A. Lange & Söhne Releases A Honeygold Lange 1 Daymatic; New Formex Field Colors; Cimier's Second Collection; Brellum Embraces Titanium; New Zenith Chromas; Arnold & Son's Platinum Constant Force 11

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Just as a heads up, I will be taking a bit of a winter break, which means there are only two more weeks of newsletters. Also, I’m starting the traditional premium subscriptions sale today.

In this issue

• A. Lange & Söhne Releases A Beautiful Honeygold Version Of The Lange 1 Daymatic

• Formex Brings A New Deep Blue And Golden Honey Dials To The Titanium Field Watch

• Cimier Introduces It’s Second Collection, The Colorful 47 North

• Brellum Embraces Titanium On The Black Pandial Power Reserve Chronometer

• Zenith Continues The Chroma Collection With Two New Defy Extreme LEs

• Arnold & Son Gives Us A Constant Force 11 In Platinum With A Hand Engraved Dial

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 62: An Incredible VC; A Really Interesting Hamilton; An Affordable Piaget Dress Watch; And IWC Unlike Any You'll See Around

👂What’s new

1/

A. Lange & Söhne Releases A Beautiful Honeygold Version Of The Lange 1 Daymatic

Sure, A. Lange & Söhne is not technically considered part of the watch holy trinity, even though I’ve heard arguments that it should be included. I’ll leave that discussion to the broader community, but I will say that ALS perhaps has the most boss release strategy. While the holy trinity uses big fairs and events to introduce their novelties, or make a big fuss in the middle of the week, A. Lange & Söhne sends out an email over the weekend. How cool is that? They know they don’t need the fanfare, they just need to let people know a new watch is out, and people will, inevitably, start drooling. Yesterday, for example, they did the same with a new Lange 1 Daymatic, now released in their beautiful Honeygold.

The Daymatic was built on the Lange 1 platform, but adds to it an automatic movement, mirrors the dial and replaces the power reserve indicator with a retrograde day-of-week display. It grows a bit from the Lange 1, but only slightly, making it still very wearable. The case is made out of their proprietary Honeygold, an 18-carat gold alloy that has a bit of a rose gold tint to the yellow. It measures 39.5mm wide and 10.4mm, with a polished and satin-brushed finish. There are sapphire crystals on top and bottom, with a thin polished bezel on top. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The, there’s the dial, which is just incredible. It uses a solid service base, with a wonderful brown color on top that wonderfully matches the Honeygold. Like I mentioned, the dial is mirrored, with the hour and minute subdial sitting at 3 O7clock, with the small seconds at 8 o’clock and the big date aperture at 11 o’clock. At 9 o’clock is the retrograde day-of-week display. All of the hands are made out of Honeygold, completing the perfect package.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre L021.1, an in-hour automatic that beats at 21,600vph and has a 50 hour power reserve. It has a free-sprung balance wheel with eccentric poising weights and a Lange-manufactured hairspring, while the 21k gold central rotor is signed with the Lange logo. It’s a pretty movement that mimics a three-quarter plate with four individually screwed bridges, and decorations include Glashütte ribbing, polished bevels, and a hand-engraved balance cock. The watch comes on a taupe hand-stitched alligator leather strap, closed with a Honeygold buckle.

The new A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Daymatic is limited to 250 pieces and price is on request, but reports say it’s about €75,000. See more on the Lange website.

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Formex Brings A New Deep Blue And Golden Honey Dials To The Titanium Field Watch

It was during Time to Watches, the watch fair that is adjacent to Watches and Wonders, that I finally understood what Formex is all about. Up to the fair this year, I liked the watches, but wasn’t exactly obsessed. That’s because Formex doesn’t just make good looking watches — they are — they make some of the best made watches I’ve ever handled. I can’t even begin to describe to you the feeling of completely change in my perspective the moment I put on a Formex Reef. It went from: “hey, that’s a nice watch”, to: “oh my, this is one of the best watches in the world”. It’s that drastic. So Formex quickly shot up in my list of favorite brands, which was cemented even more when they introduced the Formex Field Automatic Gen 2 a couple of months ago. Now, the watch is getting two new dials, a Deep Blue And Golden Honey.

On the outside, nothing has changed, and this is the smaller gen 2 case. it measures 40mm wide, 10.5mm thick and has a surprisingly long lug-to-lug of 48mm, considering the fact that it has stubby lugs. It’s not huge, by any means, I would have just expected something in the 45mm range. The case is made out o Grade 2 titanium. People will prefer Grade 5, but that’s much harder to finish nicely. Instead, Formex gives the Grade 2 case a full sandblasted matte finish, and then applies a proprietary hardening process, increasing surface hardness from 145 Vickers to 900 Vickers, making it nearly three times harder than standard Grade 5 titanium. Water resistance is 150 meters.

Then, the new dials. Well, new are the colors, a deep blue one and a yellow. They both have a flat sunburst-brushed centre surrounded by a sloped minute track. It has a bit of sandwich construction style, with recessed stencil numerals that give a lot of depth and a lot of glow at night, thanks to the Super-LumiNova Grade A and BGW09 lume. At 6 is a really nicely integrated date aperture, with bevels on the sides. The hands are syringe-style, while the seconds hand has a lollipop near the top.

Inside, you’ll find the tried and tested, robust and easily servicable Sellita SW200-1 automatic. It beats at 4Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. You have a choice of straps, including nylon Velcro with woven texture in various colors, as well as leather which comes with Formex’s patented fine-adjustment deployant carbon clasp.

The new Formex Field dials are available now, with unchanged pricing of €850 on velcro and €990 on leather. See more on the Formex website.

3/

Cimier Introduces It’s Second Collection, The Colorful 47 North

I wrote about the small-ish Swiss brand Cimier exactly once in the history of this newsletter and that’s basically because they only had one model — a very pun-based 711 Hertiage Chronograph, named after the sub-dials at 7 and 11. It was a great looking watch, but they didn’t give me much reason to write about them again. Until now. They recently introduced a new collection, the 47° North, a very traditional field watch with some pretty great color. Also, the name 47° North comes from the fact that Cimier’s home town of Bienne sits on 47 degrees north latitude.

All of the five 47° North watches share the same stainless steel case with some pretty decent dimensions of 38mm wide, 11.25mm thick and with a 46mm lug-to-lug. That will be pretty wearable. The case has a brushed finish and polished chamfers, with a box-shaped sapphire crystal on top. The crown screws down and you get 100 meters of water resistance.

The dials are where all the fun starts. They all share some basics. They are domed, have a grained texture and large Arabic numerals, surrounded by a railroad-style minute track. They all also have an orange seconds hand and rectangular luminous blocks for the hour markers. Then, there’s colors, and I like them all — black, white, gradient pebble grey, moss green, and river blue. They’re fantastic. They would look even better with color matched date wheels visible through the aperture at 3 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the automatic ETA 2824-2 that beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The movements are actually decently decorated, with rhodium plating, Geneva stripes, blued screws, and a Cimier branded rotor. The watches come on a number of straps, either in smooth calf leather or suede, with either matchign or contrasting colors.

The new Cimier 47° North is available now, priced at CHF 850, without taxes. See more on the Cimier website.

4/

Brellum Embraces Titanium On The Black Pandial Power Reserve Chronometer

Despite looking like they dropped right out of the 1960s, Brellum is actually a fairly new company, only about eight or nine years old. Which is a great thing, because we get to see how a watch brand builds itself up to multiple different collections. They already have classic racing-style chronographs, pilots watches, a GMT collection, and marine themed chronographs. A couple of months ago, they put all of that together in the Brellum Pandial Power Reserve Chronometer LE. Now, they’re coming out with the same watch, but in all black. And in titanium, which must be a welcome addition, considering its size.

This is both a large watch and one that needs to be worn to figure out how large it really is. The 43mm width suggests that it’s quite the huge watch, as does the 51.5mm lug-to-lug. But then, there’s the thickness of 15.9mm. Ridiculous, right? Sure, but without the twin box-shaped sapphire crystals, it measures only 11.7mm thick. And pretty much everyone who has reviewed one says that due to majority of the thickness coming from the crystals, it wears much more like a 12 or 13mm thick watch than a 16mm one. The case is made out of Grade 5 titanium with a black DLC coating. On top is a black aluminium bezel with a tachymeter scale. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial looks familiar but is all black here, with four black sub-dials. There’s a lot of functions here, as evident by the four dials. You get a 12-hour chronograph counter at 6 o´clock, a running seconds at 9, a 30-minute chrono counter at 12, and a power reserve indicator at 3, all surrounded by a withe track with white minute markings. The markers and hands are black, diamond-cut and filled with lume, while the central chronograph seconds hand has a red tip. The date aperture is integrated into the sub-dial at 6 o’clock.

Inside is the BR-750RM, which is a decorated Valjoux 7750 movement that has Geneva stripes, blued screws, and a gold-coated rotor. It beats and 4Hz, has a 46 hour power reserve and is COSC certified. The watch comes on a black Nebur Tec strap that closes with a titanium deployant clasp.

The new Brellum Pandial Power Reserve Chronometer in titanium is limited to 13 pieces and priced at CHF 3,232. See more on the Brellum website.

5/

Zenith Continues The Chroma Collection With Two New Defy Extreme LEs

Back in 2022, Zenith started their Chroma concept of watches that sees interesting colors introduced into some of their best watches. First, it was the Defy 21 Chroma, followed up the next year with the Chroma II. Now, we’re getting the Chroma Limited edition based on the Defy Extreme, with plenty of ceramic and titanium, as well as high-beat movements. You wouldn’t expect anything less from Zenith.

The case remains the familiar Defy Extreme case, which means that it measures 45mm wide, 15.4mm thick and has a 51mm lug-to-lug. The case features the same sharp angles and facets, and there are two to choose from — one a microblasted titanium in black, and the other in brushed and polished titanium with a white ceramic bezel, crown, and pusher guards. On top is a signature dodecagonal bezel, surrounding a flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is a respectable 200 meters.

The dials on both versions are openworked to show off the cool movement inside. The bridges are PVD-coated in a rainbow gradient, which is what you expect from the Chroma line. The hour markers are rhodium-plated and faceted with a rainbow colored gradient, adding even more color to the dial. The hands are also faceted and rhodium plated, with a bit of lume in them — so pretty understated. The central chrono hand is also understated in its look, if it weren’t for the fact that it makes a full revolution every second. You get a chronograph minute counter at 3, a chronograph seconds counter at 6, a small seconds at 9 and a chronograph power reserve at 12 o’clock, each with colored details.

The movement you see through the dial is the El Primero 9004, a sweet, sweet movement. Technically, the movement beats at 5Hz, which is already a high-beat movement, but thanks to a twin escapement the 5Hz rate is used for time telling. The chronograph, however, has a beat rate of 50Hz (360,000 vibrations/hour), which gives you a 1/100th of a second measurement. The two sides of the movements also have separate barrels, but you get 50 hours of power reserve. The watches come with three carrying options — a color matched titanium bracelet and rubber strap, and a black hook-and-loop strap.

The new Zenith Defy Extreme Chroma Editions are limited to 100 pieces per colorway and priced at €21,600. See more on the Zenith website.

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Arnold & Son Gives Us A Constant Force 11 In Platinum With A Hand Engraved Dial

If there are two watchmakers that deserve a tribute paid to them, then it is certainly Abraham-Louis Breguet and John Arnold. It was Arnold’s marine chronometer no. 11 that inspired Breguet to create the first tourbillon. And it’s exactly those two that Arnold & Son is paying homage to with their Constant Force Tourbillon 11. We got an elegant yellow gold version of that watch back in April or May, but now the brand is rendering it as something a bit more eye-catching. Not only does it get a platinum case, it also has a wonderfully cool hand-made dial.

The watch is housed in a platinum gold case that measures 41.5mm wide and 13.7mm thick. It has a domed sapphire crystal and a flat sapphire caseback. The shape is as simple as can get, with simple lugs, a fixed bezel and a flat crown on the right side. It even has some water resistance — 30 meters.

The dial side is where things get really cool. It has a solid yellow gold base with a hand-engraved Arnold & Son fern pattern, inspired by the fern-covered moors around Tintagel, Cornwall, the birthplace of John Arnold. The dial has two openings, one for the constant force mechanism and the other for the white opal sub-dial with black Roman numerals. The opal sub-dial is concave and placed at an angle to enhance legibility. The constant force mechanism features a flame-blued anchor-shaped deadbeat seconds hand, and the opal sub-dial has beautiful arrow-shaped hour and minute hands, also blued.

So, what is the constant force mechanism? It’s designed to smooth out the energy delivered by the two barrels, preventing excessive or insufficient torque from affecting the oscillations of the balance in the tourbillon cage. The movement it’s attached to is the manual-winding A&S5219. Through the caseback, you can see the one-minute tourbillon, held by a thin, polished, rounded bridge with a variable inertia balance. The T-shaped retaining spring is inspired by Breguet’s para-chute shock protection system. The twin barrels give you 100 hours of power reserve. The movement is hand-finished with blued screws and golden, grained and bevelled barrel and tourbillon bridges, there is a hand-engraved text that reads: “To the revered memory of John Arnold and Abraham-Louis Breguet. Friends in their time, legendary watchmakers always.” The watch comes on a midnight blue alligator leather with black alligator lining and platinum folding clasp.

The new Arnold & Son Constant Force Tourbillon 11 Platinium Edition is limited to 11 pieces and priced at CHF 140,600. See more on the Arnold & Son website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 62: An Incredible VC; A Really Interesting Hamilton; An Affordable Piaget Dress Watch; And IWC Unlike Any You'll See Around

We continue with our exploration of watches we shouldn't spend our money on, but most likely will. Read it here.

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• In a rainy Lancashire village, 79-year-old ex–shoe magnate Terry Ball runs Britain’s most surreal tax dodge: “fish farms” made of freezer-stunned snails stacked in dead London office blocks. As councils chase shell companies and six-figure debts, Ball cheerfully swaps Camorra war stories, plans pop-up charity-shop scams, and treats outwitting the taxman as his last great sport.

• Prestonwood Baptist Church’s long-running annual show, The Gift of Christmas, features pyrotechnics, lasers, elves on trapezes, peacocks, and a flying Santa. Oh, and a nativity. Texas Monthly goes behind the scenes at America’s most extreme Christmas pageant.

• For Boston Review, Johanna Winant’s recalls teaching close reading at West Virginia University and delighting in watching her students gain confidence as they practiced sharing what they noticed about texts under study. This is the story of magic in the classroom and what Winant and her students lost after deep cuts affected staffing and programming.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how Channing Tatum was the perfect Hot Ones guest. I was wrong. Matthew McConaughey is.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk