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- Citizen Continues Affordable Watch Streak With Urban Military Series; Louis Erard's Made-Up Regulator; MkII Is Back; Urwerk Adds Some Color; And An Arnold & Son Year Of The Snake Perpetual Moon
Citizen Continues Affordable Watch Streak With Urban Military Series; Louis Erard's Made-Up Regulator; MkII Is Back; Urwerk Adds Some Color; And An Arnold & Son Year Of The Snake Perpetual Moon
Louis Erard proves once again that they are kings of collaborations
Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. The whole story of the MkII just made my day. I love it when brands put so much thought into the context of their watches. And I’ll take this chance to say Happy New year for all of my readers that are celebrating the Lunar New Year!
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In this issue:
Citizen Asserts Dominance Over The Budget Watch Category Once Again With Urban Military NJ0190 Series
Louis Erard Works With Swiss Artist Sylvie Fleury For A Makeup Compact Inspired Regulator
Mk II Is Back With The Fulcrum 39, Their Vision Of A The Perfect 1970s Military Tool Watch
Urwerk Adds (A Little Bit Of) Color To The UR-100 Series With The UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green
Arnold & Son Honours The Chinese Lunar New Year With A Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold Year of the Snake
👂What’s new
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Citizen Asserts Dominance Over The Budget Watch Category Once Again With Urban Military NJ0190 Series

Even the cheapest of Seiko models have greatly appreciated in price over the last few years. They’re not necessarily prohibitively expensive, but we’ve all lived in a world where you could get a bunch of Seiko 5 models at $100, and even more under $300. Those days are slowly melting away. But waiting to fill the void is Citizen, which has been killing it in the affordable space. The Tsuyosa range has released surprise after surprise, mostly under $300. Now, they’re introducing a new military-inspired collection, the Urban Military NJ0190 Series, which combines great looks, an automatic movement and great price.
The dimensions sound really great. The stainless steel case measures 40mm wide, 12mm thick and with a 46.5mm lug-to-lug. While they do sound great, a photo of the profile from the Citizen website seems to indicate that it could stand a bit tall on the wrist, but nothing horrible. The case is brushed with polished accents and on the side you’ll get an oversized polished diamond-shaped crown, as you would expect on a pilot’s watch which this is emulating. The crystal on top is, unfortunately, mineral, and extends all the way to the edge of the case with almost no bezel to speak of. Water resistance is 100 meters.
There are three colors to choose from on the dial — silver, black or a really nice dark green. All of them have a brushed finish, with a deep rehaut on the edge that holds a 60 minute scale. Outside of that is a slightly curious fixed bezel that looks like a slide rule But being fixed means it isn’t exactly a slide rule. Instead it’s a 60-second scale. Slightly useless, but looks nice. The pencil-style hands are contrasted to the color of the dial and there are 12 Arabic applied humerals all around the dials. At 3 o’clock is a framed date aperture.
Inside is the Citizen Calibre 8210-C0A automatic movement which beats at 3Hz and has a 40 hour power reserve. You can see the movement through the transparent caseback, although I’m not sure why you would want to as this is one of the more mass-made movements on the market with zero decorations. The watches come on a matching brushed stainless steel bracelet, closed by a folding clasp with three spots of micro-adjustment.
The new Citizen Urban Military NJ0190 Series is available right now and priced at a pretty fantastic €229. You can see the green one here, silver one here and the black one here.
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Louis Erard Works With Swiss Artist Sylvie Fleury For A Makeup Compact Inspired Regulator

I’ve said ti many, many times that Louis Erard’s strategy to use its Regulator model as a perfect canvas for collaborations with artists and watchmakers. It’s really proven to be a huge success for the brand, creating some increasingly strange watches, as well as bringing watches from the likes of Konstantin Chaykin to the masses. Their latest collaboration is with Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury who is best known for her work that explores the consumerism of fashion and luxury commodities. She does this by creating acrylic paintings of makeup compacts from well-known brands. For their collaboration, Fleury transports her style to a black enamel dial with shades of pink. Very cool.
The case of this watch is not just familiar from previous models, it’s also super simple. Made out of stainless steel, it measures 39mm wide, 12.82mm thick and has short lugs for a 45.9mm lug-to-lug. The case is fully polished with a minimalist fixed bezel on top that surrounds the domed sapphire crystal. But more importantly, the case has a black PVD coating that makes the case look very much like a makeup compact. Water resistance is 50 meters.
Then, there’s the dial, which has been stripped of any unnecessary decorations. The base of the dial is done in black lacquer, with an almost invisible Louis Erard logo and name of the artist at 3 and 9 o’clock. At 12 is the a domed coral-colored hour sub-dial, at 6 is a matte magenta seconds sub dial. All of the hands are lacquered to match the respective bases, including the central minutes hand which is lacquered black.
Inside, no surprises — it’s the Sellita SW266-1 élaboré-grade automatic movement, which has the regulator setup and Louis Erard gives it a openworked rotor that’s visible through the black caseback crystal. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black calfskin strap.
The new Regulator Louis Erard x Sylvie Fleury Palette of Shadows is limited to 178 pieces and priced at CHF 3,900, without tax. The watch goes on sale tomorrow, January 30th at 2PM CET. See more on the Louis Erard website.
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Mk II Is Back With The Fulcrum 39, Their Vision Of A The Perfect 1970s Military Tool Watch

MkII Watches, for those out of the loop, is one of the more important watch brands in the independent/micro scene. Founded way back in 2002 in Pennsylvania by Bill Yao, the company started out as a Seiko customization outfit before specializing in making their own vintage-military-inspired pieces that very quickly became iconic watches. These were homages to vintage Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Submariners and Omega Seamaster 300s, adored both for their accessibility and Bill Yao’s enthusiasm. Since then, Yao has acquired the name Tornek Rayville and has since revived the brand and now, after a bit of waiting, we are getting a new MkII. This is the new Fulcrum 39, MkII Watches vision of the perfect tool watch from a 1970s , a sort of civilian version of a Tornek-Rayville, if the United States continued to design, develop, and issue watches from Tornek-Rayville.
A lot about this watch is just right. The 316L stainless steel has a bead-blasted finish, which gives it a very unique look. It measures 39.5mm wide, 14mm thick, with a 47mm lug-to-lug. The chamfered lugs are 20mm wide and are drilled, as you would expect from a watch like this. On top is a uni-directional 120-click bezel with a really pretty matte anodized aluminum insert that can be had with either a 12 hour or 60 minute scales. The bezel surrounds a double domed crystal with an AR coat on the interior. Water resistance is 200 meters.
The dial matches the matte black of the bezel inserts and features large lumed indices at the cardinal positions and smaller plots at every five minutes. You get sword hands, of course, with plenty of lume inside. There’s a date window at the awkward 4:30 position, but no watch can be perfect, right? Oh, wait… They can, because you can also opt for a no-date version.
Inside, you’ll have a choice of the Miyota 9015 or 90S5, depending on whether you opt for the date or no-date versions. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. MkII says they time the movements in three positions, but don’t give any numbers for accuracy. The watch can be had on a bracelet, rubber strap, or a nylon NATO-style strap. The bracelet is particularly interesting as it’s equipped with the Nodex quick-adjustment clasp from Nodus.
The MkII Fulcrum 39 goes on sale on January 31st at 4PM CET. MkII and Bill Yao are known for their attention to detail, so it’s very cool to see that the watches come with a 32 page zine that tells the fictional story of the men who continued to serve in the military in the fragile post-Vietnam years and an exploration of how the Fulcrum 39 might have been adopted for use in that world. It’s a very cool addition, as you can follow along as members of the 39th Special Forces Detachment, or Det-A, put the watch into use on training missions from Berlin to New York and back again. Price is set at $995. You can see more on the MkII Watches website.
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Urwerk Adds (A Little Bit Of) Color To The UR-100 Series With The UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green

For years, the Urwerk UR-100 series has been a very monochromatic affair, with only grey and black hues. However, over the past several years, we’ve started getting more color from the brand, which can only be a good thing. OK; to be fair, it’s not Farer-colorful, but the way they use color is very interesting. This is the new UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green.
The watch comes in a sandblasted and shot-blasted titanium case. It measures 41mm wide, 14mm thick and it has a 49.7mm lug-to-lug. Just like all the other UR-100 watches, it features a recessed crown at 12 o’clock. And like other UR-100 watches, it has a hugely domed sapphire crystal that allows the time-indicating mechanism to protrude from the case. Water resistance is 30 meters.
It’s that time-indicating mechanism that makes up the majority of the dial, as it rotates to show the time. The hours are indicated on one of the three satellite gears which also point to a 120-degree track at the bottom of the dial which serves as the minute track. When the minute module reaches the green-marked “60,” it snaps back to align with the next hour satellite. There’s a flange marked “ROTAT” displays Earth’s rotational distance travelled, while the right side of the flange, marked “REVOL,” references the 35,742 km orbital distance Earth travels. All of this has a very metallic ash green colorway to it.
All of this is powered by the automatic calibre 12.02, which is a Vaucher base with a module on top. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. It also features a propeller-like Windfänger airscrew to regulate winding by minimising shocks and reduction of wear. The watch comes on a case-matching titanium bracelet.
The new Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green is priced at CHF 58,000, without tax. See more on the Urwerk website.
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Arnold & Son Honours The Chinese Lunar New Year With A Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold Year of the Snake

Today, we are welcoming the new Lunar New Year, which will be the Year of the Snake. For months now watchmakers have been releasing pieces that pay homage to the new year and this one will be our last. Arnold & Son is using its wonderful Perpetual Moon model to say hello to the Year of the Snake, while honoring the moon’s role in setting the Chinese calendar.
The watch comes in a very familiar, very beautiful case that measure 41.5mm wide and 11.67mm thick. Here, it is made out of red gold and is fully polished, as one would expect. On top is a dramatic domed sapphire crystal that gives a wonderful view of the entire dial. Not that it matters, but water resistance is 30 meters.
Speaking of that dial, it’s incredible. It has a sparkling aventurine base that has the standard 29mm aperture at noon for the moonphase. The Moon inside is made out of mother-of-pearl, measures 11.2mm wide and is hand carved and hand painted not just with Super-LumiNova, but also with shadows to make the Moon more realistic. Around it are hand-painted Ursa Major and Cassiopeia constellations.
Underneat the huge aperture is a hand-engraved 18k rose gold snake, with an extremely realistic depiction of the animal. It coils around the branches of a Ginko Biloba tree with a pagoda in the background. The leaves on the tree are hand painted with gold powder and the pagoda is overlaid with Super-LumiNova.
Inside, you’ll find the manual wind A&S1512 calibre which has double barrels for 90 hours of power reserve. The moonphase indicator is accurate to 122 years and to make it easier to set, there’s a second moon phase indicator with a precise scale on the caseback making it easier to hit the exact phase. The movement is decorated with chamfered bridges and Côtes de Genève, snailed wheels, perlage on the mainplate, and blued chamfered screws with polished heads. The watch comes on a blue alligator strap with a red alligator lining.
Only eight pieces of the Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 41.5 Year of the Snake will be made and price is set at CHF 57,200. See more on the Arnold & Son website.
⚙️Watch Worthy
A selection of reviews and first looks from around the web
From the review: The hands are what, arguably, makes this watch stand out – the hour hand resembles a rocket, the seconds hand a re-entry capsule and the minute hand, that of a booster, all in keeping with the ‘orbit’ aspect of the brand name. The tip of the seconds hand’s arrow is either red or white (depending on the dial colour chosen).
⏲️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
One British family produced two legendary climbers whose summitted mountains in the Alps and the Himalayas. This is their story.
The cheesemaking world in the US is one of tradition and convention, built and largely run by an older generation. But a growing wave of 20-something cheesemakers and producers is breathing life—and creativity and innovation—into the industry. For Taste, Mehr Singh introduces us to some of these cheese creators (from California and Vermont, from Cleveland to Madison) who are experimenting with new flavors, looking to implement more ethical and sustainable processes, and hoping to make cheesemaking (and cheese tasting) a more approachable and inclusive space, particularly for women and queer folks. Cheese lovers will obviously enjoy this read.
Easily transported and highly coveted by plant collectors, ornamental succulents are now being poached across South Africa’s Northern Cape. Demand for these east Asian status symbols has skyrocketed, to the point where 45 percent of known species are on the brink of extinction, destroying fragile interdependencies between plants, and causing ecological disaster. The situation has become so dire that scientists are refusing to honor the standard practice of naming new species by their discovery location—all to evade thieves.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
My kid is sick, my dog is sick and I’m pretty sure that the wife is sick of me. So let’s listen to some music, eh? To quote the top ranked comment on this video: “Lead singer walked out of 1958, rest of the band from 1974. Somehow it all works.” This is the first time I have heard of the Red Clay Strays, but they’re not bad at all.
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Thanks for reading,
Vuk
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