Credor's Basse-Taille Enamel Dials; Vulcain's Colors On The Skindiver Nautique GMT And Chronos; Briston's Acetate Cases; Benjamin James Does Stone Dials The Right Way; Trilobe's First Sports Watch

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I haven't written about Briston watches in a while. They always amaze me with the use of acetate cases, such a cool move. Love it!

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In this issue

• Credor Gives The Goldfeather, Their Classic Dress Watch, Basse-Taille Enamel Dials

• Vulcain Adds New Colors To The Skindiver Nautique GMT And The Skindiver Chronographs

• Briston Introduces The Very Cool Clubmaster Legend Collection With Acetate Cases

• Benjamin James Does Stone Dials The Right Way On Their Groovy Scarifour Model

• Trilobe Applies Their Fantastic Disc-Based Time Telling To Their First Sports Watch

👂What’s new

1/

Credor Gives The Goldfeather, Their Classic Dress Watch, Basse-Taille Enamel Dials

The Seiko brand name is almost ubiquitous as the Rolex name. It’s instantly recognizable, even by people who know nothing about watches and, unlike Rolex, they were likely owned by at least someone the general public knows. Grand Seiko, on the other hand, is a bit more niche. A step up above Seiko, it’s their more elegant and more expensive brand that’s not as much of a household name. GS is a watch for watch nerds. But then, there’s Credor. A bit of a mystery for even people well versed in the watch world and Seiko’s haute horology brand. Back in the late 1970s, Credor worked with legendary watch designer Gerald Genta to create one of their most iconic watches, the Credor Locomotive. Over the past few years, Credor started reinventing itself to become a serious contender in the high end space. What we have here are the Goldfeather GBBY969 and GBBY971, wonderful takes on the dress watch, with impressive basse-taille enamel dials.

The case of this Goldfeather is about as simple as you can get, while keeping things classy. It measures 38.6mm wide and 8.6mm thick, so pretty elegant proportions, offset by the fact that the case is made out of 950 platinum, giving it plenty of heft. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, out back is a flat one, and the fixed platinum bezel has a slight step towards the case.

But of course, it’s all about the dials. Made by Ando Cloisonné, a long-established maker of Owari cloisonné enamel, using the “basse-taille” technique, the silver base gets a swirling bas-relief pattern, coated with multiple layers of translucent enamel. There are two colors to choose from — Tomekon, a navy blue carrying the GBBY969 reference number, and Hatoba, a dark purple with the GBBY971 reference number.

Inside, you’ll find the hand-winding 6890 caliber which is just 1.98mm thick. Beating at 3Hz, it has a 37 hour power reserve. You can see it through the caseback and it’s pretty good looking. The watches come on black and blue crocodile straps with a platinum pin buckle.

The new Credor Goldfeather Tomekon GBBY969 and Hatoba GBBY971 go on sale on October 10, unfortunately only in japan, priced at JPY 4,950,000, which translates to about €26,000. See more on the Credor website.

2/

Vulcain Adds New Colors To The Skindiver Nautique GMT And The Skindiver Chronographs

It was a pretty great summer for Vulcain. I haven’t noticed the brand release so many watches in previous years, as they have over this summer. And all of them on their sporty Skindiver Nautique platform. They seem to have had a lot of fun. Now, to close out the summer, Vulcain is introducing new colors to the Skindiver Nautique GMT, as well as two new colors for the chronograph Skindiver Nautique.

Let’s start off with the GMT model. It comes in a stainless steel case with a vertical brushed finish that measures 38.3mm wide and 12.2mm thick. On top is a double domed sapphire crystal, surrounded with a bi-directional rotating bezel that has a ceramic insert with a 24-hour scale in either black or blue, depending on the dial color you get. Water resistance is great at 200 meters.

The dials are kept very simple, with a sunray brushed blue or a matte white option. The blue one gets white printed markers and white Super LumiNova, while the white version gets black printing and cream colored lume. Inside, you’ll find the Soprod C125 GMT which beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watches come on tropic-style rubber straps, while the white version can also be had on a steel bracelet. The price is set at CHF 1,970.00 on rubber and CHF 2,150 on the steel. See the blue version here and the white version here. 

Then we have some pretty fantastic updates to the Skindiver Chronograph. The watch still keeps the iconic skin-diver case shape, with super short square lugs. The case gets a deeply brushed finish, measuring 39.7mm wide and an actually approachable thickness of 13mm, with a 47mm lug-to-lug. The thickness is even more impressive considering the fact that includes the domed sapphire crystal on top. Surrounding the crystal is a serrated bezel with a black ceramic insert that has both a 60-minute dive scale and a much smaller 12-hour, which is cool.

There are two dial options in this refresh, a fairly traditional green with silver sub-dials and a fantastic looking silver dial with sky blue sub-dials. Both versions have a tachymeter and decimal scale on the periphery, applied silver hour markers and polished silver square hands. They also both have a bi-compax layout with a 30 minute totalizer at 3 and a running seconds at 9 o’clock. Inside you’ll find the Valjoux 7753, a variation of the legendary Valjoux 7750, which is an automatic, cam-lever chronograph that beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watches can be had on color matched rubber strap, or on a vintage-inspired single-link brushed steel bracelet. Price is set at CHF 2,590 on rubber and CHF 2,850 on steel. See the green version here and the silver/blue one here.

3/

Briston Introduces The Very Cool Clubmaster Legend Collection With Acetate Cases

There’s only so many ways one can design a watch, right? It’s a square or circle on your wrist and that’s pretty much it. You could experiment with shapes, colors, positioning of elements, but they all kind of end up looking the same. Well, it seems that Briston, an independent French brand, it’s doing its hardest to give their watches a unique look. A lot of their watches combine something we’ve seen dozens of times — a cushion case with short lugs — with something we don’t see every day — a tortoise-shell acetate case. Briston now introduces the new Clubmaster Legend collection which comes in a bunch of setups — with steel or acetate cases, in multiple colors and with an option of an openheart movement or closed. It’s cool.

All of the models share the same case stats, made in either stainless steel or tortoiseshell acetate. The cases measure 39mm x 39mm, with angled lugs that surely make for a great lug-to-lug measurement, and 11.8mm thick. The stainless steel version gets a polished finish, while the acetate has a satin finish. On top is a heavily domed sapphire crystal On the side is a knurled screw-down crown with a black insert, which gets you 100 meters of water resistance.

There are two versions of the Clubmaster Legend, the Classic HMS which is a time only version, and the Legend Classic Open which gets an aperture at 9 o’clock revealing the balance wheel. The colors are simple, but effective — black opaline and navy blue. I wish they did a weird green color, sort of like sunglass lenses from Ray Ban — that would match with the acetate case perfectly. The dials have a textured center, a circular-brushed chapter ring for the hours and a railway minutes track. The hands are baton shaped and the markers are applied, black or silver.

Inside, there are two possible movements. The Classic HMS gets the NH35A and the Classic Open the NH38A. Both beat at 21,600vph and have a 41 hour power reserve. The watches come on black, brown or blue calfskin straps with an embossed alligator pattern, closed with a pin.

The new Briston Clubmaster Legend collection is part of the regular collection and available now. Price is set at €570 for the Classic HMS and Classic Open in steel, while the versions in acetate have an even better price of €570. See more on the Briston website.

4/

Benjamin James Does Stone Dials The Right Way On Their Groovy Scarifour Model

I’ve been a fan of the Benjamin James Scarifour from the day I saw the first renders. Knowing the dimensions, I had a feeling that it would be a sensational fitting watch, and since I have one in for review right now, I can confirm it’s really, really great. But apart from being a great looking watch, Benjamin James also lucked out with their timing. When Patek Philippe released the Cubitus, the internet was awash with people drawing parallels between their design and already existing watches. People called it a lovechild of the Aquanaut and a Cartier Santos, commentators noted its similarity to a Maen model. And then the New York Times profiled Benjamin James as an alternative to the Cubitus, at a fraction of the price. That launched them into the mainstream. And made it hard for them to keep watches in stock, they sell out fast. Now, they’re not just restocking old models, they’re also introducing the brand new Scarifour Stone Collection with, you guessed it, stone dials. And they’re fantastic.

On the outside, this Scarifour remains unchanged and really great looking. The square stainless steel case measures 31mm wide and 40mm long, with a great thickness of 8.3mm. The case has an overall brushed surface, with polished details on the bracelet and on the bezel that has eight tiny indents on top. It looks equally as familiar as it does original. Good work on that. On top is a sapphire crystal and on the side you get a squared-off push-pull crown that will get you 50 meters of water resistance.

Then, we have the new dials. Benjamin James is best known for their Heraldry dials which feature really nice grooved chevron patterns. But replacing them with stone dials is a fantastic move. The bright colors of the stones work extremely well with such a classic shape. Not to make any comparisons, but why isn’t Cartier doing thousands of these stone dial variants? You get a choice from Lapis Lazuli, Green Jade, and Burnt Orange Agate and since all are cut from natural stone, they each have unique striations. You get applied indices, with a Roman numeral 12 at the top of the dial, paired with polished hands that feature BGW9 Swiss Super-LumiNova.

Inside, you get the classic hand-wound Sellita SW210-1 b which beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. It also has a mineral crystal display window on the caseback to show off the movement. The watch comes on a stainless steel bracelet with brushed outer links and polished central link, closed by a hidden butterfly buckle.

Just like the previous limited edition Ice Blue Mother of Pearl, the Benjamin James Scarifour Stone Collection is limited to 100 pieces per year, per version. The watches go on sale on October 1st, alongside other watches in the Scarifour collection that are currently sold out. The watches are priced at £948 or about €1,090. See more on the Benjamin James website.

 5/

Trilobe Applies Their Fantastic Disc-Based Time Telling To Their First Sports Watch

One of the brands I couldn’t wait to meet with in Geneva two weeks ago was Trilobe. That’s because Trilobe makes some of the most interesting watches in the market today. They are well thought out, obviously created by someone who knows what they are doing and they bring a new way of time telling that feels completely organic instead of forced. Trilobe uses three discs to tell the seconds, minutes and hours and does a lot with it. Some models have the discs hidden behind dial plates, others have it exposed in the most spectacular of fashions. But as you look at the collections, you see a grand plan unfolding. The latest stop on that plan is the Trente-Deux collection, Trilobe’s take on the integrated bracelet luxury sport watch and if you asked me to choose one watch from the genre to keep forever, it would be this. Oh, and it’s not just their firs sports watch. It also has their first in-house movement that’s incredibly gorgeous.

The case is made out of stainless steel with a gorgeous combination of stain brushing, microblasted touches and polished surfaces. I’m not kidding here. Pictures do not do this thing justice. It’s one of the best finished watches I’ve seen at any price point. The case is also very well proportioned — 39.5mm wide, 10.15mm thick, with a 46.18mm lug-to-lug. The fact that it has an integrated bracelet helps to keep this watch relatively short and on the left side you’ll find a bumper that’s mirrored in the crown guards. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a fluted bezel with mirror-polished ridges and microblasted grooves. Out back is a sapphire crystal, the crown is a push-pull one and water resistance is 50 meters. Would I have loved 100 meters? For sure. But it’s still a gorgeous watch.

The dial of the Trente-Deux echoes their Nuit Fantastique. It comes in either blue or grey, and features a matte sunray finish. Around the perimeter you’ll see a grained counter-clockwise rotating disc with the 12 hours, with a Trilobe logo at 12 pointing to the current hour. Offset from the centre to the left is a figure eight chapter ring that holds an aperture through which you see the grained minute disc inside which turns clockwise, with a seconds wheel below it with a azurage and Clous de Paris guilloché finish.

Then, there’s the brand new movement. Trilobe calls it the X-Nihilo calibre and it was conceived, developed, decorated, and assembled in-house, with 80% of the parts machined by partners in and around Paris. It’s an automatic movement that beats at 4Hz, with a 42 hour power reserve. It’s also incredibly good looking, with a very minimalist look. It has a 5N gold treated matte-grained mainplate, a huge brushed bridge with polished bevels and it has a skeletonized rotor that gives you a view of the tungsten balance wheel. The watch comes on an integrated stainless steel bracelet with a satin brushed finish and mirror polished central links, closed with a very cool spring-loaded double-folding clasp.

The new Trilobe Trente-Deux is available now and part of the regular collection. Price is set at €19,800. See more on the Trilobe 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

• Hyper-coasters, giga-coasters, strata-coasters, exa-coasters; we’ve come a long way from Coney Island’s Cyclone. With theme park prices soaring and IP-based areas sparing no expense, places like Disney World and Epic Universe are pushing the limits of physics in the name of thrills. For The Atlantic, Bianca Bosker takes you past the hourslong line and into the maelstrom.

• Bookstores and literary institutions that once flourished in Beirut have shuttered over the past few years. For New Lines Magazine, Amelia Dhuga reports on this wider trend in the city’s creative scene. “In the last six years alone,” an editorial director at a publishing house tells Dhuga, “Lebanon has faced a revolution, a financial crisis, the port blast, COVID-19, political instability and a war.” Businesses have been forced to shut down, facing immense financial pressure. Books and authors are being censored. People are exhausted, preoccupied, or simply don’t have the disposable income to invest in literature. Despite all of this, Beirut’s remaining literary spaces are trying to stay afloat and learning to adapt.

• Joelle Fraser recounts how her mother embraced a life of “grit,” living off-grid with her husband Mark, despite the grueling hardships. Fraser suspects her mother longs to escape their mountain shack, but cannot bring herself to leave. A therapist later identifies a shared delusion—folie à deux—between the couple, and only ill health eventually drives them down the mountain. Fraser wrestles with when to interfere with her aging mother and when to let her live her own life, a decision many children face, though rarely in such extreme circumstances.

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One video you have to watch today

“Dieter Rams pointing at things he doesn't like” is one of the best Youtube video titles I’ve ever seen. Also, did you know that Rams is still alive? I didn’t, but that’s great!

Thanks for reading,
Vuk