Nivada Brings A Penguin Erotic Automaton To The Antarctic; UNIMATIC’s Retro Spec Ops Chrono; This AMIDA Is A Great NASA Tribute; New Parmigiani Tonda PF Sport Chrono; Breguet's Five New Traditions

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. OK, I messed up. Not as much as Carl Suchy & Söhne has, but it was my mistake for not checking. Yesterday, I wrote about the new Carl Suchy & Söhne Waltz N°1, with a sensational hypnotizing dial. That watch takes its cues from Josef Hoffmann, the Austrian architect, and even carries its name. I know some of his work and I should have googled him before. Turns out Hoffmann was an enthusiastic Nazi, and we don’t support Nazis over here. He wasn’t a Nazi by necessity, joining the party just to survive. Nope, he voted for the anschluss of Austria, he was adored by Nazis for his design of the 1939 Wiener Opernball, a swastika-studded event. After that, he was commissioned to remodel the former German embassy building into the "Haus der Wehrmacht" for army officers, as well as design officer clubs for the Waffen SS. Hoffman was also tasked with many aryanization projects of buildings deemed degenerate and he was appointed Special Commissioner for Viennese Arts and Crafts during WWII.

There are more than a few watch brands that have dark histories linked to Nazi Germany. Some, like Lange, try to hide and ignore it. Others, like Laco, acknowledge what they did, even though they could do a better job at that. But you can’t change the past. What you can do, in 2026, is not name a watch after an avowed supporter of the Nazi party and a collaborator of their regime. Like I said, it was my mistake to not check Hoffmann’s history — and I thank the reader who pointed it out to me — as I would have never featured such a stupid decision in the newsletter. But Carl Suchy & Söhne is out of their mind thinking that this is OK. Especially without so much as a caveat that they are paying homage to an artist who has a problematic past to say the least.

In this issue

• Nivada Grenchen Brings A Penguin Erotic Automaton To Their Iconic Antarctic

• UNIMATIC’s Latest Chronograph Takes A Lot Of Inspiration From Retro Special Operations

• The AMIDA Digitrend NASA Tribute Is The Perfect Watch For Your Next Moon Mission

• The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Chronograph Silver Verzasca Is Perfection

• David Candaux Releases The DC 6 Night Forest That Weighs Just A Bit Over A Feather

👂What’s new

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Nivada Grenchen Brings A Penguin Erotic Automaton To Their Iconic Antarctic

There is a long tradition in watchmaking of hiding something indecent on the inside of a case back. Pocket watches with erotic automata date to at least the 18th century, the finest of them made by Geneva ateliers for the Ottoman and Chinese export markets — miniature painted scenes that sprang to life with the press of a pusher. Patek Philippe, Jaeger, Vacheron all have examples in their archives. Nivada Grenchen is now joining those ranks, with the Antarctic Erotic that’s tapping into the same spirit: a serious daily watch that keeps a secret strictly between it and its owner. And since the Antarctic name goes back to 1954, when the model accompanied polar expeditions, penguins have always appeared on Nivada casebacks throughout that era. So it’s no surprise that the Antarctic Erotic gives us a glimpse at some penguin action. And I know today is April Fools, but this isn’t a joke.

The case is the familiar 38mm Spider Case in stainless steel, alternating polished and brushed surfaces giving it that vintage density the Antarctic does better than almost any current re-edition. The case measures 12.45mm thick and has a 45mm lug-to-lug. On top is a sapphire crystal and, of course, there’s a sapphire caseback that shows off the animated penguins. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Six dial options: salmon, eggshell, brown, white, tuxedo, and black. That range covers a lot of ground, from the warm vintage end of the spectrum to something you could wear with a suit. All carry the Antarctic's characteristic legibility, clean indices, no complications on the front, except for the date aperture on the tuxedo dial.

The movement is a hand-wound Soprod P054, with a 4Hz beat rate and 42 hour power reserve, modified to drive the animated caseback mechanism. The ratchet wheel has been re-machined into a cam profile that converts the winding action into vertical motion, animating a small penguin figure visible through the see-through caseback. The engineer behind it goes by Dr. Coldwater, identity undisclosed, which is either charming or annoying depending on your tolerance for branded mystique. Strap options are extensive: Beads of Rice bracelet, Flat Links bracelet, Mesh bracelet, black tropical rubber, and leather in black or brown.

The Antarctic Erotic is priced from €1,600 on leather to €1,805 on bracelet. Pre-order opens April 30th at 4pm Geneva time. The watches won’t be limited in number, but will have limited release windows: 69 minutes for salmon, 69 hours for beige, 6.9 days for all other versions. The boinking penguins are OK with me, Dr. Coldwather I can live with. But the 69 thing repeated three times might be a bit too much of a pun for me. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

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UNIMATIC’s Latest Chronograph Takes A Lot Of Inspiration From Retro Special Operations

UNIMATIC has been doing the retro-military thing longer than most, and the Modello Tre U3FB-ROPS is the clearest expression of that yet. The brand's chronograph lineup has always leaned functional over flashy, but this one leans harder into the vintage special ops aesthetic than anything I can remember from them — gold lume, concentric subdials, a military time conversion table on the caseback.

The case is 40mm wide, 14.1mm thick including the double domed sapphire crystal, with a lug-to-lug of 51.2mm. It's 316L steel with a black DLC sandblasted finish. You also get the very recognizable fixed monoblock bezel, with a screw-down crown on the right side, flanked by the chronograph pushers. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial has a matte black base, with concentric circle subdials, and gold metallic trims and rails that give the whole thing a warm, slightly aged quality without being outright faux patina. Lume is Super-LumiNova in a GL light old radium tone. The reverse lollipop seconds hand is a nice touch, as are the brushed gold hands.

Inside is the Meca-quartz VK64, which runs at 32.768kHz and gives you 1/5-second chronograph timing, a 60-minute counter, hacking seconds, and a battery life of roughly three years. Not mechanical, but the VK64 is honest about what it is and does it well. It ships on a black TPU quick-release strap with DLC hardware.

The U3FB-ROPS is priced at €660 ex VAT, limited to 300 numbered pieces, available at unimaticwatches.com and selected retailers.

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The AMIDA Digitrend NASA Tribute Is The Perfect Watch For Your Next Moon Mission

I love what AMIDA has been doing. Two years they revived the Digitrend, a 1970s casquette-style watch that has since taken on a bunch of guises, including a black DLC, a gold PVD, and my favorite — a clear sapphire cover. However, the watch they released yesterday just might be my favorite. I’m a sucker for the history of NASA and their incredible designs. This is the NASA Tribute, which incorporates a very space-age look with NASA's 1976 "Worm" logotype. I was certain that this was going to sell out before I could get it into the newsletter, but that wasn’t the case. Go get one now.

The case is a monocoque construction machined from a single block of 316L steel with a black DLC coating — the same construction as previous Digitrend versions. What's new is the top shell, which is white ceramic, uncoated and unpainted, save for the NASA logo. At 39.6mm wide and 39mm lug-to-lug, it fits surprisingly well for how imposing it looks. The 15.6mm thickness is substantial, but the case tapers to 6mm at the bottom in a teardrop profile. And you need that thickness since it’s what gives you a look at the time that’s displayed on the side. Water resistance is 50 meters.

There's no dial in the conventional sense. The LRD (Light Reflecting Display) uses sapphire prisms to optically redirect and display the hours and minutes from two internal rotating discs, visible through a rectangular aperture. The jumping hour and scrolling minutes format gives the watch its futuristic character.

Inside is a Soprod Newton P092 automatic base calibre with an in-house jumping hour module fitted on top. The Soprod runs at 4Hz, 28,800 vph, with 44 hours of power reserve and 23 jewels. The strap is a rubberized leather hybrid with a Beta cloth insert and a Velcro hook-and-loop closure, a direct reference to Space Shuttle-era flight suit hardware. Lug width is 22mm.

The new AMIDA Digitrend NASA Tribute is limited to 100 pieces, priced at CHF 3,400, without tax. That’s a lot of money, but this is a very unique watch. See more on the AMIDA website.

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The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Chronograph Silver Verzasca Is Perfection

The Tonda PF Sport Chronograph has been around since 2023, and Parmigiani keeps finding good reasons to revisit it. When the rose gold sandstone version launched last year, the removal of that notoriously bad 4:30 date window was worth celebrating on its own. Now they're doing a steel version, and the color story is good enough that it stands on its own merits rather than just being a more accessible take on the same watch.

The case is 42mm wide and 12.9mm thick, in stainless steel with the familiar alternating brushed and polished surfaces. The teardrop lugs and square pushers carry over from the rest of the Tonda PF Sport line, as does the knurled bezel, though this one is in steel rather than platinum, with fewer incisions for a bolder profile. Screw-down crown, double domed sapphire top and bottom, water resistance to 100 meters.

The dial is silver with a clou triangulaire guilloché — triangular nail pattern rather than the barleycorn you'd find on the more formal Tonda PF siblings. The silver is paired with perfect crystalline green sub-dials: a 12-hour totaliser at nine, 30-minute counter at three, running seconds at six, all in a color Parmigiani traces back to the Verzasca River in the Swiss Alps. Applied rhodium-plated white gold indices with black lume, delta-shaped hour and minute hands to match. There’s also no date.

The movement is calibre PF070, made in-house with Vaucher Manufacture, measuring 30.6mm across and 6.95mm thick. It’s equipped with a column wheel, vertical clutch, one-piece reset hammer, beating at 5Hz, with a 65-hour power reserve and COSC chronometer certification. The rotor is solid 22k rose gold. The green rubber strap has a textile-like surface and a stainless steel folding clasp.

The Tonda PF Sport Chronograph in steel retails for €32,300. See more on the Parmigiani Fleurier website.

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Breguet Releases Five New Tradition Models Covering Pretty Much Every Luxurious Scenario

Breguet's Tradition collection turns 21 this year, and the brand has chosen the occasion to do something more interesting than a simple colorway refresh. The four new references for 2026 — two versions of the 38mm 7037 Seconde Retrograde, a new 40mm 7097, a 40mm 7067 GMT, and a 37mm 7038 — share a common design logic: enamel dials in place of guilloché, Arabic numerals instead of Roman, and beautiful movements right in your face with new coatings. The 7037 is also the return of a discontinued model.

All four watches share the classic Tradition case DNA: fluted casebands, welded straight lugs, sapphire crystal, 30 meters of water resistance. The 7037 is 38mm wide and 12.7mm thick, available in 18k white gold or 950 platinum. The 7097 is 40mm wide and a notably slimmer 11.8mm thick in rose gold. The GMT 7067 is 40mm wide and 12.1mm thick in 950 platinum. The 7038 is the most compact at 37mm and 11.6mm thick in white gold, with a diamond-set bezel and 25 more stones on the buckle.

White Grand Feu enamel dials appear across three of the four watches, with the 7037PT getting black enamel instead, the 7038 getting black aventurine glass, and the 7067 getting an especially good gradient green enamel. All four use Arabic numerals. The 7067's gradient green is the standout; it goes deep and dark toward the edges in a way that plays well against the ruthenium-grey movement coating and the platinum case.

Each watch gets a different movement treatment, all sharing the underlying Tradition architecture of a central barrel with wheels and regulating organ arranged around it in visible symmetry. The 7037 pair runs the automatic calibre 505 SR, with the movement fully coated in blue (white gold) or black (platinum), moving parts rhodium-plated throughout, and a hand-guilloché snailed barrel cover. The 7097 uses the 505 SR1 with a charcoal grey coating and rose gold-finished gear train. The 7067 uses the hand-wound calibre 507DRF. All run at 3Hz with 50-hour power reserves and silicon balance springs. Strap choices are: textured rubber with grey stitching on the 7037s, grey nubuck-style calfskin on the 7097, black rubber with green stitching on the 7067, black satin fabric on the 7038.

Prices: the 7037 in white gold is CHF 45,200, the platinum version CHF 49,700; the 7097 in rose gold CHF 43,200; the 7067 GMT in platinum CHF 62,800; the 7038 with diamonds CHF 50,600. All available on the Breguet 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

• Geoffrey Gray’s hunt for The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit—a short violent novel from 1854 that’s so rare, only two first editions exist—takes him through the used bookshops of Mexico City’s Calle Donceles, the archives of various bibliotecas, and eventually to a phone call with a California librarian that leads to a dead end—until he learns of another lead in Germany. Along the way, Gray weaves in the mythology of the book and its Cherokee author, John Rollin Ridge, and offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of rare-book collecting.

• Singer-songwriter Gillian Welch grew up playing the guitar in house full of keyboards, a collection which included a grand piano, spinet, harpsichord, and a pump organ. In this Bitter Southerner profile by Jewly Hight, Welch reflects on how audiences respond to her music, being encouraged to be artistic right from childhood, her love of books, and her evolution as a musical storyteller.

• While a rare sitdown interview with Jay-Z has led the press cycle around the latest issue of GQ, the real jewels are to be found in Hanif Abdurraqib’s piece about Hov’s 1996 album Reasonable Doubt. It starts not with the music, but with a question: What’s the difference between a hustler and a gangster? The answer, at least for Abdurraqib, is violence—and that, or the lack thereof, is what marks Reasonable Doubt as a classic hustler text. Jay-Z doesn’t threaten violence; he escaped violence before he ever released an album, and he came into the game with the weariness of one who has the trenches in his rearview mirror. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t a new war in front of him.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Every now and again you’ll see me say how incredible YouTube content is. And it really is. Because you might have seen the Backroom series on YT. Now, A24 has turned it into a movie and it looks just as good.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk