Citizen Releases New Eco-Drive Photon; King Seiko VANAC Goes Titanium; Louis Erard's Hall Of Fame; Ralph Lauren Shrinks Down 888 To 38mm; Breitling's Steel And Platinum Perpetual Calendar Chrono

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Can someone please correct me? I might be crazy, but despite it’s high price, the Breitling seems to be a pretty good deal, does it not?

In this issue

• Citizen Takes Inspiration From Quantum Physics For The Eco-Drive Photon Limited Edition

• King Seiko Goes Titanium With The New Vanac HKF001, HKF002 and HKF003

• Louis Erard And Alain Silberstein Launch The Hall Of Fame To Give Us Sold Out Watches

• Ralph Lauren Shrinks Down Their Dressy 888 To A Manageable 38mm

• Breitling Adds A Perpetual Calendar To The Platinum Navitimer With The New B19 Chronograph 43

👂What’s new

1/

Citizen Takes Inspiration From Quantum Physics For The Eco-Drive Photon Limited Edition

Eco-Drive turns 50 this year, and Citizen is marking the occasion with a string of anniversary releases throughout 2026. I have a few coming up to write about, but I think I’m opening up with the most interesting one. This is the new Citizen Photon, with a wild new dial and a name borrowed from quantum physics. I really like this watch.

Both variants are built from the brand’s proprietary Super Titanium and measure 39.6mm wide and 9.9mm thick, with an integrated bracelet that includes a micro-adjustment clasp. The first (ref. BJ6560-53W) has a silver Duratect titanium carbide coating, while the second (ref. BJ6569-59X) goes two-tone with black DLC and amber-yellow Duratect. At 9.9mm, the case wears genuinely flat for a watch with this much going on underneath the double domed sapphire crystal. Speaking of the crystal, it has the Citizen brand name and Eco-Drive printed on it. Water resistance is 50 meters, which is a bit disappointing.

But that disappointment fades when you see the dials. Two superimposed metal plates sit over a textured, color-shifting foil, with wave-shaped and circular cutouts in the upper plates letting light reach the foil below. The foil shifts hues depending on angle and lighting. The outer ring holds the luminous hour markers and a printed minute track, giving the whole construction a layered depth. The seconds hand is gold on the titanium model and purple on the two-tone.

The calibre E036 is the other headline. It's Citizen's latest Eco-Drive movement: light-powered quartz with a 365-day power reserve on a full charge and accuracy of ±15 seconds per month. The caseback carries a special 50th-anniversary engraving. The integrated Super Titanium bracelet matches the case coating on both variants, and the micro-adjustment mechanism sits inside the clasp rather than adding links, which keeps the profile clean.

The New Citizen Photon should be available now, priced at €895 for the silver version and €995 for the two-tone version. Both versions are limited, but limited means something different in the world of Citizen, so 5,000 of each will be made. See more on the Citizen website.

2/

King Seiko Goes Titanium With The New Vanac HKF001, HKF002 and HKF003

Earlier this year, Seiko expanded the King Seiko Vanac collection by adding leather strap versions of the original steel models, which gave the whole lineup a slightly more versatile, dressed-down character. Now they're going in the opposite direction. The three new Vanac Titanium editions — HKF001 in purple, HKF002 in grey, and HKF003 in black — are part of the permanent collection, and the material change is the main event. VANAC stands for Vibrant, Active, Novel, Alternative, Comfortable, which is a horrible acronym, but the watch is more interesting.

The case is 41mm wide, 14.3mm thick, with a lug-to-lug measurement of 45.1mm — identical dimensions to the steel versions. That thickness is a hard pill to swallow, but at least the new and light titanium case helps a bit. The case design carries over in full: faceted surfaces, no external bezel, and a box-shaped sapphire crystal sitting prominently above everything. Finishing alternates between flat brushed surfaces and wide polished facets, same as before. The oversized screw-down crown is still deeply notched and slightly recessed, the caseback is screwed and see-through, and water resistance is 100 meters.

The dials get a new pattern and Seiko describes it as being inspired by Tokyo's urban speed and highway driving, which translates in practice to distorted horizontal lines that tighten toward the dial's center. The chapter ring, with its radiating stripes and V-shaped markers at 12, is unchanged from the previous models. The center decoration is new. Whether the "speeding highway" means something or just sounds like brand copy is something you can decide for yourself, but the three colorways — purple, grey, and black — are pretty decent.

Now, the insides. There, you’ll find the new cal. 8L45 which, has a 4Hz beat rate and a 72 hour power reserve. The 8L line is based on Grand Seiko mechanical movements, but give you less decoration and lower accuracy (although it’s still decent at +10/-5 seconds per day), and the new 8L45 is the new top-of-the-line Seiko mechanical movement in its mid-tier watches, if that makes sense. But it’s major downside is the thickness at 6mm, which is quite a lot. For example, the plane jane ETA 2824 measures 4.6mm thick. The titanium bracelet uses an integrated-like design that follows the profile of the case down to a triple-folding clasp. Quick-release spring bars are on the back, so leather strap options remain open if you want them.

The new King Seiko VANAC in titanium goes on sale in July, priced at €3,950. That’s €550 over the steel version. Interesting. See more on the Seiko website.

3/

Louis Erard And Alain Silberstein Launch The Hall Of Fame To Give Us Sold Out Watches

Limited editions are slowly becoming the bane of the watch world. I get why brands do it — it creates urgency to get a watch and also limits any exposure to risk of overproduction. But for watch fans, it sucks. It’s easier to drive up prices when supply is limited and when they sell out, people are left with a bitter taste in their mouth when they can’t get one. Louis Erard, known for creating quite a few limited editions, is trying to combat this a bit, while still protecting themselves. They are launching a dedicated line called the "Hall of Fame," built for ongoing collaborations that commit to annual production in capped numbers rather than a single limited run. The first collab for the Hall of Fame happens with Alain Silberstein, a continuation of their already fruitful collaboration under the Le Régulateur. We got limited editions in khaki, in black, and now we’re getting the Smile-Day and Tourbillon Régulateur in blue.

The case is unchanged from 2023, which is the right call as it’s a super interesting case. Both watches share a 40mm wide, 11.8mm thick microblasted Grade 2 titanium frame with a polished Grade 5 titanium sidebar — what Louis Erard calls a "brancard" — flanked by the signature conical crown. Lug-to-lug sits at 47mm and water resistance is 100 meters.

There are two different models here, each with similar dials. The Smile-Day Blue gets a blue sunray base with Silberstein's weekly day display at six o'clock: black on weekdays, the smile gradually opening and turning red over the weekend. Red triangle for hours, white arrow for minutes, with the iconic yellow serpentine seconds.. The Tourbillon Régulateur Blue takes a more technical approach, with a regulator setup: hours at 12, central minute hand, and the one-minute tourbillon cage visible through an opening at six where the seconds sub-dial would normally sit. Same blue dial, same primary colour hands.

The movements are where the two watches diverge properly. The Smile-Day runs on a modified Sellita SW220-1 automatic. The Tourbillon Régulateur uses the hand-wound BCP T02 calibre, made by BCP Tourbillons in La Chaux-de-Fonds, beating at 3Hz with a 100-hour power reserve. Both come on blue nylon straps with hook-and-loop titanium fasteners.

The Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Smile-Day Blue and Tourbillon Régulateur Blue are not absolutely limited, but will have capped annual production — 250 Smile-Day models and 50 tourbillons per year. The Smile-Day is priced at CHF 4,000, while the Tourbillon Régulateur Blue sits at CHF 15,900. See more on the Louis Erard website.

4/

Ralph Lauren Shrinks Down Their Dressy 888 To A Manageable 38mm

Ralph Lauren watches have been doing something genuinely interesting for a while now. The brand has separated from Richemont, who used to produce their watches under a white label agreement, and is building its watch program on its own terms, which takes a certain amount of confidence when you've been backed by the group that owns Cartier and IWC. The 888 collection has been around since Ralph Lauren launched its watch line, and it represents the more restrained side of the brand's watch identity, with no Polo Bears, or stirrups. Just a round polished case, Roman numerals, and Breguet hands. The new 38mm version brings that down to a size that actually works as an everyday dress watch.

The case is polished stainless steel, 38mm wide and 6.10mm thick, with a flat sapphire crystal and an internal anti-reflective coating. Sure, this is a quartz powered watch, but even as such, 6mm is quite impressive. On top is a sapphire crystal, out back is a closed caseback and water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial is white lacquered, which has an almost creamy look, with printed black Roman and Arabic numerals — Romans at the quarters, Arabics filling the hours in between, which is just cool. Breguet-style hands are done in shiny black lacquer. It reads quickly and the contrast is good, and the two different numerals keep things interesting.

Inside is the calibre RL057, a quartz movement. From what I gather, this is a rebranded Jaeger-LeCoultre 657, with approximately 60 months of battery life and vertical Côtes de Genève decoration. I love a decorated quartz movement. The bracelet is three-row polished stainless steel with a three-part fold-over clasp.

The new Ralph Lauren 888 38mm goes on sale in April, priced at €1,600. See more on the Ralph Lauren website.

5/

Breitling Adds A Perpetual Calendar To The Platinum Navitimer With The New B19 Chronograph 43

Breitling has been putting the Navitimer through its paces this year. We had the Aston Martin F1 edition in titanium back in February, followed by the silver panda limited to North America a few weeks later. This one is different in kind, not just in dial color or material. The Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 is built around calibre B19, a manufacture movement that debuted last year for Breitling's 140th anniversary, and it turns the Navitimer into a full perpetual calendar chronograph. But even more interesting than the movement was the pricing — a full perpetual calendar at under $30k was a great deal. Now, with new dials and a new platinum option, it’s still quite reasonable for what it is.

The case comes in two configurations. The full platinum limited edition (ref. LB19211A1C1P1) is exactly that — platinum throughout, crown, caseback, pushers, all of it. The steel version (refs. PB1921251B1P1 and PB1921251B1A1) pairs a stainless steel case with a platinum bezel. Both share the same 43mm diameter and a lug-to-lug of 49.07mm. Thickness is 15.14mm, which is significant, but expected for a perpetual calendar chronograph. The pushers for adjusting the calendar are recessed dimple-style buttons at 8 and 10 o'clock. Water resistance is a very mediocre 30 meters.

The platinum edition gets a marine blue lacquered dial described as stratosphere-inspired, while the steel versions have an anthracite dial. The slide rule bezel is high-contrast on both, with a black outer ring and white inner scale. There’s a lot of information to display here, and Breitling really packs it in. To display the perpetual calendar details, Breitling chose to use the chronograph sub-dials, the date and 30-minute totalizer are at 3 o’clock, the month and leap year are at 6 o’clock, day and small seconds at 9 o’clock, moon phases are at 12 o’clock, with a central chronograph seconds.

inside is the mentioned B19 movement, which is built on the same base as the Calibre B01 chronograph, but with many improvements. For example, power reserve has been bumped up from 70 hours to 96 hours. The movement is, of course, COSC certified. The platinum edition comes on a navy-blue alligator strap with white gold folding clasp. The steel versions offer either a brown alligator strap or a seven-row steel bracelet.

The new Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 full platinum edition is limited to 75 pieces, priced at €49,000. The steel models start at €32,000 on the strap and €32,500 on the bracelet. These are all high numbers. But think about it — a very limited, platinum, perpetual calendar chronograph for under €50,000. And do we think that price will stick in the secondary, even with the 75 limited number? I would be willing to bet you can snag one for under retail, and then it’s a very good offering. See more on the Breitling website.

⏲️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

• AI companies such as Mercor are paying white-collar workers to produce the training data needed to automate their jobs. In this feature at The Verge, Josh Dzieza speaks with dozens of workers and documents what the labor looks like: low-paying, precarious, exploitative, and designed to extract expertise from entire professions—law, science, writing—before moving on to the next. It’s “the gig economy to the very extreme,” one screenwriter tells Dzieza, and it’s building a future with no place for the people who built these industries.

• In 1886, a massive volcanic eruption in New Zealand destroyed the Pink and White Terraces, “a pair of huge, silica sinter cascades, formed when the discharge from centuries-old hot springs tumbled down a hill.” At least, that’s what people always assumed. But did the terraces, sometimes called the Eighth Wonder of the World, actually survive? A feud has erupted over this question, pitting scientists against one another. In Now Voyager, a new magazine, veteran longform writer Sean Williams tells the story of the terraces and shows how it’s intertwined with the ongoing movement to protect Indigenous rights in New Zealand.

• In this conversation at Broadcast, experimental artist and DJ Russell E. L. Butler talks with Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills about sound, the future, and the urgent drive as a musician to materialize an idea as quickly as possible so you can move on to the next one. You don’t need to love electronic music—or even know who Mills is—to appreciate the insights here. Together, they explore the limits of linear time; innovation, improvisation, and creative expansion; and the idea that music offers a path toward transcendence.

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I figure if all of you reading this newsletter go subscribe to the paid side of the newsletter, I’m going to buy a unimog. In a few years.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk