Hamilton’s New Khaki Navy Scuba And Scuba GMTs; Slimmer Seiko Astron GPS Chronos; The New Briston Clubmaster Is Fantastic; Marathon Marks 250 Years Of The US; Lange's Cabaret Tourbillon In Honeygold

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. We’re back for another great week of watches. Have you seen the chaos over the AP x Swatch launch over the weekend? That wasn’t cool at all.

In this issue

• Hamilton’s Khaki Navy Scuba and Khaki Navy Scuba GMT Gets New Textures And Colors

• The New Seiko Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time Chronograph Gets A Slimmer Profile And New Movement

• Briston Clubmaster Legend Diver Ocean Adds More Maritime Themes To Their Acetate Diver

• Marathon Releases A Limited-Edition Pilot's Navigator To Mark America's 250th Birthday With Full Commitment

• A. Lange & Söhne Cabaret Tourbillon Returns In Honeygold With A Black-Rhodiumed Dial

👂What’s new

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Hamilton’s Khaki Navy Scuba and Khaki Navy Scuba GMT Gets New Textures And Colors

The Khaki Navy Scuba has always been a very traditional diver — solid, predictable, and well priced. Late last year, for example, they gave the Khaki Navy Scuba a black and red dial. It was a fine watch, but nothing exactly remarkable. Now, for 2026, Hamilton is refreshing the collection with new colors and textures. Textures that look quite familiar and might be a bit controversial. Oh, and we’re also getting a steel Scuba GMT version.

The 40mm case hasn't changed: stainless steel, brushed, 40mm wide and 12.95mm thick, with a screw-down crown flanked by lateral guards and a screwed caseback. The unidirectional 60-minute bezel comes in black or blue sandblasted aluminium. Water resistance is 100m. But the thing is, those are the stats for the regular Khaki Navy Scuba. The Scuba GMT comes in a substantially larger steel case with brushed with polished accents on the crown, bezel notches, and the central bracelet link. That one measures 43mm wide and a whopping 13.9mm thick. It also gets 300 meters of water resistance, so that’s something at least.

The 40mm's big news is the stamped and lacquered wave-textured dial, which does carry a whiff of the Omega Seamaster. The similarity is reinforced by the addition of dot indices alongside the existing wedge-shaped markers at 12, 3, 6, and 9. Five variants are available: three black dials (one with a turquoise flange), a silver, and a blue. The date window at 4:30 has a white disc. The GMT's dials are simpler: solid black or a blue gradient with a grained finish, and it swaps the dive bezel for a 24-hour scale with a red central GMT hand.

The 40mm is powered by Hamilton's H-10, the Powermatic 80 derivative with an 80-hour power reserve and Nivachron hairspring. The GMT gets the H-14, the same base movement adapted for GMT function. Both are solid, reliable options with a very useful power reserve. The 40mm comes on a three-row stainless steel bracelet with folding buckle; the black and turquoise models include a matching rubber strap with pin buckle. The GMT's black dial variants come with either bracelet or rubber strap; while the blue is offered on the bracelet only.

The Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba 40mm is priced at €895. The Khaki Navy Scuba GMT is priced at €1,445. See more on the Hamilton website.

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The New Seiko Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time Chronograph Gets A Slimmer Profile And New Movement

When Seiko introduced a sleeker, less gadgety generation of the Astron GPS Solar a couple of years back, the idea was simple: a high-tech quartz watch didn't need to look like a piece of aviation equipment from a sci-fi movie. That direction continues with the new Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time Chronograph, which gets a new calibre, a redesigned interchangeable strap system, and a quartet of references.

The case is made out of titanium with a super-hard coating, measuring 43.4mm across and 12.4mm thick — noticeably slimmer than its predecessor. I’ve always been puzzled by how thick these watches were, considering the fact that quartz movements can be made quite thin. The biggest structural news is a push-button strap release built directly into the end links, letting you swap between the titanium bracelet and silicone straps without tools. It's expected to have this on most watches these days, but still a notable upgrade. You get a sapphire crystal on top, and 100m water resistance.

