Citizen's New Solar Powered Promasters; Accutron Revives First Electric Wristwatch; Nodus Canyon In Green And Gold Combo; A New Cornell Watch; Arnold & Son's Wild Skeleton; And A New Armin Strom

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I think I missed the relaunch of the Cornell Watch Company, which was a mistake. I really like those watches. I’ll have to keep an eye out on them.

In this issue:

• Citizen Has You Covered For All Your Diving Needs With Two New Solar Powered Promasters

• Accutron Revives The First Fully Electric Wristwatch With The New Spaceview 314

• The Nodus Canyon, Made With Automotive Journalist Matt Farah, Gets A Green And Gold Combo

• The New Cornell Watch Company Give Affordable American-Made Watchmaking Another Shot

• Arnold & Son Releases New Nebula 40 Steel Blue Edition With A Wild Skeleton Display

• Speake Marin’s Summer Ready Dual Time Comes In A Lime Flavor

👂What’s new

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Citizen Has You Covered For All Your Diving Needs With Two New Solar Powered Promasters

If nothing else, this newsletter will serve as a testament to the incredible run that Citizen has had in the early 2020s. I’ve tried covering as many of their releases as possible, but I’m sure I’m missing many of them. Over the last few years, we’ve seen citizen expand their premium mechanical sports watch lines, introduce great new mechanical budget options that are perfect starter watches and even build out a whole line of high-end quartz watches that can stand up to all sorts of abuse. But is it just me, or have they kind of neglected the watches we love them for most, their chunky divers? Their Fugus, their Eco-Zillas, the Promasters and the Aqualands? Maybe. But here they go, releasing a duo of very nice solar powered Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive Diver 300m watches with 365 days of battery life even in the toughest of conditions.

Citizen really wants you to use this as a tough dive watch, especially if you do any professional underwater, preferably saturation diving, work. Hence, the size. The stainless steel case measures an enormous 46mm wide and 16.3mm thick. On top is a fat bezel with a with five deep cutouts organized into six groups to be used for better grip. The bezel has a black insert with a 60 minute scale that uses a great font. The crown is positioned at 4 o’clock and water resistance is 300 meters. The cases also feature helium escape valves, for that extra dose of hardcore diving.

There are two versions of the watch. The BN1024-01E comes with a grey to black gradient dial, while the BN1024-01Z is rather more attractive with a great red-black vertical gradient. Both dials have a slight texture to them, oversized hour markers and hands, as well as a date aperture at four o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the Cal.E365, a solar powered movement with a charge reserve of 365-days. That pretty impressive number means that if you charge it up full in the sun and put the watch in a dark drawer, it will easily run for a full year. The watches come on the iconic polyurethane strap with the recognizable ribs and a strap extension.

The new Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive Diver 300m models are available now and are priced at $675. See more on the Citizen website.

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Accutron Revives The First Fully Electric Wristwatch With The New Spaceview 314

60 years ago, Accutron released a truly shocking movement. It was the first fully electric wrist watch. The movement wouldn’t have been so shocking, had the design not been so captivating. As Bulova was preparing to introduce the Accutron, they were looking at ways to show off this technical marvel that used a very dramatic tuning fork at the centre of the movement. They thought it would be cool to make a few watches without dials, to make the movement visible through the front and send it to their retailers as a marketing gimmick. However, as legend goes, customers loved the look so much they insisted to buy the watch exactly like that, with an exposed movement. That was the Accutron 214. Now, the brand is bringing back the watch as the "Spaceview" 314, with a full recreation of vintage movement.

The Accutron "Spaceview" 314 will be available in a variety of case materials – yellow gold, titanium, and stainless steel, and depending on what case you get, you’ll get a matching chapter ring around the open dial. The case measures 39mm wide and has a variety of thicknesses, depending on the material. It’s 13.25mm in the titanium, 13.35mm in the gold and 13.4mm in the steel. While the original Accutron 214 had a cool crown integrated into the caseback, this new one has a regular crown at 4 o’clock. Water resistance is 30 meters, but this is a space watch, and there’s no water there.

Other than the chapter ring, there are no dials. What you get are indices printed on the domed sapphire crystal and a full view of the movement. It looks very much like the original, but with a bit of a modernized look (but keeping the iconic green), with not just more bridges and neater wires, but also the addition of perlage and Geneva stripes on the back. Which is cool.

The movement you see is called the Caliber 314, it’s battery powered and it has a vibrating tuning fork operating at 360 Hz, which regulates the watch without relying on a balance wheel. We don’t have many more details about the movement, but it will be very cool. The watches can be had on black or saddle leather on the stainless steel, blue leather on the titanium and brown leather on the gold.

The new Accutron Spaceview 214 goes on sale in late Q3 or early Q4 of 2025, priced at $5,990 for the steel, $6,200 for the titanium and $31,500 for the gold. The website for the model is still not up, but the landing page is fantastic.

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The Nodus Canyon, Made With Automotive Journalist Matt Farah, Gets A Green And Gold Combo

For years I enjoyed the hundreds videos and podcasts by Matt Farah, automotive journalist, head of The Smoking Tire and watch enthusiast, but recently he has become incredibly insufferable making my ears bleed every time he opens his mouth. But while he has dropped off from all my playlists, the fact is — we still have the exact same taste. Same music, same movies, same cars. And almost the same watches. So, I really dig his Canyon series, made in collaboration with Nodus Design Lab, styled after the canyons above Los Angeles in which Farah tests cars. The latest version of the Canyon gets a fantastic Forrest Green color and the perfect shade of gold to contrast.

The case of the Canyon is standard Nodus fare so you know it’s built like a rock. Made out of 316L stainless steel, the case measures 41mm wide, 11.5mm thick and has a comfortable 47mm lug-to-lug. On top is a flat sapphire crystal surrounded by a fixed metal bezel and on the right side is an oversized crown with significant knurling and a bronze PVD inlay in the top. Water resistance is 200 meters.

Moving on to the dial, it has the same setup as the previous three versions, meaning that it has a sector setup with a sunken center and tapered applied markers that have plenty of Super-LumiNova BGW9 Grade A inside it. The color of the dial, a beautiful enamel green that has a gradient effect to a darker share on the outside, is inspired by Angeles Crest, one of the canyons above L.A. The hands and markers are rendered in a gold color which really works with the green.

Inside, a bit of a surprise. While Nodus is best known for their great use of the NH35 movement, this model comes with the La Joux-Perret G101 which beats at 4Hz and has a pretty great 68 hour power reserve. It’s also regulated by Nodus to +/- 8 seconds per day. That’s a great option. The watch comes on a Jubilee-style bracelet that uses Nodus’ proprietary NodeX clasp with tool-less micro-adjust. The clasp is engraved with The Smoking Tire logo.

The new Nodus Canyon Forrest Green is limited to 100 pieces and priced at $1,199. See more on the Nodus website.

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The New Cornell Watch Company Give Affordable American-Made Watchmaking Another Shot

American watchmaking has always held an almost mythical place in the watch world. A lot of that is due to the extremely strict guidelines that have to be met in order to have “Made in the U.S.A.” designation. Unlike the much more lax Made in Switzerland designation, to be considered made in America, “all or virtually all components” would need to be made in the US. This is virtually impossible since there are parts — like sapphire crystals and mainsprings — that just aren’t made in the US, anywhere. And while a few brands claim that they can achieve the Made in the U.S.A. designation, there are brands that just try their best to make the most in America. Brands like Cornell Watch Company. The company was originally founded in 1870, making high-precision railroad pocket watches, but went out of business in the early 20th century. In 2023, it was revived with the idea of reviving American watchmaking. Their latest release, the Lozier, has most of the major components made in the US, except for the crystal and the movement. And I’m digging the look.

Before I get to the case, Cornell proudly lists all of their partners that make their watches a possibility. Alex Voss Design Studio in Santa Clara, California, does all the technical design work, Hour Precision in Columbus, Ohio, machines the components, assembly is handed by Justin Harrell and Sergio Berrios in Asheville, North Carolina, the nubuck leather straps come from Veblenist in Chicago, Illinois, and all the steel is supplied by Alro Steel in Jackson, Michigan.

The stainless steel case has some very handsome proportions — 37.4mm wide, 8.5mm thick, with a 46.8mm lug-to-lug. And that thin profile includes the box-shaped sapphire crystal, which is pretty amazing. The one potential downside with the proportions might be the 22mm wide lugs. The shape of the watch is classic Calatrava, with thin lugs and a flat bezel on top, and the entire case has a sandblasted finish. Water resistance is decent — 50 meters.

The sandblasted finish of the case is continued on the dial, but only in appearance. The dial is made out of a solid block of German silver, with a three-layer stepped design that descends downward from the chapter ring towards the center. Each layer of the dial is separated by a thin diamond-cut bevel, and the surface gets a frosted finish. The Roman numerals are printed on and the hands are also made out of German silver and are slightly leaf shaped.

Inside, you’ll find the ubiquitous, reliable and easily servicable Sellita SW300-1 b. It’s a well known movement and a good choice for a brand that wants to keep prices low. It comes in the Elaboré grade, adjusted in three positions, beating at 4Hz and with a 56 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a camel nubuck leather strap made by Veblenist.

The new Cornell Watch Company Lozier is available for pre-order for the 2025 build slots until July 16, 2025. Price is set at $6,200. And while your initial instinct might be to say that’s a crazy price for a SW300 powered movement, keep in mind that the vast majority of SW300 powered watches are made in much larger quantities, on huge production lines and more often than not, in China. There’s nothing wrong with Chinese made watches, of course, but I’ve gotten to see the price difference between a Chinese made watch one made all in Europe and it’s easy to 3x-5x your costs if you make everything in Europe and the US. See more on the Cornell website.

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Arnold & Son Releases New Nebula 40 Steel Blue Edition With A Wild Skeleton Display

Sometimes, watch brands will skeletonize dials to just show off the movement inside. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there just might be a better way to remove a dial, and make a watch even more interesting. This is what Arnold & Son did with their latest release of the Nebula 40 Steel, this one called the Blue Edition.

The Nebula 40 is not a new watch for Arnold & Son. They’ve made quite a few, in different finishes and colors. This particular one is made out of stainless steel and keeps the familiar look — a fully round case with widely spaced and short lugs. The case measures 40mm wide and 9.1mm thick. On top is a domed sapphire crystal that extends all the way to the edge of the case to give you a great look at the dial. Water resistance is exactly what you would expect — 30 meters.

Then, there’s the dial… On the periphery is a blue PVD sloping flange that holds the minute markers, while the majority of the face of the watch is taken up by the seven dramatic bridges in silver that hold the most important parts of the watch — the winding mechanism, the balance wheel, the small seconds subdial, the first wheel of the gear train, a power barrel, another gear wheel and the second power barrel. All of this sits on another set of bridges that are finished in the same blue PVD as the flange. In the centre you’ll find two faceted hands and that’s all there is to it.

The movement that’s powering all of this is the calibre A&S5201 which beats at 3Hz and has a 90 hour power reserve, thanks to the twin barrels. The watch can be had on a rubber or alligator leather strap, or a stainless steel bracelet.

The new Arnold & Son Nebula 40 Steel Blue Edition is available now and it’s objectively expensive for a three-hand watch. However, for the way it looks, it’s a bargain at €19,800 on rubber, €20,000 on leather and €20,800 on steel. See more on the Arnold & Son website.

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Speake Marin’s Summer Ready Dual Time Comes In A Lime Flavor

While Speake Marin is best known for their high-end elegant watches with a couple of very interesting quirks, my absolute favorite watch of theirs is the Openworked Dual. It’s an absolutely wild and beautiful thing that has over the years become a really good basis for some bright colors. Just the other week we had the Roland-Garros version, which got a terracotta dial. Now, we’re getting their entry for a great summer watch, the Speake Marin Openworked Dual Time Lime.

The watch uses the very traditional Speake Marin drum-shaped Piccadilly case with straight lugs which have oversized screws on the sides that hold the strap down. It’s made out of titanium and gets a black DLC coating. You can have the watch in either 38 or 42mm, both of which are 12.35mm thick. Water resistance is 30 meters, which is not great, but are you really swimming with a Speake Marin?

While the name says this is an Openworked dial, don’t expect anything excessive. The most prominent aspect of the dial is the bright lime mainplate. There’s a small seconds counter at 1:30 with a lime finish and black markings. A date indicator surrounds the small seconds. Flanking the date are the black matte finished bridges for the barrel and rotor. There’s a two-tone GMT black and green indicator and central Big Ben-style hands for local time done in black with green lacquer inserts.

Inside is the proprietary SMA01 micro-rotor calibre, designed and manufactured by Le Cercle des Horlogers in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 52 hour power reserve. The movement is decorated with Geneva stripes on the bridges and the micro-rotor has an orange topper. The watch comes on a green alligator leather strap closed with a pin buckle and a lime green rubber strap.

The Speake Marin Openworked Dual Time LIme is priced at CHF 33,400 for the 38mm and CHF 33,900 for the 42mm, both prices without tax. See more on the Speake Marin website.

⏲️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

• The bizarre true story of two Alabama lawyers who got rich running a divorce mill empire—before everything went sideways. These are the divorce Kings of the Caribbean.

• Megan Greenwell's book Bad Company follows four people as their jobs and lives are upended by private equity firms involvement in the retail, housing, local media, and health care industries. Basically, private equity is destroying everything.

• New blood tests promise to detect malignancies before they’ve spread. But proving that these tests actually improve outcomes remains a stubborn challenge.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The other day we had the Gene Kranz Seiko reissues and I just stumbled upon this interview he gave on the Apollo 11 mission. Those people really did something special.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk