Movado Makes Moves With The Heritage 1917; Farer's Black Benham; The Incredible Bühlmann Decompression 02; Zenith And Topper Team Up; Armin Strom's Gold One Week Skeleton; A New Voutilainen 28CG

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. We have two divers in todays issue that take up two completely different ends of the spectrum. The Zenith is high end, but not exactly useful for dives. The Bühlmann will guide you through the entire dive safely, but at the cost of size. I know which one I’m taking… You? Also, a soft reminder that the holiday discount for the premium subscription is still running, and I really appreciate your support.

In this issue

• Movado Makes All The Right Moves With The Heritage 1917 Collection

• Farer Adds The Conservative Benham Black To Their Cushion Shaped Collection

• The Bühlmann Decompression 02 Is The Most Complete Dive Watch Ever Made

• Zenith And Topper Team Up For A Blue Take On The Defy Extreme Diver

• Armin Strom Opens Up The Dial Of A Rose Gold One Week Skeleton

• Voutilainen Pays Hommage To The Art Of Hand Guilloché With The 28CG Platinum

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watch School Wednesday: Torque, Amplitude, and Consistency; The Hidden Trinity of Timekeeping

👂What’s new

1/

Movado Makes All The Right Moves With The Heritage 1917 Collection

Movado is certainly not a brand I write about here that often. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever written about them. Overall, they are considered a mall-brand, have been looked down at for their often high prices and unknown movements used. But every now and again, they would have a flash of coolness, with proper movements and great style. Their latest release, however, goes beyond that and is fantastically cool! While Movado is currently an American company, it was founded in the late 19th century in Switzerland, so it has a rich catalogue. Now, they’re reaching into that catalogue to release the Art Deco-inspired Heritage 1917 collection, in two sizes, with two movements and a great design.

There are two sizes of the square stainless steel case available at launch, a less interesting 25mm quartz version and a very interesting 35mm automatic version. Since it’s a square case, the 35mm version, which is 10mm thick, might wear a bit larger than you might think. In fact, seeing how it’s a square case, it’s easiest to compare it to the Cartier Santos. And the Medium version of that watch comes in at about 35mm, just so you can picture the size of this. There are many options available of this watch — five automatic models (35 mm) and six quartz versions (25 mm) — some of which are available with ion-plated gold colored bezels. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The 35mm version comes with dials in light or dark blue, silver or, a sensational green, all of which have a sunburst finish. The dial features a mix of Arabic numerals and baton hour markers, with lume on the hands. Now, before you go asking what’s up with that small watch in the cover photo, I will readily admit that was stolen from Hodinkee. Sorry guys, but it was too brilliant. Because that smaller watch is the original 1917 version, that has all the charm. The modern versions have a more sporty look, but if they were to implement a more vintage design, that would be stellar.

While we don’t know what quartz movement is in the smaller version, the larger ones use the tried and true Sellita SW200 which beats at 4Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. The watches come on either a single-link steel bracelet closed by a butterfly clasp or a leather strap.

The Movado Heritage 1917 Collection is available now, priced at €1,395 on leather strap and €1,695 on steel bracelet. See more on the Movado website.

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Farer Adds The Conservative Benham Black To Their Cushion Shaped Collection

Very few modern brands are as good at utilising colors in their watches as the British brand Farer. But they’re not all about colors. They have great cases, interesting movements and some pretty wild styles. And it seems that one of their most popular lines so far has been the Cushion Case collection, which takes the classic cushion case and embeds within it hyper modern dials with a perfect combination of colors and indice styles. But not everyone wants a lot of color on their watches. Then the new Farer Benham Black might be for you.

To make the cushion Case, Farer takes the best of the historic cushion cases and modernizes it. The stainless steel cases measure 38.5mm wide, 10.5mm thick and thanks to the stubby lugs pulls of a lug-to-lug of just 43.8mm. It’s made out of stainless steel, with a polished case, fully brushed bezel and flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The Benham is named after English explorer and mountaineer Gertrude Benham who climed over 300 mountains and was the first woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The previous version got a rich cherry red with horizontal grooves and surrounded with a sunken cream ring that has a matching red printed minute track. The black version keeps the horizontal grooves and sunken cream ring, but with a black base dial. At 6 o’clock is a small seconds sub-dial with a green hand. The hour and minute hands are baton shaped and silver in color, filled with Grade X1 Super-LumiNova. The hour markers are also baton shaped.

Inside is the Sellita SW216-1 hand-wound movement in its Elaboré Grade. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 45 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a leather straps with a quick release system. You can get an additional metal bracelet for an extra €180.

The new Farer Benham Black is available now, priced at €1,195. See more on the Farer website.

3/

The Bühlmann Decompression 02 Is The Most Complete Dive Watch Ever Made

If you’ve been diving beyond a first time exploratory dive, chances are you know what dive tables are. These are often complicated, but quite reliable, calculated tables that allow you to plan your dive in order to avoid any decompression issues. They are, for the most part, a relic of the past. There are a couple of hard-core old-timers that still use the tables to dive, but these have been largely replaced by more precise and easier to use dive computers. This, technically, rendered not just dive tables useless for the recreational diver, it also got rid of the need for a dive watch to time your dives. And yet, we live in a world in which thousands of dive watches come out each year, sold with the romantic notion of needing a dive watch to dive.

But… what if you actually wanted to buy a dive watch that could, if you wanted to, be your main dive instrument. Well, Watch Angels, a creative lab that back really interesting watch projects, had the same idea. They explored it in 2021 with the Bühlmann Decompression 01. Now, they’re doing it again, with the most complete dive watch ever made, the Bühlmann Decompression 02. And if you’re a diver, you already recognize that name. The brand is named after professor Albert A. Bühlmann, a Swiss physician who conducted key research on decompression science at the University Hospital in Zürich. He developed the ZH-L16 decompression algorithm, a key for developing the most precise decompression tables. Now, the Bühlmann Decompression 02 incorporates those into a watch, the first mechanical dive watch to feature a twin safety diving bezel and a twin decompression stops dial, featuring 17 of the most frequent dive profiles and a “fly-no-fly” indicator.

That’s a lot of information to display, and you know what this means — it’s a large watch. But before you freak out, I want you to consider what this thing is. This is an actual tool watch. That said, it measures 48.5mm wide and 17mm thick. Not only that, the case is inclined 5 degrees to orient it so that it’s easier to read. The funny thing is, I’ve seen wrist shots of the watch, and, sure, it looks big, but it’s not ridiculous. I assume that this is thanks to the fact that the top lug is hinged, allowing the watch to sit closer to the wrist and shortening the length, while the caseback is concave, also hugging the wrist. The case is made out of stainless steel and has a bullhead configuration. The center crown winds the movement and sets the time, the crown on the right operates the dive profiles on the dial and the crown on the left locks the twin decompression bezel. The case, of course, has a helium escape valve. Water resistance is set at 575 meters, which is a nod to Bühlmann’s record achieved in the Zürich hyperbaric chamber,

If the case wasn’t wild enough, let’s dive into (hehe) the dial. I think this might be the most information packed dial I’ve ever seen. There’s a lot of somewhat conventional things to see here — a light blue base, paired with a short black hand, a pretty funky yellow, ladder style, minute hand with a bright red tip and a thin seconds hand with a red arrow on top. Surrounding the dial is the Bühlmann Twin Safety Bezel, a diving bezel that enables the separate tracking of the total dive time (TDT) and decompression stops (DS), each with its own blocking direction. At 6 o clock is a cutout that goes all the way to the stem of the hands, revealing the 17 dive profiles. But all of this doesn’t mean much, if you’re not sure how to use it. So, here it is:

First, the diver establishes the dive profile in terms of maximum dive depth, the time spent at that depth and the bottom time (BT). This profile is then set on the watch by turning the right crown - the profile data and the related decompression stops time will appear in the opening at 6 o'clock. Next, the total dive time bezel (inner bezel) is set to 0 by putting the 0 marker in correspondence with the minutes hand before starting the dive. Once the bottom depth is reached, the diver follows the chosen dive profile in terms of bottom time on the total dive time scale. When it is time to resurface, the maximum rate of ascent is measured using the seconds hand and the decompression stops at 9m,6m and 3m depth are measured by using the outer decompression time bezel. At the end of the dive, the diver will turn the bottom dial to the "Fly-no-Fly" position and set the indicator to "No-fly". It will be safe to fly once the arrow points to the green zone.