All four references share the angular case design and multi-layered dial architecture the Astron is known for. The HAB001 comes with a dark blue dial, the HAB002 goes grey-and-blue, and the HAB003 adds gold-tone accents and ships on a black silicone strap only, no bracelet. The HAB004 is a 2,000-piece anniversary limited edition with a light blue dial and a matching blue-and-white silicone strap alongside the titanium bracelet.

The new Calibre 5X63 GPS Solar is perhaps the biggest update. It connects to GPS satellites to set the correct local time and adjust for daylight saving automatically, keeps a perpetual calendar accurate for decades, and runs a 1/20th-second chronograph. On its own without a satellite fix, it’s accurate to ±15 seconds per month. Solar charging means no battery hassle, and Seiko rates the power reserve to six months on a full charge.

The Seiko Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time Chronograph collection is available in June 2026. Pricing: HAB003 at €2,700; HAB001 and HAB002 at €2,800; HAB004 (limited to 2,000 pieces, includes titanium bracelet and additional silicone strap) at €3,000. See more on the Seiko website.

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Briston Clubmaster Legend Diver Ocean Adds More Maritime Themes To Their Acetate Diver

Briston has been doing interesting things with acetate cases for years now, and I've been a fan since I first discovered the Clubmaster Legend Diver back in late 2024. That watch had everything going for it — the cushion case wrapped in tortoiseshell cellulose acetate, the Miyota 8315, and a price that was very good. The new Clubmaster Legend Diver Ocean takes the same bones and gives the dial a redesign, this time leaning hard into the oceanic theme.

The case is unchanged from what we know: 40mm wide, 40mm long, and 13.4mm thick, in either tortoiseshell acetate or stainless steel. The unidirectional bezel has a sapphire insert, the crown screws in, and water resistance is 200 meters. Given that acetate and prolonged saltwater exposure is a combination I've personally had mixed experiences with — my faded and cracked acetate glasses can confirm — the steel version might be the more sensible choice for actual diving, but the acetate looks so good it's a difficult choice.

The new dial is great. Both versions get a 3D moulded wave texture across the surface. The acetate edition gets a white dial, the steel a deep oceanic blue. Hour markers are applied numerals coated in Super-LumiNova, with baton and arrow-shaped hands that are also lumed. A date window sits at 3 o'clock. The two versions are also distinguished by their seconds hand and crown band color — green on the acetate, blue on the steel.

Inside is the Miyota calibre 8315, the same movement as the original Diver, beating at 21,600vph with a 60-hour power reserve. Both versions have screw-in stainless steel casebacks. The watches ship on FKM rubber straps with a quick release system..

The Briston Clubmaster Legend Diver Ocean in acetate is €850, the steel version is €875. See more on the Briston website.

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Marathon Releases A Limited-Edition Pilot's Navigator To Mark America's 250th Birthday With Full Commitment

Marathon is a Canadian brand with a long history of supplying MIL-SPEC watches to the United States Department of Defense, and the Pilot's Navigator sits at the center of that relationship. The watch traces it’s origin to a 1986 collaboration with Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, which makes it a natural canvas for a limited edition ahead of what is shaping up to be a summer of relentless American anniversary content. Marathon has gotten in on the act early, and they sure committed to the concept.

The case is 41mm wide and 11.5mm thick, in stainless steel, finished with black ion-plating. The anthracite coating, Marathon says, is a reference to "the twilight's last gleaming" from the national anthem. Now if that isn’t a walk on the thin edge between corny and a good idea, I don’t know what is. The sapphire crystal is surrounded by a bidirectional 12-hour rotating bezel, and the crown screws down to achieve 100 meters of water resistance.

The dial carries a "1776" stamp just below 12 o'clock, surrounded by a ring of stars that nod to the Betsy Ross flag. The single red tritium tube at 12 is explained as a reference to "the rockets' red glare." It is, objectively, a lot, but it might work for select few people. But despite that, the overall effect is more restrained than the concept suggests.

