Citizen Introduces Colorful Tsuyosa Shore; The Basket-Weave Dial Mk2 F77 Nivada; Mr Jones Is Back; Ressence Drops Jaws With Incredible Type 9 IKE; Chronoswiss Looks To The Skies For New Watches

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I don’t know why, but I just had a feeling I should check when the first issue of this newsletter came out. Well, it turns out that today is the third anniversary of the launch of It's About Time. Happy birthday to us!

In this issue

• Citizen Introduces The Colorful Tsuyosa Shore With A Rotating Bezel

• The Mk2 F77 Nivada Grenchen Gets Their Signature Basket-Weave Dials

• Mr Jones Is Back With A Limited Edition Steampunk-Themed Monster Melter 1904

• Ressence Drops Jaws With The Incredible Dial On The New Type 9 IKE

• Chronoswiss Looks To The Skies For Two New Watches, The Lunar Chronograph Aurora And Space Timer Gravity

• IT’S ABOUT TIME PRESENTS THE TRTS PODCAST: Talking French Luxury And Manufacture Movements With Hugues Souparis, CEO Of Pequignet

👂What’s new

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Citizen Introduces The Colorful Tsuyosa Shore With A Rotating Bezel

Citizen has been quite successful in filling the void left by Seiko in the lower end of the price market. While Seiko has been going up in prices, Citizen has been killing it with their accessible sporty Tsuyosa collection. However, in their pursuit of lower prices, Citizen might have cut too many corners. The Tsuyosa has just 50 meters of water resistance and no rotating bezel. Now, ahead of the summer, Citizen is fixing those issues with the new Citizen Tsuyosa Shore collection.

There are a couple of things that remain the same, like the barrel shaped case, integrated bracelet, recessed crown at 4 o’clock, sapphire crystal on top with a cyclops over the date, brushed finish with polished facets and the 40mm width. The watch grows in thickness a bit to 12.5mm, but should be wearable with the relatively short lug-to-lug. On top are new unidirectional rotating bezels with a 60-minute scale on a metal insert available in four colors, matching the dial colors. Water resistance is now a much more respectable 100 meters.

The dials remain largely the same, with a sunray brushed finish, applied hour markers and lumed hands. The only writing on the dial is Citizen at 12 o’clock and Automatic at 6 o’clock. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture. There are four color combinations available. A navy blue and turquoise versions are paired with all steel cases and bezels, with matching inserts, while a burgundy red is paired with a two tone bezel. The moss green dial and bezel are paired with an all gold colored case.

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 watches come on steel bracelets closed with a folding clasp.

The new Citizen Tsuyosa Shore collection should be on sale everywhere now, priced at €329 for the steel case versions, €349 for the two tone and €359 for the all gold case. See more on the Citizen website.

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The Mk2 F77 Nivada Grenchen Gets Their Signature Basket-Weave Dials

Almost a year ago, Nivada Grenchen updated their F77, a remake of their integrated-bracelet sports watch that came out first in the late 1970s with the Mark II. It launched in a steel and gold plated case, with a black onyx dial. Since then we’ve seen the MkII in a couple of variations of cases and dials, but we haven’t seen them with the iconic basket-weave dials that the first F77 did so well. Well, alongside the stone dial versions they just launched, we got a quartet of basket-weave dials.

The quartet is unchanged on the outside, which is the standard second generation F77 with more streamlined and reworked for a better wearing experience, thanks to the angled lugs. The case here is made out of stainless, and it measures 38mm wide, 12.2mm thick, with a 46.2mm lug-to-lug. The case has brushed finishes with polished details and on top is a double-domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is as classic as can get, reaching back to the 1970s, with a basket weave texture. They come in four colors — grey, white, blue and black, which has white lume. The dials are paired with baton hands and silver applied indexes with lume inside them.

Inside the watches is the automatic Soprod P024 which is an alternative to the very familiar ETA 2824-2. It operates at 28,800vph, and has a 38-hour power reserve. The watches can be had on one of three strap options — an integrated stainless steel three-link bracelet, a black canvas strap that has a velcro closure or a black rubber strap.

The new Nivada Grenchen F77 watches are on sale right now, priced at €1,220 on the rubber and canvas straps, and €1,420 on the bracelet. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

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Mr Jones Is Back With A Limited Edition Steampunk-Themed Monster Melter 1904

OK, so by now we know that Mr Jones are the absolute masters at creating what can only be described as art watches. Watches that don’t necessarily do a good job at telling the time, but are incredibly beautiful, while keeping costs funny low. And we haven’t seen them since December. Good news — they’re back. Their latest release is called the Monster Melter 1904, designed by British artist Onorio D’Epiro, depicting a Steampunk-like scene of an epic battle between man and beast.

The watch uses one of Mr Jones’ new cases, which is a more substantial one than the previous one with the spindly lugs. This new case is much more traditional, with filled out lugs and made out of stainless steel. It measures 37mm wide and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. has a 50 meter water resistance. Inside is a single jewel quartz movement. The watch is mounted on a 18mm wide strap, in this case a brown leather.

If the name Monster Melter 1904 sounds familiar, that's because the same artist designed the cult Monster Melter 3000, which features an alien monster fighting an astronaut. This new dial has a web for a background, on which the alien is replaced by a chrome and copper colored spider, fighting a dude that seems to be dressed in steampunk-like attire.

To read the time, look for the position of the adventurer, who marks the minutes. The spider’s red, severed claw points to the hour.

The Mr Jones Monster Melter 1904 went on sale at 8AM GMT today, February 27th, with an order window open for just 12 hours, which means it closes at 8PM GMT. Price is set at £225. See more on the Mr Jones website.

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Ressence Drops Jaws With The Incredible Dial On The New Type 9 IKE

Regular readers of the newsletter know that Ressence is my all time favorite watch brand, without a doubt. I am deeply in love with both their designs and their technical achievements. And while I will forever be deeply in love with the oil-filled Type 3 — and will own it one day — I also feel weak in the knees when it comes to their more modern creations. The sand dial they made with Seddiki, or the canvas dials they made, are some of the coolest watches you could buy. However, this new Type 9 made with Japanese artist Terumasa Ikeda is just beyond words. This is the spectacular new Ressence Type 9 IKE.

The case, technically, doesn’t change much. You still get the sleek pebble-like shape that measures 39mm wide and 11mm thick. It’s made out of grade 5 titanium, with a black DLC finish. On top is a domed sapphire crystal and the lugs are super short. Out back is the Ressence special caseback that controls the entire watch, including winding and setting the time. The watch weighs only 39grams, including the strap, but there’s no water resistance, it’s only splash-resistant at 10 meters.

Ikeda is a contemporary Japanese lacquer artist known for using traditional techniques of raden (mother-of-pearl inlay) and urushi (lacquer) to create hyper-futuristic art. And that’s exactly what he did with this dial. The base is made up of layers of black laquer, with incredible mother-of-pearl strips cut and curved to match the curvature of the dial. The strips are also treated to glow in the dark and come in a bunch of different colors, creating an incredible effect, as the entire dial rotates and the nacre travels around it. Like other Type 9 dials, a domed dial rotates fully to indicate the time on the bezel with a long teardrop painted hand. The dial has a hour sub-dial which also rotates to point to a brushed hour ring. All of the hands are made out of MOP and blend with the rest of the inserts.

Inside, things remain pretty much the same. It’s the rather pedestrian ETA 2892/2 which beats at 4Hz and has a 36 hour power reserve, the same you could find in all the other Ressence models. But what makes this watch special is the patented Ressence Orbital Convex System, which turns the central power of the ETA into a series of rotating rings and dials. The watch comes on a shiny black horse leather strap a titanium buckle.

The new Type 9 IKE is limited to 8 pieces, priced at CHF 32,000 without tax. See more on the Ressence website. 

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Chronoswiss Looks To The Skies For Two New Watches, The Lunar Chronograph Aurora And Space Timer Gravity

While early Chronoswiss watches were known to be more traditional in their design, over the past few years, maybe a decade, they have completely embraced their wild, colorful, often openworked, fluted and onion-crowned style. They are some of the most unique looking watches you can buy. And now, they're launching two new watches that are both inspired by celestial themes. These are the new Chronoswiss Lunar Chronograph and Space Timer Gravity edition.

Starting with the Chronograph, this is based on an old design from the founder of the brand, Gerd Rüdiger Lang, but thoroughly updated with a brand new chameleon look. A lot of Chronoswiss watches come in recognizable round cases with knurled bezels on top and bottom holding down curved sapphire crystals. The case measures 41mm wide and 15mm thick, with the recognizable oversized onion crown on the side and a polished finish with brushed sides and lugs. Water resistance is 100 meters. This version comes with an incredible CVD-coated dial that shifts colors from deep green to blue. The center of the dial has two different guilloché patterns: a chequered motif inside the sub-dials and a concentric one in the centre, and there’s a chapter ring that holds Breguet-style Arabic hour numerals. It features a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock, running seconds at 9 o’clock, and 30-minute counter at 12 o’clock. At 3 o’clock is a moon phase complication, and around the perimeter of the dial is a date scale pointed to with a centrally mounted hand that has a purple crescent-shaped tip. Inside, you’ll find the calibre C.755, an automatic chronograph based on the Valjoux 7750 with a proprietary moon phase and date module. it beats at 4Hz and has a 46 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a dark grey Nubuck leather strap and it's priced at €10,800. See more here.

Then, there’s something that feels like the Chronoswiss we got to know recently. It's a regulator setup, as Chronoswiss has been known to popularize. The new Space Timer Gravity edition, as the name suggests, takes the space-theme of the collection and focuses on the force of gravity. It comes in the familiar Space Timer stainless steel case that has quite a writs presence at 44mm wide and 15.2mm thick. Sapphire crystals on both sides, straight lugs, a knurled bezel and the signature crown are all well known. New is the matte grey finish for the entire case that gives it a stealth look. If you think that this dial looks complex, you wouldn’t be wrong. It’s made out of 63 parts, with some of them being hand-guillochéd, some laser-engraved, and some getting CVD coatings that shift between deep green and blue. The left side of the dial is laser-textured using NASA imagery to recreate a cratered lunar landscape. It has a slightly different take on the regulator display, with the hours moved off center towards 12 o’clock and the hours and minutes on the same central axis. At 6 o'clock is a date disc. Transparent rings made out of a high end composite ITR2 are used for the hour and date indications. Super-LumiNova ceramic cylinders mark the hours, and the moon phase globe is inside the date subdial ring. The watch is powered by the Calibre C.308, based on the ETA 2895 with an in-house regulator module. It beats at 4Hz with a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grey nubuck leather strap. The new Space Timer Gravity edition is limited to 50 pieces and priced at €23,400. See more on the Chronoswiss website.

IT’S ABOUT TIME PRESENTS THE TRTS PODCAST: Talking French Luxury And Manufacture Movements With Hugues Souparis, CEO Of Pequignet

I love Pequignet, even though I don’t know much about them. They are a luxury watchmaker, but they also make some incredibly interesting movements. That’s something I wasn’t expecting from them when I first learned about them. Still, there's much more to learn, as it seems. And the best way to learn more is by listening to the TRTS show interview Hugues Souparis, CEO Of Pequignet, which is exactly what we have here:

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 65: Pierre Cardin’s Espace Watches At The Intersection Of Couture And Pop Industry

Why don't fashion brand make watches like these any more? Read it here. 

⏲️End links

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• “I don’t carry a cult tailored to agree with me in my pocket, but I do carry Claude,” philosopher Lucy Osler tells Kristen French in this Nautilus interview. Together, they explore how personalized chatbots can become intimate echo chambers that place us at the center of a private, self-reinforcing world. This dynamic, Osler argues, can generate “mutual hallucinations”—shared fantasies that emerge from the conversation itself—raising new concerns about AI and mental health.

• Discovery is rarely a one-person enterprise. Newton and Leibniz formulated calculus more or less simultaneously. The telescope was invented, like, five separate times in various countries. And in 1872, two different German mathematicians independently figured out how to define real numbers. Those two men, Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind, struck up a fond friendship, but when Cantor reached out for Dedekind’s help with a nascent theorem, it set in motion one of math’s great controversies, one that finally seems to have been definitively settled.

• For HackerNoon, Bruce Li gives readers a detailed look into the systems of the Internet Archive, the San Francisco-based nonprofit tasked with preserving the digital history of human civilization. Li traces the evolution of its physical infrastructure as the web has become increasingly dynamic. Despite its legal and financial hurdles, the Internet Archive is “a technological behemoth, operating at a scale that rivals Silicon Valley giants, yet it is housed in a church and run by librarians,” writes Li. “It is a fragile institution . . . yet it is also the most robust memory bank humanity has ever built.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The F1 season is starting next weekend, which means that Netflix just released the new season of Drive To Survive. As you’re getting amped for the new season, you might consider joining the F1 Fantasy league I started.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk