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  • Seiko Launches Presage Classic Series With Silk Inspired Dials, Tissot Celebrates 75 Years Of MotoGP With Aggressive T-Race; Bulova Updates Accutron Spaceview; Luis Vuitton Has Some Crazy Watches

Seiko Launches Presage Classic Series With Silk Inspired Dials, Tissot Celebrates 75 Years Of MotoGP With Aggressive T-Race; Bulova Updates Accutron Spaceview; Luis Vuitton Has Some Crazy Watches

What are your general thoughts on open-worked movements? Tacky? Or cool?

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It's About Time
March 12, 2024

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. The new Seiko’s were so promising, despite their substantial dials, but it all just disintegrated with a combination of that pricepoint and that movement.

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In this issue:

  • Seiko Launches Brand New Presage Classic Series With Silk Inspired Domed Dials

  • Tissot Celebrates 75 Years Of The MotoGP With A Very Aggressive Looking T-Race Chronograph

  • Bulova Updates The Legendary Accutron Spaceview 2020 Collection With Incremental Moves To The Future

  • Louis Vuitton’s New High Watchmaking Releases Are Just Mesmerising

Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 10 seconds

👂What’s new

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The Presage Cocktail time has become a sort of runaway hit for Seiko. Sure, some of them have been a bit too large and too thick at 40.5mm and almost 12mm to be considered dress watches (depending on your wrist size, of course), and sure, they come with hardlex crystals on top, and sure, the bracelets were not the greatest, and sure, the movements were not particularly accurate, but they offered incredibly beautiful dials for often under $500, which came out to be a fantastic deal for many, many people. Seiko tried recapturing that magic with the Sharp Edged Series, but it doesn’t seem to have worked as well, so they’re trying again with a new addition to the Pesage line, five new watches under the new Classic Series.

All five watches from the Classic Series come in the same stainless steel case which measures 40mm wide and a quite substantial 13mm thick. It’s a much curvier and rounder case than the Sharp Edged Series, which was a very 70s angular thing, and it comes fully polished with just the tops of the lugs getting a brushed finish. It has a stepped bezel on top with a double-domed sapphire crystal, a welcomed upgrade from many Presage line watches. Water resistance is rated at 100 meters.

The watches come in two setups, as a three hand option with a date and an open-heart version with a 24 hour indicator, and all the dials get a domed dial. Starting off with the three handers, you get the SPB463, also called the Shiro-Iro which means unbleached or white in Japanese. Then there’s the SPB465 Araigaki, named for the washed out persimmon tone of the dial. And lastly, there’s the SPB467 Sensaicha which is supposed to be a brown-green, but looks almost grey in pictures. All three versions have a texture to the dial that gives them a sparkly hue. The dials are simple, with curved hands to follow the curve of the dial, applied indices and a chapter ring with a minute track.

Then there are the open-heart versions. Seiko claims that the inspiration for these dials comes raw silk yarn, which results in a soft radial, almost-sunburst texture. I’ll be honest and say I’m not a fan, as the open-heart concept that doesn’t display a wonderful movement, always just seemed a bit weird for me. But people seem to love them, so who am I to judge. These two come in the SPB469 reference that gets the same Shiro-Iro color, while the other caries the designation SPB471 and gets the Sumi-Iro color which translates to “ink color”, a much darker grey. At 9 o’clock you’ll find the opening which shows the Diashock shock absorber, while the 6 o’clock has a 24-hour scale, one of the more puzzling additions to many Seiko watches.

Inside the open heart movements is the Seiko 6R5J, an automatic unit which beats at 21,600bph and has a decent 72 hour power reserve. Like most R-series movements from Seiko, don’t expect fantastic accuracy. This one is rated at -15 to +25 seconds per day. Inside the closed-dial version is the 6R55 movement, which has the same specs. Both watches come on a beads-of-rice bracelet that has a brushed and polished finish with a hidden push-button butterfly clasp.

This was a very early release for Seiko, as the watches are expected to go on sale in June of this year. As for the price, it will have you scratching your head. The three closed dialed versions are priced at €1,050 while the open-hearts will set you back €1,230. When I first saw the watches I thought these were going to be amazing pieces in the €400-600 range. More than double that price seems a bit too steep, or am I wrong? See more on the Seiko website.

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Over the past two years, Tissot has has such an incredibly successful run of simple and elegant watches - like the PRX, the Le Locle line, and pieces like the Telemeter and Heritage 1938 - that it’s easy to forget that they make a bunch of quite loud sports watches. They recently introduced the new PR516, a new collection of GADA manual and quartz chronographs, but their T-Race series has been in the lineup for decades, a reminder that Tissot has been involved with racing for a while. Now, they’re celebrating the 75th anniversary of the MotoGP motorcycle race, a race they have been sponsoring since 2001 as the official timekeeper, with a very loud Tissot T-Race MotoGP 75th Anniversary Chronograph 2024 Limited Edition, a watch that is certainly an acquired taste, but also one that will find a loyal fan base.

It’s not just the look of this watch that is aggressive, everything is. It measures in at 45mm wide and a pretty gargantuan 14.79mm thick. The case is stainless steel, fully brushed, faceted and on top is a black PVD bezel made to look like a carbon fibre brake disc on a racing bike. But that’s not the only bike-looking part of the case - the midcase features cutouts that mimic the cooling cutouts on an engine. The pushers and crown are equally as brash, each with it’s own shape and color.

Don’t expect the dial to be any more subdued. It’s a multi level affair with a blue dial with red details. On the inner bezel you’ll find a tachymeter scale which sorrounds a seconds ring that has aggressive trapezoid metallic hour indices filled with Super-LumiNova. It’s a tri-compax setup with a running seconds subdial at 9, a 30 minute totaliser at 3 and a 12 hour totaliser at 6 o’clock. The centre chrono hand and the running seconds hand are finished in red, while the 3 o’clock subdial features a red 75 to mark the 75th Anniversary.

Inside is the automatic Valjoux 05 series movement. It beats at 28,800bph and has a decent 60 hour power reserve. The movement is a descendant of th elegendary ETA 7750 and features a Nivachron hairspring. You can see the movement, including the skeletonized rotor, through the caseback. The watch comes on a blue rubber strap with a pin buckle.

The Tissot T-Race MotoGP 75th Anniversary Chronograph 2024 Limited Edition is limited to 2024 pieces and comes in a mini helmet packaging. Price is set at CHF 1,815. See more on the Tissot website.

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Yesterday, I wrote about a more conventional watch from Bulova, the four new variants of the Surveyor collection in a range of pretty great colors. Today, we’re back on track with the legendary American brand, as they present new references for the Accutron Spaceview 2020 Collection, one of their most important models which pays direct homage to the original Spaceview, while incorporating modern design and technical advancement. Most importantly, the new watch in the Spaceview 2020 Collection retains the incredible view of the internals, allowing owners to see the movement in action.

In order to make the movement easily visible, this has to be a significantly large watch. And it is. It measures 43.5mm wide and is really, really thick at 15.9mm. On top is a significant domed double box sapphire crystal that extends to the very edges of the polished stainless steel case, held down with the tiniest of fixed bezels and strapped down to the wrist with sharp angular lugs. Water resistance is a surprisingly set at 50 meters, not something you would expect from a watch that looks as impressive as this.

The dial is incredibly intriguing, transparent, green and partially open-worked, with a transparent outer ring. The hour and minute hands are white with Super-LumiNova center, while the seconds hand is orange. The watch can be had on either a matte black or green genuine American alligator strap.

What’s always been special about the Accutron was the tech inside. While previous versions were powered by a tuning fork, the modern ones run on an electrostatic movement where the drive coil for the stepper motor replaces the copper coils of the tuning fork to complete the reflection. The drive system incorporates electrodes and human motion to generate and store energy. The electrostatic motor propels the seconds hand, while two smaller electrostatic generators rotate the rotor, which can be seen spinning on the dial. Excess energy is stored in an accumulator, providing power for the hour and minute hands. This results in a quartz watch that doesn’t need battery changes.

The new Accutron Spaceview 2020 is on sale right now at a price of $3,850. See more on the Accutron website.

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The other day, Louis Vutton released a Flying Tourbillon that was equally as impressive in it’s technical achievement as it was dubious in some stylistic choices. But at the same time, they also added several high-horology pieces produced by La Fabrique du Temps in Geneva. Think of these less as watches, although they are amazing watches, and more as incredible pieces of art.

Starting off with a bang, LV has teamed up once again with architect Frank Gehry to create a sapphire flying tourbillon that also has Geneva Seal certification. Made in only five pieces, the watches are inspired by Gehry’s building he made for LV. You get a sapphire case that measrues 43.8mm wide and 11.27mm thick, along with sapphire lugs, dials, and crown with a skeletonized rose gold movement inside and a polished sapphire dial. The movement features a flying tourbillon that rotates once a minute. This piece comes at an incredible price of $935,000.

Next is a trio of Escale pieces, inspired by Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s collection of katana sword guards. The three Escale Cabinet of Wonders pieces are Koi's Garden, Dragon's Cloud, and Snake's Jungle. Each features a different métiers d'Art dial that employs a variety of artisanal techniques and artisans. For example, Snake's Jungle has a dial made of wood, straw, and parchment by Rose Saneuil, along with gold snakes and leaves hand-engraved by Eddy Jacquet with champlevé enamel by Vanessa Lecci. The Snake's Jungle has a white gold case (40mm) with hand-engraved bezel and jade crown. Each is limited to 20 pieces and priced at a more reasonable $270,000.

And lastly, there’s a pair of Tambour Jumping Hours watches named Sakura and Astronaut. LV is using a character created by the brand in 2017 called Vivienne as their mascot and places her in the two watches as a central motif. The first, "Sakura," takes inspiration from the Japanese cherry blossoms, infusing the dial with flowers, monograms, and a pink mother-of-pearl dial. The second, "Astronaut," sends her to space, a blue mother-of-pearl aventurine dial with planets, and diamonds in orbit. The Tambour Slim Vivienne Jumping Hours Sakura and Astronaut measures 38 wid and 12.2mm thick. The white gold case is diamond set, and they are priced at $118,000. See more on the Louis Vuitton 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 like

While the case may be what’s going to catch your eye first, it’s the dial that will keep you gazing at the Möels & Co. 528. Released in 15 different variations, including a split black and white dial, the layout is as unique as the case. The sleek skeleton hands are offset, which provides both a stylistic and practical benefit: the dial becomes its own differentiator from other watches, and the time is also readable even when the watch is resting under a cuff (depending on the cuff, of course, though even with a larger dress shirt, the effort to move the watch out from the cuff is reduced). On this “Metallic Fir” dial color, you get a deep gray main dial, rhodium-plated hands and applied numerals, and silver dial text. Smartly, all of those silver accents are polished, providing contrast against the base dial and increasing legibility.

⏲️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

  • Many times in your life you’ve have been contacted by an ousted Nigerian prince who had to flee for his life. He needs to get his money out of the country, but he can’t do it in his own name, so you are the only person on the planet who can help him. There’s no way somebody falls for this, right? In 2006 Americans lost $198.4 million to this scam, and the latest data we have is for 2019. Even then, when pretty much everybody knows this is a scam, $800,000 was drained from victims. Well, it’s payback time. Two Irish businessmen found a mundane contractual provision met with rampant corruption — and almost took the Nigerian government for $11 billion.

  • Remember the train that derailed near the previously unknown town of East Palestine in Ohio and cause a horrible state of emergency? A year later, little has changed and this piece from Time magazine tells a haunting story through great writing and even better photos.

  • You know I adore a great interactive story from the New York Times. They’re just the best at it. This is a wonderfully told story about the hundreds of the world’s threatened and endangered languages that are still being kept alive in the neighbourhoods of New York.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

By chance I ended up watching three Shaw brothers Kung Fu movies this weekend in three completely unrelated settings. Which got me looking up details on a couple of movies on YouTube and my wife asking me what’s wrong with me and why is my laptop making funny noises. The research brought me to this great video made by MOMA associate curator La Frances Hui who explores the history of the kung fu films, the actors and filmmakers associated with the genre like Bruce Lee, Gordon Liu, and Jackie Chan, and why Lau Kar-leung has been hailed as the grandmaster of kung fu films.

💵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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-Vuk