Blancpain Brings Back The Fifty Fathoms Tech; Ollech & Wajs Pays Homage To Iconic Race; Junghans Celebrates 100 Years Of Bauhaus Dessau; Parmigiani Fleurier Introduces New Tonda PF Sport Chrono

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Another late one today, but I’m typing with less fingers because I had a tiny surgery yesterday. No worries, I’m back to my normal self by tomorrow. Also, enjoy the controversial Blancpain we have here.

In this issue

• Blancpain Brings The Fifty Fathoms Tech Back To The Regular Collection

• The Ollech & Wajs Pays Homage To The Iconic Coupe Des Alpes Race With A New Rallychron

• Junghans Celebrates 100 Years Of Bauhaus Dessau With The Colorful From A And Form Quartz

• Parmigiani Fleurier Introduces The Tonda PF Sport Chronograph In Rose Gold Sandstone

👂What’s new

1/

Blancpain Brings The Fifty Fathoms Tech Back To The Regular Collection

Blancpain loves to ruffle feathers. There are very few brands that I write about that get such a vocal response. And often, for good reason. People ask for a smaller Fifty Fathoms and what does Blancpain do? They release a larger one. They want a titanium version, Blancpain releases a solid gold one. They finally answer the call and release a 38mm version of the Fifty Fathoms, and then they price it at almost €20k. And sure, I get all of these criticism. But there’s one watch line that they are playing with that just can’t do no wrong in my book — the Fifty Fathoms Tech line. I deeply love it. It started in 2023 with the Tech Gombessa, designed by CEO Mark Hayek and legendary underwater photographer Laurent Ballesta, with a very cool new bezel made for rebreather diving. This year, we got the Fifty Fathoms Tech Ocean Commitment IV, which kept the cool integrated bracelet look, but in a smaller size. I loved that one, but it was a limited edition. Well, Blancpain answered that question for me today. This is the new Fifty Fathoms Tech, and it’s the Fifty Fathoms I would get.

The new Fifty Fathoms Tech keeps the super-agressive look of the Tech Gombessa, including the heavily serrated and sloped beze and the very cool central lug. The case is made out of grade 23 titanium, which is an alloy similar to grade 5, and used by Blancpain for years, combining the lightness of titanium with more corrosion resistance. Like I said, it’s still a large watch that measures 45mm wide and 14.1mm thick. But the good thing is not just that it’s light, it’s also the use of that central lug that gives it an almost lugless construction. People who have worn it say it easily feels like a 42mm watch. And while the Tech Gombessa features a very cool patented count-up bezel with a 3-hour scale, built to be used with a closed-circuit rebreather, the Tech uses a more traditional 60-minute undirectional diving scale, but still sharply angled towards the dial. Water resistance remains 300 meters and you get a helium escape valve for saturation diving.

The matte black dial is something that Blancpain calls absolute black, as they claim it absorbs 97% of light for better contrast. The hands are polished silver with lume strips inside them. There’s also a date window at 4:30. The date window wasn’t used on the Tech Gombessa and the watch looked that much better. But I’ll deal with it as the date wheel is well integrated. Orange details come in the form of the central seconds hand and the Tech text above 6 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the in-house calibre 1315A. It beats at 4Hz and has a a pretty great 120 hour power reserve. That’s five days, to save you the math. It does so with the use of three series-coupled barrels. It also features a silicon balance spring for resistance to magnetic fields and has an openworked rotor with the Tech inscription. The watch comes with two rubber straps, but you get to choose between three colors — black, white or orange.

The new Fifty Fathoms Tech is part of the permanent collection and it’s priced at CHF 19,000. That’s almost CHF 4k over the 38mm titanium version and just CHF 600 less than the limited Fifty Fathoms Tech Ocean Commitment IV. Call me irrational, I love it. See more on the Blancpain website.

2/

The Ollech & Wajs Pays Homage To The Iconic Coupe Des Alpes Race With A New Rallychron

Most of the watches made by Ollech & Wajs follow a pretty similar template - they are a skin diver-style case made with heavy vintage inspirations and cool uses of colors. They grasp deep from their history as much is linked to military and professional services. Their watches were worn by scientist Wernher Von Braun and NASA Group 6 astronaut Dr Anthony Llewellyn and In 1965, they became the most widely used ‘unissued’ watch brand by military personnel in the Vietnam conflict, delivering up to 10,000 pieces a year. What they might be a little less known for is their passion for racing. This is where the Rallychron comes in, which is a canvas for OW to express this love for cars. Their latest Rallychron, made in partnership with Rallystory, pays homage to the Coupe des Alpes, a 1950s and 1960s 820-kilometre three-stage race across the Alpes featuring some of the most breathtaking and perilous mountain passes in Europe.

The watch comes in a 39.5mm wide and 15.3mm thick brushed 316L stainless steel case that has widely spaced and short lugs that give off a very nice 1960s and 1970s vibe of sports watches. On top is a sapphire crystal and the talking piece of the watch - the lack PVD-coated rotating, bidirectional bezel. The bezel features a tachymeter scale on it’s inner half, which is to be expected, but on the outer track are the names of 11 of the most iconic racetracks from the 60s followed by the mathematically derived ‘perfect lap time’. None of these lap times actually ever happened, and have been calculated in collaboration with Hervé Charbonneaux, a well-known classic car collector and author. He has analysed a huge number of races from the 1965-1969 seasons at each of the 11 tracks accounting for race conditions and derived that these were the hypothetical best times achievable in period. It’s a completely useless function, purely decorative, and I love it!

The dial is rendered in a great grey color with a tri-compax layout with black subdials. The central hours and minutes have race flag inspired markings, while the central chronograph hand, as well as the hands on the sub-dials are all done in light blue.

Inside is the OW PRECISION 5 movement, essentially the Valjoux 7753 automatic chronograph, which is in turn a descendant of the legendary Valjoux 72 calibre which Ollech & Wajs used in several chronographs during the 60s. The movement beats at 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 54 hours. The watch comes on a mesh bracelet and you get an additional blue NATO strap with a white stripe.

The new Ollech & Wajs Rallychron is technically limited, as 56 watches will be made each year, representing both the founding year of Ollech & Wajs and also the 56 two-person teams involved in the infamous 1958 ‘Coupe Des Alpes’ - the most grueling on record. Price is set at CHF 2,456. See more on the Ollech & Wajs website.

3/

Junghans Celebrates 100 Years Of Bauhaus Dessau With The Colorful From A And Form Quartz

If you have even a fleeting interest in design and architecture, you likely know the Bauhaus school. And I don’t just mean the curriculum that taught thousands of artist and set a standard that is instantly recognizable by millions of people. If you’re interested in Bauhaus a bit more, you likely know what the school looks like. It’s a stunning building designed by Walter Gropius, instantly recognized by its clean lines and red door. However, while certainly the most famous, this is just one of three Bauhaus locations. The school moved there in 1925, making 2025 the 100th anniversary of the opening of the iconic building. And now, a brand that has made a name for itself with Bauhaus-inspired watches — Junghans — is paying homage to that anniversary. These are the very colorful Form A and Form Quartz Bauhaus Editions.

Both being in the Form collection, they share the same general case shape and are very close in size. The Form A comes in a 39.3mm wide and 9.5mm thick stainless steel case that has a matte black PVD coat, while the Form Quartz comes in a 39.9mm wide and 7mm thick polished steel case. Both have the very round case with tiny angled lugs, making them wear pretty well. Water resistance on both is 50 meters.

Both also have bowl-shaped dials, but while the Form A gets a matte black finish to match the finish on the case, the Form Quartz comes with a white dial. What they both share, however, are the rainbow hour markers, starting with yellow at 12 o’clock through to red at 4 and blue at 8. The Form A has these markers done as squares, while the Form Quartz keeps things traditional with the thin markers. Both have a date aperture at 3 o’clock.

As you might have gathered from the names, one of these editions is quartz, while the other is mechanical. The Form A comes with the J800.2 automatic movement, essentially an ETA 2824 variant, which beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve, while the Form Quartz comes with the J645.37 quartz movement. Both watches come on Milanese bracelets — the Form A on a black one and the Form Quartz on a silver one.

Both Form Bauhaus watches are limited editions, both to 1,000 pieces. The Form A Bauhaus is priced at $1,150, while the Form Quartz is priced at $510. The watches are not yet available on the Junghans website, but you can read the press release here.

4/

Parmigiani Fleurier Introduces The Tonda PF Sport Chronograph In Rose Gold Sandstone

Parmigiani Fleurier makes some truly incredible watches. A lot of them could be considered dress watches, if you will. But where I like them the most is creating luxury sports watches in the Tonda PF collection. The collection is not that old, just about five years, and it’s already grown to impressive widths, with new additions joining the collection every few weeks. Now, we’re getting the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph in rose gold with a light dial and Mediterranean-inspired sandstone counters.

Most manufacturers just run different colorways on the same base watch, but this obviously isn’t good enough for Parmigiani. While they have the 42mm Tonda PF Chronograph and the 40mm Tonda PF Chronograph, this new Tonda PF Sport Chronograph comes in a slightly different case. It’s made out of 18k rose gold, with brushed and polished finishes, measuring 42mm wide and 12.9mm thick. The case has teardrop lugs, a sapphire crystal on top and bottom, with a knurled bezel on top. On the side are square pushers and an oversized crown, both made out of rose gold. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is fantastic. It features the same pattern on it as the rest of the PF Sport line, meaning a clou triangulaire, and it has a warm silvery color to it. This is contrasted with taupe-like colored sub-dials at 3, 6 and 9. Parmigiani also fixed the generally horrible 4:30 date placement with the best solution — by removing it entirely. The PF logo is rose gold and applied, while the same material is used for the skeletonized delta-shaped hands that have lumed tips.

Inside, you’ll find the high-frequency chronograph powered by the automatic calibre PF070, made in-house with help from sister company Vaucher Manufacture. It beats at 5Hz, has a 65 hour power reserve and is COSC certified. The watch comes on a rubber strap in a color that PF calls tufo, or tuff – the porous, pale rock formed by volcanic ash. It’s a beautiful looking strap.

The new Tonda PF Sport Chronograph is available now, priced at CHF 49,000. See more on the Parmigiani Fleurier website.

⏲️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

• What do Hollywood writers really think of generative AI? In interviews with screenwriters and filmmakers, Josh Rottenberg reveals a sharp divide—some view AI as a gimmick, others hail it as a revolutionary force. To one, ChatGPT could even be the next Spielberg. As the industry barrels toward an AI-assisted future, it finds itself caught between the promise of innovation and the need to protect the human soul of storytelling.

• Imagine getting an email with the subject line “Potential Asteroid Impact Notification.” That’s exactly what happened to someone in the U.S. Space Force this January, when, for the first time time ever, the international alert system for defending the planet against space rocks was activated. Scientists had identified the most dangerous near-Earth object ever recorded, an asteroid dubbed 2024 YR4. There was a 3 percent chance it would strike Earth in about eight years. Spoiler: The threat has since gone down to basically zero. Still, 2024 YRS inspired writer Tomas Weber to get to know the network of people whose job is planetary defense, and the long odds they’re up against should a rock actually come barreling toward Earth.

• Facing a complex jigsaw puzzle, Susannah Pratt felt defeated using her usual piece-sorting process, one geared to solving jigsaws efficiently, without time wasted in random pairing attempts. When the puzzle defied her, she began to question her reasons and motivations for doing puzzles in the first place. Are jigsaw puzzles a leisure activity or leisure cloaked in a time-honored evil: productivity.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I loved Prey, but I’m not sure what to think about the look of the new Predator. Yay? Nay?

Thanks for reading,
Vuk