Breitling Celebrates Holidays With A Gold Lineup; Seiko's Fitzroy Island Inspired Prospex; Dennison Continues Streak; Doxa's Cherry SUB 300 Beta; An Elegant Laurent Ferrier; And Incredible Chopard

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Another great day of watches. No, really, just look at all the releases and tell me we aren’t living in the greatest time for watches ever.

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In this issue

• Breitling Celebrates The Holidays With A Fully Lineup From Different Collection

• Seiko Takes Inspiration From The Wonderful Fitzroy Island For A New Prospex Australasian LE

• Dennison Continues Winning Streak With Two New Dials For The ALD

• Doxa Releases A Special Edition Dubai Watch Week SUB 300 Beta In Black Ceramic And Cherry Red Dial

• Laurent Ferrier Pairs A Gold Case With An Elegant Beige Dial On The 15th Anniversary Classic Origin

• Chopard Introduces Its Most Complicated Chiming Watch To Date With The L.U.C Grand Strike

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 60: A Bunch Of Incredible Military Watch; And Olympic Memento; Groovy IWC Porsche Design; And A Subtle Rolex

👂What’s new

1/

Breitling Celebrates The Holidays With A Fully Gold Lineup From Different Collection

Of course, every brand pushes a lot just ahead of the holidays, as this is peak sale seasons. However, very few brands do what Breitling did — they released the Holiday Gold Capsule Collection, making it a special thing that will be available just before the holidays. And it’s not just one watch or one collection. It’s a bunch of watches from a bunch of collection, all sharing one feature — beautiful 18k red gold dials and exclusive dial colors. There are five watches in the collection — the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41, the Navitimer Automatic 36, the Navitimer 32, the Premier B01 Chronograph 42, and the Premier B09 Chronograph 40

I’m going to order them by size, starting with the Navitimer 32, the smallest model offered. It measures 32mm wide and 8mm thick. It gets a really nice brown dial and inside is the Breitling B77 SuperQuartz movement. Price is set at €10.600, and you can see the watch here.

Moving up a size, we have the Navitimer Automatic 36 which measures 36mm wide and 11.42mm thick. The red gold is perfectly matched to a light green dial with a dark green slide rule on the perimeter. Inside is the B17 automatic movement which beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. Price is €13,350. See it here.

Add 4mm, and you get to the first complication, the Premier B09 Chronograph 40. The red gold case measures 40mm wide and 13.08mm thick, paired with a green dial. The dial has gold numerals, with a bi-compax setup. The movement is the hand-wound B09 movement with a 4Hz beat rate and 70 hour power reserve. Price is set at €21,400. See it here.

Then, very similar, we have the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 which measures 41mm by 13.60mm, but now it comes with a brown dial with white sub-dials and a tri-compax layout. The slide scale on the outside is white to match the sub-dials. Inside is the in-house B01 automatic, beating at 4Hz and with a 70 hour power reserve. Price is set at €21,350. See more here.

Last, we have the Premier B01 Chronograph 42 which is very much reminiscent of the 40mm version. Sure, it’s a bit larger at 42mm wide and 13.6mm thick, but it comes with a navy blue dial, gold numerals, with a bi-compax setup and the addition of a date aperture 6 o’clock. You get the same B01 manufacture movement as the Navitimer B01. Price is set at €20,600. See more on the Breitling website.

The watches will be limited, but I couldn’t figure out to how many pieces, and will likely be available only through the holidays.

2/

Seiko Takes Inspiration From The Wonderful Fitzroy Island For A New Prospex Australasian LE

It’s tough to see them, but there are hardly any brand that does regional exclusives as good as Seiko. And when they pair up with their ocean-saving initiative, we get some really cool watches. Last week, we got the Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver’s Watch “Save the Ocean” Limited Edition SPB545, which was part of their Save the Ocean initiative with the idea of donating a portion of the sales to marine conservation efforts. Through this program, Seiko collaborates with ocean conservation organizations to fund and support projects such as marine debris removal, polar research, coral reef restoration, and sea turtle protection. Now we’re — but not all of us — are getting the Prospex Sea SRPM04K “Kame”, a limited edition available only in Australia and New Zealand, part of the Save the Ocean initiative that helps the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre (CTRC), an organisation located on Fitzroy Island that rehabilitates injured marine turtles from the Great Barrier Reef.

The SRPM04K is the Turtle in new colors. That means that you get a stainless steel case that measures 45mm wide, 13.04mm thick and has a 48mm lug-to-lug. It’s a large watch, sure, but much beloved because it’s interesting shape makes it fit a lot of wrists. It has the crown at 4 o’clock and on top is a gold colored uni-directional bezel that has a 60 minute scale on an insert that has a gradient from blue to teal. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial is classic Seiko, with a slight texture and blue to teal gradient that is lighter in the center and darker on the edges, which is supposed to reflect the colors of the ocean around Fitzroy Island. You get the classic Prospex markers filled with lume, arrow-shaped hands and a day-date at 3 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the 4R36 movement which beats at 3Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. It won’t win any accuracy competitions, but it will tick for a while. The watch comes on a stainless steel three-link bracelet fitted with a folding clasp with micro-adjustments, and an additional turquoise silicone strap.

The new Seiko Prospex Sea SRPM04K “Kame” is limited to 1,000 numbered pieces and will be available only in Australia and New Zealand. Price is set at AUD 995, which is about €550. See more on the Seiko Australia website.

3/

Dennison Continues Winning Streak With Two New Dials For The ALD

What a sensational year Dennison is having. Back in April, they kind of dominated the Time to Watches show, with everyone talking about their stone dial watches in Geneva. A couple of months later, they did it again, but also kind of sent online watch fans into a frenzy with their dual time ALD model. To top it all off, they won the GPGH Challenge prize, beating out way more expensive and established models. A brand would maybe take it a bit easy until the end of the year. But not Dennison. Because here they are with two new ALD models with new stone dials — one with a black marble dial and the other with a mother-of-pearl marquetry dial.

The new watch is housed in the same ALD. cushion shaped case that Dennison is known for. It’s a wonderfully whimsical case designed by renowned designer Emmanual Gueit and measures 37mm x 33.65mm, and just 6mm thick. It’s made out of stainless steel and here comes uncoated, with a small crown on the side and integrated straps. Water resistance is a modest 30 meters, but it really doesn’t matter.

There are two dials available, but let’s start with the mother-of-pearl marquetry. If it looks familiar, that’s because they did a very similar watch in collaboration with Time+Tide. They use rectangular pieces of pink-hued mother-of-pearl assembled in a herringbone pattern, which makes for an incredible look. This version gets a white MOP. Then, there’s the black marble version, with very dramatic white striations. The hands are standard Dennison hands and you get the expected minimalism.

Inside, you won’t find a mechanical movement. Instead, the watch is powered by the Swiss Ronda Quartz 1062. Since I’m a big advocate of brining back quartz movements, I welcome this choice. The watches come on either white or black epsom leather straps.

The new Dennison ALD with black marble and mother-of-pearl marquetry dials are available now, priced at €599,95 for the black marble and €685,95 for the MOP dial. See the marble here and MOP here.

4/

Doxa Releases A Special Edition Dubai Watch Week SUB 300 Beta In Black Ceramic And Cherry Red Dial

Doxa has had a good relationship with Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, UAE’s leading luxury watch retailer. They came out with a couple of limited editions together, most recently Doxa joining Seddiqi’s 75th anniversary celebration. One would venture a guess that Doxa is then quite popular in the Middle-East. So, it makes sense that they have released a special edition for Dubai Watch Week 2025, and it’s in the SUB 300 Beta Ceramic that gets a groovy combination of a matte black ceramic case and an unreal cherry red dial.

On the outside, this is still an unchanged SUB 300 Beta, save for the material. Instead of steel, you get a matte black ceramic case, bezel and crown, with a titanium container inside, with a titanium screw-in caseback. The watch measures 42.5mm wide, 11.95mm thick and has a short 44.5mm lug-to-lug, thanks to the helmet-shape of the case. The ceramic unidirectional rotating bezel has a no-decompression scale with depth in feet on the outer ring and dive time in minutes on the inner done in the same cherry red as the dial. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial is rendered in a wonderful shade of cherry red, that has a sunburst finish that gives it an incredible look. The cherry is paired with black hands and applied indexes filled with white Super-LumiNova.

Inside, you’ll find the tried and true Sellita SW200-1 automatic that beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. It’s also COSC certified, which more brands that use the SW200 shoudl do. The watch comes on a black FKM rubber strap closed with a black PVD deployant clasp with a wetsuit extension, as well as a grey NATO strap.

The new Doxa SUB 300 Beta Ceramic Dubai Watch Week 2025 is limited to 11 pieces, available exclusively at Ahmed Seddiqi boutiques in the UAE, priced at AED 18,750 or CHF 4,200. See more on the Doxa website.

5/

Laurent Ferrier Pairs A Gold Case With An Elegant Beige Dial On The 15th Anniversary Classic Origin

Sure, there are plenty of sporty Laurent Ferrier watches and I want them all. But what I really love to see from Laurent Ferrier is a a classy sports watch. Five years ago, when Laurent Ferrier celebrated only their tenth anniversary, they did so with a really cool Classic Origin in titanium. Now, for the 15th anniversary, they are doing the Classic Origin in red gold with a classy beige dial.

This is the very familiar Classic case, measuring 40mm wide and 10.7mm thick, with. very round shape with swooping lugs. The case is now rendered in 5N red gold which has a beautiful sheen with a polished finish and the brand’s signature ball-shaped crown. Sapphire crystals can be found on both sides of the case and you get 30 meters of water resistance.

The dial also keeps a lot of the same elements of old dials. There’s the javelin-shaped red gold hour hands, a brown railway minute track on the periphery, red arabic numerals and a snailed small seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. The base of the dial is done in a really beautiful shade of beige (a weird sentence to say), with a brown crosshair in the middle. It’s pure class.

Inside, you’ll find the LF 116.01, the same manual-winding movement that they use as the base for the Galet Annual Calendar. The movement has a free-sprung balance and Breguet overcoil to enhance isochronism, beats at 3Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve. Finishing includes hand-bevelled and polished edges, as well as sandblasted bridges.

The new Laurent Ferrier Classic Origin Beige is part of the regular collection and priced at CHF 43,000 without tax. See more on the Laurent Ferrier website.

6/

Chopard Introduces Its Most Complicated Chiming Watch To Date With The L.U.C Grand Strike

Now that Dubai Watch Week has passed, we can say that not only did we get some pretty great watches (I didn’t cover them all yet, there’s more to come), it’s pretty clear that brands were ready for Dubai with the best that they could offer. We some sensational watches at outrageous prices. But we just might have the winner of the show — the Chopard L.U.C Grand Strike, the brand’s most complex watch to date, with a Grande Sonnerie, a Petite Sonnerie, a Minute Repeater and a tourbillon regulator. A watch that took 11,000 hours of R&D over 30 years to complete. Look at it.

The new L.U.C Grand Strike combines very traditional watchmaking with a very edgy and modern look. While the edge is reserved for the dial, the case is very classy. Made out of brushed and polished 18k ethical white gold, measuring 43mm wide and 14.08mm thick. You get sapphire crystals on both sides, creating a very airy look. On the side is a crown with an integrated strike work pusher and sliding mode selector switch. Chopard doesn’t list a water resistance, but come on…

There is no dial. At all. In the center is a pair of hands, and around the perimeter is a hour and minute-marked flange. Everything else that you see is the calibre L.U.C 08.03-L, an absolute beast of the movement. Let’s start with Poinçon de Genève standard decorations as they will be visible at all time. You get black polishing, anglage, and Côtes de Genève. The bridges and mainplate are made from German silver, with a mirror-polished stainless steel tourbillon bridge.

There’s a lot of technical stuff happening with this movement. After all, it has 10 granted or pending patents. It beats at 4Hz and has a 70-hour power reserve for the movement, and a 12-hour power reserve for the strikework — each with its own barrel, each wound in its own direction of crown turning. That’s the casual stats. It is regulated by a one-minute tourbillon that has a stop-seconds mechanism that stops the tourbillon cage to allow for precise time setting. Speaking of precision, it’s also COSC certified.

But then we get to the Grand Sonnerie complications, one of the most complicated in the industry. It is traditionally associated with a petite sonnerie and a minute repeater mechanism. Both the grande and petite sonnerie strike the hours and quarters automatically, though only the Grande Sonnerie repeats the hour at every quarter. And you can see large parts of that complication, including the sapphire gongs that form one monobloc unit with the watch’s crystal. You can see the strike work mechanism with the polished-steel hammers at 10 o’clock. There’s also a mode indicator near 12 o’clock that displays whether you’re in Grande Sonnerie (G), Petite Sonnerie (P), or Silence (S) modes, adjusted via the the slider near the crown. The watch also has very important security mechanisms to prevent damage. The watch comes on a hand-sewn alligator leather strap with alligator lining fitted with a gold folding buckle.

You know that the Chopard L.U.C Grand Strike, which will be limited in production of just two per year, will not be a cheap watch, but get ready for this. Price is set at CHF 780,000. See more on the Chopard website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 60: A Bunch Of Incredible Military Watch; And Olympic Memento; Groovy IWC Porsche Design; And A Subtle Rolex

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

• Goldeneye at 30: how the 1995 film kicked off Pierce Brosnan’s 007 era and reinvented James Bond as a post-Cold War hero

• In a bizarre and deeply politicized drama, a bird flu outbreak at a remote Canadian ostrich farm ignited a year-long standoff between small farmers, conspiracy-fueled activists, and the government. The cull of more than 300 ostriches drew in celebrities, international attention, and deeply divided local communities before ending in a hail of gunfire and viral outrage.

• We have, many of us, been waylaid by our own car misfortunes. But we have also been transported, often in more than one sense. Cynthia Zarin’s short personal essay for The Paris Review corners beautifully, moving with grace and good speed between the Odyssey, a marriage’s end, the expectations of parents and children, the fantasies we harbor, and, per Zarin, “the car at the end of the mind.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Except for the highest of production value documentaries done by a few TV houses around the world, it’s just a fact that the best docs are done for YouTube.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk