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  • Yema Goes Exploring With A Superman 500 GMT For The South Pole, RL Brings Back Hip-Hop History, Bell & Ross Introduces Wild Sapphire Cyber Skull, New From Schwarz Etienne And Mortiz Grossman

Yema Goes Exploring With A Superman 500 GMT For The South Pole, RL Brings Back Hip-Hop History, Bell & Ross Introduces Wild Sapphire Cyber Skull, New From Schwarz Etienne And Mortiz Grossman

Following in the footsteps of Rolex and Omega, the French indie is going exploring in rough conditions

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It's About Time
November 29, 2023

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s nice to see traditional watches are still out there being used by explorers, that’s all I have for today.

If you like this newsletter, you might consider supporting it directly through Patreon. If you were subscribed, you could have already read my lengthy piece on Only Watch and it potentially being the biggest scam of the watch world. Other subscriber-only articles include the Completely Sterile Secret Watches Of MACV-SOG and my choice of 11 vintage Heuer watches that would make the perfect basis for new TAG Heuer recreations, including a possible MoonSwatch type watch that could actually break the internet.

In this issue:

  • Yema Embraces Exploration With A Stunning Superman 500 GMT That Is On Its Way To The South Pole

  • Revolution And The Rake Team Up With Ralph Lauren To Bring Back A Piece Of Style History In The Form Of A Watch

  • Bell & Ross Introduces Completely Wild BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue

  • Schwarz Etienne Releases The Roswell 08, Now In A Beautiful Shade Of Blue

  • Moritz Grossmann Celebrates 15th Anniversary With Two Incredible Watches

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes and 11 seconds

👂What’s new

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Sir Edmund Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay climbed Mt. Everest with a Rolex and Smith watch on their hand (the exact details of who wore what where are a bit muddled, but keep an eye out on the Patreon for an upcoming article on which watch made it to Everest first). The astronauts of the Apollo program proudly wore their Omega Speedmasters. Rolex strapped a Deepsea Challenge to the outside of the submersible that took James Cameron to the Mariana Trench. Watches are synonymous with exploration at any price point. So it’s always nice to see a new watch join the explorers club. Yema is launching a new limited edition of their Superman 500 GMT called the Polheim, after the expedition to the South Pole that’s just started.

Nine days ago, twenty-five-year-old French explorer, Pierre Hedan embarked on a 50 day extreme expedition that will see him trek on foot for 1,130 kilometres from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole. Interestingly, the expedition is named Polheim, which means Home at the Pole in Norwegian and was the name given to the first ever camp set up at the South Pole by Roald Amundsen. Hedan is an ambassador for Yema and the company has designed a special polar edition of the Superman 500 GMT and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Starting off with the watch - the Superman is Yema’s retro skin diver watch that has seen a number of variants. The Superman comes in two sizes one in 39mm and one in 41mm and the one chose for the Polheim edition is the 39mm wide, which means the watch is 11.52mm thick and has a 48mm lug-to-lug. The thickness includes the double domed sapphire crystal which has been reworked for the recent Superman redesign, but keeping its 2.6mm in thickness that gives you a magnificent magnifying effect when looking through it from an angle.

Surrounding the crystal is the bi-directional 24-hour graduated bezel made of scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. The bezel allows you to track up to three time zones, but this is rendered somewhat impractical with the bezel-lock that’s one of the defining characteristics of the Superman. I love the idea of this mechanism - it’s a tab that holds the serrated bezel from spinning when the crown is screwed down. This is amazing if you want to make sure it hasn’t accidentally slipped, but also means you need to unscrew the crown to adjust the bezel. While impractical on land, it’s impossible to do in water, which is a shame because the regular Superman is a very capable diver with 500 meters of water resistance. Like I said, impractical, but I love it.

A couple of more words on that bezel. Hedan is making his journey to the South Pole during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, meaning that the sun almost never sets at the Pole, a phenomenon called the Midnight Sun. The two tone red-white bezel helps with keeping track of day and night, as one half corresponds to the daytime hours, the other to the night-time hours..

Beneath the crystal is a new dial for the watch, with a stark white grained finish that looks like the icy deserts of Antarctica. The hour markers are dots of Super-LumiNova Grade A with black surrounds to make them stand out. The hands are polished steel to make them easier to read in sunlight as they tend to darken under bright sunlight. The black finished GMT hand allows quick reading of a second time zone.

Inside the watch is the in-house Caliber YEMA3000. A lot has been said about Yema and their quality control, with many people online complaining that they not only had issues with movements, but also that the customer support has not been as helpful in resolving this. I researched this quite a bit and it seems that the majority of these complaints came from earlier iterations of their movements and I haven’t seen that many complaints about the YEMA3000. It has a 42 hour power reserve and is rated to be accurate to +/- 10 seconds per day. The watch can be had on a new reissue of the iconic Yema Scales bracelet from the 1960s in polished/brushed 316L steel, featuring a new double security buckle with a diver extension. The bracelet looks amazing, but you can also opt for a regular stainless steel bracelet, a rubber band or a vintage leather strap. Your choice will affect the price.

The Yema Superman 500 GMT Polheim limited edition is limited to just 100 pieces and is on sale right now. Pricing for the Scales bracelet is $1,449 with the other strap options coming in at a lower price. Also, you can follow the expedition live at this link. See more about the watch on the Yema website.

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Wei Koh is one of those mythical figures in the fashion and watch worlds. He’s always at the right place at the right time. And if you’re new to either of those two worlds, you might ask yourself: who is this guy? Well, he is the founder of two legendary magazines - the fashion magazine The Rake and the watch magazine Revolution. He also works on some of the best collaborations in the watch industry. For his latest, The Rake teams up with Revolution and Ralph Lauren for a new limited-edition timepiece by the name of “Snow Beach Bear Watch.” Hip-Hop fans need not hear anything more.

For the rest of you, here’s the significance of Snow Beach. In a downtown Brooklyn street in 1993, Raekwon (aka Corey Woods) from the Wu-Tang Clan rocked up to the set of the video shoot for the group’s single “Can It Be All So Simple” wearing a unique and distinctive yellow and blue parka emblazoned with the hot pink words “Snow Beach,” and one of the most seminal moments in hip-hop style was born. The jacket was created in that same year by America’s poet laureate of style, Ralph Lauren, as the central piece to his new vision for urban sportswear inspired by the loose fitting parkas worn by snowboarders. For the first time, athletic wear had descended from the slopes to take center stage on the streets of New York.

Snow Beach exploded in popularity and gained such a cult following that even today vintage parkas from the 1993 collection or the re-edition version of these jackets launched in 2018 go for secondary prices five times their original cost, if you are lucky enough to find one. Being a huge fan of the parka, Wei Koh decided to bring it back in the shape of a watch and includes the Polo bear, a frequent motif of RL watches.

Housed in a 42mm stainless steel case, the watch features an engraved Polo Bear design on the caseback. The crown of the watch sits at the 2 o’clock position, echoing the look and feel of former Ralph Lauren timepieces. The rest of the watch follows through with a bright palette of vivid hues, from the blue lacquer dial, and white Arabic numerals to touches of red that can be found on the mascot’s outfit, seconds hand, and in the “Snow Beach” lettering.

Inside the watch is a self-winding Sellita-based caliber RL200 with a 38-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a leather NATO straps with a complementing design and color scheme, characterized by bold lettering in contrasting hues.

Priced at $1,850 USD, the collaborative timepiece is released in a limited batch of 300 pieces only. It will be available for purchase starting November 30, 10 a.m. EST via the Revolution website.

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The French watch brand Bell & Ross is often poked a bit of fun at by pointing out that their watches all look the same. I mean, sure, they made a name for themselves by making square watches that look like airplane instruments. But the claim that all of their watches look the same couldn’t be further from the truth. Just look at their lineup. There’s a myriad of shapes, sizes and functions. Having a well established lineup, they are now ready for all sorts of experimentations. They had the amazing BR 03 Gyrocompass, with an airplane hour hand, or the BR-X5 Green Lum which has a fully lumed composite case. A while ago, back in 2009, they even introduced a watch with a skull dial with 10 versions following it. Now, they’re introducing a new skull watch, but much different. This is the insane BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue.

The watch comes in the familiar 45mm squared shape of the BR-01, but it’s nothing like the original version. Instead of stainless steel or a composite material, this version comes in a complex sapphire case. According to Bell & Ross, to make the case they had to heat alumina powder with a hydrogen flame at temperatures exceeding 2,000°C. But the result is a completely transparent case that’s almost as resistant to scratches as diamond.

Placed inside the case is the titular skull which is rendered from one piece of sapphire crystal in a beautiful shade of blue. The skull is heavily faceted and the color is achieved with a PVD coating and the brand claims that the “transparency of the sapphire case pairs perfectly with the icy tone of the sky-blue colour”.

Inside the watch is a hand-wound movement designed in house, the calibre BR-CAL.209. Intrestingly, the movement also serves as an automata which moves the jaw of the skull as you wind it, making the face of death laugh at you as time passes by. A bit on the nose, but still a very cool movement. When the skull grins you can see the barrel of the movement and making up the brain of this skull is the anthracite balance wheel. The watch comes on a transparent soft silicone strap, completing the transparent look.

Limited to only 25 pieces, the BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue will, of course, be extremely expensive. Price is set at €120,000. Now I see why the skull was laughing so much. See more on the Bell & Ross website.

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If you have been reading this newsletter for a while, you probably heard the name Schwarz Etienne. I haven’t featured any of their watches, but it sure did write about watches from Ming and Ophion, indie watchmakers that Schwarz Etienne supplied movements to. But other than incredible movements, the brand also makes some pretty nifty watches. One of them is the Roswell 08 collection, an openworked watch with a very nice date mechanism. Now, Schwarz Etienne is is introducing the Roswell 08 in blue.

The Roswell name is a reference to the supposed alien crash near the New Mexico town and it sure does look weird. It comes in a 45mm round steel case with simple faceted lugs and a pair of crown guards, with the lower guard functioning as a quick set for the date.

The Roswell is known for it’s lack of a dial, chosing to show of the beautiful movement and the new blue version gets the entire plate and micro rotor rendered in color to stand out from the polished steel of the indices and hands. You get a central hour and minute indication with a small seconds by a tiny bombé indicator rotating at 11 o’clock. The date is read in the 2 o’clock cut-out on the slightly inclined disc rotating on the movement’s periphery.

The movement you see is the automatic calibre ISE 100.11. Like all the automatic movements of the family, the space of one of the two barrels found in the hand-wound versions is used to incorporate a micro-rotor. It beats at a 3Hz frequency and has a 86 hours of power reserve. The watch comes on a hand-sewn grey calfskin strap with a green lining.

The price is set at CHF 15,400 and you can learn more about the watch on the SE website.

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Glashütte, the German region known for it’s high end watchmaking, has been the home of incredible watch brands for over a hundred years. So when you see a brand based in Glashütte, especially one that makes extremely high end watches, you tend to automatically assume the brand is at least a hundred years old. Well, you might be surprised to learn that Moritz Grossmann, a brand from Glashütte, is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary with two watches, a piece unique based on the Tremblage and a special edition of the Backpage.

While Moritz Grossmann is knwon for their gorgeous classical watches, they also have the Backpage, a more modern and edgy watch that they are now giving a green dial to. The 41mm wide case is 11.35mm thick and comes in either platinum or rose gold. Only part of the dial is green, because the other part is completely open and shows off the movement. The hands are heated to Moritz Grossmann’s signature violet-brown hue. The movement is constructed upside down to reveal the balance wheel, engraved balance cock, clever winder-and-pusher system and more of the running gear on the front of the watch. Both versions are limited to 25 pieces, worn on a brown or black leather strap and priced at €45,600 in red gold, or €52,000 in platinum.

The other watch they are introducing is unique edition of the gorgeous Tremblage. This is what Moritz Grossmann does best. It’s a classic watch that shares the rose gold case with the Backpage but has a more traditional German silver dial. The name Tremblage refers to the techniques used on the dial, which has hand-hammered dimpled textures. The movement is ‘conventionally’ constructed but again finished to the highest standards. The manually-wound Calibre 100.0 runs at a rate of 18,000vph and has a power reserve of 42 hours. As this is a unique piece, the price is set at EUR 52,000, but good luck getting one.

See more of the two watches on the Moritz Grossmann 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

The dynamism of the Nor-Light’s dials extends beyond the quirky date function of the orange model I had in for review. I counted a total of 11 different dial options available through the Nor-Light’s Kickstarter campaign, at the time of writing. Three of those are paper dials in white, blue, and orange, in which several layers of exceptionally fine-grained paper are placed below the clear sapphire dial plate, upon which the minute track and hour markers are affixed. There are five color variants of the date version, including the orange one I had, plus black, blue, brown, and purple, the latter two of which are attained stretch goal colors. Lastly, there are three no-date versions in white, black, and blue, that each possess a layer below the sapphire dial plate that has lume painted in a landscape scene of the Northern Lights. I didn’t have any of these dial versions on hand, but you can see photos of the lume scene on the Nor-Light’s campaign page. Read the whole thing 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

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I can barely climb the four flights of stairs up to my apartment without losing my breath and yet, I thoroughly enjoy watching climbing movies/videos. Go watch The Dawn Wall, Free Solo or Meru and tell me those movies don’t motivate you to be a better you even if you don’t know how to rockclimb.

This video is something different. It’s a completely punk rock story of two dirtbags who are going to climb the longest climbing wall in the world. This short and long rock in upstate New York is a bizarre climb during which you are never more than 60 feet above the ground an this video is a perfect alternative to the often too serious climbing movies. It’s a must watch, it’s that entertaining.

💵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 

  • NEW WATCH FOR SALE: 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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