Baltic Says Goodbye To The MR With A Moissanite Bezel; Citizen's Lunar Eclipse Duo; Jack Mason Continues Fantastic Streak; Funky Space-Themed Sarpanevas; AP Expands Delightful RO Mini Collection

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Sorry for the super late post. My internet decided to throw it back to 1998, so every keystroke was sent by carrier pigeon to the server. Hope you still enjoy!

In this issue

• Baltic Says Goodbye To The MR Collection With The Moissanite Final Edition

• Citizen Is Getting Ready For The Lunar Eclipse With The New Attesa Shades Of Red

• Jack Mason Continues Fantastic Streak With A GMT Version Of Their Strat-o-Timer

• The New Sarpaneva Stardust Pluto and Stardust Mars Are As Funky As We Expect From Sarpaneva

• Audemars Piguet Releases Duo Of New Royal Oak Mini Models In Gold

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watch School Wednesday: Understanding the Fusee and Chain

👂What’s new

1/

Baltic Says Goodbye To The MR Collection With The Moissanite Final Edition

Baltic released the MR collection at exactly the right time. It was the pandemic, people had money and the only place to spend it was online. And the MR was quite the offering, emulating the iconic Calatrava look at a pretty fantastic price. But all good things must come to an end. Baltic is now saying goodbye to the MR collection for a little bit, and they’re doing it in a flashy style with the MR Moissanite, applied to both the regular Breguet-style dial and their more recent Roulette dial.

Regardless of which dial you choose, the case remains the same. It’s the now iconic Calatrava-style case with brushed flanks and polished lugs that measures a compact 36mm wide, 9.9mm thick with the domed Hesalite crystal on top, and with a 44mm lug-to-lug. That crystal is now surrounded by a bezel that has baguette-cut lab-grown moissanite set in it. Out back is a see-through caseback that has an engraving with a numbering of x of 100. Water resistance is not great at 30 meters, but come on…

Both dials that are available have a glossy black base with the same snailed small seconds at 7 o'clock, but the differences are significant. First, you have the Moissanite Classic which has a peripheral minutes track and applied, polished Breguet numerals and leaf-shaped hands. The other is the Moissanite Roulette dial with double sector tracks for minutes and hours, resembling a roulette wheel, with brushed, faceted and polished dauphine-shaped hands.

Inside the watch is the CAL5000A micro-rotor automatic movement made by the Chinese Hangzhou factory. It’s an interesting caliber as it offers the very coveted and usually expensive micro-rotor option at a really affordable price. You can see the movement through a transparent back and it will run for 42 hours. I don’t have any experience with it, but I haven’t seen any horror stories about it online. Would love to hear your experiences. The watches come on either a Italian calfskin strap or a beads-of-rice steel bracelet.

The new Baltic MR Moissanite collection is available now, limited to 100 pieces per variant. Price is set at €1,100 on leather and €1,160 on steel, both without tax. See more on the Baltic website.

2/

Citizen Is Getting Ready For The Lunar Eclipse With The New Attesa Shades Of Red

I love a good eclipse. I still remember seeing my first total solar eclipse and it was one of the freakiest experiences of my life. Now that I think about it, I very much remember when I saw my first lunar eclipse. It was significantly less unnerving, but also a very beautiful sight. We have a a lunar eclipse coming March 3rd, which I won’t get to see since it will be visible from Eastern Asia, Australia and parts of North America. Most importantly, it will be visible from Japan, and the Japanese brand Citizen is celebrating this natural phenomena with the new Attesa Shades of Red limited editions.

Starting with the new Attesa Shades of Red Worldtimer CC4077-71Z, it’s a chunk of watch that measures 44.6mm wide and 15.4mm thick. While there’s no getting around the fact that it’s large, it is made out of Super Titanium which at least makes it light. The case has a Duratect DLC coating for improved scratch resistance. The sapphire crystal is surrounded by a red sapphire glass ring bezel that has world city names on it in silver. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is a very special thing, done in layered mother-of-pearl that has a moon-like texture done to it, and then finished in a blood red color. It’s a super cool look. There are three black sub-dials on the dial — a setting indicator at 3, a 24-hour subdial at 6 o’clock used in conjunction with the 24 cities bezel to tell the time across every time zone in the world simultaneously, and a multi-function subdial at 9 o’clock. All of this is powered by the Calibre F950 which is an Eco-Drive Satellite Wave GPS movement, meaning you get automatic time zone changes. You also get a chronograph, perpetual calendar and power reserve indicator. This model is limited to 1,800 pieces and priced at $2,195. See more here.

Next is the Attesa Shades of Red Moonphase BY1005-73Z, which gives you 85% of the Worldtimer experience, but in a much more compact format. Still made in Super Titanium with the Duratect DLC coating, this watch measures 41.5mm wide and 10.8mm thick. Gone is the external bezel, but you now have more shaped chronograph pushers which gives the watch a smoother look. Water resistance remains 100 meters.

This version doesn’t have a mother-of-pearl dial but it does have a raised moon texture that’s achieved through, of all things, inkjet printing. At 6 o’clock is a moonphase subdial that shows the phases of the moon depicted with a red moon created through a layering process involving electrodeposition. Inside is the Eco-Drive Cal. H874 which has a multi-band radio receiver that picks up signals emitted from atomic clocks around the world and adjust the time accordingly. The great thing about having the radio recievers is that the watch can tell where it is in the world, which will then adjust to the local timezone. It will, of course, also adjust the moonphase if you cross into another hemisphere. Accuracy is +/-15 seconds per month without signal reception and without a light source it can tell the time up to 2.5 years. The watch is limited to 2,200 pieces, priced at $1,395. See more on the Citizen website.

3/

Jack Mason Continues Fantastic Streak With A GMT Version Of Their Strat-o-Timer

Jack Mason is having a couple of really, really good months. I’ve always known of Jack Mason, just didn’t give them a second look. Boy, was I wrong. Just over the last year, they released their trusted Strat-o-Timer model with a GMT movement, then did it again, but in a titanium case, and they released a bitchin’ capable field watch called the Pursuit Pro. Now, it’s time for more work on the Start-o-Timer, which is now released as the GMT Frontier duo, a more rugged version of the regular GMT model. It takes some pretty obvious inspiration from iconic watches, but with their very distinct signature design.

The new Frontier of the Strat-o-Timer GMT comes in a stainless steel case that measures 40mm wide, 13mm thick, with a 47mm lug-to-lug. Being the rugged version of the GMT, it has a brushed finish and a coating that ups scratch resistance up to 1,200 Vickers. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a stainless steel bidirectional GMT with a 24 hour scale. Water resistance is 200 meters.

At launch, there are two dial colors available — Night, which comes with a glossy black dial with chunky lumed markers and Alpine, with a glossy white dial with black-plated hands and indices. Both dials have a lollipop central seconds hand and an orange GMT hand, with a date window at 6 o’clock.

Inside is the very familiar Miyota 9075, which allows the wearer to jump the local hour hand, meaning that it’s a “true” or flyer-style GMT movement. It beats at 28,800 vph, 4Hz and has a power reserve of about 42 hours. Jack Mason also regulates them in house to +/-5 seconds per day. The watches come on Jubilee-style bracelets that we’ve seen before, with micro adjust in the clasp.

The new Jack Mason Strat-o-Timer GMT Frontier goes on pre-order tomorrow, Friday 13th, at 9 EST, with deliveries starting February 27. Price is set at $1,099. See more on the Jack Mason website.

4/

The New Sarpaneva Stardust Pluto and Stardust Mars Are As Funky As We Expect From Sarpaneva

When you think of Scandinavian watchmakers, you might think of clean and minimalist designs. It might, then, come as a surprise to hear that Stepan Sarpaneva is one of the most prominent indie watchmakers from Scandiavia. Because his watches are as far as you can get from clean and minimalist scandi-design. They are complex, highly detailed odes to the Scandinavian nature and legend with very creative applications of lume. While Sarpaneva watches always had a celestial theme to them, it wasn’t until last year that they released the Stardust, which was very much a watch that could be worn in space. If your space mission was directed by David Lynch. Now, we’re getting two new versions of the Stardust, the Pluto and the Mars, which are something quite different.

The watches come in the same case, one that’s been used in previous models and is called the Korona case. It’s made out of high-grade Outokumpu stainless steel from Finland, and it measures 42mm wide, 11.4mm thick, with a very comfortable 46mm lug-to-lug measurement. You get that short l2l thanks to the super-stubby lugs, that look like organic continuations of the 6-sided case that almost looks like a cog. The case gets a combination of brushed and polished finishes and on top is a domed sapphire crystal. The crown is moved to 4 o’clock and water resistance is 100 meters.

The difference in the two models comes on the impressive openworked dial made out of four parts. Both have hand-finished stainless steel components with DLC coating and multiple tones of lume, something that Sarpaneva is fantastic at. They both also have stenciled numerals on the hours ring and the small seconds display set at 10 o’clock with a really cool seconds hand shaped like a 1950s rocket. Pluto has a frosted silver base, while Mars has a red gold-plated matte base. Each version has two-tone hands, blue for Pluto, black for Mars, filled with a ton of lume.

While Sarpaneva previously used Soprod movements, this duo of watches come with a modified Chronode P.1003 movement which beats at 4Hz and has a 60 hour power. The movement is finished in matte rhodium and you get the very cool signature Moonface rotor that sits on a ceramic ball bearing. The watches come on either a handmade Sarpaneva leather strap or you can upgrade to the brand’s Moonbridge steel bracelet.

The new Sarpaneva Stardust Mars and Pluto models are limited to 20 pieces each, and the price is set at €16.500, without taxes. I know this sounds jaded, but in the price point world we live in now, that seems a pretty good price. See more on the Sarpaneva website.

5/

Audemars Piguet Releases Duo Of New Royal Oak Mini Models In Gold

In 1997, Audemars Piguet introduced what later became a very popular women’s watch, the Mini Royal Oak. It was tiny at 20mm wide and came in a number of luxurious materials. The brand stopped making them after a while, but in 2024 they brought them back with very cool versions in white, yellow, or pink frosted gold. Almost two years later, we’re getting two new versions of the Mini Royal Oak, in yellow and rose gold.

Growing in width from the original 20mm, the new Mini Oak measures 23mm wide and 6.6mm thick, which is still incredibly tiny. While previous versions came with hammered gold finishes, these two come in 18-carat pink or yellow gold, both with brushed and polished finishes. It’s not necessarily a watch that takes on the shrink-and-pink approach many brands have towards creating women’s watches, but it’s not that far off it. Water resistance on the watches is 50 meters.

Previous versions of the Mini RO came with AP’s signature Petite Tapisserie pattern, but these are a very welcome departure from that. The rose gold version comes with a black onyx dial with brilliant-cut diamond-set hour-markers. The yellow gold version comes with a white mother-of-pearl dial that’s paired with yellow gold markers and hands.

Inside, just like the previous Mini Oak, is a quartz movement. The Caliber 2730 has a 94 month battery life and you can detach the battery by pulling out the crown when not in use and prolong its life. The watches come with a material-matching tapered integrated bracelet that closes with a folding clasp.

Both of the new Audemars Piguet Mini Royal Oak are available now, with the price set at CHF 30,300 in yellow gold and CHF 36,400 in rose gold. See more on the AP website here and here.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 63: The Poljot Stadium, A Soviet TV Case With an Attitude

From utilitarian factory to retro‐futurist wrist architecture. 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

• Surrogacy is a largely unregulated industry. As Ava Kaufman notes in this jaw-dropping story, “anyone can start a surrogacy agency; unlike opening a hair salon, or a day care, no qualifications are needed for the intimate, unpredictable work of bringing strangers together to create a new life.” Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang exploited this lax environment, starting their own “agency” to entice surrogates across the US to have nearly two dozen children for them. Those children are now in foster homes, after authorities uncovered abuse and neglect at the house where Guojun, enabled by Zhang, lived out his fantasy of building a family dynasty.

• By the time Bill Haast died at the age of 100, he’d been bitten by dozens, if not hundreds, of dangerous snakes. Mark Hay unfolds a fascinating history of Haast, the longtime proprietor of the Miami Serpentarium who hoped snake venom might prove to be a vital treatment for multiple sclerosis and polio. The details are fascinating enough to hold a reader, but Hay pushes his account well beyond mere summary and stitches together an entertaining and complex portrait of Haast.

• Rene Ebersole’s investigation into the illegal parrot trade touches virtually every part of the African grey parrot ecosystem, from the clever birds flexing their vocabularies in viral videos to the unscrupulous traders who seem less than forthcoming about the origins of their animals. The illegal grey parrot trade doesn’t attract a ton of scrutiny; “it’s a low-risk, high-reward crime,” Ebersole told an interviewer. This story is different: Ebersole moves among a number of the trade’s high-profile players, getting them on the record and undercutting their stories with some impressive groundwork.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I love this Homes series from Huckberry. It’s like the Architectural Digest Open Door videos, but for hipsters.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk