Nivada Grenchen Does Openworked The Right Way; Rado's Le Corbusier Inspiration; Orient Star Finally Nails It; LV Brings Back The Escale Worldtime; Armin Strom's Dual Time GMT Resonance Rose Gold

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I know it’s a bit buried in the newsletter, but that Orient Star trio is really interesting. It really does look like they might have solved the majority of their issues.

In this issue

• Nivada Grenchen Does An Openworked Dial The Right Way With The New F77 Trio

• Rado Takes Inspiration From Le Corbusier For An Architectural True Round Collection

• Orient Star Finally Nails It With The New M45 F7 Small Second

• Louis Vuitton Brings Back The Very Cool Escale Worldtime In A Platinum Case

• Armin Strom Gives Us A New Dual Time GMT Resonance, Now In Rose Gold

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watch School Wednesday: What Is a Retrograde Display?

👂What’s new

1/

Nivada Grenchen Does An Openworked Dial The Right Way With The New F77 Trio

I’ve observed a discrepancy between watch enthusiasts and people not into watches that’s quite amusing. A lot of people who are seasoned collectors don’t exactly like open-heart dials. Of course, this is my anecdotal evidence. But in the same way, I noticed that people who aren’t obsessive over watches will quite often gravitate towards open-hearts. It’s a quirk of the industry, I guess. However, I think I might have found the first open-heart that I really do like. Nivada Grenchen, the revived defunct brand with a simple mission — recreate their most legendary designs with modern specs — has had a lot of success with the F77, a remake of their integrated-bracelet sports watch that came out first in the late 1970s. Now, they have a couple of new versions coming out, with the most interesting being an open heart version of the F77 MkII, with dials we haven’t seen before.

This trio is based on the second generation F77 which is more streamlined and reworked for a better wearing experience, thanks to the angled lugs. The case here is made out of Grade 5 titanium, and it measures 38mm wide, 12.2mm thick, with a 46.2mm lug-to-lug. The case has brushed finishes with polished details and on top is a double-domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 100 meters.

But the case is the least interesting thing about this watch. It’s all about the dials. They come in three variants — a plain black, a very cool meteorite and an incredible Malachite dial with a bunch of yellow-gold inclusions. All three versions have the open heart at 6 o’clock, but it’s not a plain round opening. Instead, it has a jagged appearance and from it, a spider’s web of lines radiates to the rest of the dial, as if something broke through the dial at the opening and shattered the rest of the dial. I like it a lot. What I like even more is the malachite dial version, which has lume painted into those lines, giving it a special look at night. The stick hands and applied indexes are silver and filled with lume on all three variants.

Inside, you’ll find the SoProd M100 automatic movement and you’ll have a tough time finding such a thin automatic watch at any price point, let alone one this low. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve and has Côtes de Genève finishing. All three watches come on titanium bracelets closed with a tool-free micro-adjusting clasp.

The new Nivada Grenchen F77 Open Heart goes on sale on February 19th. Price is set at $1,790 for the black dial version and $1,990 for the aventurine and meteorite dials. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website.

2/

Rado Takes Inspiration From Le Corbusier For An Architectural True Round Collection

Off the top of my head, the one strictly architecture-inspired watch brand I can think of is Lebond. But there are plenty of other brands that touch on architecture. Like Rado, for example. For years now, they’ve been working with Les Couleurs Suisse, a globally licensed colour system designed by the great architect Le Corbusier. He played a pivotal role in shaping the modernist movement of the 20th century. Among his many influential works was his theory of color, leading to the development of Architectural Polychromy, a tool for the compelling use of colors in architectural design. In 1931, he introduced a palette of 43 shades, which were further extended in 1959 with the addition of 20 bolder tones to make a total of 63 classic hues. These colors, described by Le Corbusier as “architectural, naturally harmonious, and able to be combined in any way,” remain relevant and influential to this day. And Rado so far released 12 watches using this color system. What we’re getting now is three new additions, the Rado True Round × Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Special Editions.

While the majority (at least the way I remember it) previous releases came in the iconic True Square ceramic watches, this one is based on the True Round, and the name gives it away. They are all made out of ceramic, measuring 40mm wide, 10.4mm thick, with a 47.3mm lug-to-lug, all with 50 meters of water resistance. Also shared between the models are the casebacks which have all 63 shades of Le Corbusier’s color spectrum digitally printed on the sapphire crystal. At the center of the crystal is Le Corbusier’s logo.

Each of the three versions has its own colorway that’s inspired by one of Corbusier’s creations. The Ivory White watch pays tribute to La Cité Radieuse, his concrete apartment building in Marseille, with a matte ivory white case and a matching ceramic dial that has a concrete texture laser engraved into it. The dial is paired with hands in three shades of blue from Le Corbusier’s color system — Lucent Sky Blue, Luminous Ultramarine Blue and Light Ultramarine Blue. Second is the watch inspired by the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard, which has its ceramic case and bracelet done in Iron Grey, with a matching ceramic dial with a laser-engraved molded concrete texture of the building’s facade. The hands are lacquered in Cream White, Powerful Orange and Slightly Greyed English Green. Last, there’s the watch inspired by Le Corbusier’s urban-planning vision for Chandigarh, India and the Palace of Assembly. The case and bracelet are done in Ivory Black, with a matching dial that has a laser-engraved pattern depicting the facade of the Palace, which gives it a weatherd look.The hands are done in Powerful Orange, Emerald Green and Olive Green.

Inside, you’ll find the Rado calibre R763 which is, since Rado is part of the Swatch Group, essentially a Powermatic 80. That means that it beats at 3Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve, with a antimagnetic Nivachron.

The new Rado True Round × Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Special Edition watches will be available in March, priced at €2,750 per watch. See more on the Rado website.

3/

Orient Star Finally Nails It With The New M45 F7 Small Second

Many readers of this newsletter will be familiar with the rage I feel towards Orient Star. They consistently put out 90% watches that are sensational 90% of the time, but with a horrific tradeoff making up the last 10%. On top of that, they absolutely refused to have a modern website, or inform people know when they released new watches, let alone do online sales. Well, it’s time for me to eat my hat now. Not only do they have a new website (still no online sales, though), but they might have made a watch that doesn’t have that many downsides, if any. This is the new M45 F7 Small Second.

One of the major stumbles that Orient Star did with their watches is the size. Previous versions of the Orient Star M45 came in cases that were just too large in either way for what they were trying to be — a slightly complicated dress watch. This one, however, does it a bit better. The stainless steel case measures 39mm wide, 11.7mm thick, with a decent 45.7mm lug-to-lug. The case has a brushed finish with polished details and on top is a double domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is not great, but will do at 30 meters.

M45 dials can often feel a bit cluttered. This one isn’t. It still has the power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock, but now it’s more discreet and the same can be said for the recessed small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock. Around the perimeter you’ll find a railway minute track, as well as Roman numerals pointed to with leaf-shaped hands. There are three colors available, all with a slightly grained finish — ivory, green and grey. It’s a good look.

Inside, you’ll find the in-house automatic calibre F7H44 which beats at 21,600vph and has a 50 hour power reserve. Orient claims an accuracy of -5/+15 seconds per day, and there’s even some decorations, including perlage on the bridges and a damascened rotor. The watches come on black and brown leather straps with a trifold deployant clasp.

The new Orient Star M45 F7 Small Second is available now, priced at €950 for the green and ivory, and €1,050 for the grey version. See more on the Orient Star website.

4/

Louis Vuitton Brings Back The Very Cool Escale Worldtime In A Platinum Case

It hasn’t been more than a month or two that I saw someone online write that they won’t be buying watches from the same people that make his luggage. Well, first, I doubt that he could afford this watch from the same people that make his luggage. And, second, there is no way that someone would dare call Louis Vuitton watches fashion watches. The “not buying watches from the same people that make my…” is a comon dig against fashion watches, and people, with a straight face, claim that companies that don’t focus on just watchmaking can never be actual, respected, watchmakers. Maybe that can be debated with some brands, but not with Louis Vuitton, especially since their matchmaking efforts are handled by La Fabrique du Temps. Over 10 years ago, Louis Vuitton unveiled the original Escale Worldtime. Two years ago, LV relaunched the entire Escale collection and we’re now getting a new Escale Worldtime, which is pretty, pretty cool.

The case of the new Escale Worldtime is right in line with the rest of the collection, with the signature lugs that mimic the corners of Louis Vuitton trunks. It’s made out of platinum, with polished tops and bottoms, with a brushed caseband, measuring 40mm wide and 10.3mm thick. On the side is another signature of the Escale collection, an octagonal crown. On top and bottom are sapphire crystals and water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is also very familiar, as we’ve seen this iconic double city ring for the world time function that has 24 hand-painted flags representing the major time zones. However, if you look closer, these are not national flags, but rather references to Louis Vuitton’s designs from history. In the center of the dial is a grained blue surface, and that’s surrounded by a 24 hour jumping disc that’s indicated at 12 o’clock with a triangular pointer. You get one hand, and that indicates the minutes. That jump hour with the 24 time zones gives you time all over the world at an instant glance. Very cool.

Inside, you’ll find the LFT VO 12.01 automatic movement made by La Fabrique du Temps. It beats at 4Hz and has a 62 hour power reserve. Decorations include sandblasted bridges, polished bevels, colourless jewels and an 18k rose gold rotor. The watch comes on a blue leather strap closed with a platinum pin buckle.

The new Luis Vuitton Escale Worldtime is available now, priced at €95,000. See more on the LV website.

5/

Armin Strom Gives Us A New Dual Time GMT Resonance, Now In Rose Gold

The resonance in the name of the new watch from Armin Strom, the Dual Time GMT Resonance Manufacture Rose Gold doesn’t refer to a sound a watch might make, like in a chiming watch. But any confusion might be excused because resonance is a term originally derived from the field of acoustics. It occurs when two close vibrating frequencies synchronize, mutually absorbing each other’s energy and eventually arriving at the same frequency. It is also one of the most elusive phenomena in watchmaking, one that Armin Strom is very well known for making use of. It was Armin Strom co-founders Serge Michel and master watchmaker Claude Greisler who invented a way of connecting two independent balance wheels to have them synchronize, as a way of protecting from gravity, temperature and motion disruptions. In 2018, they used that mechanism and applied it to a dual time watch, in a huge 59mm wide watch, later to be shrunk to 39mm and reproduced in a number of materials. Now, with the new Dual Time GMT Resonance Manufacture Rose Gold we get it in a gold case with wickedly cool anthracite internals.

The watch comes in a rose gold case that measures 39mm wide, just 9.05mm thick, and with a 44.5mm lug-to-lug, with vertically brushed sides and polished bevels. That thickness is particularly interesting since it has the trick movement and an expansive domed sapphire crystal. There’s a lot Armin Strom fans will recognize here, including the lip on the thin bezel at 6 and the crowns at 4 and 8 o’clock, each of which operates one of the two dials.

This is a real dual time watch, with two dials each displaying its own time zone. Contrasting the gold, there’s a lot of black here. The mainplate is back, the two dials have a hand-grained black surface with a black snailed chapter ring and there’s a black day/night indicator. The two dials are set at 4 and 8, giving you a view of the two 3.5Hz balance wheels connected by the patented resonance clutch spring at noon and the ratchet wheel at 6 o’clock. Contrasting with the black, you get rose gold hands and indexes, as well as rose gold details on parts of the movement.

These are all part of the ARF22 in-house manual-winding movement which has a 42-hour power reserve capacity. It’s also very beautiful, decorated with Côtes de Genève and you get to see the independent barrels through two round apertures on the bridge. The watch comes on a antracite alligator strap .

The new Dual Time GMT Resonance Manufacture Rose Gold is limited to 50 pieces and priced at CHF 115,000. See more on the Armin Strom website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watch School Wednesday: What Is a Retrograde Display?

Inside the arc-shaped complication that refuses to go full circle. 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

• Virginia Woolf kept journals for much of her life—more than 30 handwritten volumes in total. Cynthia Zarin examines the prolific entries in order to narrate Woolf’s growing concern with the rise of fascism in the decade leading up to her death by suicide in 1941. Horror juxtaposes constantly with the mundane.

• One of the major cultural shocks I experienced when I moved to the US for school, is the almost obsessive reliance on bars of soap in showers. Coming from a country that doesn’t like letting germs grow on soaps before we scrub ourselves down with them a day later, this was nausea inducing at first, and it didn’t get any better. Thankfully, this disgusting habit is falling off in popularity, as it’s being replaced by shower gels. But in the best manner of American magazines, Slate pays homage to the repulsive bar of soap.

• Lena Dunham has found a solution for loneliness: cats. Sharing her home with five of them, she delights in their different personalities and the joy their antics bring. We start at the beginning, with her first cat, Elegance—who turned Dunham into a proud cat lady—and follow the journey as one became a full-fledged pack, each new arrival adding a layer of comfort to Dunham’s life.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

You might have noticed that there are two main playlists playing as I write these — Warren Zevon and Queens of the Stone Age. So, if you like QOTSA as much as I do, trust me, do not skip this video.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk