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- Swatch Releases New Fully Blacked Out Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms, Longines Celebrates Lunar New Year With Red Moonphase, Mido Adds Blue Dial To Skeleton Multifor, New From Raketa And Garrick
Swatch Releases New Fully Blacked Out Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms, Longines Celebrates Lunar New Year With Red Moonphase, Mido Adds Blue Dial To Skeleton Multifor, New From Raketa And Garrick
The Blancpain x Swatch collaboration hasn't been as successful as the Moonswatch, but this might turn things aroud
It's About Time
January 10, 2024
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Swatch is back with a new version of the plastic Blancpain, ready to take all the hate of the internet. However, I think this one might be a hit for them.
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In this issue:
Ocean Of Storms Is A Fully Blacked Out Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms
Longines Joins The Celebration Of The Year Of The Dragon With A Beautiful Heritage Flagship Moonphase
Mido Adds A Subtle Blue Dial To Their Multifort Skeleton Vertigo
Raketa’s Latest Release Is Made From Parts Of A Nuclear Submarine
Garrick Introduce S2 With The Fabled Deadbeat Seconds Complication
Today’s reading time: 7 minutes and 19 seconds
👂What’s new
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Without a doubt, the Omega x Swatch bioceramic (yeah, plastic) version of the cult Moonwatch has been one of the most successful watch releases in the past several years. They sold more than a million pieces in the first year, barely keeping up with demand and with lines forming at Swatch stores every few days with people waiting for stock to come in. Year two of the model was more puzzling, with Swatch releasing the same model once per month with a different gold chrono hand to mark the full moon. It was very weird. But the Swatch group was on the hunt for their new plastic hit and late last year they released a collaboration with Blancpain, the Scuba Fifty Fathoms. While more capable and more expensive, but also with a mechanical movement, the plastic Blancpain doesn’t seem to be as big a hit as the Moonswatch. However, Swatch is doubling down on the collection and adding a sixth watch to the collection, called the Ocean of Storm.
While the five original Scuba Fifty Fathoms were inspired by the oceans of Earth, this one is inspired by Oceanus Procellarum, a sea on the Moon that’s lo large it covers 10% of the surface and you can see it on the western edge of the Moon. The case is the same as the existing models - 42.3mm wide, 14.4mm thick and still made out of bioceramic, a material that is made up of two-thirds zirconium oxide ceramic powder, with one-third biosourced material derived from castor oil. But most people just call it plastic because that’s exactly what it feels like. You get 91 meters of water resistance (50 fathoms).
This Ocean of Storm model gets a completely black case, a glossy black insert with a 60-minute graduation and an all black dial with a sunray brushed finish. The indices & hands, again designed to replicate the dial of the iconic Fifty-Fathoms, are finished with luminous material and the central seconds hand has a coloured tip.
Inside, and seen through the transparent caseback, is the mechanical Sistem51 movement. It beats at 21,600vph and has an impressive 90 hour power reserve. The rotor is again decorated with a nudibranch, a shell-less type of Gastropod, time the Okenia Luna nudibranch. Of course, there’s much debate over this movement as it’s unlikely to be serviced due to it’s fused components, but it’s still a nifty piece of engineering. The watch comes on a black/silver NATO-style strap made of recycled fishing nets removed from our oceans.
The Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms Ocean of Storms goes on sale on January 11th and it’s priced at €390. The watch will be available in Swatch stores at a rate of 1 per person per day. Don’t quote me on this, but I think this one might sell a bit better than the bolder colored models. See more on the Swatch website.
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Yesterday I showed you the IWC Portugieser Chronograph Year of the Dragon, a limited edition that marks the upcoming Lunar New Year. But that’s just one of many watches released in the past month that mark the Chinese Zodiac, and today Longines presented their take on the celebratory watch. They are releasing 888 pieces of its Flagship Heritage Moonphase. Unfortunately, only in Asia.
The Heritage Flagship Moonphase is a fan favorite model as it offers a higly regarded complication at an affordable price and a great format. Speaking of, it comes in a 38.5mm wide steel case that’s only 12.4mm thick, with short lugs and a mix of brushed and polished surfaces. Also, since it has a moonphase complication, it’s the perfect choice to mark the Chinese New Year, as it fluctuates in the calendar according to when the second full moon of the year is.
The look is very much what you would expect from a watch that marks the Chinese New Year. It has a beautiful dome dial with a gradient red finish, brighter in the centre and darker as it reaches the edges. Red in Chinese culture and is associated with festivities, good luck, wealth and happiness and it’s often combined with gold. And you get gold on the applied indices, the dauphine-style hands and even the winged hourglass logo are golden.
At 6 o’clock you will find the moon phase display with a red snailed opening. Framed by a date ring indicated by a golden hand, the waxing and waning of our sattelite is represented by a golden moon and stars set against a dark blue night sky.
Inside is the automatic calibre L899.5, based on the ETA A31.L91, which beats at 25,200vph and has a power reserve of 72 hours. The watch comes on a black alligator strap and the new Heritage pin buckle.
The number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture, so it’s no surprise that the Flagship Heritage Moonphase Year of the Dragon is limited to 888 pieces. Available only in Asia, the watch will sell for CNY 23,100 or €3,250. See more on the Chinese Longines website.
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For decades, the skeletonized dial has been one of the calling cards of Mido, even before the Swatch Group bought them. In recent years, they have been doubling down on the skeletonization and has just released the latest version of the exposed Multifort with a blue dial. Or what’s left of it.
The Multifort Skeleton Vertigo comes in a 42mm wide and just 10.6mm thick stainless steel case. It’s a simple round case with a slim bezel and large screw-down crown. The finishing is a combination of brushed and polished surfaces, while water resistance is a very decent 100 meters.
But the main attraction, of course, is the dial. On the edges you get a substantial chapter ring that’s rendered in blue and decorated with vertical Geneva stripes and applied and faceted hour markers that are treated with lume. In the centre of the dial is a large opening that offers you a view of the movement inside. The skeletonised mainplate is also decorated with vertical Geneva stripes and is grey to match the colour and texture of the minutes track framing the movement.
The movement you see from the front, but also the back, is Swatch Group’s very familiar Calibre 80. It’s their version of the ETA 2824-2 and it beats at 21,600vph with the eponymous 80 hour power reserve. You get a titanium-based Nivachron balance spring, providing increased resistance to shocks, temperature variations and magnetic fields. The central rotor is also decorated with Geneva stripes. The watch comes on a stainless steel bracelet with a folding clasp.
The Mido Multifort Skeleton Vertigo is priced at €1,200 and is available now as part of the regular Mido Mutifort collection. See more on the Mido website.
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Russian watches have an incredible cult following in online forums. No, really, it sometimes feels like a cult. Sure, they are great watches with incredible herigate, but I never got too excited about time. However, of all the Russian watches, Raketa, one of the largest and older watch manufacturers in Russia, has been consistently making interesting watches. And their latest watch, the Raketa Sonar, is something extremely interesting - it’s a specialized 24-hour watch made for submarine crews. It’s durable, great looking watch that helps crews tell if it’s day or night while underwater.
The Sonar comes in a 44mm wide stainless steel case with a sapphire crystal, a mineral glass caseback and a tiny sloped bezel on top. The dial features a 24-hour display that almost looks like a roulette wheel with red and blue markings between numerals. These red and blue segments on the 24-hour chapter ring divide the day into six quarters of four hours each, reflecting the length of a shift on a submarine. The dial has a sandwich construction without cutouts on the top layer for numerals that are filled with Super luminova. The typeface for the numerals and the radical open-worked hands both take inspiration from submarine instruments.
Inside the the watch is the Raketa Calibre 2624A that displays 24 hours on the dial. The movement features hand-made Neva waves and a bi-directional automatic winding. The movement beats at 18,000 vph and has a 40 hour power reserve. Also, Raketa claims an average accuracy of -10/+20 seconds per day. The watch comes on a silicone strap.
But the Sonar also gets a limited edition as well called the Sonar Kashalot. Only 500 pieces of this watch will be made and with a bezel fabricated from titanium taken from the hull of the K-322 Kashalot, an Akula-class nuclear submarine that was deployed by the Soviet navy and decommissioned in 2019. This version comes on a leather strap, and a model of the K-322 “Kashalot” submarine.
Pricing is fairly simple - €1,900 for the Sonar and €2,800 for the Sonar Kashalot. See more on the Raketa website.
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When you first get into watches, you will want to learn how to distinguish between a quartz and mechanical movement on first glance. And people will tell you it’s easy - the second hand on a mechanical movement sweeps and on a quartz movement it ticks second by second. It’s easy until you get into the highest of ends of watchmaking. One of the holy grails of watchmaking is the deadbeat second which features a stop-start motion and makes a mechanical movement tick like a quartz one. Now Garrick, the British watchmaker, released the S2 Deadbeat Seconds, their version of this coveted movement.
The new S2 Deadbeat Seconds comes in the same case as the S2 Central Seconds that came before it. This means a 42mm wide and 10mm thick 904L stainless steel case with a brushed and polished finish. You get a domed sapphire crystal, an onion-style crown and a surprising 100 meters of water resistance.
There are two available options for the dial called the MK1 and MK2. The MK1 is decorated with engine-turned guilloché patterns, a heat-blued skeletonized chapter ring and hand-crafted hands, while the MK2 is more subdued with a simpler dotted chapter ring but also available with a guilloché design and finished in several colours. There’s a lot of possibility for customization, so you can get Anchor-style hands or faceted Lancine hands. At 6 o’clock is the opening for the free-sprung Trinity balance wheel, suspended by a horizontal bridge.
To get the deadbeat seconds, Garrick uses the calibre DB-G06. It beats at 18,000vph and has a power reserve of 45 hours. Decoration is on a level you would expect from a watch like this - frosting on the plates and bridges, which can be finished in silver or gold plating. The watch comes on a handmade leather strap with a steel pin buckle.
The Garrick S2 Deadbeat Seconds is made to order and only 10 will be made per year. It’s priced at GBP 19,000, without taxes, which doesn’t seem as crazy a price for such a watch. See more on the Garrick 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
The Visitor Linden delivers a similar not-quite-round, not-quite-square silhouette as the Duneshore (and its dive version, the Duneshore Shallows), but with a more refined, easy-wearing design. Measuring 39mm across and 10.5mm thick, the Linden is far more my speed than the bulky Duneshore. The brushing of the steel is balanced with some polishing, but while the finishing and dimensions are all well and good, it’s the lugs that really do it for me. There’s an elegance and fluidity to the pinched design. They’re narrower relative to the case (and perhaps in general) than you usually see in watches, and I think they add even more of a unique twist to the watch. Add to that the drilled holes for easy strap changes and the big, polished chamfer running the entirety of the 48.5 lug-to-lug, and the case alone sold me.
⏲️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 Believer is one of my favorite magazines of all time. And often the great illustrations and wonderful design can distract from the stories inside. Which you shouldn’t let happen, as they have some of the best writing in the business. Like this one, on how a small computer chip company, owned by the author’s mother, became the target of a sprawling pan-Asian crime ring that operated throughout Silicon Valley
Browsing through a list of best longform articles of 2023, I saw I missed this one about the rise of the nepo-baby phenomenon. Usually not something I would read, but this is written by a buddy of mine from school, so you might as well read it. It’s pretty legit.
Remember me mentioning Tom Junod yesterday? I just found a great article he wrote with Paula Lavigne. When Jerry Sandusky’s crimes came to light, the world thought it was the first time Joe Paterno and Penn State had faced a serial sexual predator in their midst. Turns out, that wasn’t the case. This is the story of the predator who had come before.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
I think I already told you once or twice that I studied film theory. I still dabble a bit, so I keep up with my favorite genre of YouTube video - the cinema essay. This one has just incredible production value on the Golden age of Japanese cinema. Which is appropriate, as I’ve been watching a lot of Japanese movies lately.
💵Pre-loved precision
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