Hamilton's Khaki Field King; Furlan Marri's Meteorite Octa Mechaquartz; A Fun Little Dennison; Gagà's Diver; Universal Genève Taps Its Art Deco Past; Singer Releases Coolest Dual-Time Watch On

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I’m on the road to Geneva today, so do excuse any mistakes I might have made. Get ready for a huge release day tomorrow as I report from Watches and Wonders.

In this issue

• Hamilton Updates The Rugged Khaki Field King Collection

• Furlan Marri Releases The Meteorite Octa Mechaquartz Limited Edition

• Dennison Introduces The Petite ALD Mini, With A Very Cool Dual Time Setup

• Gagà Laboratorio Pivots From Quirky Dress Watches To Quirky Divers

• Universal Genève Taps Its Art Deco Past For The Revived Cabriolet Collection

• Singer Releases One Of The Coolest Dual-Time Watches On The Market

👂What’s new

1/

Hamilton Updates The Rugged Khaki Field King Collection

Hamilton's Khaki Field is one of those watches that has been covered so many times on these pages that it barely needs an introduction. What it does need, occasionally, is a refresh — and the Khaki Field King is Hamilton's attempt at threading a needle between the rugged original and something you could wear to the office. The King name revives a post-WWII civilian line, when Hamilton was shifting attention away from military supply contracts and toward people who wanted the same legibility without the combat-ready dressing. The Khaki Field King isn't a replacement, it's a more relaxed interpretation of the same DNA.

The case is 40mm wide and 11.8mm thick, stainless steel with alternating brushed and polished surfaces, a flat bezel, and the rounded crown protectors the Khaki Field is known for. Water resistance sits at 100 meters, up from the 50 meters on some recent Khaki variants. Sapphire crystal on top. A sensible, sturdy package with no real complaints.

Where the King distinguishes itself is the dial. Hamilton has removed the 24-hour track and the minute numeral markers, leaving a simplified minutes ring with Super-LumiNova plots at five-minute intervals. The day-date display, still at noon, sits against a white background for contrast. The peripheral track gets a snailed finish; the center gets a sunburst. It sounds minimal on paper, and it reads that way on the wrist too. Three colorwaysare available : green, blue, and black, all sun-brushed. The syringe hands and arrow-tipped seconds are unchanged, and the lume is the same Super-LumiNova throughout.

Powering it is the H-40 automatic, the in-house variant of Swatch Group's Powermatic 80 caliber running at 21,600vph with an 80-hour power reserve, a Nivachron balance spring for anti-magnetic resistance, and a steel movement holder for added structural rigidity. Two strap options: a three-row steel bracelet with folding clasp, or brown leather with white top-stitching and a pin buckle.

The Hamilton Khaki Field King is available now, priced at €745 on leather and €825 on bracelet. See more on the Hamilton website.

2/

Furlan Marri Releases The Meteorite Octa Mechaquartz Limited Edition

Furlan Marri started as a Kickstarter project in 2021 and has spent every year since proving that mechaquartz doesn't have to mean compromise. They've covered a lot of ground, from the Sahara collaboration to the Cornes de Vache in blue to last year's Hunter Case, but the twin-register chronograph on the VK64 is where the brand began and it's where they keep returning. The Meteorite Octa takes that same formula and drops a slice of the Muonionalusta meteorite into it. It's the most dramatic version of the base watch they've made so far.

The case is 38mm wide and 12mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 46mm — a set of dimensions Furlan Marri has stuck with across most of their lineup. It fits, it wears comfortably, and it keeps the vintage-inspired proportions within grasp. The 316L stainless steel has mixed finishing: perlage, polishing, satin brushing, and deep embossing on the case back. The domed sapphire crystal has five anti-reflective coatings plus a fingerprint-resistant treatment. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The Muonionalusta meteorite is around 4.5 billion years old and hit Earth slightly over a million years ago. It was found in northern Sweden in 1906 and is among the most thoroughly studied meteorites on record. What makes it useful for dials are the Widmanstätten patterns visible after polishing — crystalline structures formed during cooling over geological time that cannot be reproduced in a lab. Every dial is genuinely different. The sandwich construction adds depth, and Roman numerals with a domed outer pulsometer ring give the dial enough visual structure to remain legible despite the busy stone underneath.

The movement is the Seiko VK64 mechaquartz: quartz-controlled timekeeping with a mechanical chronograph module. You get the accuracy of quartz and the tactile push of a mechanical chrono. Battery life runs roughly three years with normal use. Two straps come in the box with quick-release spring bars — black textured leather and white smooth leather, both with a stainless steel pin buckle.

