Grand Seiko Releases Moonlit Birch SLGW007; Ressence And The Armoury Team Up For A Fluted Bezel Type 9; Bremont's Meteorite Dial; Panerai Revives A 1993 Legend; Behrens Works with Vianney Halter

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Rare are the days that I wouldn’t mind owning any of the watches I wrote about. Even the Bremont. But while I’m surprised that I want the Grand Seiko, and I would always take any Ressence, I have to say that Panerai is doing things for me.

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In this issue

• Grand Seiko Releases The Moonlit Birch SLGW007 With The Hi Beat Calibre 9SA4

• Ressence And The Armoury Team Up For A Cheeky Take On A Fluted Bezel Type 9

• Bremont Expands The Altitude MB Meteor With A Meteorite Dial

• Panerai Revives A Legendary 1993 Model With The Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218

• Behrens And Vianney Halter Team Up For The Impressively Strange KWH

👂What’s new

1/

Grand Seiko Releases The Moonlit Birch SLGW007 With The Hi Beat Calibre 9SA4

Last year saw an introduction of an important movement for Grand Seiko. At Watches & Wonders, they released the SLGW002 and SLGW003, two watches that housed the caliber 9SA4, a manual hi-beat (36,000 bph) movement with an 80 hour power reserve and a in-house dual-impulse escapement. We didn’t see much of that movement since, only showing up in the SLGW004 and SLGW005 which came in iconic cases paying tribute to the legendary 45GS. Now, however, the movement is back in the steel cased Moonlit Birch SLGW007. And even I, who couldn’t care less about Grand Seiko, have to say I’m pretty smitten.

Like other Birch models before it, this one also comes in an Evolution 9 case. This time, the case is made out of steel and keeps identical dimensions to cases we’ve seen before. That means 38.6mm wide, 9.95mm thick and with a 45mm lug-to-lug. This fixes one of the most common complaints about Grand Seiko — the clumsy case. Of course, the case has a combination of brushed finishes and Zaratsu polishing. On top is a box style sapphire crystal, surrounded by a slim bezel. Water resistance is just 30 meters, which is kind of a shame.

It wouldn’t be Grand Seiko without an over the top nature-derived explanation for the dial, so this textured deep blue is “an ode to the moonlight scene of Iwate’s birch trees” at the Hiraniwa Plateau, a large forest near the factory where mechanical Grand Seiko watches are made. The applied markers and hands are familiar from previous editions, there’s no date apertures and you get an applied GS logo at 12 and “Hi Beat 36 000, 80 hours” above 6 o’clock.

Inside, like I said, is the hand wound 9SA4 movement. When they introduced, Grand Seiko made sure to point out that this was their first hand wound hi-beat movement in 50 years. It beats at 5Hz, has an 80 hour power reserve and is quite accurate with a rating of -3/+5 seconds per day. You can see it through the caseback, decorated with stripes, perlage on the mainplate, bevelled bridges, golden engravings, and a finely finished ratchet wheel, with a power reserve indicator. The watch comes on a blue textured cowhide strap.

The new Grand Seiko Evolution 9 Moonlit Birch Hi-Beat 36000 80 Hours SLGW007 is part of the permanent Grand Seiko collection and goes on sale in October. Price is set at €10,200. See more on the Grand Seiko website.

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Ressence And The Armoury Team Up For A Cheeky Take On A Fluted Bezel Type 9

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 since I follow them so closely, it’s such a pleasure to see the collection grow. Just a couple of years ago, it was just three or four models, all with their set design and just color updates. Then, some time last year, they introduced the Type 9, their simplest watch to date, with a compact case and just two rotating dial pieces to tell the time. And a funny thing happened. That simple watch became an incredible canvas for a whole range of collaborations. This latest collab happens with Hong Kong and New York menswear retailer The Armoury and it’s something completely different from Ressence. This is the new Ressence Type 9 ARM.

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 polished 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. But then, there’s the new bezel. It’s a fixed bezel, made out of titanium and very classically fluted. It’s a very unexpected mix of very modern and classic design, and I love it.

The dial is pure The Armoury elegance. It has a sandblasted finish with a salmon coating on top. The 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 that loses the 3 and 9 numerals and just has indices. The hours ring also features the signature Ressence hand to indicate noon.

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 chocolate colored suede strap with a titanium buckle.

The Ressence Type 9 ARM is available now, exclusively through The Armoury’s boutiques in New York and Hong Kong, limited to 20 pieces and priced at $19,000. See more on the Ressence website.

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Bremont Expands The Altitude MB Meteor With A Meteorite Dial

A year and some months ago, the iconic British watch brand Bremont underwent quite the transformation. Not only did they bring in a superstar CEO in Davide Cerrato, fueled by private equity investments from one of the richest people in the world, they also unveiled a brand new logo and completely new lineup of watches. Gone were the watches inspired by British heritage and military, replaced by a collection that was perceived as… generic. It was, with little doubt, quite the large misstep. One that threatened the future of the brand. And over the past 15 or so months, Bremont has been working on repairing the damage, mostly by bringing back their recognizable watches to mix in with the new collections. Just a few months ago, we got a recreation of the Altitude MB Meteor Orange Barrel, and now we’re getting a meteor dial version in the Altitude MB Meteor Stealth Grey.

The Altitude MB Meteor Stealth Grey sees the use once again of the Trip-Tick case that Bremont was so well known for. The case is made out of grade 2 titanium, with a central barrel now done in the same matte grey instead of orange, with the same knurled pattern. The update to the case comes in the dimensions, which are now much more wearable — 42mm wide, 12.23mm thick, with a 49.3mm lug-to-lug. You still get the double downs, one to set the time and the other to operate the bi-directional Roto-Click internal bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters.

While the dials in the Orange Barrel came in either black or silver, this one gets a full meteor dial in a dark grey that matches the case very well, surrounded by a black internal bezel. You still get applied stencil-style Arabic numerals. The hour and minute hands are done in black, with lumed inserts, while the seconds hand has a lollipop tip with its striped pullcord tail to mimic an ejector seat handle.

Inside, you’ll find Bremont’s calibre BB14-AH, but since Bremont gave up on an in-house movement, it’s a rebranded La Joux-Perret G100 beating at 4Hz, with a 68 hour power reserve. The movement is housed in a soft iron ring for magnetism protection and mounted in a rubberized mount for shock protection. The watch comes on either a brushed grade 2 titanium bracelet.

The new Bremont Altitude MB Meteor Stealth Grey is available now, limited to 400 pieces and priced at €6,900. See more on the Bremont website.

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Panerai Revives A Legendary 1993 Model With The Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218

Monty Shadow might not be a name you know. But you should. His real name was Čedo Komljenović and he was a photographer. He wasn’t a particularly artistic photographer. His interest was more in capturing moments. Preferably, moments with plenty of nude women. He was known not just for taking photos of some of the most beautiful women in Yugoslavia, but also for introducing them to some of the richest men in the world. Monty linked Bernie Ecclestone to his now former wife Slavica. He had a talent not just for finding beautiful women, but also beautiful objects. Mercedes, Montblanc and Richemont all tasked him with finding diamonds in the rough, hidden treasures from the past that could be revived and turned into ultimate luxury. He convinced Mercedes that binging back the Maybach name would be a fantastic idea, he brought Penthouse published Bob Guccione to Croatia to build a gambling resort packed with Penthouse models and he was instrumental in turning Ayrton Senna into a global superstar.

But perhaps his greatest achievement came from a small watch shop in Firenze, where he discovered a Panerai watch. In the early 1990s, Panerai’s were almost exclusively still military watches. but Shadow saw its potential and bought one for his friend, Sylvester Stallone. Sly went wild for the watch, started buying up as many as he could, and seeing that he would include one in his upcoming movie, Shadow convinced Richemont Group owner Johann Rupert to buy the brand. The rest is, of course history. Despite the mess that’s happening at Panerai now, these pre-Vendôme Panerai’s (the Richemont Group was called the Vendôme Group then) and even early Richemont watches remain some of the coolest watches in the industry. Now, Panerai is paying homage to this era, with the new PAM05218, which is inspired by the 1993 Luminor Marina Militare 5218-202/A, which was never offered to the public.

The new Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218 follows the original quite faithfully. It comes in a stainless steel Luminor case that measures 44mm wide and 13mm thick, with a matte sandblasted finish and a black DLC coating. This is one of the watches that is best matched with a dark case. On the side is the iconic flip-down crown guard, on top is a domed sapphire crystal and water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial, while certainly carrying a lot of faux patina, is quite interesting. First, it ditches the sandwich construction that modern Panerais are best known for a plain black base with painted on numerals, paired with blackened hands. While I don’t particularly like fauxtina dials, it’s executed quite well here, with a non-matching finish. This is something that collectors look for in old watches, and is manifested in different colored lume on the hands and markers. This happened on early batches of these Panerais because the two surfaces had different reactions to tritium, resulting in light green lume on the hands and a deep orange lume on the numerals. Very cool. The Luminor Panerai and Marina Militare text on the dial use the same font as the 1993 version.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre P.6000, a manual winding movement beating at 3Hz, with a 72-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a vintage-styled brown calf leather strap, with black hardware and you get an additional black rubber strap for a more modern look.

The new Panerai Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218 doesn’t seem to be limited in number, but will be available by order. Price is set at €8,500. See more on the Panerai website.

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Behrens And Vianney Halter Team Up For The Impressively Strange KWH

For years, we have looked down at Chinese watchmaking because most of the stuff we saw coming out of the country were low quality, high output, low cost pieces. Sure, Chinese factories are the best in the world at doing that. But as people were looking down, several brands were working on building up Chinese watchmaking into a powerhouse that we know it to be today — making impressively designed, extremely well built watches with complications we see in brands that cost tens of thousands, offered for a fraction of the cost. One of these brands was, and still is, Behrens. Over the years they made some of the most interesting avant-garde watches and built up quite the reputation. One that brought them to some high-profile collaborations. Their latest comes with legendary watchmaker Vianney Halter. The new Behrens × Vianney Halter KWH is unexpected, but very cool.

The case — actually, the entire watch — is inspired by the unlikeliest of objects, an antique electricity meter that Halter had in his workshop. Hence the KWH name. The result is a small squareish case that measures 35mm wide, 10.9mm thick and has a lenght of 41mm. The case is made out of either 18K white gold or 18K rose gold, but the material is essentially only used on a thin band around the watch. On top and bottom are expansive flat sapphire crystals that give you a full look at the movement and what could be called a dial, but is so much more.

There’s certainly a lot happening on the dial, but hardly any tells you the time. It uses a series of rollers to give you some info. On the left, there are power reserve and day/night indicators styled after vintage meter markers. On the right, the minutes are digitally displayed on a roller. Flip the watch over, and there’s the moonphase indicator and calendar at 12 o’clock. So, how do you tell the time. Behrens and Halter have borrowed from the legendary Snake game you could find on Nokia phones in the 90s and early 00s, so it uses a patented ruby-bearing micro-chain system that travels around the perimeter with seven dots pointing to the correct time. There are two dial colors — rock gray dial on the rose gold version and nebula purple on the white gold.

All of this is powered by a new movement, the calibre BM06, co-developed by Behrens and Halter. A manual winder that has 870 components, beats at 4Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve out of two barrels. It’s a highly advanced movement that includes stuff like a temperature-compensation system to keep the micro-chain stable. The white gold comes on a grey strap with an orange lining, while the rose gold comes on a white strap with a purple linig.

The new Behrens × Vianney Halter KWH is limited to just nine pieces in each color, but priced pretty fantasticly at $49,000. See more on the Behrens 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

• America’s leading bank profited from America’s most notorious sex offender for years. Not because he was good at hiding his crimes—because it just didn’t care enough about those crimes to stop doing business with him. Three New York Times reporters combed through thousands of pages of bank records and court filings to tell the story of JP Morgan and Jeffrey Epstein’s mutually beneficial relationship.

• A beautifully written meditation on perpetual stew, “a way of cooking and a metaphor for life,” and also a TikTok craze. As John Devore explores famous influencer stews, he reflects on his own “mouthbone soup” and the ways food can anchor us when everything else feels uncertain.

• The latest issue of Harper’s offers more tenderhearted stories about more approachable creatures—namely, Tao Lin’s 8,000-word memoir about his three cats. And yet I was enthralled by Nathaniel Rich’s dispatch from the Louisiana Nutria Rodeo, which holds the answer to just about every question one would think to ask about the state’s invasive, Jack Russell-sized rodent. Come for the hunt, to see who bags the biggest rat! Stay for the cook-off, to find out who can improve on Paul Prudhomme’s “nutria popcorn” recipe! But when the Nutria Toss begins, you may want to take a few steps back.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

You might not have heard of the Wilhelm scream but chances are you heard it hundreds of times. I love this story.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk