Grand Seiko Unifies the Evolution 9 Collection; MeisterSinger Goes Sunburst; The Fully Lumed Amida Digitrend; Makina's Brutalist Chrono; Chopard Dresses The Quattro Spirit 25 In Straw Marquetry

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. You know I’m not a huge Grand Seiko fan, but I’m digging at least half of these new releases.

In this issue

• Grand Seiko Unifies the Evolution 9 Collection With Nine Updated References, And A Long-Overdue Clasp Fix

• The Amida Digitrend OSII Black Adds A Fully Luminous Display To The Open Sapphire

• MeisterSinger Goes Bright With Two Sunburst Panthero Jumping Hours

• Makina Goes Brutalist With Its First Automatic Chronograph

• Chopard Dresses The Quattro Spirit 25 In Rye Straw Marquetry

👂What’s new

1/

Grand Seiko Unifies the Evolution 9 Collection With Nine Updated References, And A Long-Overdue Clasp Fix

The Grand Seiko Evolution 9 collection has always been quite interesting, but it could have been argued that it’s been just a bit of a mess that could use a bit of coherence. Different crystals on different models, titanium here and steel there, a clasp everyone kept complaining about were all facts pulling the collection in different collections. While this update doesn’t dismiss the variances, it does come out with nine references with two movement variants and changes that kind of unify the Evolution 9.

Starting with the headline change, which appears in the Spring Drive models. Every three-hand Spring Drive in the collection now runs the new calibre 9RB2, the Ultra Fine Accuracy movement that debuted last year in the 37mm SLGB003. It is rated to ±20 seconds per year, which makes it the most accurate spring-driven movement in the world. The 9RB2 is smaller and thinner than the 9RA2 it replaces, runs on a single barrel, and holds 72 hours with the power reserve indicator tucked onto the back.

The five Spring Drive references break down into three familiar faces and two new ones. The White Birch SLGB009, Atera Valley SLGB011, and Lake Suwa SLGB013 keep their 40mm cases and their beloved dials, the silvery wood-grain of the Birch, the emerald water pattern of Atera Valley, the rippled Lake Suwa texture. All three now use Ever-Brilliant Steel, Grand Seiko's high-corrosion-resistance alloy, where the Atera Valley was previously titanium. The case is 0.1mm thinner thanks to the new movement, lug-to-lug stays under 48mm, and water resistance remains 100 meters. The new bracelets taper more aggressively than before and finally get the three-step micro-adjustment clasp that lets you tweak fit in 2mm increments without tools. All three are priced at €10,400, available September 2026.

Then the two new ones. The SLGB015 is a 37mm Lake Suwa. It takes the Ever-Brilliant Steel case from the purple Ice Forest SLGB005 and adds the micro-adjust clasp that model went without, then dresses it in the dark blue Lake Suwa pattern for the first time at this size. It is 11.4mm thick and 44.3mm lug-to-lug. Grand Seiko has never made thin watches and is not pretending to start now. This one is priced at €10,400, available early September 2026. The SLGB007 uses the Lake Suwa texture rendered in black for the first time, on a 40mm case. It’s priced at €11,700, available September 2026.

The four Hi-Beat references get a lighter touch. The Night Birch SLGH029, White Birch SLGH031, Green Birch SLGH033, and Genbi Valley SLGH035 all keep the in-house calibre 9SA5, a 5Hz movement with the Dual Impulse Escapement, a free-sprung balance, twin barrels for 80 hours, and a rate of +5 to -3 seconds per day. The 40mm cases stay 11.7mm thick, with a 47mm lug-to-lug and that sharp faceted profile and alternating Zaratsu polish. White Birch and Green Birch get Ever-Brilliant Steel; the Genbi Valley already used it. The Genbi Valley brings back a dial motif missing from the current lineup, a crystalline texture drawn from the river valley of the same name, now in a bluer tone than the 2024 limited edition, and this time not limited. Every Hi-Beat gets the same tapered bracelet and micro-adjust clasp. Price for these is set at €10,400 and you can see all of these watches on the Grand Seiko website.

2/

The Amida Digitrend OSII Black Adds A Fully Luminous Display To The Open Sapphire

If you’ve read my previous articles on the Amida Digitrend, you’ll likely know that I’m a huge fan of the watch. That fondness only became deeper when they released the Digitrend Open Sapphire last year, the groovy version that swapped the steel cover for a chunk of curved sapphire so you could finally see the discs and prisms doing their work. And this new one might be the best one to date. The Digitrend Open Sapphire OSII Black is at the same time more subdued, as it uses a greyscale color scheme, and more expressive since everything is lumed.

The case keeps the wedge profile and the familiar dimensions, 39.6mm by 39mm and 15.6mm thick. It sounds large, and the watch is obviously top heavy, but it wears… it’s difficult to describe. It’s compact and a bit wobbly at the same time. But I like it a lot. Especially with the sapphire cover that is machined from a single block and does double duty as crystal and structure. That makes the watch appear much thinner than it is. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The black-coated steel framework around the jumping-hour module is the new thing. It gives the watch a more technical and structured look. BGW9 Super-LumiNova fills the numerals, and because the sapphire lets in so much more light, the lume is always well charged. The watch still runs on Amida's Light Reflecting Display system, jumping hours and scrolling minutes on horizontal discs, read through the prism that reflects the numbers to the front.

Inside is an in-house module mounted on a Soprod Newton P024 automatic, beating at 4Hz with a 38-hour power reserve. It comes on a black Alcantara strap with orange calfskin lining and quick-release spring bars, with an integrated steel bracelet offered as an option.

The Digitrend OSII Black is limited to 150 pieces, priced at CHF 5,150 on the strap or CHF 5,500 on the bracelet, before taxes. See more on the Amida website.

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MeisterSinger Goes Bright With Two Sunburst Panthero Jumping Hours

MeisterSinger built its name on watches with a single hand, and the’ve done a bunch og them over the past few years. But it’s not the only thing they do. Earlier this year, they launched the Panthero Jumping Hour, and it’s what you would expect: a jump hour at 12 o’clock, an off center minute track and a very cool seconds indicator. Now, after the lacquered black and white editions and the guilloché silver Souscription run, MeisterSinger is adding two sunburst dials to the collection.

The case remains unchanged, which is no complaint. It's stainless steel, 40.5mm wide, mixing brushed, polished, and blasted surfaces, with a slim bezel that pushes the dial opening as wide as it'll go. A sapphire crystal sits up top and a display caseback shows off the back. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The sunburst dials are obviously what this watch is all about. The rays radiate out from the off-centre pivot of the minutes hand rather than the centre of the dial and there are two colorways available: deep blue dial with silver display elements, including the minutes track, the minutes hand, and the rotating sun wheel at 6 o'clock; and a golden-yellow with dark grey components. Both keep the signature sun wheel seconds indicator.

Inside is the calibre MS-JH-01, a Sellita SW300 automatic fitted with a jumping-hour module developed with Dubois-Dépraz. It beats at 4Hz with a 47-hour power reserve, and the rotor is cut into the shape of the fermata symbol from the brand's logo. The watches come on a crocodile-embossed calfskin strap with a folding clasp, brown for the blue dial and cognac for the yellow, with leather, textile, and metal bracelet options also offered.

The Panthero Jumping Hour Sunburst is part of the permanent collection, priced at €6,990. See more on the MeisterSinger website.

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Makina Goes Brutalist With Its First Automatic Chronograph

Most brands, when they do a second generation watch, focus on incremental improvements. Tweak the dimensions, do more with the dial, perhaps upgrade the movement. Not Makina, the Philippine brand known for its industrial design. They just introduced a sequel to the Cassiel and the only thing that the Cassiel II shares with the original is the name. This is a completely new approach to the watch and it’s a brutalist wonderland.

Makina calls the 316L steel case a "chassis," which is quite appropriate. At 42mm wide and 15mm thick it has presence, and the 48mm lug-to-lug means it wears every bit of that. Heavy sandblasting covers the upper surfaces while the four corners of the case have broad polished sides, which also serve as great places to subtly integrate the chronograph pushers. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a thin polished bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial has a hexagonal minute track on the outer edge, dividing the dial into 10-minute sectors in a way I haven’t seen before. It also has a combination of grey channels cut into the black surface, expertly hiding the three sub-dials. Instead of conventional sub-dials with hands, the Cassiel II uses cutouts over fully luminescent rotating discs. More lume can be found on the fork-like split hands and the day-date indicator sits at three o’clock.

Inside is the Valjoux/ETA 7750, beating at 4Hz with a 48-hour power reserve. The functions are conventional: running seconds, chronograph minutes and hours, central chronograph hand. The watch comes on a moulded black rubber strap closed with a sandblasted steel buckle that matches the case.

The Makina Cassiel II is available for presale that closes July 20th, with deliveries from August 10th. During the presale, the price is set at $1,850, after which it goes up to $2,100. See more on the Makina website.

5/

Chopard Dresses The Quattro Spirit 25 In Rye Straw Marquetry

Straw marquetry is one of those crafts that sounds like a gimmick until you see it done well, and Chopard is one of the very few houses doing it in-house rather than farming it out. These two eight-piece editions of the L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 show off exactly how good they are at weaving straw for dials. You get a deep-blue dial in rose gold and a natural, untinted straw dial in yellow gold, and the straw is arranged in a honeycomb motif, a nod to founder Louis-Ulysse Chopard, who took the bee as his symbol.

The case measures 40mm wide and a slim 10.3mm thick, its shape borrowed from the hunter-style pocket watches Louis-Ulysse once made. The case-middle gets a vertical satin brush against a polished bezel and case-back, with a sapphire crystal front and an exhibition back. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Each dial is solid gold beneath the straw, with rye grown in France split strand by strand with a fingernail and laid into the honeycomb by hand. The jumping hour sits in an aperture at 6 o'clock, the minutes is centrally mounted, and it’s all perfectly dramatic.

Inside is the manually wound calibre L.U.C 98.06-L, 4.85mm thick, running at 4Hz with a 192-hour power reserve, equaling eight days. That autonomy comes from Chopard's Quattro system, four stacked barrels coupled in series. The movement has a Phillips terminal curve, a swan's-neck regulator, and the Geneva Seal. Each watch comes on a hand-sewn alligator strap, brown or blue to match, with a solid gold pin buckle.

Both L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 are limited to eight pieces and priced at €76,800. You can see the natural-straw yellow gold, reference 161977-0003, here and the blue rose gold 161977-5011 here.

IAT FEATURE / Nomos Glashütte: In House Or Nothing

Yesterday, I published a long-form article on NOMOS Glashütte that a lot of you liked a lot. I’m leaving a link here for it again in case you missed it.

⏲️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

• Crossword puzzles were launched in the wake of the First World War, and public enthusiasm for them increases in times of world turmoil, as people look for pastimes to distract them from their worries. “Incredibly, for a gaming form that has a decidedly old-fashioned feel to it, crosswords are becoming more popular, not less,” writes Imogen West-Knights. She attended the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut to understand the enduring and increasing popularity of the hobby for Slate.

• As OnlyFans has exploded in popularity, a side industry has emerged: middlemen who encourage young women into the industry, then take a large cut of their earnings. And, of course, it’s a dark, dark world.

• A keyed truck, a warning call, a trooper told to stay away—then silence. Seventy-four days later, gunshots shatter a quiet New Jersey driveway, leaving two dead and a decorated officer at the center of it all. Beneath the prestige, complaints, overtime, and missed alarms flicker. When warning signs surface inside law enforcement, who is left to act, and who is ignored?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

We’re going to have to replace our family wagon soon so I’m actively looking at cars all the time. The Chinese are killing it, electric is still kind of out of the question because we live in an apartment so charging would be a pain, and pretty much every single new car is an SUV. But in reality, the Volvo V90 Cross Country is the ultimate car. And this is the ultimate review of one.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk