Another Banger Farer; And New Watches From Frederique Constant, Lebois & Co. , Polo And Hautlence

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I can never get over how beautiful these Farer watches are. Every single one of them.

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👂What’s new

1/ Farer Brings Back the Stratton With a Laser-Etched Moon and an Iron-Veined Stone Dial

Farer’s Moonphase collection, launched in 2023, pairs stone dials with an unusually large moon display, and the Stratton has been its most popular model. And when Farer has a watch sold out, you can bet they'll bring it back soon, likely with major improvements. Now, the Stratton is back in gold, with a new moon disc made in Switzerland by AJS Production. AJS uses lasers to etch through layers of paint and Super-LumiNova, and the result is a detailed lunar surface under 6mm across that also glows. I can’t think of a better moonphase disc at this price.

The case is 39mm wide and 11.8mm thick including the crystal, with a lug-to-lug of 45mm. It’s made out of 316L steel with a gold PVD coating, the first gold-toned watch in Farer’s moonphase line. Most surfaces are polished, with a brushed chamfer on the bezel and a twisted grain texture on the flanks. The crown is steel with a bronze cap stamped with Farer’s arrow “A”. There’s a curved sapphire crystal on the front, anti-reflective coated on the inside, and a sapphire caseback. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is cut from black Eisenkiesel, a quartz whose German name means “iron pebble”, with golden-brown iron veins running through it. No two dials will look the same, which is always cool. The applied markers mix batons and numerals in Lumicast, Farer’s ceramic blended with lume, so they glow well. Polished gold lance hands carry lume too, and the seconds hand ends in a small gold “A”. A white minute track runs around the edge, and the date sits at six o'clock. The stone suits the gold case, and the veining keeps the black from feeling flat.

Inside is the Sellita SW288-1 M a in Elaboré grade, manually wound, running at 4Hz, with 45 hours of power reserve and 18 jewels. It’s regulated in three positions, has Incabloc shock protection, hacking seconds and a quickset date. Farer decorates it properly: its arrow pattern engraved on the bridges, blued screws and perlage, all visible through the caseback. Manual winding fits this kind of watch, and 45 hours is enough if you wind it every morning. Farer is also very well known for having a whole bunch of strap options, and this is no exception.

The Farer Stratton goes on pre-order now, priced at €2,225. See more on the Farer website.

2/ Frederique Constant Turns Its Perpetual Calendar A Fantastic Shade Of Burgundy

Frederique Constant has a new limited edition of its Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, and the only change is a burgundy dial. But what a fantastic change that is. This is already one of the best perpetual calendars on the market, offered at a pretty incredible price, and now it looks better than ever.

The steel case is 40mm wide and 12.1mm thick, carried over from last year’s update. That is a sensible thickness for an automatic QP, and the rounded bezel, soft lugs and fluted onion crown keep it firmly in dress-watch territory. On top is a domed sapphire crystal with AR coating on top and a screwed sapphire display back, numbered for the edition. Water resistance is 50 meters, which is what you’d expect here.

The dial is so good. Sunray brushing gives the burgundy some movement under light, and the applied diamond-cut indices and polished nickel hands stay crisp against it. The layout is unchanged and easy to read: day at nine, date at three, month and leap year at 12, moonphase at six. Each subdial gets its own circular texture.

Inside is the calibre FC-776, Frederique Constant’s in-house automatic with a perpetual calendar module, running at 28,800 vph. The 72-hour power reserve, the result of last year’s new barrel and mainspring alloy, is an important update for a perpetual calendar. The movement is decorated with perlage, a fan of Côtes de Genève on the winding bridge and a gold-plated rotor. It comes on a black alligator strap with tone-on-tone stitching and a folding clasp.

The burgundy edition is limited to 100 watches, priced at CHF 10,295. See more photos here and the watch on the Frederique Constant website.

3/ Lebois & Co's Heritage Small Seconds Is Vintage Revival Done Very, Very Well

Lebois & Co is the revived brand run by Dutch entrepreneur Tom van Wijlick, who also brought back Airain. While Airain is more in the pilot's/vintage sports watch genre, Lebois & Co firmly covers the dress category, and covers it good. After the Heritage Chronograph, the new Heritage Small Seconds is a plain three-hand dress watch modeled on 1940s and 1950s designs. And it comes with a COSC certified movement for a very good price.

The steel case is 37.8mm wide, with a lug-to-lug of 45.2mm. The case itself is 8mm thick, and the double-domed sapphire crystal adds another 2.5mm, so the watch is 10.5mm thick in total. That’s a tall crystal, but it’s also where most of the vintage feel comes from, and it distorts the dial nicely when you tilt your wrist. The sides are brushed and the bezel and lugs are polished. The fluted crown is easy to grip. There’s a screwed exhibition caseback, and water resistance is 50 meters, which is all a dress watch needs.

All three dials share polished leaf hands, a sunken small seconds subdial with concentric rings at six o’clock, and “Chronomètre” text above the logo. Three variants are available. The Baton is sunburst blue with applied batons, Arabic numerals at the cardinal points and a wide railway track. The Script is matte off-white with applied Breguet numerals and is the most formal of the three. The Numeral has a matte black dial that has printed Arabic numerals and a railroad track numbered every five minutes, which pushes it closer to a 1940s service watch than a dress watch.

Inside is the calibre LC-350, built on the Sellita SW360-1, the small seconds version of the SW300. It beats at 4Hz, and has a 56-hour power reserve, and every movement is COSC-certified. Through the caseback you can see a movement decorated with perlage and a skeletonised rotor with the brand logo. The watches come on a blue, grey or brown leather strap, with a Fixoflex stretch bracelet in the box as well.

The Lebois & Co Heritage Small Seconds is available for preorder now, with reservations referring to the 2027 production run. Deliveries are expected in early summer 2027. Price is set at €2,650, VAT included. See more photos here and the watches on the Lebois & Co.

4/ Polo's Ralph and Ricky Bears Put On Black Tie For Another Fantastic Tuxedo Watch

Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bear watches have everything working against them. They are made by a fashion brand, they have the novelty cartoon bear from the sweaters printed on the dial, and they're priced near €2,000. Crazy, right? Well, I just might be, because I can't stop falling for these Polo Bear watches. And I know I'm not alone. There are dozens of us crazy people out there that love this thing. This new variant uses Ralph and Ricky, in black tie, and this time the bears are 3D printed rather than flat.

The case is polished steel, 38mm wide and 9.9mm thick, a sensible size for a dress watch. On top is a curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the inside, the crown has the Pony logo, and the caseback is closed. Water resistance is 50 meters. All quite elegant

The dial is off-white lacquer with black printed Arabic numerals and a minute track at the edge. The two bears are strolling down the center of the dial in their jackets and bow ties, built up in layers so they stand slightly proud of the surface. Ralph Lauren first used layered printing on its Polo logo watches in 2020, and it gives the bears far more presence than the flat hand-printed versions from the original 2018 collection. The hour and minute hands are red lacquer, the seconds hand black.

Inside is the RL200, an automatic made for Ralph Lauren by Sellita. It beats at 4Hz and about 38 hours of power reserve. It’s a dependable movement any watchmaker can service, and the closed caseback means nobody will miss seeing it. The strap is black grosgrain with an Alsavel lining, 20mm at the lugs and tapering to 18mm at a polished steel pin buckle.

The Polo Bear Ralph & Ricky Tuxedo Watch (ref. 472B58680001) should be on sale now, priced at €1,800. Sure, expensive, but cool. See more photos here and the watch on the Ralph Lauren website.

5/ Hautlence Goes All White With the Rotating Hour Ball of Its Sphere Series 5

If you haven’t come across the Hautlence Sphere, the concept is easy to explain. The hour is shown on a small titanium ball that turns to a new numeral every 60 minutes, while the minutes run along a retrograde arc next to it. Sounds simple, but up close, it's mesmerizing. The ball doesn't turn in an expected direction; instead, it jumps wildly and quickly. Very, very cool. The Series 5 is the fifth colour treatment since the watch launched in 2023, and this time the ball is white. In fact, everything is white.

The case keeps the smaller format Hautlence adopted with Series 3: 37mm wide and 45mm long, in Grade 5 titanium with brushed and polished surfaces alternating across the bezel, horns and crown. It’s 17.4mm thick, but that's with the massive crystals on top and bottom, while the case itself is a more reasonable 11.5mm. The crystals are so large because they have a lot of three-dimensional, as the front crystal has bevelled edges. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The white sphere is engraved with numerals filled with grey Super-LumiNova. It turns on three axes, steered by four conical gears set around two crossed, inclined axes, and jumps once an hour. The minute hand is micro-blasted brass with grey lume and sweeps across 180 degrees before flying back. Underneath sits an openworked base plate in rhodium-plated brass with a frosted finish, and above it a sapphire layer with applied Globolight minute numerals.

Inside is the hand-wound calibre A82. The base comes from sister company H. Moser & Cie., and Hautlence designs and assembles the module that drives the sphere. It has 160 components and 31 jewels, runs at 3Hz and stores at least 72 hours of reserve. The strap is white suede with a titanium folding clasp in. For the first 30 days the watch is sold only in Mexico, and those examples also come with green and red suede straps, the colours of the Mexican flag. Later deliveries get the white strap only.

The Hautlence Sphere Series 5 will be made only in 28 pieces, priced at CHF 72,200 before taxes. It debuts at SIAR, Latin America's leading haute horlogerie exhibition, in Mexico City, then goes on general sale after the 30-day exclusivity. See more photos here and the watches on the Hautlence website.

⚙️Watch Worthy

• A review of the Baume & Mercier Riviera Chronograph GPSI Limited Edition
• Hands on with the Hublot Classic Fusion Tributo

⏲️End links

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Thanks for reading

Vuk

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