The movement is a Sellita SW200 — robust, reliable, and nobody buying a military-heritage pilot's watch wants an exotic calibre they'll have trouble servicing. The watch ships on bison leather, a nod to America's national mammal (officially designated in 2016). The display caseback is new for Marathon, a first for the Navigator line, and features an engraving of "In God We Trust" alongside other patriotic details.

250 pieces will be made, shipping around July 4th at exactly $1,776. That’s a lot of nodding being done there. See more on the Marathon website.

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A. Lange & Söhne Cabaret Tourbillon Returns In Honeygold With A Black-Rhodiumed Dial

The Cabaret is the odd one out in A. Lange & Söhne's lineup — rectangular in a sea of round, Art Deco in spirit when the brand leans toward the austere. First introduced in 1997, it evolved further in 2008 with a stop-seconds mechanism for a tourbillon, something that had been considered impossible the complication. The watch was discontinued in 2013, briefly revived in a platinum Handwerkskunst edition in 2021, and now returns again in Honeygold, the brand's proprietary alloy.

The case stays true to the original proportions: 29.5mm wide, 39.2mm tall, and 10.3mm thick. Honeygold is a harder, slightly cooler-toned alloy than conventional gold, which suits the Cabaret's geometry. The curved profile, stepped bezel, and sculpted lugs are carried over from previous models and they look mighty fine. You’ll find sapphire crystals front and bottom.

The dial is made from solid Honeygold and then black-rhodiumed, so what you see is a dark, near-matte base against which the hand-brushed relief elements catch and return light in warm gold. Roman numerals and hour markers are applied on top of that, and the oversized date sits in its aperture as usual. At six o'clock, the tourbillon sits with the upper bridge and cage polished to a mirror level. It is a serious-looking dial.

The movement is calibre L042.1, shaped to fit the rectangular case and comprising 370 components, of which 84 belong to the tourbillon. Three-quarter plate in untreated German silver with Glashütte ribbing, screwed gold chatons, blued screws, and hand-engraved cocks are all things you expect and get. The stop-seconds tourbillon halts the balance inside the rotating cage when the crown is pulled, allowing accurate setting to the second. Twin barrels provide 120 hours of power reserve at 21,600 vibrations per hour. The watch comes on a dark brown alligator strap with a matching Honeygold buckle.

The Cabaret Tourbillon Honeygold is limited to 50 pieces, with pricing upon request — which is standard Lange practice at this level. But also, it’s going to be around €300,000. See more on the Lange 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

• Bill Gates was the monopolistic father figure who Silicon Valley’s young founders rebelled against—and, in so rebelling, became. His reputation rose and fell; then rose and fell again, most recently because of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Ben Tarnoff considers Gates’s legacy in the context of a new biography about the Microsoft founder and a new memoir by the man himself.

• What happens when a writer who finds it “tricky to open up to humans” is tasked to make an AI companion and then write about the friendship? Walrus writer Thea Lim spent months with an avatar she created through Replika and attempted to have real conversations with it, but she found she could never quite buy in. What begins as an overview of the booming AI companion industry (Replika had 35 million users as of November 2025) evolves into something more intimate and thought-provoking: an account of the emptiness in Lim’s manufactured companionship, and a meditation on why true friendship, with all its risk, friction, and loss, can’t be optimized away.

• Over six months, Viola Zhou works her way into the scene of Chinese researchers gathering in Silicon Valley to make their name in the burgeoning artificial-intelligence industry. “Everything else has become irrelevant,” one tells her. Adds another, “Other things are just not as cool.” Zhou, who briefly lives alongside some of her subjects at a certain Facebook founder’s former residence, creates a complex (and occasionally comical) study of singleminded ambition set against professional and geopolitical anxieties.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I generally avoid posting watch-related videos here, but this one was just too fun to skip. There’s a sequel to it you shouldn’t miss, also.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk