Citizen Adds Great Dials To The Titanium Tsuyosa, The Zenshin; Raymond Weil Expands Millesime With Two New Chronographs; Bangalore Watch Co. Introduces The Peninsula Professional; A New Hautlence

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Citizen is really kicking ass and taking names lately. I need to get my hands on one of these and see if it’s really that good.

In this issue:

• Citizen Adds More Great Dials To The Titanium Tsuyosa, The Zenshin

• Raymond Weil Expands The Millesime Collection With Two New Chronographs

• The New Peninsula Professional From Bangalore Watch Company Will Take You An Indian Adventure

• Hautlence Introduces The Quite Bold, Quite Expensive, Linear Series 3 Red

👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Adds More Great Dials To The Titanium Tsuyosa, The Zenshin

As Seiko is moving upmarket, Citizen has been very effective at filling out the space left open by the other Japanese giant. Over the past several years, they’ve killed it with the Tsuyosa, their very affordable integrated bracelet sports watch. Last year, they took the model in a new direction by giving it a titanium case and a new nickname — Zenshin. Now, they are releasing the new Zenshin 60 Super Titanium NK5020 series which gets new dial colors and a new movement.

Overall, the new NK5020 series case gets a couple of minor changes, the most obvious of them being the new 12-sided bezel on top. The cases are made out of Citizen’s Super Titanium that gets the Duratect hardening treatment, with satin-brushed and polished finishes, and they measure 40mm wide and 11.25mm thick. I don’t have the exact lug-to-lug measurement for this model, but looking at the other models, it should be somewhere in the 43-44mm range, thanks to near flat lugs. On top is a sapphire crystal, held down by the new bezel, and the crown sits at 3 o’clock, instead of 4 on some Tsuyosa models. Water resistance is 100 meters.

More obvious changes can be seen on the dials, which are all new for this release. Most notably, the watch no longer has a date function. This is a controversial take, but I’ll say: “great”. All four versions have a vertically brushed finish, with a small seconds sub-dial at 4:30. The new colors are light blue, dark blue, copper and green, all with a gradient to a darker shade on the outskirts.

Also new for this NK5020 series is the movement. It’s the same movement that Citizen uses in the Tsuyosa Small Second, the calibre 8322. It beats at 3Hz and has a decent 60 hour power reserve. The watch comes on an integrated titanium bracelet with the same Duratect coating.

The new Citizen Zenshin 60 Super Titanium NK5020 series will go on sale this month at a price of €499. Keep an eye out on the Citizen website, because the watches are not available yet, but will be soon.

2/

Raymond Weil Expands The Millesime Collection With Two New Chronographs

Just a month ago, just ahead of Watches and Wonders, Raymond Weil introduced the nicely updated Freelancer Complete Calendar, en elegant day-date-month-moonphase dress-like watch. But they are not done with updates to their collections for this year. The one that really caught my eye is the update to the Millesime Chronograph collection, building on the relatively new 39mm chronograph introduced last year. This will be quite the hit for the brand.

In terms of specifications, there are a couple of notable changes. First, they shrunk down the case. Sure, only by 0.5mm, but it’s smaller. The new cases measure 39mm wide and 12.9mm thick, which is a great size for a chronograph. On top is a flat bezel surrounding a glassbox-style sapphire crystal and on the side you’ll find a nicely signed crown and piston pushers. The sides of the case are brushed, while the tops are polished. You can choose between a stainless steel case or one with a rose gold PVD coating. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Just like the rest of the Millesime collection, the dials are all abut sectors. The rose gold PVD version gets a black dial with white sub-dials and black markings, while the steel model has an anthracite dial with silver peripheral tracks and sub-dials with red markings that match the tip of the central chronograph seconds hand. Around the periphery is a tachymeter scale, followed by a minutes/seconds track and a ring that holds the applied baton hour markers, along with a crosshair in the centre. The three sub-dials are exactly what you would expect — a 30 minute counter at 3 o’clock, a 12 hour counter at 6 and a running seconds at 9 o’clock. The obelisk-style hands are brushed.

Inside, you’ll find the RW5030 automatic chronograph movement, which is the cam-operated Sellita SW510, with a custom rotor. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 62 hour power reserve. The rose gold version comes on a black calfskin strap, while the steel version can be had on either a camel calfskin strap or a 5-link steel bracelet.

The new Raymond Weil Millesime Chronograph duo is available now as part of the regular collection, priced at €3,725 for the steel version on leather or €3,850 on the bracelet, and €3,895 for the rose gold version. See more on the Raymond Weil website.

3/

The New Peninsula Professional From Bangalore Watch Company Will Take You An Indian Adventure

Being the most populated country in the world, it’s surprising how little a lot of us watch collectors in the west know about Indian watches and watchmaking. It’s an incredibly rich industry and history, one from which some modern watch icons stemmed from, but also one that’s been stigmatized, even given it’s own derogatory term — the Mumbai special — due to some shady practices over the decades. However, recently, a couple of brands have been working to position Indian watchmaking as more relevant in global terms. The story of Indian watchmaking is so interesting I wrote a three-part story on its history and you can read part one here, part two here and part three here. One of the brands that’s been working on opening up Indian watchmaking to the world is Bangalore Watch Company — which prompted me to write the three part series — founded in 2018 by Nirupesh Joshi and his wife Mercy Amalraj. They’ve had some pretty cool releases that pay tribute to the Indian roots, but while also keeping things very contemporary. Their latest release, however, is perhaps their most well thought out watch, quite original, and with some pretty cool details. The new Peninsula Professional is built to explore all the unique Indian natural beauties.

The Peninsula Professional is built to be rugged watch and its size on paper might give off that impression — the stainless steel case measures 44mm wide and 13.75mm thick. However, the numbers don’t tell the whole story. The watch has a pebble shape, with no lugs to speak of, meaning that the length of the watch is an extremely comfortable 44mm. In addition, the watch has a hugely domed sapphire crystal, making the case itself appear much thinner than it might seem judging on stats. Water resistance is 200 meters.

There are four dials to choose from, each of which gives the watch a unique look and reflects a unique part of India’s landscape. The Agumbe gets a rainforests-inspired green dial; the Laccadive has a blue dial dial inspired by India’s coasts; the stark white of the Zanskar model pays homage to the snow-covered peaks of the Himalaya; and there’s a limited edition called Mannar whcih gets a rare black mother-of-pearl dial, paired with a black coated case. You get applied dot hour markers, with a triangle at 12 o’clock and horizontal bars at 3, 6 and 9. Those bars at 6 and 9 have really cool symbols for water and trees on them, that work great with the blue glowing lume. At 6 o’clock is an aperture for a black color disc.

Inside, you’ll find the ubiquitous, reliable and easily servicable Sellita SW200. The automatic movement beats at 4Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. The watches come on fluoroelastomer high-density rubber strap in a number of colors, with a quick release and closed with a steel pin buckle.

The new Bangalore Watch Co. Peninsula Professional is available for purchase now, at a price of €1,150. See more on the Bangalore Watch Co. website.

4/

Hautlence Introduces The Quite Bold, Quite Expensive, Linear Series 3 Red

Just by looking at photos, Hautlence watches might be either one of those Chinese novelty watches that mess with the way they display time and sell for a few hundred euros, or a meticulously crafter work of art that costs as much as a small apartment in my city. They are best known for their TV-shaped watches, as well as excursions into some pretty wild designs (but more on that in a few days). Now, they’re updating their Linear Series for the third time, now with a red dial.

The case of the new Linear Series 3 remains very similar to its predecessors, with the recognizable TV shape. It’s made out of stainless steel and measures 50.8mm wide, 43mm long and 11.9mm thick. Add to that the sapphire crystal, and you get up to a thickness of 12.2mm, way less than you would expect from a watch like this. The case has satin-finished and polished finishes, and a crown with a red rubber insert at 3 o’clock. It keeps the same 100 meter water resistance.

The dial also remains very familiar. The signature vertical hour display on the left side and minutes displayed on a sapphire crystal disc with raised white numerals in Globolight on the right remain largely unchanged. Sitting underneath the minutes is a one-minute flying tourbillon under a blackened, open-worked bridge. The base of the dial is a combination of red and black surfaces, all very modern and technical. The material used for that base is rhodium-plated brass with a vertical satin finish and red Zapon lacquer, while the upper section features a matte red lacquer.

The movement also remains unchanged. The base is the calibre D50, which is a renamed H. Moser & Cie. HMC 804. The Moser movement is expected since both brands share an owner. On top of the Moser movement, you get a custom display module developed with Agenhor. The watch beats at 21,600vph and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a red rubber strap, closed with a pin buckle.

The new Hautlence Linear Series 3 is limited to 28 pieces and priced at CHF 63,000. See more on the Hautlence website.

SPECIAL FEATURE: The Next Chapter — Indian Watches for a Global Generation

I’ve teamed up with the very fine folks over at Bangalore Watch Company to bring you a three-part series on Indian watchmaking, from the British occupation and the invention of the JLC Reverso, through homebrew mass production, the rise of the Mumbai special, all the way to the modern rise of Indian brands.

Today, I’m publishing part three, on how Bangalore Watch Company is ushering a brand new era for the local watch scene. 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

• West Virginia governor Jim Justice seems bound for the US Senate. His secret weapon? A 62-pound English bulldog who might be the best retail politician the state has ever known.

• This is wild. For years, North Korea has been secretly placing young IT workers inside Western companies. With AI, their schemes are now more devious—and effective—than ever.

• It seems like a new fraud comes in a whisky barrel. Small investors in Britain and Ireland have fallen prey to companies selling casks that turn out to be untraceable or nonexistent.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

This is an older video, but it’s a fascinatingly simple explanation of time travel in fiction.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk