MING And Shapiro Team Up For A Stunning Guilloché Dial; Timex Expands Atelier Collection With Chronographs; Delma Shrinks The Commander; Another Crazy Alexander Shorokhoff; The GP Laureato Fifty

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In this issue

• MING And J.N. Shapiro Team Up For The 37.06 Lightning With A Stunning Guilloché Dial

• Timex Expands Their Premium Atelier Collection With Two Chronographs

• Delma's Commander Makes Itself More At Home On The Wrist With A New 40mm Case

• The Alexander Shorokhoff Kandy Avantgarde Blue Is Fifty Pieces Of Avant-Garde You Either Get Or You Don't

• The Girard-Perregaux Laureato Fifty Joins The Permanent Collection In Four New References

👂What’s new

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MING And J.N. Shapiro Team Up For The 37.06 Lightning With A Stunning Guilloché Dial

Ming and J.N. Shapiro have been friends and collaborators since the early days of the Alternative Horological Alliance, which they formed together; and their previous joint effort, the Project 21, showed what happens when you let two people with very strong design instincts work on the same object. The 37.06 Lightning is a deeper collaboration: Shapiro cuts the guilloché pattern on his rose-engine lathe in Inglewood, California, and the dial then travels to Kuala Lumpur, where Ming's team applies heat with a butane torch until titanium's crystalline structure blooms into colour.

The stainless steel case follows the established 37-series proportions: 38mm wide, 10.9mm thick, lug-to-lug of 44.5mm. The pagoda lugs are a Ming signature by now. Finishing is mixed brushed and polished, the crystal is domed sapphire with AR coating on both sides, and water resistance is rated to 100 meters.

The "lightning guilloché" pattern is new to Shapiro's repertoire: a design that radiates from the centre and then breaks into jagged zigzags rather than the concentric or basket-weave patterns more common to engine-turning. Under normal conditions that would be interesting enough, but the heat treatment turns the titanium dial through orange and yellow in the centre, deepening to purple at the mid-zone and settling into dark blue at the edges. How good looking is that? These dials are also difficult to get right, so the two brands say that they have a 30% failure rate. Lume sits in laser-hollowed cavities within the sapphire crystal for the indices, filled with HyCeram; the hands get Super-LumiNova X1.

Inside is the Sellita SW210.M1, a manual-wind calibre with a 42-hour power reserve, customised here with skeletonised bridges and an anthracite-coated baseplate, visible through the domed caseback crystal. The strap is blue Barenia calfskin from Jean Rousseau, fitted with quick-release spring bars and a flying blade buckle with micro-adjustment.

Orders open today, 5 June, at 13:00 GMT. Production is uncapped in theory but could be limited in delivery speed by the handcrafted nature of the dial. After the initial batch going on sale today, Shapiro and Ming are targeting around 10 pieces a month going forward. Price is CHF 6,250 excluding tax. See more on the Ming website.

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Timex Expands Their Premium Atelier Collection With Two Chronographs

The Atelier collection is moving fast. Timex launched the Marine M1a diver last year, added the GMT24 M1a barely a month later, and now the collection doubles in size again with two chronograph references — the automatic M1a Ti and the quartz M1q. These will very much be controversial watches. They look fantastic, but they’re quite large and sit in a price point Timex hasn’t existed in before.

The M1a Ti gets a titanium and stainless-steel construction with a black IP-coated middle case, measuring 42mm wide and 15.75mm thick. Sure, automatic chronographs are usually quite thick, but this very much hurts to see. A fixed tachymeter bezel in titanium with black IP coating sits on top, surrounding a double-domed sapphire crystal. The skeletonized case and bracelet design carries over from the diver and GMT, with partially hollowed, sandblasted bracelet links and a hollowed mid-case that reveals the black inner core. A flat sapphire crystal sits in the screw-in caseback for a view of the movement. Water resistance is 50 meters. The M1q has the same aesthetic in skeletonized stainless steel at 40mm wide and 12.7mm thick, with 100 meters of water resistance and no exhibition caseback.

Both dials have the same matte black base with silver two-register chronograph layouts. The M1a Ti's setup is a classic panda configuration: the 30-minute counter sits at 3 o'clock, running seconds at 9. The hour markers are cutouts in the metal ring rather than applied indices, which is more minimal and, honestly, less legible than what the diver and GMT offer. Faceted dauphine hands in polished metal add a dressy note that reads as intentional against the sport case. The M1q adds guilloché texture to the dial and a date window at 6; the M1a Ti stays flat matte.

The M1a Ti runs on a Landeron L72 automatic chronograph at 28,800 vph with a 43-hour power reserve and 28 jewels, finished with perlage, blued screws, and a Geneva-striped rotor — genuinely nice for the price. The M1q uses a Ronda 5021D quartz. Both movements are Swiss-made. The bracelet carries over Atelier's toolless link-removal system along with quick-release spring bars and a flat butterfly clasp; the rubber strap option integrates into the case with quick-release bars and a titanium deployant.

The M1a Ti is priced at $2,250 on bracelet and $2,100 on strap; the M1q at $800 on bracelet and $700 on strap. See more on the Timex website.

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Delma's Commander Makes Itself More At Home On The Wrist With A New 40mm Case

Delma has been making dive watches long enough that anything without a unidirectional bezel and a 300-meter rating comes off as a surprising experiment. I say experiment because these watches come and go. The Commander, however, is an exception. The pilot’s watch has been in the brand's lineup for years, typically in sizes that leaned large, including a previous 45mm iteration. This new version shrinks things down to 40mm.

The case is 316L stainless steel, 40mm wide and 11.5mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 48mm. The surfaces are satin-brushed with polished bevelled edges, and the crown is fluted with Delma's logo. The caseback is transparent. Water resistance is rated to 100 meters. A sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating sits on top.

Dial legibility is clearly the priority here, and the Commander delivers. Large Arabic numerals fill the dial, printed with C3 Super-LumiNova, and the central hour, minute, and running seconds hands get the same treatment. The minute track around the periphery mixes dots and numerals at five-minute intervals, and a 24-hour scale sits closer to the center, giving the dial a proper instrument-watch feel without collapsing into clutter. Date at 3 o'clock. Four colors at launch: black, navy, olive green, and a salmon option.

Inside the automatic the Sellita SW200-1, running at 4Hz with a 41-hour power reserve. The SW200-1 is reliable and widely serviced, which is the case for using it. Each version ships on a handmade Italian leather strap with matching stitching and a stainless steel pin buckle.

The Delma Commander 40mm is available now at €1,050. See more on the Delma website.

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The Alexander Shorokhoff Kandy Avantgarde Blue Is Fifty Pieces Of Avant-Garde You Either Get Or You Don't

I have a friend who is deeply in love with Alexander Shorokhoff watches. I can’t say I understand the obsession, despite the fact that I am usually a fan of weird and quirky watches. For some reason, Shorokhoff didn’t really do it for me for ages. They are, however, slightly growing on me. The Kandy Avantgarde series sold out entirely, which for a 41×41mm square watch named after Wassily Kandinsky is either a testament to how good it was or a reminder that fifty people will always exist who want exactly this. The Kandy Avantgarde Blue is the follow-up: same unconventional geometry, same Alzenau provenance, same commitment to color as a design language.

The square stainless steel case measures 41×41mm and is 9mm thick, which is surprisingly thin. The recessed case sides are threaded with blue wire, which sounds weird, and it is weird, but everything is weird on this watch, and it gives the profile an interesting structural detail you don’t get to see very often. A domed, anti-reflective sapphire crystal caps the dial, while out back is a caseback with three openings covered in colored glass. Also strange, but cool. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial where things get really weird. A blue-and-white striped frame surrounds the central field, the hour and minute hands are blue, and a blued central seconds hand ties it together. Mother-of-pearl elements appear across the dial surface. The overall effect is genuinely Kandinskian — geometric, saturated, and not trying to look like a traditional dial. In fact, I’m struggling a bit to put it down into words. It doesn't need to be for everyone; it needs to be for the fifty people buying it.

Inside is either the ETA 2892 or the Sellita SW300, functionally equivalent movements, 42 hours of power reserve, 25 jewels. The rotor is hand-engraved and finished. Two straps ship with the watch: a light-blue fabric-covered rubber option and a blue horse leather strap, both with an engraved solid steel pin buckle on a 22mm lug width.

The new Alexander Shorokhoff Kandy Avantgarde Blue is limited to 50 pieces, priced at €3,900. See more on the Alexander Shorokhoff website.

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The Girard-Perregaux Laureato Fifty Joins The Permanent Collection In Four New References

When Girard-Perregaux launched the Laureato Fifty last year as a 200-piece limited edition, the watch made a strong point: the GP4800 movement deserved a proper home, and the Laureato's 50th anniversary deserved more than a token nod. GP solves this now with four permanent-collection variants, which adds a very interesting 36mm size and three dial treatments.

All four share a stainless steel case, 9.8mm thick, with 150 meters of water resistance. The 39mm and 36mm versions are otherwise identical in construction — alternating brushed and polished surfaces working the geometry of the octagonal bezel and tonneau mid-case as they always have. The Laureato has historically skewed toward 38 and 39mm territory, so a properly compact version at 36mm opens the collection to wrists (and preferences) the larger sizes couldn't serve.

The standout dial is the blue enamel, available only in 39mm. Clous de Paris under translucent enamel is not a new idea, but Girard-Perregaux has executed it well here. The other 39mm and one of the 36mm models get rose-gold-toned Clous de Paris dials. The remaining 36mm pairs a silver-toned dial with 64 brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel, roughly 0.55 carats total. The rose-gold and silver models include a date at 3 o'clock; the blue enamel does not, and is better for it. All four use luminous baton hands and applied indices, with a double index at 12 in place of the GP logo, a detail carried over from the limited edition.

The GP4800 powers all four watches. It's an in-house automatic with a silicon escapement, variable-inertia balance, and ceramic ball bearings in the winding system, running at 28,800vph with roughly 60 hours of power reserve. The rose-gold balance bridge is exclusive to the Laureato Fifty line and visible through the sapphire caseback, where you'll also find Geneva stripes, anglage, circular graining, and sunray finishing across the movement. The bracelet is the integrated steel unit updated for the Fifty generation, with a micro-adjustment system built into the folding clasp offering up to 4mm of additional range.

The new Laureato Fifty is available now, priced at CHF 20,500 for the 39mm rose-gold-toned dial, CHF 21,800 for the blue enamel, CHF 20,500 for the 36mm standard, and CHF 21,500 for the 36mm diamond-bezel version. See more on the Girard-Perregaux 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

• Katy Vine and Meher Yeda explore the Heartsills, a West Texas family whose lives revolve around competitive hot‑air ballooning. As they note, “Joe has spent a lifetime building a fierce bond with his family, and their shared dedication to ballooning—the determination, discipline, and devotion they bring to the sport—is part of what binds them so tightly.” Each member contributes in the air or on the ground, but it is patriarch Joe who sits at the heart of it all, and as he nears retirement, the family rallies around him for one more collective push skyward.

• Art’s distance “from the prerogatives of the powerful,” writes Zadie Smith, “is precisely where its force of resistance lives.” Smith considers the value of making art during a time of atrocities, looking to E.M. Forster, Macbeth, and Edward P. Jones’s The Known World for guidance. Her essay is a searing case for the damages done to humanity when power tries to subject everything to notions of “progress” and “convenience.”

• Austin is home to a lively sandlot baseball scene. In this story for Fast Company, Max Ufberg takes us to two venues, The Long Time and The Wishing Well; and introduces us to Jack Sanders, who founded the home team (The Texas Playboys) and built these baseball fields, piece by piece. This is a story about art and design that serves communities, especially poor and rural ones; Black baseball culture; and building authentic spaces where people can gather and play.

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