The Furlan Marri Meteorite Octa is available for pre-order now, priced at CHF 720. See more on the Furlan Marri website.

3/

Dennison Introduces The Petite ALD Mini, With A Very Cool Dual Time Setup

Dennison has been on quite a streak since they relaunched. The ALD collection, with Emmanuel Gueit's cushion-shaped case, has produced some fantastic releases in a short amount of time — stone dials, a marquetry collaboration with Time+Tide, a twin-display that blew minds. Now, the ALD Mini takes that same formula and compresses it to 24.2mm by 22mm, which is a very fun size. But even more fun is how they handle the idea of displaying two time zones.

The case measures 24.2mm wide by 22mm tall and just 6mm thick, available in stainless steel and gold PVD. You get a sapphire crystal up top, and a natural diamond set into each crown, 0.044 carats per stone, FG, VS2. But if you want more diamonds, you can get the diamond-set configuration that comes with 0.85ct of integrated stones across the watch's surfaces, giving it a lot of shine. Water resistance is 30 meters, as with every ALD watch before it.

The dial options are all natural stone: Malaysian Pink Jade, Jadeite, Red Jasper, Onyx, Mother of Pearl, Malachite, Tiger's Eye, Lapis Lazuli, and Aventurine. No two are identical. Where things get hilarious is with the Dual Time configuration which stacks two cases one above the other, connected via a quick-release system, so the two displays can be separated and worn independently. Dennison really likes making groovy watches. Dual Time combinations include Red Jasper with Onyx, Jadeite with Lapis Lazuli, MOP with Malachite and Jade and Aventurine.

Both versions run the Swiss Ronda quartz calibre 1032, which helps keep these cases at a super slim 6mm. The watch comes on a choice of single or double leather straps, or a bark-mesh bracelet in steel and gold PVD.

The ALD Mini starts from €1,030 for the standard stainless steel and gold PVD models, with diamond-set configurations from $5,600 / €4,870 / CHF 4,490. See more on the Dennison website.

4/

Gagà Laboratorio Pivots From Quirky Dress Watches To Quirky Divers

Everything Gagà Laboratorio has released so far — the Labormatic, the Luce, the Azzurro, the Champagne — orbits around one idea: a five-segment dial with a noon crown and a case made from seven parts that looks like nothing else in the industry. The brand has built real goodwill here, and I've loved them since launch. It’s hard to call those watches dress watches, because they had a bit of chunk, but they were simple, everyday watches. Now, however, they’re making a more serious watch — a diver. This is the new Gagà Laboratorio Aqualab. Still a Gagà Laboratorio, but with a brand new look and size.

The case is stainless steel, 44mm wide and 15mm thick, with water resistance rated to 200 meters. Out back you get a screw-down caseback and on top is a double-curved sapphire crystal. The internal rotating bezel is controlled by a dual-crown configuration, which keeps the case flanks clean at the cost of some learning curve, as the crowns are positioned at 12 and 6 o’clock.

The display is pure Gagà. Rather than a conventional hour hand and minute hand reading off a dial ring, the Aqualab gives you a digital-style hour window, an analog minute indication, and a central seconds disc. Super-LumiNova is applied extensively. The overall effect is layered and kinetic, closer in spirit to the Labormatic than the case shape might suggest. Three versions are on offer: Aquamarine, which leans into a lighter coastal palette; Anthracite, which pushes the watch toward instrument territory; and Silver Grey and Blue, the most versatile of the three.

Inside is the La Joux-Perret G100 automatic, running at 4Hz with a 68-hour power reserve. Same calibre as every other Gagà Laboratorio to date. The watch ships on an HNBR rubber strap, the right call for a diver at this spec level.

The Gagà Laboratorio Aqualab is priced at CHF 3,900 excluding VAT. See more on the Gagà Laboratorio website.

5/

Universal Genève Taps Its Art Deco Past For The Revived Cabriolet Collection

The Universal Genève revival has been quite the ordeal. Last Wednesday, the brand came back to the world stage with something like 30 or 40 new watches, which means that I have to cover them over days and days. Today, we’re covering the five references of the Cabriolet, whose design reaches back to 1933 and the original Ideo, a reversible rectangular watch that arrived at the absolute peak of Art Deco.

The case is rectangular, 24.2mm wide and 8mm thick with a lug-to-lug of 45mm. The reversible construction works differently from a Reverso: it opens, pivots on a hinge, and closes rather than sliding in a cage. A slightly concave caseback improves ergonomics. Case materials range from stainless steel through 18k rose gold to a diamond-set rose gold version (44 stones, 0.9 carats total). Water resistance is 100 meters.

Vertically stacked numerals in Cassandre's Bifur typeface fill the dial, and it's a strong choice — geometric, slightly theatrical, unmistakably of its era. Small seconds sits at six. No lume, which is expected and fine. The four Prêt-à-Porter executions are blue on steel, white on brown alligator, black on rose gold bracelet, and red with a diamond-set case. The Cabriolet Capsule — officially the De Lempicka — goes further: velvet teal dial, 18k rose gold case, and a hand-painted miniature of Tamara de Lempicka's work on the caseback, executed by miniaturist Isabelle Villa. If you're buying the black dial on the gold nine-row bracelet, I understand you completely.

Powering all of them is the new Universal Genève calibre UG-111, manually wound, 3mm thick, running at 21,600 vph with a 72-hour power reserve. Strap options vary by model: the steel and diamond versions come on alligator leather with a folding buckle, the rose gold versions on a matching nine-row bracelet. The Capsule offers both.

Pricing starts at $12,500 for the steel blue-dial model, with the white dial in rose gold at $32,977, the diamond-set red at $38,000, and the black dial on the gold bracelet at $63,300. At the top, the Cabriolet De Lempicka Capsule, limited to 15 pieces across three artworks, sits at $64,500. Available now at the Universal Genève website.

6/

Singer Releases One Of The Coolest Dual-Time Watches On The Market

Singer Reimagined announced the DiveTrack at Watches and Wonders 2024, and I called it the single most mesmirizing dive watch I'd ever seen. Whatever skepticism I had about a California car restorer making serious watches evaporated completely that day and I fell in love with the DiveTrack. Now, it’s time for a simpler variation of that very cool watch, but with very little compromise.

The DualTrack is 43mm wide and 15mm thick, in stainless steel with a circular brushed finish and mirror-polished chamfers on the lugs. The lugs themselves use an openwork architecture that tightens the silhouette more than the previous Singer cases did. There’s a domed sapphire crystal on top, exhibition caseback with sapphire below. Water resistance is 100 meters. The corrector for the second time zone sits at nine o'clock and advances the 24-hour disc in one-hour steps.

The dial is velvet black with a tone-on-tone chequered chapter decal that references motorsport with enough restraint to not be obnoxious about it. A circular brushed gold flange carries the minutes and seconds scale around the perimeter. But you might have noticed that there’s no second hand for the second time zone. That’s because the second time zone is indicated by a thin hand that sits at six o’clock of the sandblasted anodized aluminum disc in the bezel. The entire bezel insert travels as time advances, which is just so incredibly cool. There are two bezel colors: SR511-3 gets Meridian Green with beige lume, SR511-4 gets Horizon Red.

The movement is Calibre ST5001, manually wound, beating at 28,800 vph with a six-day power reserve driven by four barrels arranged in two parallel pairs. Singer says the four-barrel configuration keeps torque flat across the entire 144-hour reserve. The watch ships on a caoutchouc strap with a brushed stainless steel folding buckle.

The Singer Reimagined DualTrack is available now, priced at CHF 22,500 excluding. See more on the Singer 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

• Jewels that would be worth millions today were scooped up in twin burglaries in Los Angeles in 1961. Could it have been George Dordigan, a man who enjoyed the finer things in life, someone said to be the kept man of a local doctor, a man who also happens to be the author’s grandfather? Intriguing, no? But after reading this piece, you may just think that Dordigan and his involvement in the heists are not the most interesting elements of the story.

• In Canada, micromobility vehicles like e-scooters, e-bikes, and e-skateboards are appearing faster on the streets than the government can create and enforce laws. For Maclean’s, Caitlin Walsh Miller reports on the inconsistent, unenforced, and sometimes contradictory safety regulations across provinces and cities; the surge of injuries and emergency-room visits in hospitals and pediatric trauma centers; and the lack of parental awareness around how fast e-scooters can go.

• Did the chatbot Claude select a girls’ school in Iran as a bombing target? In this searing analysis, Kevin T. Baker argues that this question obscures the real concern about AI-fueled air wars. The US military’s quest to collapse the “kill chain,” or “the steps between detecting something and destroying it,” is the result of human decision-making intended to take humans out of decision-making, leaving ample room for error and tragedy.

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One video you have to watch today

Everyone is going crazy over this Nine Inch Noize set at Coachella and I get it.

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Vuk