpose - it looks absolutely incredible, with a texture that can only be achieved through a material like paper that has randomly placed fibers and it’s translucent, which allows for solar charging of the eco-drive movement.
The AQ4100-22W comes with a dark green/teal dial with a dégradé effect that goes to black on the edges of the dial. The dial also gets a pattern of overlapping circles, creating a series of pointed oval shapes. The AQ4106-00W, on the other hand, comes in a deep brown that also fades to black on the edges, and has striations on it, forming an unusual pattern. Both feature the Citizen eagle at 6 o’clock that matches the shade of the case of each respective case.
Inside is the calibre A060 eco-drive movement, a quartz movement that would melt the hearts of even the most ardent quartz opponents. It is Citizen’s second-most accurate quartz movement, behind only the spectacular 0100 movement, and it’s accurate to 5 seconds. Per year. High accuracy quartz movements really are fascinating. And if that wasn’t enough, despite having just the one date aperture at 3 o’clock, the watch has a perpetual calendar, meaning that the date will automatically update to account for shorter months and even leap years, not requiring adjustment until the year 2100. Both watches come on crocodile straps, the teal dial one with a black strap, and the brown dial one with a brown strap.
If I understand correctly, the AQ4100-22W and AQ4106-00W should be available worldwide starting in April, with both being limited to 300 pieces each. But take this info with a grain of sale, as Citizen hasn’t released that much info on availability. The AQ4100-22W will be priced at $3,925, while the AQ4106-00W will come in at $4,125. The watches are still not available on Citizen’s website, but do keep an eye on it to see when they show up.
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It’s so incredibly easy to write off Bulova, as they do have a number of watches that are a bit generic. However, when they make a good watch, it’s verging on fantastic. The Lunar Pilot, the Parking Meter, the dreamy Devil Divers, even the Computron are all examples of how wonderful Bulova watches can be, and I love them for it. Their watches look great, are well made and are often great bang for your buck. Now, they are introducing four new variants of the Surveyor collection in a range of pretty great colors.
The Surveyor collection is a retro-futuristic watch that looks like it was designed in the 1970s as a watch that would be worn in the 2000s. The collection comes in a range of sizes - 31, 39 and 42mm - but the quartet of these new watches comes in the middle size, 39mm. All of them feature featuring sculpted edges and faceting, along with a mix of polished and brushed finishing. All of them are also made out of stainless steel, with one getting a full gold PVD treatment on both the case and the bracelet. On top is a flat sapphire crystal with a cyclops for the date at 3 o’clock.
What’s brand new with these watches are the dials. Bulova has seen that green is once again becoming a trendy watch color, so they’re releasing a dark green dial and a light green, pistachio, dial. Both of these feature silver applied and faceted hour markers and baton hands. There’s also a burgundy dial with rose gold colored markers, hands and crown. Finally, the gold-colored case gets a champagne dial with an open-heart into the movement.
Bulova doesn’t give you much info about what’s inside, other than it’s a Miyota automatic movement with 21 jewels and a 42 hour power reserve. Like I mentioned, the gold-toned case gets a gold bracelet, the dark green and burgundy dials get silver metal bracelets to match the case, while the pistachio dial gets a dark brown leather strap.
The new colorways of the Bulova Surveyor should be available now, worldwide and in unlimited quantities. The version on the leather strap will set you back $425, bumping that up to $475 for the silver bracelets and $525 for the all-gold model. See more on the Bulova website.
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It’s incredible when a watch brand is so closely associated with an activity. It means that the brand is exceptionally good not just at marketing, but also product development. Singaporean brand RZE is one such brand, as they have brought their affordable titanium watches ready for adventure to absolute perfection. And just when you think they can’t get any more adventurous, the fantastic watch magazine Fratello comes out with an amazing video full of woodsy stuff, Defenders and Barbour jackets to announce their collaboration with RZE on the RZE x Fratello Resolute Pro Contour, a tool watch meant for adventuring.
The watch is based on the relatively new Resolute Pro, a more hardcore version of their Resolute line. The case is made of titanium and then treated with RZE’s Ultra-Hex coating with 1,200Hv hardness, and comes in at 40mm wide and 10.5mm thick, with a 46mm lug-to-lug. Being a field watch aimed at exploration, you get 100 meters of water resistance and it’s light at 120 grams, including the titanium bracelet.
The Fratello input comes on the dial, which is mesmerising. It’s made out of forged carbon sheets and steel powder, creating a completely random pattern of curving lines that look exactly like the pattern of contour lines on a map, showing terrain elevation. Talk about an exploration-inspired dial. The dial also gets a brushed applied logo, which shares the color of the steel powder on the dial, just like the markers and hands.
Inside is the Miyota 90S5, an automatic movement that beats at 28,800vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. There’s no date complication, only the central hours, minutes and seconds, which is fine for a watch built with a purpose. The Contour comes on RZE’s titanium H-link bracelet which gets a lot of buzz. It tapers from 20mm to 16mm, features a quick release mechanism and closes with a foldover clasp that has tool-less micro-adjustment.
The RZE x Fratello Resolute Pro “Contour” will be one of the more affordable collaborations that Fratello has done, and the great news is that they will not be limited in number. They will, however, only be available only during a set window of time - any order placed between March 14th 15:00 GMT and March 21st 15:00 GMT will be fulfilled. Price is set at €679 excluding VAT. See more in the Fratello article on the release and keep an eye out on their website when the watch goes on sale.
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The British watchmaking industry has a long and proud history with both large and small watchmakers currently making some amazing pieces. To pay homage to this history, the Alliance of British Watch & Clock Makers just held their inaugural British Watchmakers’ Day, a special celebration of all British watches. One of the smaller brands to participate this year was Arken, a tiny (practically) one-man operation headed by Kenneth Lam that instantly became a darling of the watch world with their incredible Alterum that looked fantastic (albeit, a bit familiar) and featured a proprietary dual-time movement module, a magnificent achievement for such a small watch brand. Now, in honor of British Watchmakers’ Day and the Lunar New Year (Lam is of both British and Chinese ancestry), Arken has introduced their first special edition watch, the Arken Alterum Year of the Dragon.
It’s the same watch as the regular Alterum, meaning that it comes ina 40mm wide and 13mm thick titanium case with a scratch-resistant coating and a 46mm lug-to-lug measurement. It ‘s an interesting an bulbous case that features integrated lugs and has a sapphire crystal on top held by a smooth fixed bezel. Water resistance is 200 meters.
Where things get new is with the dial. While the original came with a beautiful dark grey (or black) dial with an incredibly grained finish, this new one gets an even more interesting texture - dragon scales engraved into the surface and rendered in a beautiful deep red color. The hands and hour markers remain the same in shape, just like the secondary hour hand which is orange to stand out against the dial. And like the original, all the hands are indexes are finished with Super-LumiNova BGW9.
Inside is something very interesting. Arken calls it the ARK-9015DT automatic dual-time movement. What they did is use a rather standard time-and-date Miyota 9015 as the base, a movement that beats at 28,800bph and has a power reserve of 42 hours, and then on top of that they developed their own ietary module that provides it with a second independently adjustable 12-hour hand, along with a pair of day/night indicator windows that are dedicated to its two different time zones. That’s pretty cool from such a small brand. Seeing as how the brand has proprietary integrated lugs, the strap it comes on is also important, and this new version comes on a great looking dark red tapered nylon strap that connects to its integrated lugs with a quick-release system to enable tool-free changes.
The Arken Alterum Year of the Dragon is limited to just 60 pieces, a number that has been chosen as a tribute to the individuals who were born during the Year of the Dragon, those who turn 60 this year alongside Arken founder’s mother. The watches were up for sale at the British Watchmakers’ Day this last Saturday, so chances are they’re completely sold out, seeing how the price is just £630 or around $800. You might want to keep an eye out on the Arken website to see if any pop up for sale, but I doubt it.
🫳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
Adjacent to the central disc with the map and time zone locations ring, which completes a full rotation in 24 hours, is a 24-hour fixed ring. The light grey section represents day hours (7 to 17), while the black portion signifies night hours (18 to 6). Notably, the 12 o’clock position is marked with a sun image, symbolizing noon, while the 24 o’clock position features a crescent, signifying midnight. Another essential element is the coloured guilloche ring, housing the outer minutes track and applied hour indices. Faceted and polished indices are filled with Super-LumiNova for enhanced visibility in low-light conditions. The 12 o’clock index is replaced by a proud display of the brand’s metallic wind rose logo, which is also applied, though it doesn’t illuminate in the dark.
⏲️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
This is a story right up my alley. Artwork by Basquiat, one of my favorite painters, forgeries, the FBI and a long search for the answer how it is possible that nobody recognised a “newly discovered trove of lost Basquiats” as complete fakes?
In 2007, a group of researchers, led by a nuclear physicist named Richard Firestone, announced an astonishing discovery. They had uncovered evidence, they said, that 12,900 years ago, a comet — or possibly a whole fleet of comets — struck Earth and changed the course of history. Science has done its best to debunk the notion, but a belief in a world-changing series of prehistoric impacts continues to gain momentum.
In this Bloomberg feature, Rowan Jacobsen presents a current snapshot of the mezcal industry. Mezcal’s allure has been in its artisanal nature, produced in small batches and by families in Mexico, and in Oaxaca in particular, the country’s largest producer. But, as Jacobsen reports, Big Liquor is changing that. As mezcal grows in popularity, the region’s old-school distilleries and agave farms are feeling the threat of “tequilization” as the demand for the spirit increases around the world.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Does anybody have $2 million I could borrow? I swear it’s for a legitimate purpose and not to buy one of the prettiest yachts I have ever seen. I’ve spent a lot of time on the Adriatic coast and a lot of rich people own a lot of expensive boats. And yet, there’s not one rich person with taste. It’s all Sunseekers and Predators and dumb looking speed-boat type yachts. Give me one just like this and I’m happy.
💵Pre-loved precision
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-Vuk