Christopher Ward Launches Ultra Thin Twelve 660; Breitling's NFL Team Watches; A Blue Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Moon; Horage's Lensman 2 Global; GO Skeletonizes Blue PanoMaticCalendar

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Hey, sorry for the weird timing of this newsletter. I was on holiday last week that we had to cut short due to apocalyptic storms that hit the entire country and flooded most of it. The eight hour drive home was quite interesting… That’s why this issue is so late, but I hope you appreciate it

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In this issue

• Christopher Ward Launches The New Twelve 660 That Takes The Brand To New Thinness Levels

• Breitling Unveils Two New Chronomat Automatic GMT And Endurance Pro Collections For Each NFL Team

• The Smaller Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase Now Comes In Blue

• Horage Releases The Lensman 2 Global, Their Very Unique Worldtimer-meets-GMT Watch

• Glashütte Original Skeletonizes The PanoMaticCalendar In Blue

👂What’s new

1/

Christopher Ward Launches The New Twelve 660 That Takes The Brand To New Thinness Levels

There are so many reasons why I don’t like Christopher Ward, and the logo is not one of them. But I’ll leave that list for another article. But there’s no denying that they are willing to not just take risks, but also take the brand where no one would expect them to. While we are used to good looking middle of the road watches from CW, I doubt many people expected them to release an integrated-bracelet sports watches that is just 6.6mm thick. Sub 10mm watches are cool, but sub 8mm watches are reserved for higher price points than Christopher Ward operates in. However, while chasing the thinness — which is undoubtedly cool — the compromised on the very basis of the genre of the watch. What we have here is the new The Twelve 660, a sports watch that has only 30 meters of water resistance. Is it a good tradeoff?

This isn’t just a slimmed down The Twelve case. It’s a completely reworked one that now measures 38mm wide and the aforementioned 6.6mm thick, with a compact length of 43.4mm, thanks to the integrated bracelet and lack of lugs. On top is a new and wider bezel that offsets the thin appearance. Of the four versions available, three come in untreated steel and one gets a black coat. All of them have a brushed finish with great polishing on the bevels. This is a good looking, albeit a bit familiar, case, but there’s one major tradeoff to such thinness at this price point. Gone is the screw down crown, primarily, I guess, because of the use of a manual wind movement which is awkward to use with a screw down crown. But due to the thinness, they obviously couldn’t include as many gaskets as their thicker versions. This means that you get 30 meters of water resistance, which is enough for occasional splashing while washing your hands. I’m usually not a stats snob and find 50 meters to be enough in most circumstances. However, a sports watch with 30 meters of water resistance is just… a compromise I wouldn’t make.

There are four dials available at launch, and all of them are very similar. There are four colors, called BLK, WHT, GRN, and BLU, which are fairly obvious, if a little bit cringey names. The black dial is paired with the black case, while the white, green (teal actually) and blue come in stainless steel cases. All of them have a grainy texture, a clear lacquer finish, paired with brushed and polished indexes and hands. Everything is kept very simple with the lack of a seconds hand.

Inside, a bit of a surprising movement — the SW210-1, the manual wound version of the SW200. Even with the removal of the rotor, I didn’t know that these movement could be paired with such thin cases, as more often brands use SW300 movements when slimness is required. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 45 hour power reserve. The movement is also decorated with a skeletonized train bridge, applied rhodium plating, and added brushed and diamond-polished finishes, all visible through the caseback. The watches come on a really thin new bracelets with single-piece links that measure just 2.9mm thick closed with a hidden clasp. There’s also an option to pair it with a rubber strap.

The new Christopher Ward The Twelve 660 is available for order now and deliveries starting in mid-October. Price is set at €1625 on a strap or €1805 on the bracelet for the steel version, while the DLC version is priced at €1955 on the bracelet. See more on the Christopher Ward website.

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Breitling Unveils Two New Chronomat Automatic GMT And Endurance Pro Collections For Each NFL Team

Last year, Breitling introduced a very curious version of their Chronomat B01 42. In fact, it was 32 versions. That’s because they made one for every team in the NFL. They were actually quite understated watches, with very few outright team branding on them, mostly just using the team colors. It was a huge success for the company so it was only expected that they would make another version. But things escalated. Not only has Breitling signed a deal with the NFL to become the official timepiece of the league, not only are they releasing another batch of watches, this time the Chronomat GMT 40 in team colors, they are also adding a more affordable entry into the collection with the Endurance Pro 44 in titanium.

The flagship collection is the Chronomat GMT. Done in stainless steel, the cases measure 40mm wide, 11.77mm thick and have a 47.4mm lug-to-lug. On top are 60 minute bezels and you get 200 meters of water resistance. These watches come with the primary color of the team on the dial and utilizes each club's secondary color for the GMT hand — there’s a 24-hour scale surrounding the dial and a date at 6 o’clock. Inside, you’ll find the automatic COSC-certified B32 movement with a 42-hour power reserve. The watches come on Breitling’s rouleaux stainless steel bracelet with a butterfly clasp. While the original releases were limited to 104 pieces, this new one is unlimited, so go crazy with them. Price is set at $6,600, which is much better than the $9,200 of the original

While the Chronomat GMT NFL watches are very subdued, with their simple colorways, steel construction and lack of team logos, Breitling is also introducing a more expressive version of the NFL watches with the Endurance Pro 44 titanium. The watch keeps everything we know from the basic model, including the 44mm wide and 12.5mm thick titanium case topped with a compass bezel. The dials of these all come in black but have team colors on the pulsometer scale and hands. In the 6 o’clock sub-dial you’ll find the team logos, making for a more overt connection to the NFL. Inside, you’ll find the COSC-certified SuperQuartz caliber 82. The watches come on black rubber straps. The new NFL Endurance Pro 44 titanium is also part of the regular collection and priced at $4,400. See more on the Breitling website.

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The Smaller Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase Now Comes In Blue

The legendary German brand Union Glashütte is on quite a roll. After years of making very teutonic watches that have quite a presence on your wrist, they decided that they will keep making teutonic watches that have quite a presence on your wrist. While manufacturers are probing the small-watch market, many to very little success, Union Glashütte is steadfast in their dimensions. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t slimming down their watches. On the contrary, they made a lot of effort to shrink down their Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase. While not tiny by any stretch, it’s still a step in the right direction, especially considering what you get for a pretty decent price. Now, the smaller Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase gets a two-tone case option and a new and beautiful blue dial.

The original Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase was a chonker of a watch that measured 44mm wide 15.3mm thick. The new version is a bit smaller, but still large, at 42mm wide and 14.8mm thick. It comes with a brushed finish that has a couple of polished surfaces, including the rounded bezel that holds down the sapphire crystal. Despite shrining in size, it hasn’t lost its recognizable screwed case flanks that give the side of the case a bit of character. This new version comes in either an all steel case, or a steel case with a 18k rose gold bezel and gold flanks. Water resistance is still 100 meters.

While the redesigned smaller Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase came in one of three dials — black, white and a cool gray — this new beautiful blue dial has my heart. It has a sloping inner bezel that houses the date ring, Arabic numerals at the cardinal points and a tri-compax setup of sub-dials. At 12 o’clock is the 30-minute chronograph counter with triangular apertures for day and month indications, at 9 o’clock are the running seconds and at 6 o’clock is the moon phase with a gold-coloured moon on a starry blue sky and a 12-hour chronograph counter. All the indices are applied and treated with Super-LumiNova. The hands are nickel-coloured for the hour, minutes, running seconds, and open-tip date hand and blue for the chrono hands and the 24-hour hand. That’s a hell of a lot of information to convey, but the watch doesn’t seem to be overcrowded.

Inside is the automatic calibre UNG-25.S1. It’s based on the legendary ETA 7751 chronograph, but heavily modified by Union Glashütte. Apart from adding the moon phase and pinter date functions, they also decorated the movement with a striped ball-bearing rotor adorned with a logo cut-out, perlage on the main plate and blued screws. You can expect a power reserve of 65 hours. The watch comes on a blue leather strap with crocodile-effect finish closed with a folding clasp.

The new Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase in blue is available now and priced at €3,600 in steel and €7,500 in steel and gold. These, especially in steel, are really nice prices for a very nice watch. See more on the Union Glashütte website.

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Horage Releases The Lensman 2 Global, Their Very Unique Worldtimer-meets-GMT Watch

I love Horage. They are one of those if-you-know-you-know brands. They create incredible movements, including one of the most affordable Swiss-made tourbillons, as well as the very advanced silicon-filled K3 and the wild MicroReg which brings impossibly precise regulation to the masses. But the moment I fell for them was with their Lensman watch, an incredibly strange square and round thing, heavily inspired by photography and with some clever tools on the bezel that will help you calculate your watch settings. Now, they’re using that incredibly cool medium-format-camera inspired case and making it into a very interesting travel watch, one that combines both worldtimer and GMT functions. This is the new Horage Lensman 2 Global.

The case is extremely familiar on this Lensman 2 Global. It’s made out of two materials — an internal rounded anodized aluminum inner shell, protected by a square external Grade 5 titanium cage. The case has pretty interesting proportions, measuring 39mm wide and just 9.98mm thick. The external cage is polished, while the aluminum gets a matte finish. Sitting on top of that square case is a round bezel surrounding a domed crystal that extends all the way to the edges, for maximum views of the dial. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial looks very similar to the photography themed Lensman 2, but offers a brighter shade and a more broader travel functionality. The dial is arranged in two levels — the top one acts as an internal bezel and has a world-time 24 city layout, followed by a 24-hour scale with day/night indication corresponding to the yellow GMT hand. This gives you both a world-time and a GMT functionality, which is not something you see every day. The base of the dial is light blue, with a sunray brushed finish. In the middle of the dial is a sunken dial that tells the local time with a regular handset and applied hour markers.

All of this is powered by the in-house K2 micro-rotor caliber, which has a 24-hour module. The base movement is just 3.6mm thick, which holds some pretty incredible stuff inside. It has a silicon balance spring, anchor, and escape wheel, beating at 3.5Hz, with a good 72 hour power reserve. It’s accurate to -4/+6 seconds per day and COSC certified. This is a shockingly unique movement, offered at a pretty great price. The watch comes on a black rubber strap with a textile-like pattern, closed with a deployant clasp.

The new Horage Lensman 2 Global is available for pre-order right now, with the window closing on September 30th. Deliveries will start in October. There’s a special early bird rate of CHF 4,990, which will go up to CHF 5,450 at retail. This is a stunning looking watch offered at a fantastic price at the early bird pricing. See more on the Horage website (and trust me, you’ll want to see all the photos).

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Glashütte Original Skeletonizes The PanoMaticCalendar In Blue

Glashütte Original is not a brand that’s here to blow your hair back with their radical new releases. They are more a brand that iterates not through years, but rather through decades. Some of their models have been in development for more than 40 years. Others, like the PanoMaticCalendar, have been around for only a couple of years, but are equally as impressive. The PanoMaticCalendar was launched just in 2022 and it already feels like a staple. It was classic GO, but with a truly unique month indicator that spanned a quarter of the dial from 6 to 3 o’clock. Now, Glashütte Original is giving you a look at the insides with the new PanoMaticCalendar Skeleton Blue of Dawn.

While the original PanoMaticCalendar came in a rose gold case, this one gets a much more subdued, but even more luxurious, case made out of platinum. It measures 42mm wide and 12.2mm thick, with brushed and polished finishes. On the side you’ll find a knurled platinum crown and a recessed moonphase corrector, while sapphire crystals sit on top and bottom. Surprisingly, you also get 50 meters of water resistance.

Now, while Glashütte Original calls this a skeletonized watch, it’s more openworked. The dark blue base gets cutouts at strategic places to reveal the insides, but still keeping a lot of the dial. You get off-centre hour & minutes with integrated small seconds on the left side of the dial, with a moonphase display at 2 o’clock and the retrograde month indication between 3 and 6. You get to see part of that Panorama Date complication and its dual-disc setup from the front of the dial and it’s cool.

The movement you partially see from the front, and fully from the back, is the Calibre 92-11, which is the openworked version of the Calibre 92-09 used in the previous version. An in-house automatic, it beats at 4Hz and has a pretty fantastic 100 hour power reserve. It has a double swan-neck regulator and a Double G rotor.

The new Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar Blue of Dawn is limited to 150 pieces and comes on either a blue Louisiana alligator leather strap or a synthetic fabric strap with a platinum folding clasp. Price is set at €45,400. See more on the Glashütte Original 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

• Ruby Tandoh’s New Yorker essay takes readers behind the canvas walls of The Great British Bake Off, exposing anxiety and hidden egos. Writing as both a contestant and a critic, Tandoh layers sharp cultural observation with moments of self-scrutiny, acknowledging her own stumbles in the tent. The result is an astute reflection that will resonate with anyone who has ever obsessed over perfecting a cupcake—or simply found solace in the slow, comforting rhythm of a show that has become a cultural touchstone.

• As Chandler Fritz makes his way to the bucking chute in his grandfather’s boots and a DIY cup, he turns over the forces that have moved him to ride a bull. In his telescopic essay, Fritz moves between Paleolithic cave paintings and gas-station epiphanies, the roots of early North American bull-riding events and a short list of the beef he’s consumed in the days before his fated meeting with Babyface, his steer. “A perversion,” he writes, “is a turn from a previous path to meaning. It is the betrayal of an exact course.” But I’d take a true course over an exact one any day.

• For Switchboard, Celia Aniskovich goes to Hot Dog University at Vienna Beef Headquarters in Chicago to learn about what it takes to run a hot dog cart. There she profiles seven hopefuls from all walks of life who still relish the American dream: running a successful small business.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’ve always liked spicy food and accepted the age old idea that if you want to fight spice in your mouth, you should drink milk. Oh boy, this is a wild video.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk