Citizen Adds Blue And Purple Dials To Tsuyosa 37; Norqain Debuts Autumn Watch; Louis Erard Teams Up With Vianney Halter; A New Louis Moinet; The Wild Things Artisans de Genève Can Do To A Rolex

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s been a rough weekend and an even worse start of the week, so it’s a short intro.

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In this issue

• Citizen Adds Blue And Purple Dials To The Super Popular Tsuyosa 37 Collection

• Norqain Debuts Their Autumn Watch The, Freedom 60 43mm Chrono Off-White

• Louis Erard Teams Up With Vianney Halter Once Again For A Monochromatic Regulateur

• The New Louis Moinet 1806 Chronomètre d’Observatoire Marries Titanium With Chronometric Heritage

• The New Artisans de Genève Absolute Ruby Is As Good A Custom Rolex Can Get

• SPECIAL FEATURE: The Serica 1174 Parade: Minimalism, Revival, and the New Shape of Watch Authenticity

👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Adds Blue And Purple Dials To The Super Popular Tsuyosa 37 Collection

Citizen hit it on the head when they released the Tsuyosa collection. With great proportions, a decent movement and a price that won’t scare the majority of people away, they sold like hotcakes. But what do you do with a collection that’s a runaway hit? If you’re Citizen, you do exactly what needs to be done, what the people are asking for. You take your best selling Tsuyosa collection and shrink it down from 40mm to 37mm. This is exactly what they did in February, when Citizen introduced the Citizen Tsuyosa 37mm collection in three colors — dark green, pastel pink and ice blue. Now, not even four months later, they are adding two more colors which are just fantastic — blue and purple.

While the original Tsuyosa collection, which has been around since 2022, sounds like a large watch, it actually wasn’t. Mostly due to the fact that it had a surprisingly short lug-to-lug thanks to an integrated bracelet. It measured just 45mm on a 40mm width. The compact dimensions continue on the smaller version. Still made out of stainless steel, it measures 37mm wide and 11.5mm thick, with a great lug-to-lug of 43mm. Apart from the size, a lot remains the same. You still have the barrel shape, flat sapphire crystal on top, a mineral crystal out back and a recessed crown at 4 o’clock. Water resistance is a bit controversial at 50 meters, but will do fine.

The two new dials both get sunray brushed surfaces and the colors are really great, both a darker share of blue and purple. The setup of the dials remains the same as well — you get a brushed finish, applied markers and hands filled with lume. There’s also a date aperture at 3 o’clock with a cyclops above it.

Inside is the Citizen Calibre 8210 automatic movement which beats at 3Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. It has an accuracy of -20/+40 per day, but like most of these more affordable movements, it performs much better in real life. The watch comes on a three-link tapering stainless steel bracelet that’s closed by a folding clasp with push-button release. Adjustment is possible on the clasp, but it requires a tool.

The new Citizen Tsuyosa 37mm keeps the same price, which is actually a bit controversial. Not for how high it is, because it really isn’t, but rather for its discrepancy between currencies. In Euro, expect to pay €299, while in the US the price is set at $450. See more on the Citizen website.

2/

Norqain Debuts Their Autumn Watch The, Freedom 60 43mm Chrono Off-White

Norqain is, perhaps, best known for their hardcore sports watches capable of pretty much anything. But I prefer their simpler Freedom 60 series that is very much inspired by chronographs from the 1960s. Just before the summer, they did a very interesting Enjoy Life series that was a really nice summer watch. Norqain wasn’t the first one to ever make a summer watch. However, they might be one of the rare ones that make an autumn watch. This is the new Freedom 60 43mm Chrono Off-White.

The watch comes in a stainless steel case, the larger of the Freedom 60 lines. It measures 43mm wide, a substantial 15mm thick, with a 53.1mm lug-to-lug. That’s a pretty large watch. On top is a box-style sapphire crystal, out back is a flat sapphire and on the left side of the case is the traditional Norqain plaque. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial has the same setup as the rest of the Freedom 60 line, but here in a panda setup with a twist. The base of the dial has an off-white finish, while the sub-dials at 3,6 and 9 o’clock, as well as the peripheral tachymeter scale, retain a black background. The Norqain logo, hour markers and hands are all rendered in red gold, and there’s a date aperture at 4:30.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre N19 automatic chronograph, which is actually the Sellita SW510a. It beats at 4Hz and has a 62 hour power reserve. The base Sellita has a Norqain oscillating weight. The watch comes on one of three straps — a H-link stainless steel bracelet, a black perlon rubber or a brown Alcantara strap.

The new Norqain Freedom 60 43mm Off-White is limited to 300 pieces, priced at €4,290 on the Alcantara, €4,450 on the perlon strap, and €4,550 on the steel bracelet. See more on the Norqain website.

3/

Louis Erard Teams Up With Vianney Halter Once Again For A Monochromatic Regulateur

Last year, Louis Erard — the kings of collaborations that bring haute horology design elements to the masses — teamed up with famed watchmaker Vianney Halter for their second collaboration, the Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Vianney Halter Chapter II. It was a very cool duo of steampunk-inspired watches that sold for not much money. Now, they’re back with another collaboration, this one also called the Chapter II, because it’s a new color for a familiar watch.

The Halter influence starts right away with the case, something other designers have left untouched while focusing on the dial. This stainless steel case measures 43mm wide and 10.95mm thick, with a 49.6mm lug-to-lug. It’s a large watch, but it’s obviously here to make a statement, obvious with its stepped bezel that features 12 polished red-gilt 5N rivets. You’ll also notice that the crown sits a bit crooked, not at 3, but rather at 2 o’clock. That’s because the movement has been slightly tilted from its regular position.

And there’s good reason to tilt the movement. By doing that, it gives the 12, centre and 6 o’clock positions of the time telling indicators a slightly different layout that goes from 11 to 5 o’clock. That, in addition with the different sizes of the sub-dials, gives the dial an extremely different look, almost as if it uses a custom developed movement. While the previous two editions came in red gold and rhodium colorways, This new one comes in an all silver colorway, with a vertical satin-brushed finish on the base, paired with a brushed chapter ring on the periphery with two plaques that hold the Louis Erard and Vianney Halter names, as well as two applied brushed rings that serve as sub-dial borders with numeral tracks for the hours and seconds. The watch comes with heat-blued steel hands.

Only, there’s a bit more to the design of the dial. Halter and Emanuel Emch from Louis Erard are going on a world tour with the watch and each location will get a limited edition of different designs. 25 pieces with a rhodium seconds hand and a caseback engraving that reads Longue vie et prospérité will be available on September 23 in Takamatsu, Japan. 18 pieces with an anthracite seconds hand and Live long and prosper engraving will be brought to Bangkok, Thailand on September 24. A purple seconds hand will be sold in Hong Kong with an engraving of “Live long and prosper“ in Chinese, limited to 25 pieces on September 26. Last, there’s the 25 pieces of the red gilded seconds hand that will appear in Singapore on September 30.

With these collaborations, Louis Erard throws everything into the design, while keeping the internals simple and affordable. That’s why you get the workhorse Sellita SW266 which beats at 4Hz with a 38 hour power reserve. The watches come on 22mm wide dark blue grained calf leather straps closed with a polished stainless steel pin buckle.

The new Régulateur Louis Erard x Vianney Halter Chapter II goes on sale tomorrow, limited to 178 pieces. Price is set at CHF 4,500, without taxes. See more on the Louis Erard website.

4/

The New Louis Moinet 1806 Chronomètre d’Observatoire Marries Titanium With Chronometric Heritage

Another brand that I had my eyes opened to at Geneva Watch Days was Louis Moinet. I knew of them, of course, but never paid as much attention to them as I should. In Geneva, the Time to Race model dropped my jaw. But I was there to see their new model, another one based on their history. The first watch based on their history came out earlier this year, called the 1816. It was named after the year that Louis Moinet constructed the Moinet Compteur de Tierces, a precursor of the modern chronograph used to time the passage of stars. Now, they’re looking at another year in the 19th century for inspiration. The new watch is called the 1806 Chronomètre d’Observatoire, named after the year in which Louis Moinet created a clock for Napoleon Bonaparte. Like the 1816, the 1806 marries some cool new materials with a lot of history.

Louis Moinet loves using grade 5 titanium, and the 1806 Chronomètre d’Observatoire is no different. It does need it, however, because this is a thick boy. The case measures 40.6mm wide, which is decent, but it’s also 15.15mm thick, and the profile — a Directoire-style semi-bassine — doesn’t help at all. It stands quite proud of the wrist, but it’s not a difficult wear due to the lightness of the material. The sides have the brand’s signature double gadroon, and the entire thing gets satin brushed and polished surfaces. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is rhodium plated and despite its seemingly simple look, it’s made out of 35 pieces. Around the periphery you’ll find a satin brushed flange with 12 nickel cabochons and four blued screws, followed by a bead blasted central dial plate that holds a small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock with a polished circular frame. Time is indicated with blued steel hands with lumed tips.

Inside, you’ll find the automatic calibre LM1806 which beats at 4Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. Decorations include Geneva stripes, perlage, and diamond-cut bevelling. The movement is certified by the Geneva Astronomical Observatory that it underwent 15 days of rigorous trials in multiple positions and temperatures to guarantee accuracy and reliability. The watch comes on a titanium bracelet with single links that look like bridges.

The new Louis Moinet 1806 Chronomètre d’Observatoire is available for order now, priced at CHF 18,900, without tax. See more on the Louis Moinet website.

 5/

The New Artisans de Genève Absolute Ruby Is As Good A Custom Rolex Can Get

Remember how I told you that Micromilspec had one of the best showrooms at the entire Geneva Watch Days. At a show that had brands hosted in hotel rooms at the Beau Rivage, pretty much all the showrooms ended up looking the same. To get to Micromilspec you had to walk down a pitch black hallway, only to enter an equally black room, called the Briefing Room, with strategic corner lighting and dramatic looks. That was cool. But even cooler was the Artisans de Genève room. Every single person who attended a meeting on the fifth floor of the Beau Rivage asked the same question: what the hell is going on in that room. And the trick was super simple. While every other brand had an open door, Artisans de Genève closed theirs, put a velvet rope in front and two women in lab coats with clipboards. There wasn’t a single person that walked by that didn’t ask what was going on in there. And when you think about it, that was the perfect for a brand that the general public doesn’t really know much about.

I’ll also say that I wasn’t particularly interested in Artisans de Genève. I knew they are not a watch producer, but rather a watch customizer. And what a customizer. They take some of the most expensive watches in the world and shape them to pretty much any wish and whim of their customers. That’s not to say that they just listen blindly to requests. I spoke to the owner John Isaac in Geneva and he explained the very intricate the process the watches undergo. And I instantly went from uninterested to a huge fan. I’ll tell the full story of Artisans de Genève soon because without it you won’t really believe me when I say that they are a super cool brand. Until then, their creations speak for themselves. Like this brand new Absolute Ruby.

Obviously, it’s based on a Rolex Daytona. It’s the white gold 116509 variant, purchased by the client and sent over to Artisans de Genève where it undergoes an incredible transformation. The most obvious change you’ll instantly see is the incredible dial. It’s a first for AdG, a dial made fully out of red sapphire that took them two years to develop and achieve the exact same color as the rubies on the bezel. But that bezel was a task onto itself. It’s set with 36 perfectly matched, loupe-clean natural rubies, consistent in color saturation and clarity, with no inclusions visible to the naked eye. This level of clarity is extremely rare for rubies, as they almost always contain inclusions. The case is invisibly set with 52 diamonds and they remake the hands in white gold.

Artisans de Genève also takes apart the watch to its smallest components. While disassembled, they also skeletonize, by hand, the entire Caliber 4130. Each component is meticulously cut, beveled and polished to reveal the movement in its purest form. The challenge is to make the mechanism’s structure lighter yet equally reliable. The rotor is machined out of white gold and features a red enamel “X”, symbolizing eternity.

The Artisans de Genève Absolute Ruby is not for everyone. Which makes sense, as it was made for one person, according to their wishes. But there’s no denying the amount of artisanal work that goes into it. However, so much work by hand comes at a price. For this, it’s $550,000. See more on the Artisans de Genève website.

SPECIAL FEATURE: The Serica 1174 Parade: Minimalism, Revival, and the New Shape of Watch Authenticity

On a crisp Saturday morning at a Paris café, sunlight dances across marble tabletops and green Parisian chairs, painting angular highlights on silver cutlery and fine ceramic mugs. Amid the café’s mix of locals and visitors, a slender wrist emerges from the sleeve of a sand-colored linen blazer — just as a barista sets down a flat white with a practiced flourish. What catches the eye, momentarily pulling it from the bustle and hum, is not a screen or an oversized brand’s logo, but a subtle glint — the Serica 1174 Parade.

The watch itself doesn’t beg attention. Its elliptical, stadium-shaped case feels architectural, echoes of brutalist curves softened into something unexpectedly inviting. There’s no loud logo, no ticking seconds hand to urge one onward — just two elegant, polished leaf-shaped hands that point out the time with restraint. This scene is not pure fantasy; it is precisely the kind of encounter the Serica 1174 Parade was built to create. But how did we get to this moment, and why does this object — partly ancient, partly futuristic, wholly contemporary — carry such meaning? The answer is a journey through minimalism, retro revivalism, and the tangled search for authenticity in a distracted age.

Minimalism, in both art and lifestyle, is less a style than a philosophy — a cultivated response to excess and clutter, born of twentieth-century anxieties and post-war optimism. The roots reach deep: from Kasimir Malevich’s 1915 Black Square — an audacious experiment in elimination — to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s crisp assertion, “less is more,” minimalism reimagines beauty as clarity, paring away until only the necessary remains.

In the visual arts of the 1950s and 60s, pioneers like Donald Judd and Frank Stella rejected noisy abstraction for what Judd called “the thing as a whole, its quality whole, is what is interesting.” Stella, too, distilled his practice to the razor-edged maxim: “What you see is what you see”. Agnes Martin, chasing the infinite within the line, claimed, “Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection”. Such artistic asceticism found parallels in architecture (van der Rohe’s glass-and-steel rectangles), design, and ultimately, the modern obsession with curating our material lives.

This ethic has migrated, in recent years, from gallery and boutique into the daily rituals of global consumers weary of too-muchness. Marie Kondo’s KonMari method — “keep only those things that speak to your heart” — brings the sensibility of the white cube into the Chaotic Closet, an answer to what Kyle Chayka calls “addiction to accumulation”. Minimalism today is both response to and symptom of a world drowning in options; it is a rejection of “the passion to possess,” as Joshua Becker put it; an assertion that “focus on what’s important” creates “freedom, fulfillment, and happiness”.

This influence on watch design is profound. Watches, once sites of mechanical bravura and at time maximalist ornament, are increasingly canvases for minimalist simplicity. The Serica Parade, with its interestingnshape, unobtrusive dial, and the almost defiant absence of a seconds hand, epitomizes this philosophy — what one reviewer called “a gentler hour, freed from the constant reminder of time passing and never stopping”.

But minimalism is only half the modern mood. If some crave less, many are drawn to the comforts of before. Retro revival culture, now a driving force in fashion, music, and design, is not simply a longing for kitsch. It is a profound, commercially potent nostalgia. In this era, the past becomes not just a reference but a product — what analysts term “emotional currency”. Why? Because as digital everything remixes and accelerates, the known and vetted feels like psychic shelter.

The Netflix hit Stranger Things was not just entertainment; it drove an “80s-era phenomenon” so strong that lumberjack shirts and vintage jackets exploded in popularity. “Nostalgia marketing has become a billion-dollar industry,” one researcher observed, “because nostalgic feelings increase consumers’ willingness to spend”. Pokémon Go’s 2016 sensation was more than gameplay — it was time-travel to childhood for millions. As marketing analysts noted, “Recognizing that nostalgia is the way to any millennial’s heart, the company is taking full advantage”.

Read the rest of this essay here.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS: Your Next Watch, Week 53: A Groovy Hamilton; An Expensive Blancpain; A more Affordable Blancpain; And An Electric LIP

We continue with our exploration of watches we shouldn't spend our money on, but most likely will. 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

• With his dark, dazzling verse and glorious taste for provocation, Christopher Marlowe electrified the London stage—and scandalized his era—with plays gleefully steeped in violence, heresy, and taboo. Across centuries, his life and works remain a magnet for debate and reinvention, as biographers, critics, and fans circle the enigma of genius, audacity, and burning literary ambition.

• Netflix’s The Electric State—an extravagant $320 million sci-fi epic from the Russo brothers—epitomizes the rise of the “algorithm movie.” With its familiar visual trappings and algorithm-friendly storytelling, the film debuted big before fading fast, reflecting how streaming data and mass-appeal formulas have all but replaced creative daring in today’s blockbuster ecosystem.

• This story is about a New Zealand soldier who was caught in an elaborate sting operation attempting to spy for a foreign power. Despite his far-right affiliations and obsession with nationalist groups, his espionage acts were thwarted by authorities. His naive actions exposed serious security breaches, yet he remains a complex figure, embodying disconnects between ideology and reality in modern extremism.

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One video you have to watch today

Jon Stewart really is the most important jester in history. This was so perfectly executed.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk