Omega Brings Back The Railmaster; Serica Creates Special Watch For French Navy’s EOD Divers; Oris Teams Up With Ben Bridge Jeweler; Naoya Hida's First Perpetual Calendar; GP Resurrects Deep Diver

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Oh wow, what a great day of watches today. OK, that Omega is definitely not for me, but the Serica and the GP are just perfect.

In this issue:

• Omega Brings Back The Railmaster Collection With A Grey And Beige Dial

• Serica Creates A Special Diver For The French Navy’s EOD Divers With A Really Cool Bezel Function

• Oris And Ben Bridge Jeweler Release An Aquis Date Duo With Purple Mother Of Pearl Dials

• Naoya Hida Reveals Their First Perpetual Calendar, The Type 6A, With Help From Some Industry Legends

• Girard-Perregaux Teams Up With Bamford Watch Department To Resurrect The Deep Diver

👂What’s new

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Omega Brings Back The Railmaster Collection With A Grey And Beige Dial

Sometime last year, Omega discontinued their Railmaster collection. While it surely wasn’t the most popular line along the likes of the Speedmaster and Seamaster, the Railmaster had its fair share of fans. Some people were sad, others were certain that that was just preparation for a relaunch of the line. The relaunch became even more certain when Cillian Murphy started showing up on red carpets for Oppenheimer a year prior wearing his personal Railmaster, and Omega is really getting into pre-announcing their new releases through celebrity tie-ins. Well, the guesses were right, and we’re getting a new Railmaster line. The collection is launching with two different dials, with more certainly on the way, and from first impressions it seems to be a simpler and more tool-ish Seamaster Aqua Terra.

If you looked at this watch and thought it looks very much like an Aqua Terra, you wouldn’t be wrong. The Railmaster has nearly identical dimensions to the AT, with the stainless steel case measuring 38mm wide, 12.36mm thick and has a 45mm lug-to-lug. It has the twisted lugs that Omega is recognized for, but the major difference from the AT would certainly be the finishing of the case. While the Aqua Terra comes in a polished case, the Railmaster has brushed case flanks for, like I said, that more utilitarian look. Water resistance remains 150 meters.

At launch, we get two different dials, one close to the original Railmaster with a central seconds and another with small seconds. The shared components are the applied elongated triangular markers, Arabic numerals at cardinal points and broad arrow hands. Also, there is no date aperture on either. In terms of color, both get a very dramatic gradient, one in grey into black on the edges and the other beige to black. The grey version gets a central seconds hand, rhodium-plated hands and white Super-LumiNova on the hour markers and hands. The beige version gets a small seconds display above 6 o’clock, grey PVD-coated hands, a beige varnished small seconds hand, and vintage beige colored Super-LumiNova.

Inside the watches are two different movements — the calibre 8804 for the small seconds and the 8806 with the central seconds. In essence, they are the same movement with different seconds hand positions. It’s equipped with a Co-Axial escapement, a free sprung balance, a silicon balance spring and automatic winding, beating at 3,5Hz and with a 60 hour power reserve. It’s METAS certified and anti-magnetic to 15,000 gauss, something that’s important to the original Railmaster. The movement is finished with rhodium-plated bridges, Geneva waves in Arabesque, red-infilled engravings on the rotor, blackened balance wheel, barrel and screws. The watches can be had on either a leather strap or a steel bracelet. The bracelet has been redesigned recently for the Aqua Terra, with rounded links and polished and brushed surfaces. The leather is black on the leather and cognac for the beige dial.

I am quite notably not a fan of the Aqua Terra line, so a simpler and more professional take on that in the Railmaster isn’t doing much for me, but I assume it will finds its fan base again. The new Omega Railmaster collection is available now, priced at €6,100 for the central seconds on steel and €6,300 on the small seconds on steel. See more on the Omega website.

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Serica Creates A Special Diver For The French Navy’s EOD Divers With A Really Cool Bezel Function

I can’t exactly think of many jobs that are more dangerous than explosive ordnance disposal, also known as EOD. Well, I can certainly come up with one — underwater EOD. Because not only do you have to deal with an explosive ready to blow in your face, you also have to do it underwater, often in horrible conditions and low light. And to do that job, you need a particular set of tools. You can’t exactly use a regular dive computer, as that’s filled with batteries, magnets and printed circuit boards, all of which can trigger an unstable explosive. So, you have to rely on a simple mechanical watch to tell you how long you have in work time, before you have to split. You see, there’s only a certain amount of time you can spend at a certain depth without having to make decompressions stops. And if you’re dealing with underwater explosives, you really don’t want to have to sit around, waiting for your deco stop to pass, hoping you can get away before whatever is below you explodes. You want to get in and out, as quickly as humanly possible.

It’s this line of thinking that Serica, my favorite French watch brand, was on to, when they teamed up with the French Navy’s EOD divers to create a special watch just for them. It’s built on their 5303 dive watch, with special modifications that make it fit for underwater EOD. This is the new Serica 5303 PLD.

On the outside, a lot remains very familiar. Being based on the 5303, it comes in a stainless steel case that measures 39mm wide, 12.2mm thick and has a 46.5mm lug-to-lug, which a re pretty great proportions. It keeps the twisted lugs for a dynamic and vintage look, and you now get an all-satin finish on the entire watch. On top is a 2mm thick double-domed sapphire. That is surrounded by a brand new bezel Serica calls the DT Max bezel and it’s very special. I can’t, off the top of my head, think of any other band doing something like this — there are two rings on the bezel, a polished abyssal blue ceramic insert and a brushed silver metal ring. It’s specially graduated to show you the maximum working time, with the minutes indicated on the metal part, at a certain depth, indicated on the blue ceramic part. That means that you simply set the lumed pip to the minute hand when you start the dive and it will count down the work time you have at the depth you’re at. That’s very cool. Also, water resistance is 300 meters.

On the dial side, things are kept super simple. You still get the black enamel dial with domed luminous indexes filled with Super-LumiNova. The handset is very cool, with a broad arrow hour hand and a thinner minute hand done in white lacquer, also filled with lume. The seconds hand has a fat lollipop shape. The only writing on the dial is CHRONOMÈTRE AMAGNÉTIQUE above 6 o’clock, keeping things appropriately sterile.

Inside, you’ll find the same movement as the regular 5303. It’s the Soprod M100 caliber. Thanks to the thinner movement, it allowed Serica to use a soft iron cage around the movement to improve its magnetism resistance. It beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. It’s also COSC certified, which is always a great thing. The watch comes on a great looking mesh bracelet with a very unique link to the case, but you also get a brown and yellow nylon strap.

The new Serica 5303 PLD goes on sale on May 20th. Feel free to call me crazy, but I am deeply in love with this watch. It’s easy to fall for Serica watches, at least it is for me, but this is just fantastic. Price is set at €1,690. See more on the Serica website.

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Oris And Ben Bridge Jeweler Release An Aquis Date Duo With Purple Mother Of Pearl Dials

Good watch partnerships have to make sense. Like how Ace Jewelers very often features their home town of Amsterdam in their designs for a variety of brands. That always works great. And a similar approach looks to work really good for the Seattle-based Ben Bridge Jeweler. Set just minutes from the beautiful coastal waters of the Puget Sound, Ben Bridge Jeweler teamed up with Oris to releases an Aquis Date duo that features pretty incredible purple mother-of-pearl dials, something you would get to see in the Pacific Northwest.

These new Aquis Date collaborations come in two sizes, both made out of stainless steel. The smaller one measures 36.5mm wide and 11.95mm thick, while the larger one measures 43.5mm wide and 13.1mm thick. The width of the larger one sounds quite large, but the Aquis has relatively short lugs so it wears smaller. On top of both you’ll find double domed sapphire crystals, surrounded by a unidirectional rotating bezel that’s done in a matte stainless steel with relief polished numerals. Out back is a transparent caseback which uses mineral glass. Water resistance on both is 300 meters.

Now, that dial is a bit out of my knowledge base. The companies point out it’s made out of MOP and feature a purple finish, which is Ben Bridge Jeweler’s company color. I’m not exactly clear on how the combination of these two things works, especially since it doesn’t appear you can see the pattern of mother of pearl. Regardless of how it’s set up, it looks great. applied shield-shaped indices and Alpha-style hour and minute hands, both filled with lume, and date apertures at 6 o’clock with white date discs inside.

Inside, you won’t find the in-house Oris movement. Instead, it’s the 733 calibre, which is just a slightly modified Sellita SW200-1. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. Both watches come on stainless steel bracelets, but only the larger one has an adjustable clasp.

The new Oris Aquis Date Ben Bridge Limited Edition is a limited edition, of course. The larger option is limited to 125 pieces, while the smaller one comes in only 40 pieces. Both watches are priced at $2,500 each. See more on the Ben Bridge Jeweler website.

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Naoya Hida Reveals Their First Perpetual Calendar, The Type 6A, With Help From Some Industry Legends

While it might seem like Naoya Hida & Co. has been making watches for decades, the Japanese indie was only launched in 2018. And since then, they’ve been building up a legendary lineup, all done in severely limited editions, which they expand with a new watch every year. This year, they are introducing the Type 6A, its first perpetual calendar watch. And it’s just as good as you would expect.

The 1940s and 1950s inspiration is very clear on most Naoya Hida watches, and that theme continues here. The calatrava-style case is made out brushed stainless steel, and measures 37mm wide and 11.5mm thick, which are really nice proportions for a perpetual calendar. On top is a sapphire crystal with a polished concave bezel. Interestingly, for such an elegant watch, the case has three very prominent pushers to correct the calendar set on the right side. I kind of like them.

Then, we have the dial, which is also in line with previous Naoya Hida releases. That means that it’s beautiful. The dial is made out of solid sterling silver, and then hand-engraved by engraver Keisuke Kano to give us these striking Roman numerals. The grooves are then filled with cashew lacquer. The dial has three sunken sub-dials, with a day of the week at 3 o’clock, month with leap year at 6 and the date at 9 o’clock. The central hours are made out of hand-polished 18k yellow gold, while the calendar sub-dials use blued steel hands.

And with such a great case and even better dial, it’s the dial that could be the main attraction. It’s a hand-wound movement that uses the same base you can find in most of their other watches, and it’s produced the legendary Austrian watchmakers from Habring². That base, which is build on the 7750 gear train, then gets a perpetual calendar module sourced from another legend, Dubois-Depraz. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 45 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black grained leather strap.

The new Naoya Hida NH Type 6A Perpetual Calendar is going to be severely limited. Like, painfully so. Only 10 pieces will be made for the rest of this year and 2026. Order applications on the Naoya Hida will open on May 19th at 10AM, Japan time, and close on May 22nd. Alternatively, The Armoury store will run an allocation lottery from May 21st to June 15th. Price is set at €45,600. See more on the Naoya Hida website.

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Girard-Perregaux Teams Up With Bamford Watch Department To Resurrect The Deep Diver

When I put together those Monday posts for paid subscribers in which I dig up interesting watches to buy, I run into a lot of Girard-Perregaux watches. Like dozens and dozens of GP watches a week. And the best thing about them is that I’ve never seen 95% of them. The brand has an incredible legacy of making very unique pieces in all genres of watches. And modern Girard-Perregaux seems to be carefully going through that catalogue and picking out the most attractive of the watches to recreate. For the latest recreation, they teamed up with Bamford Watch Department to bring back the the Deep Diver Ref. 9108 Gyromatic. The very cool diver was only made for a couple of years, with a case made by the legendary Piquerez (EPSA) case maker. The new watch is very faithful to the two-crowned vintage piece and just oozes 1970s cool.

Piquerez (EPSA) is out of business, of course, but the modern case keeps the same, quite unique, cushion shape. It has super short lugs and sharp edges. Made out of Grade 5 titanium, it has great vintage proportions. It’s 38mm wide, 13.91mm thick and a very short length of 40.3mm. Now, before you call me out that a 13.91mm thickness is nowhere near a vintage proportion, the original came in at 14.5mm thick. The sapphire crystal is held down with a polished multi-faceted bezel. Speaking of polished, the top of the case has deep sunray brushing, which is very much a 70s trait, while the strange lugs get a polish. It looks great. On the right side, at 2 and 4 o’clock, you’ll fidn two fluted crowns, one to set the time and the other to operate the inner rotating bezel. Water resistance is 200 meters.

Just like the case, the dial remains very faithful to the original. Around the perimeter is a blue and white, fully graduated internal bezel. Following that is a colorful dial combining orange, white, and blue. The large, round central disc features the retro Girard-Perregaux logo in blue on the upper half, and the Bamford logo in a lighter shade of orange on the lower half. The central orange circle connects to the date aperture at 3 o’clock. The very 1970s orange hour indexes and the hands are filled with orange Super-LumiNova. There’s a reason why the dial looks like it fell out of the 70s, and that’s the fact that the handset design and minute track typography remain largely unchanged, except for the color.

Inside, you’ll find the GP03300 automatic, which the brand has been using for 30 years. It beats at 4Hz and has a 46 hour power reserve. It’s also very decorated with chamfering, circular graining, circular and straight Côtes de Genève, engravings, mirror-polishing, satin finish, snailing and sunray finish. The watch comes on a blue rubber strap with a titanium pin buckle and you get an additional orange strap.

The new Girard-Perregaux x Bamford Deep Diver Legacy Edition is limited to 350 pieces and priced at CHF 14,500. See more on the Girard-Perregaux website.

⏲️Wait a minute

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• For decades, train hoppers have maintained—and guarded access to—the Crew Change Guide, a handbook for riding freight throughout the US and Canada. “You can’t buy such a book, can’t download it, can’t trace its often multiple authors,” Jeremiah David writes. “But if you run in the right circles, all you have to do is ask.” For The Paris Review, David, who never properly asked for his own copy, tells the story of how he came to possess one anyway. His essay is a fascinating literary history of an underground text, a lyrical appraisal of its contents, and a sparkling study of yearning. Take the ride.

• A few years ago, Molly Young detailed her pandemic-inspired effort to “find little harebrained ways to warp reality“—an effort whose absurd outcomes were keenly observed, and surface in my mind perhaps once a week. No longer confined to her home, and incited by Finland’s eight-year streak atop the World Happiness Report, Young travels to Helsinki. There, her mood quickly darkens—something salmon soup vendors and an astonishing number of saunas per capita can’t fix. Young’s travelogue is full of sensory pleasure.

• Professors are using ChatGPT, and some students aren’t happy about it. Students call it hypocritical. A senior at Northeastern University demanded her tuition back. But instructors say generative A.I. tools make them better at their jobs.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Last night, while walking the dog, I saw a spectacularly preserved 1980s Fiat Panda, perhaps the best car ever built. It was so cool, I forgot to snap a photo of it. They are some of the most versatile car in the world. I will have one when I buy a summer home.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk