Mido Redesigns the Ocean Star 200; Maurice Lacroix Brings Solar To The Pontos S; A Cool Union Glashütte Belisar; Sarpaneva Strips Lunations Down To Nothing; JLC Shrinks the Polaris Date To 40mm

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Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Let me know what you think of the NOMOS feature at the end of the issue. I might start doing these brand focuses that are a bit different to whats readily available if you like them.

In this issue

• Mido Redesigns the Ocean Star 200 From the Ground Up And It’s A Serious Watch

• Maurice Lacroix Brings Solar Power to the Pontos S, With And Without A Chronograph

• The Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Silvretta Classic 2026 Pays Homage To My Favorite Rally Livery

• Sarpaneva Strips the Lunations Down To Almost Nothing. Until You Flip It Over

• Jaeger-LeCoultre Shrinks the Polaris Date to a More Sensible 40mm

👂What’s new

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Mido Redesigns the Ocean Star 200 From the Ground Up And It’s A Serious Watch

Mido has been making water-resistant watches since the 1930s, when its Aquadura cork-sealing system put the brand on the map. The Ocean Star name has anchored its dive lineup since 1959. The latest version of the Ocean Star 200 is the biggest visual overhaul the entry-level diver has had in years. The specs stay close to what they were, but almost everything you actually look at has changed, and the result is sharper and more modern.

The case measures 41mm wide and a slim 11.65mm thick, with a somewhat wearable lug-to-lug of 47.03mm. Mido has given it a more aggressive shape this time, with a broad chamfer running along the top edge and enlarged crown guards. The unidirectional bezel gets bigger numerals on its aluminium insert, which helps legibility. You get a screw-down crown, a double-domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides and 200 meters of water resistance.

The dial is also completely overhauled. The old model left a lot of empty space; this one fills it with a raised flange that frames the dial and pulls the minute track in toward the wearer, alongside chunkier applied indices that give the watch more authority at a glance. The grained, textured surface replaces the flat brushing of before and it comes in four colors: a blue dial with matching bezel, a white dial with silver bezel, full black, and a white dial paired with a black bezel and chapter ring. Mido's orange seconds-hand accent and orange Calibre 80 text are carried on from the previous version.

Inside is the Mido Calibre 80, based on the ETA C07.621, with up to 80 hours of power reserve and a Nivachron balance spring for better resistance to magnetism and temperature swings. It is a proven, three-position-adjusted automatic that does its job. The redesigned three-link steel bracelet has brushed outer links and polished centers, quick-release spring bars, and a diving extension with plenty of adjustment. The black version can also be had on a black rubber strap.

The Mido Ocean Star 200 is available now, priced at CHF 770 for the black dial on a rubber strap and CHF 800 for the other variants on a steel bracelet. See more on the Mido website.

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Maurice Lacroix Brings Solar Power to the Pontos S, With And Without A Chronograph

Solar quartz in a sports watch is not new, but a solar quartz chronograph is still kind of rare. Sure, a couple of the Japanese brands make them, but it’s not as prevalent as you might expect. That’s why it’s nice to see Maurice Lacroix bring light-powered movements to its Pontos S line for the first time, and not just in a three-hander, but also as a chronograph.

Both watches share the same case at 42mm wide and 13mm thick, with a unidirectional rotating aluminum bezel and a screw-down crown flanked by guards. Some of the references, and there’s a bunch of them, get a black or gunmetal DLC coating over the stainless steel, which suits the sporty technical look. The screw-down caseback is engraved with a compass and wave motif, while water resistance is 200 meters..

The dials have a semi-transparent treatment, graded to a smoky finish with roughly 20 to 30 percent translucency so light can reach the solar cells underneath. Color options range from black and blue to a fluorescent orange treatment across the rehaut, hands, and chronograph registers that looks built for summer. Maurice Lacroix has two lume colors here: blue on the minute hand and the first 15 minutes of the bezel, green on the hour hand and markers. The date sits at 6 o'clock on the chronograph and 3 o'clock on the three-hander.

The chronograph has the Swiss-made Ronda 2040.D solar quartz caliber, good for a power reserve of up to five months on a full charge, while the three-hand version uses the Ronda 215 and stretches that to eight months. In both cases the battery itself is rated to last more than ten years before replacement. The watches can be had on FKM rubber straps in black, blue, or fluorescent orange, plus a five-row satin-and-polished steel bracelet.

The Pontos S Solar starts at CHF 990 on rubber, CHF 1,090 on steel, and CHF 1,250 for the green fluorescent rubber version. The Pontos S Solar Chronograph starts at CHF 1,290 on rubber, CHF 1,390 on steel, and CHF 1,500 for the orange fluorescent rubber version. See more on the Maurice Lacroix website.

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The Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Silvretta Classic 2026 Pays Homage To My Favorite Rally Livery

There are many iconic racing liveries that have found their way to watch faces over the years. A lot of them come from Formula 1 and Le Mans, and rightfully so, as they had some of the most recognizable race cars of all time. But a bit less represented are the rally liveries which, I would argue, are often even better than what you could find in F1. The blue and gold Subaru colors, the Camel and Rothmans liveries found on endurance rally cars, the absolutely iconic Martini branding on Lancias… These are all sensational. But one of my favorites are the various Audi Quatro liveries from the 1980s, a wild and instantly recognizable combination of white, red, yellow and silver. It’s that colorway that’s now finding its way to the Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Silvretta Classic 2026, a traditional release for UG as the sponsor of the Silvretta Classic, an Alpine vintage rally.

The case is 44mm wide and 15.01mm thick, made out of 316L steel, with the screwed flanks that define the Belisar line. If the size, which includes a 52.99mm lug-to-lug, wasn’t chunky enough, you get pronounced mushroom pushers and a chunky crown on the right side to make the watch even larger. This is a big watch and makes no apology for it. On top is a domed sapphire crystal and water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is styled after the Audi livery and it’s quite obvious, in a good way. The base of the dial is white, with a silver granulated center section that’s supposed to look like a finish of a cast engine block. A yellow minute track with Super-LumiNova dots runs the outer edge, the black tachymeter scale and cockpit-style subdials with red accents lean hard into the motorsport reference, and the black PVD hands are lumed.

Inside is the automatic calibre UNG-27.S1, with hours, minutes, small seconds, a date window, a chronograph with 60-second, 30-minute and 12-hour counters, a silicon balance spring and 65 hours of power reserve. The watch comes with three quick-change straps: a yellow textile strap with white stripes designed to clear a racing suit, a steel bracelet, and a black leather strap with yellow lining.

The Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Silvretta Classic 2026 (Ref. D009.427.18.011.09) is limited to 200 pieces, priced at €3,450. See more on the Union Glashütte website.

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Sarpaneva Strips the Lunations Down To Almost Nothing. Until You Flip It Over

Stepan Sarpaneva built his reputation on watches that look like they were designed by someone who finds restraint physically painful. The Lunations, from 2019, was peak Sarpaneva: the Korona case, a skeletonised dial doing about six things at once, the whole thing theatrical and dense. In the best way possible. But now, with the new Lunations Eclipse “My Kind of Madness”, Sarpaneva calms down, with a more subdued display. Sarpaneva says he's gotten more interested in taking things away than adding them, and for a man whose work has always been maximal, that's a real shift. But don’t be fooled. Flip the watch over and you’ll see something pretty, pretty cool.

The case is the familiar Korona, cut from high-grade Finnish Outokumpu stainless steel and finshed in a mix of brushed and polished surfaces. It measures 42mm wide and just 9.8mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 46mm. Those are surprising numbers, as the watch appears to be much larger in pictures. At least much bigger than a 46mm lug-to-lug watch would. There are sapphire crystals on top and bottom, and on the side, at 4 o’clock is the two-part crown that has Sarpaneva's moon-face motif. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is three-part stainless steel, hand-finished into that architectural lattice Sarpaneva fans will recognise immediately, and it comes either in pure metal or with hand-painted Super-LumiNova. The hands are the same colour as the dial and barely contrast against it, sometimes vanishing into the lattice altogether. With no running seconds and no date, the whole thing is about texture and form rather than reading the time quickly. The playful moon phase, his signature, is still here, but you only see it through the back.

Powering it is the in-house Moonment calibre, manually wound, beating at 3 Hz with a 60-hour power reserve. The moon-phase mechanism was calculated by Andreas Strehler to drift just one day every 14,000 years, and the Moonface relief on the movement is executed in yellow, red, or white gold depending on the version, set against ruthenium plating and matte finishing. It ships on a handmade Sarpaneva leather strap with a steel pin buckle, with an optional Moonbridge steel bracelet available for an extra €2,500.

The Sarpaneva Lunations Eclipse "My Kind of Madness" is priced at €44,500. The irony of naming your most restrained watch "My Kind of Madness" is not lost on anyone, least of all, you suspect, Sarpaneva himself. See more on the Sarpaneva website.

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Jaeger-LeCoultre Shrinks the Polaris Date to a More Sensible 40mm

Jaeger-LeCoultre revived the Polaris name in 2018, drawing on the 1968 Memovox Polaris diver, and there’s been a bunch of them since. The Polaris Date has always been kind of an entry point to the collection, but it’s always had a problem. The size. The previous Date wore big, and plenty of people who liked the design found it sat awkwardly. This new version fixes that.

The steel case is now 40mm wide and 12.9mm thick, down from the previous generation in both directions. You still get the things that make a Polaris look like a Polaris: taut lines, a glass-box crystal over a narrow bezel, the mix of brushed and polished surfaces, and the second crown at four o'clock that drives the internal rotating bezel for timing. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial has a dark blue double gradient in lacquer, built up from seven layers of color and 35 layers of clear coat, then polished by hand. The concentric-circle layout carries trapezoidal indices and Arabic numerals, with skeletonised hands, and everything gets Super-LumiNova. In photos it has real depth, and Jaeger-LeCoultre's lacquer dials tend to look even better in person than they do in press images.

Inside is the automatic calibre 899, made entirely in-house, beating at 4 Hz with a 70-hour power reserve. It comes on a blue canvas strap with a double-folding clasp.

The Polaris Date (ref. Q9128981) is available now. Price is set at €10,600. See more on the Jaeger-LeCoultre website.

IAT FEATURE / Nomos Glashütte: In House Or Nothing

There is a machine in Schlottwitz, the area of Glashütte where NOMOS has its parts production site, that works for three days at a stretch without anyone touching it.

People who work near it have a nickname for it. Employee of the month, every month. You load a container with the jobs it needs to do, walk away, and the machine reads its own instructions and gets on with milling the plates and bridges and small steel springs that hold a watch movement together. It does not eat. It does not sleep. You can set it going on a Friday afternoon and find it on Monday morning still working, having turned a stack of metal into parts while the building was dark and empty.

This machine does not exactly fit the picture most people carry of German watchmaking. We are trained to imagine the watchmaker. The white coat, the wooden bench, the loupe over one eye, the silence. That picture is real and it exists, and I will get to it. But the watch I'm thinking of started somewhere less romantic than that, but no less important. It started as a three-metre bar of steel fed into a machine in a village some watch buyers have never heard of, and there was no one in the room.

Here is why that machine matters, and why I want to start with it rather than with the watchmaker.

Most watch brands do not make their own watches.

I know how that sounds. They have factories. They have watchmakers. They have videos of clean rooms and tweezers and a man in a loupe breathing carefully over a movement. But underneath all of that, in the part of the watch that actually matters most, the great majority of the industry is buying the same component from the same place. The escapement. The small assembly of parts that controls how fast a mechanical watch is allowed to run. For decades, most of the escapements in most of the watches in the world have traced back to a single supplier in Switzerland, and the brands that buy from it would rather you did not think about that too hard.

NOMOS is one of the few that does not buy. The machine in Schlottwitz running through the empty weekend is the visible end of that decision. The invisible end is an escapement the company spent seven years and millions of euros to build, so that it would never again have to ask anyone's permission to make a watch. That single fact reflects the whole brand, and once you understand what it cost them, not just in money, you understand everything else about the company. The price discipline. The refusal to behave like a luxury house. It all comes from one decision, made by a small company in a small town, to do the hardest thing in watchmaking themselves rather than depend on anyone for it.

This is a piece about what that decision cost and what it bought. It is, I think, the most interesting story in German watchmaking, and it's dramatically undertold, because telling it straight means starting with the uncomfortable fact that the rest of the industry would prefer to leave alone.

A mechanical watch runs on a coiled spring. Wind the spring, it wants to unwind, and that unwinding is the energy that drives the hands. The problem is that a spring left to itself unwinds all at once, in a fraction of a second. So you need something that lets the energy out in tiny, evenly spaced increments, thousands of times an hour, for as long as the watch runs. That something is the escapement. The balance wheel swinging back and forth, the balance spring breathing it in and out, the escape wheel and the pallet ticking the energy free one beat at a time. It is the part that turns a wound spring into a timekeeper. Everything else in the watch is in service of it.

It is also the hardest part to make. The components are smaller than almost anything else in the movement, the tolerances are unforgiving, and getting them to work together reliably took the watch industry the better part of two centuries to figure out. The know-how and the machinery sit behind a wall that a small brand cannot climb. So small brands do not try. They buy the escapement, the way you buy flour rather than growing the wheat, and they build the rest of the watch around it.

There is nothing shameful in this. A watch built on bought parts can be excellent, finished beautifully, sold honestly. But it does mean something. If the heart of your watch comes from a supplier, then the supplier sets your quality and your quantity. You can ask for more. You cannot make more. You are independent right up until the moment the supplier says no, and then you find out exactly how independent you were.

NOMOS decided that was not independence at all. To understand why a small company would spend years and a fortune fixing a problem most brands are content to live with, you have to know where NOMOS started, and how badly the question of independence once stung.

This is part of my feature on NOMOS Glashütte. Read the rest here.

⏲️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

• In this excerpt from Sally Hayden’s book, This Is Also a Love Story: A Reporter’s Search for Goodness in a Cruel World, Yuji Akagawa, “a grandfather in his seventies,” recalls the aftermath of the 9.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, 2011. The seismic event was so powerful that it shook the earth for six minutes. The subsequent tsunami hit less than an hour later, destroying everything in its path, erasing roads and landmarks, making the land unrecognizable to those who survived. Over 22,000 people were declared missing or dead in the wake of the twin disasters. Akagawa created what he calls “the drifting post,” so named because “the letters drift between heaven and earth.” It’s a public post office and community space where survivors share their letters to lost loved ones, letters that Akagawa collects in binders that can read by members of the public, to help them in their grief.

• On sunlit patios and in dim city bars, alcohol once shimmered as the last proof of pleasure in a collapsing world. What begins as a defense of drinking slowly curdles into a portrait of dependence, inheritance, and self-deception—until an unexpected, fragile clarity emerges, altering not the world’s darkness but the narrator’s way of living inside it.

• Studio lights glare as a smirking legend toys with a blustering pundit, the ball skimming past dignity as easily as ankles. On Fox’s World Cup set, Thierry Henry’s cool precision collides with Alexi Lalas’s bombast, exposing a deeper clash over what soccer—and its storytellers—should be. Is this just spectacle, or a turning point?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

What an incredible car this is.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk