Longines Has Some New Things With The Conquest Collection; A Rose Gold PVD, And Red Dial Quartz, Tissot PRX; The New Vulcain Skindiver Chrono; Chanel's J12 Bleu; And A Weird De Bethune Diver

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Easter is this Sunday, so we decided to take a little family trip to the coast. This shouldn’t cause any disruptions to the newsletter, but I ask for your understanding if tomorrow’s edition is a bit late.

In this issue:

• Longines Refreshes The Conquest 38mm and 41mm With New Rubber Straps In Classic Colors

• There’s a New Mechanical PRX In Rose Gold PVD, And A Duo Of Quartz Models With A Red Sunbrust Dial

• The Vulcain Skindiver Chronograph Is A Great New Diver-Chrono Combination

• Chanel Introduces New J12 Collection In A Great Shade Of Blue Ceramic

• De Bethune Releases A Completely Different Kind Of Diver With Some Cool Lighting

👂What’s new

1/

Longines Refreshes The Conquest 38mm and 41mm With New Rubber Straps In Classic Colors

It’s been some two or three years since Longines turned the Conquest line into their most versatile offering, and it seems that they are still not done. Following a major expansion of the model range last year, we now have new colors added to both the smaller 38mm version and the 41mm version. And they all get new rubber strap options.

The great thing about the three-hand Conquests is that they come in so many sizes, making them an ideal starter-luxury watch for so many people. Available in 30mm, 34mm, 38mm, and 41mm, Longines decided to limit these updates to what have to be their most popular offerings — the 38mm and 41mm. Regardless of which of the two sizes you look at, the stainless steel cases are fairly slim at 10.9mm On top are sapphire crystals, with a fixed polished bezel on top. Water resistance is 100 meters, thanks to a screw-down crown.

The dials are very familiary, obviously. They come in classic colors for the Conquest — blue green and black, all with the recognizable sunray brushing from the centre and a snailed inner ring. Both versions also feature a date window at 6 o’clock and have the same polished applied markers and polished hands with lume in them.

Inside both versions is the calibre L888.5, which is an ETA movement made on the 2892 base. It beats at 3.5Hz and has a 72 hour power reserve. But the biggest upgrade have to be the rubber straps that you can choose instead of a steel bracelet. The rubber is color matched to the dial and integrated into the case with steel end-links that give the watch a very 1970s look. The straps close with a double safety steel folding clasp that has a micro adjust.

The new Longines Conquests on rubber are available now as part of the regular collection and are priced at €2,200, regardless of size. See more on the Longines website.

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There’s a New Mechanical PRX In Rose Gold PVD, And A Duo Of Quartz Models With A Red Sunbrust Dial

For a while there, it seemed like Tissot was trying to escape the success of the PRX. The model was such an immense hit for the brand that they struggle to find a next hit. And seeing how there are already almost 60 references in the collection, it’s hard to them to find angles for new models. But here we are, with three new PRX watches, all of which are very good looking, and also very different. On one side we have a mechanical rose gold PVD version with a blue waffle dial, and its complete opposite, a quartz PRX in two sizes and a red dial without the waffle.

You know this case by heart now, with its integrated bracelet. It measures 40mm wide, 10.9mm thick and has a 44mm lug-to-lug. Sapphire crystals on top and bottom, and you get 100 meters of water resistance. What’s new on this case is the rose gold PVD coat, which actually looks pretty good. The rose gold case works perfectly with the dark blue dial which has the embossed pattern, applied markers and hands in the same rose gold color, and a rose gold framed date window at 3. Inside, you’ll find the Powermatic 80, a familiar movement which has a Nivachron antimagnetic hairspring, beats at 3Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve.

The new Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 40mm in rose gold PVD is available now, as part of the regular collection, with a price tag of €895. See more on the Tissot website.

But it’s not just the gold and blue mechanical watch they just released. There are two more new PRX watches. They are completely the opposite of the rose and blue version, not just with the quartz movement, but also with a completely different dial. You can get this quartz PRX in either the large size, which measures 40mm wide and 10.4mm thick, or in the smaller that measures 35mm wide and 9.6mm thick. They both come in stainless steel cases, with no coatings. This is not the first time that the PRX gets a sunburst finish on the dial, but it might be the best looking one. The shade of red is just fantastic, and it’s paired with silver markers and hands. Inside, you’ll find the ETA F06.115 or F05.115, respectively. They both come on stainless steel bracelets.

The new quartz powered Tissot PRX duo with red dials is available now, both at the same price point — €395. See more on the Tissot website.

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The Vulcain Skindiver Chronograph Is A Great New Diver-Chrono Combination

A skindiver, if you’re not familiar, is a genre of diver that became increasingly popular in the 1960s. While actual professional divers demanded robust water resistance and were willing to trade an oversized case for more depth, casual divers and swimmers who just wanted to have some fun in the water appreciated the format of the skin diver which came in with a lower water resistance, but also a more compact size. One of the more famous skindivers in history, has been the Vulcain Skindiver Nautique. As part of the robust revival of Vulcain, the brand has recently brought back the Skindiver Nautique, and now they’re introducing a new version of it — the new Vulcain Skindiver Chronograph. And while I adore a dive chronograph, one of the rarest combinations in the watch world, how is Vulcain going to compromise the inherently small size of a skindiver and the thickness of a chronograph? Let’s see.

Well, as it turns out, this isn’t an original watch. Back in the 60s, Vulcain actually made a chrono version of the Skindiver. At least that’s what Vulcain claims, it’s a super rare watch. So, how did they fare? 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. Especially considering the fact that there is a domed sapphire crystal on top. Surrounding the crystal is a serrated bezel with a black ceramic that has both a 60-minute dive scale and a much smaller 12-hour, which is cool.

There are two dial options, one black and one white, and they’re both great looking. 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. The black version has a fauxtina look with orange accents on the scales and sub-dials (which are silver), while the white version has plain white details and black subdials for a panda look.

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 a whole slew of leather and rubber straps, or on a vintage-inspired single-link brushed steel bracelet.

The new Vulcain Skindiver Chronograph can be preordered now and it’s priced at €2,700 on leather or rubber, and €2,980 on the steel bracelet. See more on the Vulcain website.

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Chanel Introduces New J12 Collection In A Great Shade Of Blue Ceramic

Chanel is very often called a fashion watch brand and lumped with the rest of the fashion brands that buy already finished watches from China, add their logo to them, and sell them at multiples of profit. But the fact is, Chanel is actually a pretty good watchmaker, what with their part ownership in the Kenissi manufacture which makes movements for Tudor. And at Watches & Wonders, they introduced a band new collection of J12 watches, one of their most famous timepieces. Now, it comes in a wonderful blue ceramic.

The new J12 Bleu collection will be much larger, but for now we get two blue ceramic models that share the same 38mm wide case. On top is a black coated steel bezel that has a matte blue ceramic insert with wedges emulating baguette-cut stones. The crown is also made out of black stainless steel, screws down and gives you 200 meters of water resistance.

While the two watches have the same case, they have two completely different approaches to the dial. While one embraces its sportiness with glossy black varnished Arabic numerals and a date window at 4:30, the other goes full jewelry watch with a blue varnished dial with 12 blue baguette-cut sapphire indices and no date window. Both have black baton hour and minute hands with lumed inserts and a recessed central area which has a black railway-style track and a crosshair.

Inside is the automatic calibre 12.1, a proprietary movement from Kenissi which is COSC certified, beats at 4Hz and has a 70 hour power reserve. Those stats sound very familiar for a movement from Kenissi. The watches come on a matte blue ceramic bracelet with steel triple-folding clasp.

The new Chanel J12 Bleu will both be limited editions, with a yet unspecified number of watches made, and priced at $10,800 for the version with no sapphires and then $24,350 for the sapphire indices version. You can see the regular version here and then the sapphire one here.

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De Bethune Releases A Completely Different Kind Of Diver With Some Cool Lighting

Despite being a chronograph, which is not often seen in dive watches, the Vulcain I mentioned above is still a very classic watch. Even a classic dive watch. What certainly isn’t a classic dive watch is the De Bethune we have here. It’s the DB28GS is the most sporty of the De Bethune watches, and with the new De Bethune DB28GS Swordfish, it’s a very unlikely sports watch.

On the outside, this is classic De Bethune. It comes in a huge and intricate case, as you expect from the brand. The case measures 44mm wide and a surprisingly svelte 12.8mm thickness. But along with the regular case, you get those articulated lugs which are mounted at the 3 and 9 positions of the case, allowing for better comfort. The crown sits at 12. The case also gets a black DLC coating, with shiny blued titanium inserts on the lugs. A dive watch must have a diving bezel, and this one has it as well — it’s coin edged and rotates, but it’s so thin, it almost disappears. It also has 105 meters of water resistance.

The dial features the signature large delta-shaped titanium barrel bridge decorated with a microlight engraving and blue borders and the watch has hours represented by spherical blued titanium markers on the external bezel and indicated by the wide openworked black titanium minutes hand with its blued titanium insert. The power reserve indicator is positioned between 9 and 10 o’clock. But coolest of all, while the watch has plenty of lume, it can also generate its own light. Push a button on a case, and the twin barrels start turning a small gear of a dynamo, generating white light to see the dial.

Inside is the manual-winding DB2080 which has twin barrels to power the lights and give you 5 hours of power reserve. Of course, this is a sports watch, which means that it’s placed in a shock absorbing cage inside the case. The watch comes on a textured rubber strap with a black hardened steel folding clasp and comes with an additional canvas and leather strap.

The De Bethune DB28GS Swordfish is available now and if you want to go diving with this beast, it will set you back CHF 105,000. See more on the DE Bethune 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

• Stan Lee once called his daughter, JC, his “greatest creation”—a belief that turned out to be both a gift and a burden. Now in her mid-70s, JC is cut off from the Marvel empire, “frozen out by those who control her father’s legacy.” For Business Insider, Jason Guerrasio writes about the tumultuous life of Lee’s only child, as well as recounts the sad and lonely final years of the comic book legend’s life.

• For Slate, Jonathan Farmer interviews critic A.O. Scott about his popular column for the Books section of the New York Times, in which he analyzes a single poem each month. Scott talks about the interactive technology that allows people to deconstruct a poem with him as they scroll, the encouraging feedback he’s received from readers, and his fascinating approach to craft as a reviewer.

• Physician Bryant Lin co-founded Stanford’s Center for Asian Health Research and Education, where he researched lung cancer in nonsmokers of Asian descent. Last year, he joined that cohort when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His next move—other than beginning treatment—was to launch a class at Stanford in which patient became professor. Tracie White’s profile of Lin is more than a portrait of a man fighting cancer; it’s a look at how that man seeks to wring pedagogy from his struggle, so that others can learn.

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Thanks for reading,
Vuk