To do all that, the watch uses a fairly standard movement, the reliable Sellita SW-300 that beats at 4Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a perforated rubber strap.

The new Bühlmann Decompression 02 is available now on the Watch Angels platform and limited to 575 pieces. Price is set at CHF 3,990. It might seem steep, but come on, what are we comparing this to? A portion of each sale will be donated to the DAN Europe Medical Research Foundation to support its ongoing research into the perfect decompression algorithm. See more on the Watch Angels website.

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Zenith And Topper Team Up For A Blue Take On The Defy Extreme Diver

When considering a chronograph, be it vintage or modern, Zenith, with its high-frequency movement, will always come up as a really good option for most people. What a lot of us forget is that Zenith wasn’t only good at making chronographs. They also made some pretty cool divers that could go down lower than 600 meters back in 1969. This legendary model, the Zenith Defy Plongeur ref. 3648 was revived last year at Watches and Wonders as the pretty extravagant looking Defy Revival, alongside the new black and blue takes on the Defy Extreme Divers. Now, Zenith has teamed up with Topper Jewelers to give the Defy Extreme Diver an all blue colorway.

The Defy Extreme Diver is a chunky boy, just like you would expect from a very capable diver — this one meets the ISO 6245 standards for diver watches. It’s made out of stainless steel and measures 42.5mm wide and 15.5mm thick. Thankfully, it’s made out of titanium, so it should be easy on the wrist. On top we have an interesting situation with bezels. Surrounding the sapphire crystal is a fixed 12-sided bezel, which sits above another bezel, this one unidirectional rotating and made out of blue ceramic with white 60 minute markings that are treated with Super-LumiNova that glows orange. On the right side is a chunky crown, surrounded by angular guards, and the watch has a helium escape valve. Water resistance is a cool 600 meters.

The dial on this new version gets a blue base that loses the Zenith stars embossing, replaced with tiny, barely perceptible bubbles, surrounded by a dodecagonal blue minutes flange. The hour markers are large, applied and faceted, while the hands are super chunky. There’s nothing subtle about this watch. The hour hand glows green, the minutes hand blue and the seconds hand glows green, which has to look very cool in the dark. This version also ditches the date window at 3 o’clock.

Inside is the El Primero 3620-SC automatic, which is a high-beat movement. Which means that it runs at 5Hz and has a power reserve of 60 hours. The movement carries the iconic openworked star-shaped rotor. The watch comes on a three-link titanium bracelet with two extra straps: one black rubber and the other made of recycled fishing nets designed to be worn over a wetsuit.

The new Zenith x Topper Jewelers Defy Extreme Diver in blue is limited to 50 pieces and priced at $12,300. See more on the Topper Jewelers website.

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Armin Strom Opens Up The Dial Of A Rose Gold One Week Skeleton

Back in 2010 Armin Strom wowed the indie scene with their first in-house developed and manufactured movement in the One Week watch. It had a seven-day power reserve and a dedication to symmetrical equilibrium in design and became an instant hit for the brand, creating a base for a whole line of new watches, including the One Week Air and One Week Skeleton. This latest version builds on the One Week Skeleton by giving it a 18k rose gold case.

While the last One Week release we saw from Armin Strom came with a traditional stainless steel case, but this One Week gives us a very cool looking 18k rose gold case with brushed surfaces and highly polished edges. The case measures 41mm wide, 10.6mm thick and has a very nice lug-to-lug of 44.35mm, thanks to its integrated bracelet. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, on the side is a guarded crown, and water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial of the One Week has always been very interesting, with an openworked construction, but it gets even better when it’s fully skeletonized. Despite there being no dial, you still get the biggest attraction of the One Week — the twin ratchet wheels and their barrels balance, in constant motion. At the center of the dial are polished gold and minute hands, with a small seconds display at 9 o’clock. Between ten and eleven you’ll see their signature three-dimensional power-reserve indicator.

The movement that’s visible fully from the front and from the back is the in-house manual-winding calibre ARM21, beating at 3.5Hz and with a seven day power reserve from the twin barrels. The movement is decorated with Geneva stripes, hand-chamfered bevels, polished screws and sinks. The watch comes on a black textile strap, closed with a red gold pin buckle.

The Armin Strom One Week Skeleton Rose Gold is available now, limited to 50 pieces and priced at CHF 47,000. See more on the Armin Strom website.

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Voutilainen Pays Hommage To The Art Of Hand Guilloché With The 28CG Platinum

There’s a very good reason why Kari Voutilainen is considered one of the greatest living watchmakers. And you can see it in the photo above. Need I say more? This new creation from Voutilainen, the 28CG in platinum, is actually one of his more subdued watches, but it still demonstrates all that he is known for — incredible hand-guilloché patterns on both the dial and the case, as well as in-house movement.

Speaking of in-house, the platinum cases are all made in-house and measure 37mm wide. They feature straight lugs, with an oversized crown on the side. The entire mid-case features a beautiful hand-guilloché pattern and on top and bottom are concave bezels that hold down sapphire crystals.

Then we move to the dial where Voutilainen is obviously showing off a bit. There are three hand-guilloché patterns on the dial — a barleycorn ring on the perimeter that holds the white gold applied Breguet-style numerals, surrounding a wave pattern that radiates from the center. At 6 o’clock is a small seconds display with a horizontal wave pattern. The hands are also very cool, enlarged Breguet-style, with blued circles at the tops of the hands.

Inside, you’ll find an in-house movement that features due to its two escapement wheels, which provide a direct impulse to the balance through the roller/jewel. This innovative construction improves efficiency by requiring less energy than the Swiss lever escapement and allows for notable benefits, for everyday use, such as longevity, stability and a longer power reserve. The movement beats at 18,000vph and has a 65 hour power reserve. It has a rare and unique balance-spring system. The exterior of the spring has a typical Phillips overcoil, while the internal curve uses the little-known Grossmann curve further increasing accuracy. The main plate and bridges are made from German silver and the wheels are made out of white gold, all with incredible decorations. The watch comes on a hand-sewn turquoise blue crocodile strap.

The new Voutilainen 28CG Platinum will certainly be impossible to get, but if you do get one, you’ll be expected to pay CHF 105,600, without taxes. Voutilainen doesn’t have a great website, but maybe it will show up soon.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 60: The Yema Spationaute, France's Space Watch

Why the Seiko 7A38-powered Yema remains one of watchmaking's great historical bargains. Read it 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

• I don’t think this article needs much introduction. Vanity Fair did a full profile on Trump’s inner circle. What caught the public’s attention are the majestic photos done by Christopher Anderson which will go down not just as the most important photographs of Trump’s campaign, but perhaps as the most important political photographs ever taken. Never has a story of policy been so well told through images. But don’t skip the words. The Trump cabinet has come out to call out the articles as fake news, but the fact is, they sat down with Chris Whipple dozens of times, on the record. And the stuff that they said, especially about each other, is completely off the hook. This is part one, here is part two.

• Isabella Kwai rides along with Besart Bilalli, a 39-year-old father of three, as he attempts to master the Knowledge, a test that requires would-be black cab drivers in London to become their own GPS, learning to navigate thousands of city streets by heart. The scale of the challenge is staggering, and tends to dominate the lives of those who attempt it. In Bilalli, Kwai finds the dogged pursuit of a mastery that most of us are all too happy to offload.

• In this dispatch for Slate, Luke Winkie returns to Sin City to see firsthand why Last Vegas seems to be in decline. He visits casinos, plays at the tables, and talks with people on the Strip to show what has changed. Who is Vegas for now? Who’s winning, and who’s hurting? Winkie’s own love affair with the city began a decade ago, when he stretched $200 into a euphoric weekend fueled by gambling and free cocktails. On this trip, he tries to retrace those steps—but finds that $200 doesn’t go nearly as far.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I need to quote the author of this video, The Iron Snail, for the description, because it’s smart: The most legendary field jacket of all time, the M-65 is here to play! Follow your host, me, on a journey through the sands of time as we look at some of the most famous field jackets to ever come out of the ol' red white and blue. We're tracing the M-41, the M-43, the M-51, and the M-65 through the rabbit holes of history and skipping across the ponds of utilitarianism, or something along those lines. I'm nervous you think I wrote that with AI. Isn't it so weird that that is now a possibility now? In college we used to have to debate about if AI will come for peoples jobs or not. So odd. ANYWAY -- The M-65 is NOT AI (I don't think). It's one of the greatest field jackets that has ever been made. Period. End of discussion. Good day. I SAID GOOD DAY.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk