Breitling Is Back With Two Endurance Pro Ironmans; Dennison's Stunning Cocktail MOP Watch; BA111OD's Chapter 8 Is The Perfect Dress Watch; Lebois & Co. Releases Eggshell Grand Feu Enamel Chrono

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Today’s edition is a bit early because I can’t wait to jump back into the sea. Oh, and if you’ve been on the search for an affordable dress watch, stop your search because the BA111OD is exactly that. That’s a fantastic duo of watches.

The Laco giveaway is going on for another 4 days, the rules are simple:

If you want to participate in the Laco giveaway, the rules are simple. Just scroll down to the end of the newsletter where you’ll find a large share button. Use that to invite your friends to subscribe to the newsletter and every referral gets you a ticket to enter the raffle. The more subscribers you bring, the higher the chance of winning is.

In this issue

• Breitling Is Back With Two Endurance Pro Ironman Collaborations

• Dennison And Time+Tide Team Up For A Marquetry Mother of Pearl Dialed Cocktail Watch

• BA111OD Launches Chapter 8, Once Again Proving They Offer Some Of The Best Bang For Buck On The Market

• Lebois & Co. Adds Wonderful Cream Grand Feu Enamel Dial Coquille d’œuf Chronograph To The Lineup

• Your Chance To Win This Absolute Bomb Of A Watch From Laco

👂What’s new

1/

Breitling Is Back With Two Endurance Pro Ironman Collaborations

The number of people willing to spend €4,000 on a quartz watch, regardless of how nice that quartz watch is, is much, much smaller than the number of people that are willing to spend €4,000 on a mechanical watch. The number of people who would spend €4,000 on a quartz watch that’s branded with the logo of the Ironman, despite it being one of the most popular endurance races in the world, is even smaller. And yet, here comes Breitling with exactly that, an almost €4,000 quartz watch that’s made in partnership with the Ironman race, and Breitling believes there are at least 800 people out there that want one. Two, actually.

The watches are, of course, Breitling’s ultra-capable Endurance Pro, fitted with a quartz movement to be able to withstand a bunch of shock. These two new versions can be had in either the silver titanium case or in Breitling’s proprietary Breitlight carbon composite material. On top is a bidirectional bezel with a compass scale, a flat sapphire crystal and a rugged and protected rubberized crown in blue. The crown doesn’t screw down, but you get 100 meters of water resistance. I assume it should be good enough to compete in the Ironman race.

There are two dial options, each paying respect to two Ironman World Championship races. The one with a grey dial marks the events in Nice, France, and Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, while the one with the green dial marks the championship finale in Marbella, Spain. The dial has a tri-compax setup, pretty much the same you would find on the regular Endurance Pro. The central chronograph hand as well as the hands on the sub-dials are orange, while the chapter ring that surrounds the dial comes in either turquoise or green and features a pulsometer scale, something that’s actually useful on a sports-oriented watch. The numerals are large, applied and Arabic and there’s a tiny date window at 4:30 that almost completely blends into the watch. In the 6 o’clock sub-dial you’ll find the logo of the Ironman World Championship which is design to reflect the local nature and culture where the events take place.

Inside the watch is Breitling’s Caliber 82, a thermocompensated quartz movement, which features a 30-minute chronograph that is capable of measuring times down to 1/10th of a second. Based on the core architecture of an ETA movement design, the battery-powered Breitling Cal. 82 offers standard chronograph functionality, although it also features a split-timing feature. It’s also a COSC-certified chronometer, which means that it is accurate to within approximately ten seconds per year. The watches come on a chunky blue or green rubber strap.

The new Breitling Ironman Endurance Performance Pro is limited to 500 pieces for the steel version which is priced at €4,100 and 300 for the Breitlight one priced at €3,600. See more on the Breitling website.

2/

Dennison And Time+Tide Team Up For A Marquetry Mother of Pearl Dialed Cocktail Watch

A cocktail watch is a lesser known genre of watches. While officially defined as “a women’s designer watch intended to be worn with formal evening dress as a piece of jewellery”, over the years a cocktail watch has come to embrace smaller sizes, bold shapes and bright colors. Think, stuff like the Bulgari Serpenti or the higher end, and the Seiko Presage Cocktail Time on the lower. Something you would wear on a rooftop in the summer evening sipping on a drink you could never make on your own. And while this release is not marketed as a cocktail watch, I can’t think of it in any other way. This is the new collaboration between indie darling Dennison and Time+Tide, appropriately named DateNight, with one of the nicest dial techniques you’ve seen in quite a while.

The new watch is housed in the same A.L.D. 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.

Then, there’s the dial. From what I understand, it was designed with help from Gueit and it features one of my favorite dialmaking techniques — marquetry. Most often made with wood, marquetry dials feature often rectangular pieces assembled into a pattern. But here, Dennison and Time+Tide didn’t use wood. Instead, they use rectangular pieces of mother-of-pearl assembled in a herringbone pattern, which makes for an incredible look.

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, especially in a cocktail watch. The watch comes on a Molequin grey suede strap, with an additional white leather strap.

The new Time+Tide x Dennison DateNight will be available for 24 hours beginning on August 27th at 8:00 AM ET, priced at €895. See more on the Time+Tide website.

3/

BA111OD Launches Chapter 8, Once Again Proving They Offer Some Of The Best Bang For Buck On The Market

To start off, I’m a huge fan of BA111OD. They make a huge number of watches, some to fit pretty much every single want you might have, from dress to sport, all of them Swiss made rock solid pieces offered at prices that really shouldn’t be possible. They have made waves by producing the least expensive Swiss made tourbillon – the BA111OD Chapter 4.1, as well as the BA111OD Chapter 4.5 GMT Tourbillon. Their CHPTR_Δ has one of the most interesting ways of moving hands and displaying time, for a crazy low price. And then at Watches and Wonders, they introduced the Chapter 4 Infinity Flying Tourbillon, the best watch of the entire show that brings haute horology to your wrist at a really great price. Now, they’re introducing a brand new collection, the Chapter 8, which comes as a three-hander that has a very modern approach to an Art Deco design, like something you would see from a certain indie watchmaking superstar, or as a moonphase with a fantastic setup.

To have a three-hander and a moonphase as part of the same collection is kind of curious, sure, but what we get from that is one case shared between the two models. It’s a really nice looking and swooping stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide and 12.75mm thick. It has a round body, curved lugs and a polished curved bezel on top. The 4 o’clock crown has become a signature moment for BA111OD and there’s an option for a gold PVD coating on one of the three-handers. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The first thing that the watches differ in is, of course, the dial. The three hander comes with a wonderful sector dial in which the sector markings are rendered in subtle colors to not stand out too much. The outer sector part is smooth, while the innter disc is grained. You get separate hour and minute scales, as well as applied hour markers at 12, 6 and 9 o’clock, with a date window at 3. There are four variants of the three hander, with dials coming in black, sand and white, with the white dial getting a choice of silver or gold PVD case.

Inside the three hander, you’ll find the familiar Soprod P024 which beats at 4Hz, with a 38 hour power reserve. The watches can be had on a nubuck leather strap with folding clasp or a Milanese mesh with folding clasp. Now, the price… This watch is priced at €680 and while I might have said that this is one good looking watch before I saw the price, after it, it’s one of the best dressy watches you can get right now. See more on the BA111OD website.

Then, we have the moonphase, which is exactly the watch that you expect from BA111OD, from design to price. This one has a grained base in either grey, white or sand. The layout is just so great, with the moonphase aperture sitting at 10 o’clock, a small seconds at 7 and a date aperture at 4, with the numerals on the disc sitting on an angle to be inline with the angled hour marker. The small seconds have circular brushing, color matched on the white, and black on the sand and grey versions (the grey also gets a red small seconds hand).

Inside, you’ll find the Soprod C105 automatic, which still beats at 4Hz, but it has a slightly longer power reserve of 42 hours. The watch, once again, can be had on a nubuck leather strap with folding clasp or a Milanese mesh with folding clasp. And again, there’s the price. It’s just killer for such a watch — €1,310. See more on the BA111OD website.

4/

Lebois & Co. Adds Wonderful Cream Grand Feu Enamel Dial Coquille d’œuf Chronograph To The Lineup

Tom van Wijlick is a Dutch entrepreneur with a seemingly simple idea that drives his business decisions - make incredibly cool, vintage-inspired, watches that sell for an accessible price and meet pretty much every demand the market has. And he’s doing good. One of the brands he owns, Airain, is developing new models in close collaboration with its fanbase and the other, Lebois & Co. is recreating some of the best designs of the past. Actually, that’s not true. Lebois has been making a wide range of watches, from modern to avant-garde, and only a couple of years ago did they launch their Heritage Chronograph which thrust them into the limelight of vintage-revival. The Heritage Chrono came with a bi-compax setup and a number of fantastic retro colors, including the coveted salmon. Now, Lebois & Co is taking a huge step forward not just with the dial artistry and souscription sale model, but also in price.

The stainless steel case remains the same, which is a good thing. Because it’s a simple but beautiful case. Made out of stainless steel, with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces, with a thin beveled bezel. The pushers, which look amazing, and the angled lugs have a strong and pronounced bevel to them. The case measures 39mm wide and 14.3mm thick, but a lot of that thickness is used up by the hugely domed sapphire crystal on top. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Then, there’s the new dial. Its name, coquille d’œuf, gives away the color, as coquille d’œuf translates to eggshell. The slightly creamy white dial is made by legendary dialmaker Donzé Cadrans and it’s made out of grand feu enamel onto which enamel-based inks are printed on to give you black Breguet numerals and a pulsation scale. There are two sub-dials done in the same technique, a 30 minute totalizer at 3 and a running seconds at 9. The hands are blackened and leaf-shaped.

Inside, and visible through the caseback, is the calibre LC-450, which is essentially a manual wound La Joux-Perret L100 series column wheel chronograph movement made for Lebois & Co. The movement beats at 28,800vph and has a great power reserve of 60 hours. Decorations are on point, as well - a blued column wheel with polished column tops and blued screws, perlage and Côtes de Genève. The watch comes on a brown leather strap.

The new Lebois & Co. Heritage Chronograph Atelier Coquille d’Oeuf is limited to 25 pieces per year, and offered through souscription, which is just a slightly fancy pre-order process. Price is set at €9,800, which is a huge jump from the regular €3,000 edition, but there’s no denying that this is a pretty watch. See more on the Lebois & Co. website.

5/

Your Chance To Win This Absolute Bomb Of A Watch From Laco

Here we go. Like I promised you last month, I’m teaming up with Laco to celebrate their 100th year anniversary. As part of their celebration, they showed a very special watch, the Laco Frieda. There’s only one catch. You can’t buy one. Instead, Laco is giving away 100 pieces of this special edition watch in their “100 Years – 100 Days – 100 Watches” campaign. And you can get one here. The rules are simple — scroll down to the end of the newsletter, where you’ll find a referral window that says “Share It’s About Time”. Invite your friends to subscribe to the newsletter and for every subscriber you bring, you’ll get a “ticket” that enters you in a draw to win the watch.

This is the first time I’m doing a giveaway with this referral program, so if there are any hiccups and something doesn’t work, let me know and we’ll sort it out asap. The giveaway is open until August 25th, after which I’ll use a random email selector to find the winner and Laco will ship your brand new watch to you! Good luck.

Now, for a bit of info on thw atch. Laco typically names its models after cities or geographical features, but this model breaks tradition. For a good reason, as it’s named after the co-founder, Frieda Lacher. It’s a familiar watch but with a dial that makes it extremely beautiful. The watch comes in a stainless steel case that measure 39mm wide, 11.55mm thick and with a 46.5mm lug-to-lug. The case has a beautiful matte finish and on the side, you’ll find an engraving that reads “Laco 1925-2025”, while the caseback has an engraving of its unique number out of 100. On the opposite side you’ll find the signature deeply grooved onion-shaped crown. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Then, there’s the dial. It’s a classic Type A flieger, which has just the minute track along the edge of the dial and big numerals for the hours. The minute track and numerals are printed in white lume, while the sword-shaped hands are done in black, with white lume inside. But the star here is the base of the dial. Rendered in Laco’s signature red color, it has a sandy texture which makes it very special.

Inside, you’ll find the Laco S2 movement, which is essentially the Miyota 82S0. The movement beats at 21,600vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grey leather strap with red stitching.

Again, scroll down to the end of the email where you’ll find the share button and get to sharing!

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS: Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 48: Built for Blood and Chaos - The Sinn EZM 12

Real Emergency Medicine Meets German Engineering. Read it here.

⏲️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

• When American journalist and former Marine Austin Tice vanished in Syria in 2012, his disappearance sparked a 13-year global search involving diplomats, spies, and his relentless family. This gripping account explores daring escapes, government secrets, and heartbreak, capturing the labyrinthine quest for answers in one of the world’s most enduring and agonizing cases of a missing reporter.

• Dallas LeBeau, a fearless young skier chasing fame and respect, attempted a daring ski jump over a Colorado highway to win a contest and boost his career. Despite warnings and the risks, he pushed forward—only to suffer a fatal crash. His tragic story exposes the deadly pressures of social media stardom and the high cost of chasing dreams.

• Haunted by lifelong insecurities over his height, Frank embarks on a grueling journey of leg lengthening surgery in Turkey, enduring pain, risk, and drastic life changes to reach average stature. His story illuminates the extreme measures some take for self-acceptance—and the physical and emotional toll exacted by society’s quiet prejudice against shortness. Also, some of the photos look extremely graphic, but that’s just iodine.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Mathilda “Mayhem” Wilson is the first professional women’s bare knuckle boxer in the whole of Scandinavia. She’s from Sweden, where the sport is still illegal. To compete, she has to travel across Europe to follow a hard-fought career as a ‪bare knuckle fighter. To complicate things further, Mathilda is a doting mother to her young son Zion, and the wife of notorious underground champion “English Willf".

Vice tagged along with Mathilda and her family for several months to document the duality of her life—unconditional love and unrelenting violence.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk