Blancpain Answers Call And Releases 38mm Fifty Fathoms; Mido's New Multifort TV Big Date; Louis Erard Teams Up With Konstantin Chaykin Again; A Sandy Ressence; The JLC Polaris Chrono, Now In Grey

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. You might have noticed that for a few weeks I cut down the number of reported watches down to four. That’s because there weren’t a lot of releases. Boy, have things changed. I have 31 new releases to report on in the coming days. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had so many watches that don’t fit in the newsletter. And they’re all very interesting!

In this issue:

• Blancpain Finally Answers The Call And Releases 38mm Versions Of The Fifty Fathoms

• Mido Expands The Multifort TV Big Date Collection With A Sporty Grey And Yellow Combination

• Louis Erard Teams Up With Konstantin Chaykin For The Third Regulator Time-Eater

• Ressence Celebrates Ahmed Seddiqi’s 75th Anniversary With A Sand-Themed TYPE 9 S75

• Jaeger-LeCoultre Introducees A New Color To The Polaris Chronograph, The Ocean Grey

👂What’s new

1/

Blancpain Finally Answers The Call And Releases 38mm Versions Of The Fifty Fathoms

For years, every time I wrote about the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, the majority of comments would boil down to “shrink your watch below 40mm, and I’ll buy one”. Then, last week, Blancpain did exactly that, they released a sub-40mm Fifty Fathoms. Which only made people in the comments more angry, as those releases were two “Lady Fathoms”, one in red gold and the other in a bubblegum pink colorway. “Not the Fifty Fathoms we were asking for”, read the comments. Well, this is awkward for people who promised they would be buying a regular FF the moment they would shrink it below 40mm. It’s here, now, and I guess a lot of people will be spending some money. This is the new Fifty Fathoms Automatic 38mm collection.

Previously available in 42 and 45mm, as well as steel, titanium and gold, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is now getting a case that measures 38mm wide, 12mm thick and 45mm from lug-to-lug, which are pretty much spot on dimensions for a wide variety of wrists. The one thing I might not be a huge fan of is the 19mm lug width, as it’s a kind of uncommon strap width. Just like the larger versions, you can choose a polished stainless steel, a brushed grade 23 titanium or a brushed 18k red gold case. On top is a uni-directional bezel with that beautiful domed sapphire insert that comes in either black or blue, depending on the dial. On the side is a screw-down crown with tiny guards. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial you get depends on the case you get, but they largely correspond to the look of the larger models, which means they all have triangular hour markers, Arabic numerals are cardinal points and plenty of lume in the hands, markers and numerals. They also feature the unfortunate date at 4:30, but at least it’s paired with a color matched date disc. The steel model gets a sunray-brushed black dial, a black bezel and white gold hands and markers. The titanium gets a blue dial and bezel, again paired with white gold hardware. The red gold version uses the same blue dial and bezel, but with hardware made out of matching gold.

Inside, you’ll find the Blancpain calibre 1150, an automatic beating at 3Hz, with a silicon balance spring and twin barrels that give you a great power reserve of 100 hours. The movement is decorated with sunray-brushed bridges, bevelled edges and a solid gold rotor treated in dark grey NAC coating. There’s a wide variety of strap options. The steel and titanium versions can be had on a 3-link bracelet with a concealed folding clasp. All three can be had on a tropic rubber strap, a textile NATO and sailcloth canvas straps, in black or blue. You can even choose between a pin buckle and deployant clasp for the rubber and canvas.

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 38mm is now part of the permanent collection, with prices ranging, depending on the strap you choose, from CHF 15,000 to CHF 17,700 for the grade 23 titanium edition, CHF 14,000 to CHF 16,300 for the steel and CHF 25,600 and CHF 28,500 for the gold models. See more on the Blancpain website.

2/

Mido Expands The Multifort TV Big Date Collection With A Sporty Grey And Yellow Combination

I’m a sucker for Mido. While a large part of their lineup are decent, stylish and mostly traditional looking watches, every now and again they come out with something fantastic. Take a look at the Ocean Star GMT, a fantastic looking watch. Or the Ocean Star Decompression Worldtimer, currently one of my favorite watches on sale. Or the incredible Multifort TV Big Date S01E01 that was unfortunately a very limited edition. They really do know how to make a fun watch. And their Multifort TV is such a great platform. Now, they are introducing a new colorway — a grey gradient dial, paired with yellow details.

This new Multifort TV Big Date comes in a stainless steel three part case that measures 40mm wide, 11.5mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 46.85mm. It’s unlike most watches out there in terms of proportions, but it’s easy to get used to. The finishing is a combination of brushed and polished surfaces that make it look less like a gimmick and more like a true watch. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, on the right a prominent crown guards and water resistance is rated at 100 meters.

The dial has horizontal grooves with a slight gradient from grey in the middle to black on the periphery. The black is paired with recessed round indices and rectangular markers at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock that are filled with white Super-LumiNova. Of course, at 12 o’clock is the signature big date window with black date discs and orange numerals. There’s just a bit of color — a bright yellow on the seconds hand and a yellow printed seconds track on the rehaut.

Inside, you’ll find the trusty Powermatic 80, with its shock-resistant and anti-magnetic Nivachron balance spring, 4Hz beat rate and 80 hour power reserve. The movement is equipped with a customised Mido rotor with Geneva stripes. The watch comes on a black textile strap on a rubber base, with stitching to match these yellow accents.

The new Mido Multifort TV Big Date is part of the regular collection and it’s priced at €1,070. See more on the Mido website.

3/

Louis Erard Teams Up With Konstantin Chaykin For The Third Regulator Time-Eater

For years (actually, since 1929) Louis Erard was a solid, if slightly unknown, Swiss watchmaker. They made excellent watches that were always somehow a step in front of the Swiss competition, but did not stand out in any egregious way - they just chugged along and made great things. However, lately, things have changed for Louis Erard. It seems that they are now one of the leading manufacturers of innovative, prestigious and even complicated watches for acceptable prices.

They still utilize their expert knowledge of watchmaking, but now exectue it in fun and unexpected ways, especially in their collaborations with other watchmakers and artists. In just the past few years they released watches impeccable marquetry dials, watches designed by Alain Silberstein and watches with hand guilloché dials way below the price points of other brands. They also have a quite successful collaboration with legendary Russian indie watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin, who redid their Regulator model into one of his bulging-eye monsters. They’ve had two such releases, and now we’re getting the third watch, the Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin III.

This collaboration comes in two sizes. You have a choice of either a 42mm wide and 39mm wide stainless steel case, with a polished finish, an expansive sapphire crystal on top and a thin fixed bezel around it. The crown is a signature Chaykin crown, and the caseback is engraved with “Limited Edition 1 of 178”. There’s a novelty to these case sizes, as the 42mm version will be sold by Louis Erard and the 39mm version by Konstantin Chaykin. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The base of the dial gets a wave pattern in gray, setting the scene what’s going on with the dial. At 12 is a rotating pupil, that actually serves as a hour hand, while at 6 is a running seconds indicator, styled as an open mouth with a set of sharp teeth. Mounted centrally is the squiggly minute hand that spans the entire diameter of the dial. Around the dial is blue chapter ring with minute markings done like dots, and the two brands get their plaques at 12 (Konstantin Chaykin) and 6 (Louis Erard). The small seconds sub-dial has a has an either blue or red border, with the blue being sold by Erard and the red being sold by Chaykin.

The watch is powered by the same Sellita SW266-1 caliber that drives all of Louis Erard’s regulators that can be seen through the semi-transparent, tinted caseback. It comes in an élaboré grade and can run the watch for 38 hours. The Erard version of the watch comes on a toad leather strap, while the Chaykin gets a grained calfskin strap.

The new Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin III is limited to 178 pieces per size, and like I mentioned the larger is sold by Louis Erard and the smaller by Konstantin Chaykin. The watches go on sale tomorrow, June 18, at 3PM CET. Price is set at CHF 4,450. See more on the Louis Erard website, or the Chaykin one.

4/

Ressence Celebrates Ahmed Seddiqi’s 75th Anniversary With A Sand-Themed TYPE 9 S75

Since I’m kind of limited to one photo per watch, and then giving you an option to check out more photos of a watch on their respective website, I try to make a point of using a photo which gives you a best view of the watch possible. But I just couldn’t resist using this pretty fantastic photo of the new Ressence that doesn’t show the whole watch. But it does show what’s most important for this release — a whole bunch of sand. You know how much I love Ressence watches, and this one shot up way close to the top of my favorite releases. The Belgian brand teamed up with Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, UAE’s leading watch and jewelry retailer, to celebrate Seddiqi’s 75th anniversary with the Ressence TYPE 9 S75 which incorporates sand from all seven emirates that make up the UAE.

The case remains largely unchanged from the regular TYPE 9, which is Ressence’s latest collection. It has the same pebble-like shape of older models, made out of grade 5 titanium, so the whole thing — including the strap — weighs just 39 grams. The case measures 39mm wide and 11mm thick and on top is a heavily domed sapphire crystal, surrounded by a thin bezel. Since the watch doesn’t have a traditional crown, it features the signature Ressence caseback that controls the entire watch, including winding and setting the time.

But then there’s the incredible dial. The regular dial already has a stunning dial made up of rotating titanium discs that are part of Ressence’s patented ROCS (Ressence Orbital Convex System) in which the entire dial rotates with rotating sub-dials inside. Only, now, Ressence bonds the titanium discs to actual sand sourced from the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. It’s an incredible and very unique look.

Like most Ressence watches, it’s technically powered by the ETA2894, but it’s been so severely customized and had the ROCS 9 module added on top that it’s basically a custom movement. It beats at 4Hz and has a 36 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a camel leather strap, as one would expect for a UAE-themed watch.

The new Ressence TYPE 9 S75 is limited to 20 pieces and priced at CHF 15,500 without taxes. See more on the Ressence website.

5/

Jaeger-LeCoultre Introducees A New Color To The Polaris Chronograph, The Ocean Grey

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris has been around for almost 10 years and is perhaps the sportiest watch you can buy from the brand. While there’s a lot of vintage inspiration for the design, it’s also a throughly modern watch. And a lot of that modern feel comes from the colors of the dial. Now, the Polaris Chronograph is getting a new color called Ocean Grey.

On the outside, very little has changed, since the watch comes in a stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide and 13.39mm thick. The case has a relatively short and slightly curved lugs, and a thing bezel on top that surrounds a retro-style box-shaped sapphire crystal. Even in pictures, the finish on the case looks great, with a deep vertical brush on top and on the sides, with polished bevels and bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters, which is the standard for a chronograph with pushers that don’t screw down.

The dial also remains familiar in its setup, but with a new color, a grey-blue gradient on the various segments of the dial. The central dial has a gradient effect with a sunray-brushed finish, while the hour chapter ring has an identical fumé effect, but on a grained surface. The tachymetre scale on the perimeter gets a full black color with white printing. The grey and black are accented with orange details. It’s a bi-compax setup — a 30 minute totalizer at 3 and running seconds at 9 o’clock — with Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock and applied hour markers for the rest.

Inside, you’ll find the same movement as the previous edition, the in-house calibre 761, which is a a column wheel and vertical clutch integrated automatic chronograph movement which beats at 4 Hz and has double barrels to give you 65 hours of power reserve. The movement is decorated with Geneva stripes, blued screws, bevelled angles and an openworked rotor. The watch comes with a blue-grey canvas strap and a textured black rubber strap.

The new Ocean Grey Polaris Chronograph is available now and priced at €16,100. See more on the Jaeger LeCoultre.

⏲️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

• In this riveting Texas Monthly feature, Josh Alvarez tells the story of Ron Forrester, a Marine from Odessa, Texas, who went missing after a mission during the Vietnam War. For 51 years, his daughter, Karoni Forrester, never gave up the search to find out what happened. “She had been raised in a void of unknowing,” Alvarez writes, “and unless and until she found definitive proof of what had happened to her father, she simply would never stop her quest to find him.” Within this cinematic narrative, Alvarez explores the emotional toll of war on POW/MIA families—and how, despite decades of uncertainty and trauma, Karoni remained determined to uncover her father’s fate.

• “‘I wanted to get your number. When I go, will you do mine?’” This is what Alex Taylor heard numerous times after giving a successful eulogy at his grandmother’s funeral: People wanted him to write theirs. And so began a bizarre side hustle as an eulogy writer, or “trading in tributes,” as Taylor puts it. But, upon meeting the blind brother of a deceased man, he realizes that familial bonds can be “stronger and deeper than any arrangement of adjectives.” While Taylor can be flippant in tone, he still tells a fascinating tale.

• Paul Crenshaw recalls being young and afraid in post-Gulf War America, a time when he owned guns and read a lot of Stephen King. He subtly recounts being able to relate to Charlie Decker, the murderous protagonist in King’s Rage. At about the same time, Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy,” a song about a boy who shoots himself in front of his English class, plays in heavy rotation on MTV. Crenshaw recounts the litany of broken boys who, inspired by the fictional Decker, acted out their own versions of Rage in real life with horrific consequences, and tries to understand why.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’m well aware that I have been overdoing it with posting trailers here, but they’re remaking my entire childhood… How can I not post?

Thanks for reading,
Vuk