Omega's New Dark Side Of The Moon Speedies; Louis Erard's Integrated Bracelet; A Steel Jump Hour Bremont; Kurono Tokyo Jubilee Calendar; Vouitilainen's KV20i Reversed: Armin Strom's Blue One Week

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Can’t wait to hear what you all have to say about Louis Erard

In this issue

• Omega Releases A Whole New Batch Of Stealthy Dark Side Of The Moon Speedmasters

• Louis Erard Joins In On The Integrated Bracelet Sports Watch Action With Their First, The 2340

• Bremont Does The Terra Nova Jumping Hour Once Again, Now In Steel

• Kurono Tokyo Rounds Out 60th Birthday Celebration Of Its Founder With Salmon Grand Jubilee Calendar

• Vouitilainen Puts Their Legendary KV20i Reversed Movement Into A Cushion Shaped Case

• Armin Strom Releases A Blue Version Of The One Week Manufacture Edition

👂What’s new

1/

Omega Releases A Whole New Batch Of Stealthy Dark Side Of The Moon Speedmasters

The Omega Speedmaster is already one of the most iconic watches of all time. And one would expect that if you create one cult watch, you couldn’t really improve on it. Sure, the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon collection might not exactly be an improvement, but it sure did create a whole other cult following for these very dark takes on the classic. Well, Omega knows people love them, so they are releasing an update to the Dark Side Of The Moon lineup with four new models — Dark-Dark, Dark-Red, Dark-White and the Grey Side of the Moon — all with new and slightly thinner cases and slight updates, and it was time.

Starting with the most regular of the bunch, this is the new Dark Side of the Moon 9900 Auto Dark/White. It comes in a black ceramic case that measures 44.25mm wide, 15.09mm thick (I said it was a thinner case, I never said it was thin) and with a 50mm lug-to-lug. On top is a fixed bezel with a tachymeter scale that’s done in white. Water resistance is 50 meters. The dial is also the most traditional of the bunch, with a black base, 18k white gold applied markers and hands that have white lume inside, and a touch of red on the dial. You get a bi-compax setup with a color matched date at 6 o’clock. Inside, you’ll find the latest Co-axial Master Chronometer 9900, an automatic that has a 60 hour power reserve and is METAS certified. The watch can be had on either a textile or a rubber strap, both closed with a ceramised titanium foldover clasp. Price is set at €15,400. See more here.

Moving on to the Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon Black Red, it looses a bit more color from the Dark/White. Still in a black ceramic case that measures the same 44.25 × 15.09 × 50mm, with the same brushed and polished finish, it has a bezel with white markings. Where things get stealthier is on the dial, where nearly all color has been removed, except for the numerals on the sub dials, the red Speedmaster logo and the red central chronograph hand. Inside, a bit of a different movement — the Co-Axial Master Chronometer caliber 9908 which is, surprisingly, manually wound, and doesn’t feature a date aperture. It still beats at 4Hz, has a 60 hour power reserve and is METAS certified. Price is set at €15,800. See it here.

Now we’re going full dark with the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon Black Black Auto. Same case, but now with a brushed black ceramic bezel with black enamel scale on top. The dial is also different, with black ceramic matte finish, blackened applied markers and hands with black SLN, and all black printings. It’s like looking into a black hole. Even the hands are black. I love it. Inside, the same Co-axial Master Chronometer 9900, an automatic that has a 60 hour power reserve and is METAS certified. You can get it on a rubber or textile strap with a foldover clasp made from ceramised titanium and ceramic. Price is set at €15,800. See more on the Omega website.

And last, we have the one non-black model, the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon Grey Side of the Moon. What a name. The inspiration comes from Jim Lovell's Apollo 8 quote that the Moon is grey, so the watch gets an all grey look. The case is made out of grey ceramic and measures 44.25mm wide, 12.97mm thick and has a 50mm lug-to-lug. It’s practically svelte with that measurement. On top is a matte grey bezel with a white scale on it. The dial is partially skeletonized and is ablated to produce a moon-like texture on the surfaces that are left over. Inside, you’ll find the hand-wound Co-Axial Master Chronometer caliber 3869 with a 3Hz beat rate and a 50 hour power reserve. Get it in either a grey rubber or grey texture, with a foldover clasp made from ceramised titanium and ceramic. Price is set at €16,200. See it here on the Omega website.

2/

Louis Erard Joins In On The Integrated Bracelet Sports Watch Action With Their First, The 2340

It’s been a few years that the integrated bracelet sports watch has been going through a resurgence, with pretty much everyone from Citizen to Ressence and Parmigiani Fleurier, standing in line to release their version. And one would think that this trend has been wrung out dry. One would, yes. But, as I’ve learned in Geneva, these things sell like hotcakes and any brand that doesn’t have one is missing out on great sales. I didn’t really believe that, until they told me the numbers. People just love their integrated bracelet sports watches and as long as they do, brands will keep making them, even if they never made one before. A perfect example of that is the new 2340, an integrated bracelet sports watch from Louis Erard, the makers of some of the best collaborative watches of this decade. To get such a mainstream watch, even with one of its cool dials, is quite a surprise to me, as LE has focused on making very unusual, very original watches so far. But, let’s explore.

The case of the 2340 is made out of both titanium (used on the midcase) and steel (the lugs, bezel and caseback), and since it measures 40mm wide and just 8.95mm thick, with a short length of 41.5mm thanks to the lack of protruding lugs, it should be a breeze to wear. The case is cushion shaped, with the titanium case middle getting a vertically brushed finish and all the steel parts getting a bright polish. More polished details can be found on the gadroons on the corners of the case that give some detail to the sides. A major drawback I would point out is the 50 meter water resistance, which really should be higher for an integrated bracelet sports watch.

Then, we have the three dials available in Mint Green, Slate Blue and Deep Blue. The two blue dials feature wide, domed, horizontal gadroons, which are familiar, whereas the Mint Green version gets a much, much more interesting pattern made up of pill shapes arranged in horizontal and vertical orientations. I like that one a lot. You get diamond-cut hour markers and baton hands that match the shape of the textures, filled with blue glowing Super-LumiNova. There is no date aperture, but I dig how they integrated the LE logo into a pill-shaped metal plaque at 3 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the familiar and respected Sellita SW300-1 automatic which is key to getting such a thin profile. It beats at 4Hz and has a 56 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a brand new inteagrated bracelet that has a very nice taper and is made out of brushed titanium outer links and oblong, polished steel centre links. For such a nice bracelet, it’s a shame they didn’t include two key components — a quick release system and a micro adjust in the clasp. Not cool.

The new Louis Erard 2340 goes on sale tomorrow, October 15, at 3 PM CET, priced at CHF 2,990. I’m a huge Louis Erard fan, and I think I finally found their first miss. It’s too little, too late, for too much. See more on the Louis Erard website.

3/

Bremont Does The Terra Nova Jumping Hour Once Again, Now In Steel

Bremont caught an incredible amount of flack last year, and a lot of it for good reason. The introduction of a brand new line, with a new case, and a new logo didn’t go over well with fans of the brand steeped in Birtish heritage. While I’m still not sold on their effort to turn this thing around, they have been going hard at going back to their basics, and people who follow Bremont better than me tell me it’s been going well for them. Earlier this year, Bremont released the Terra Nova Jumping Hour, built on the Terra Nova case, done all in bronze. Now, they’re doing the same thing, but in steel.

On the outside, this is the same Terra Nova 38 that kicked up all the controversy. Made out of stainless steel, the tonneau shaped case measures 38mm wide, 10.7mm thick and has a 44mm lug-to-lug. Those are pretty good proportions and the combination of soft curves on the unmarked sloping bezel and sharp short lugs is interesting. On the right side is an oversized crown with the new Bremont Wayfinder logo. Water resistance is 100 meters.

While the case is unchanged, the dial is where all the different stuff is happening. There’s no dial to speak of. Instead, you get a brushed slab of steel that covers the entire opening, giving you just three openings — a window for the hours at 12, running seconds in the very center and just below it a minute disc. I saw the watch live in Geneva and while it suffers just a bit from readability issues, it’s far easier to tell the time on this watch than it is on other montre à guichet designs.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre BC634, a jump-hour movement developed by Sellita and from what I understand, Bremont has a few year exclusivity on this movement. But the base is very familiar, with its 4Hz beat rate and 56 hour power reserve. The watch can be had on either a steel bracelet or a brown nubuck strap.

The new Bremont Terra Nova Jumping Hour is available now as part of the regular collection. Price is set at €5,350. See more on the Bremont website.

4/

Kurono Tokyo Rounds Out 60th Birthday Celebration Of Its Founder With Salmon Grand Jubilee Calendar

There’s no stopping Japanese indie watchmaker Hajime Asaoka and his brand Kurono Tokyo. They offer fantastic watches at great prices. This simple brand has become the face of indie Japanese watchmaking and good on them! This year, Asaoka is celebrating his 60th anniversary, which got us a whole line of fantastic releases. Now, they’re ready to round out the special editions with the 2025 Jubilee Sensu EOL, a really beautiful Grand Jubilee Calendar with a salmon dial and a more elegant setup than previous versions.

So, technically, this is a new watch for Kurono, even though they made a very, very similar calendar watch previously. But this new release is a much sleeker than the watches we’ve seen before. The case is made out of stainless steel and measures 38mm wide and 11.5mm thick. That slims down to 10mm thick if you measure just the case, without a box-shaped sapphire crystal on top. The entire case is polished, as Kurono Tokyo is known to do, and the crystal is now surrounded by a smooth and polished bezel. The caseback comes with a solid gold medallion engraved with Asaoka’s signature, and on the side is a crown with a black onyx cabochon, again a mark of the Diamond Jubilee.

Just like so many watches before it, this one gets a really beautiful dial. The base od the dial gets a lightly textured salmon color, with the central part of the dial getting a stamped vertical pattern that gives the dial a bit of elegance. Around the perimeter is a black railroad minute track, and the Arabic numerals are also printed in black. The triple calendar function has two sunken sub-dials for the month and weekday indicators and a date aperture at 6 o’clock. The hands are signature Kurono, leaf-shaped, with the tips of minute and chronograph seconds hands bent by hand to match the curves of the dial and glass. They are also done in onyx-like black.

Inside, you’ll find the Miyota 9122, which is not a movement we don’t see all that often, which is a shame because it’s super interesting to have this calendar setup. It still beats at 4Hz and has 40 hours of power reserve, just like all 9-series Miyota movements. The watch comes on a black calfskin leather strap.

The new Kurono Grand Jubilee Calendar will be a limited edition, with no word on how many will be made. The watch goes on sale on Friday, October 17th at 11.00 PM Japan Time (3:00PM GMT and 10:00AM ET), priced at $2,380, without tax. The good news is that you can order one even outside Japan. See more on the Kurono Tokyo website.

5/

Vouitilainen Puts Their Legendary KV20i Reversed Movement Into A Cushion Shaped Case

Inverted watches are incredibly cool and should be a much more common occurrence. What they do is flip the movement the other way around, meaning that the movement - and also the visually more impressive part - turned towards the front. This gives you a constant spectacular view at the movement for which you would usually have to take the watch off. This makes a lot of sense, especially (actually only) if you remove the dial, so that you can have a constant view of the beautiful back of the movement instead of constantly having to take the watch off to admire it. Of course the famed watchmaker Kari Vouitilainen is very well known for doing this exact thing with his KV20i Reversed model. Now, Vouitilainen is rendering the watch in a familiar cherry red color, but in a new cushion shaped case, hence the new name — Voutilainen KV20i Reversed CS Cherry.

The case is familiar from models like the Cushion Shape Worldtime, made out of titanium and cushion shaped. It measures 39 x 39mm and 12 mm thick. The face of the case has a circular opening for the dial, which frees up the corners for the brand’s signature three-hole design screws. The case has satin-brushed surfaces and polished accents on the bevels, with very short lugs.

But it’s all about the dial, or lack thereof. What you see through the sapphire crystal is the backside of the movement made for this watch. It features a large 13.5mm diameter free-sprung balance wheel, equipped with rose gold timing weights, a Phillips overcoil, and a Grossmann interior curve. The direct impulse escapement, with its two large blued escape wheels, is positioned closer to the 12 o’clock mark. The movement is manually wound and has a power reserve of 60 hours. The watch comes on a hand-sewn crocodile leather strap. Around the movement is the cherry colored minutes ring, with polished white gold dots at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. The centrally mounted hour and minute hands are made out of white gold, and feature blue rings at their ends.

There are more decorations on the back of the movement or what would be the front usually — a hand-guilloché pattern on a cherry red ring and a plaque with the model name and number. The watch also features a cherry dial on the backside which shows the running seconds. The watch comes on a brown aligator leather strap.

The new Voutilainen KV20i Reversed CS Cherry is priced at CHF 133,800, without tax. I would say see more on the Vouitilainen website, but they don’t exactly put new watches up there.

6/

Armin Strom Releases A Blue Version Of The One Week Manufacture Edition

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 is the One Week Manufacture Edition Blue which, as the name suggests, comes in a nice shade of blue.

While the last One Week release we saw from Armin Strom came with a titanium case, but this One Week brings back the classic stainless steel 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 without full skeletonization. That means you get a deep blue PVD-coated mainplate that acts as a base, surrounded by a black minute ring with faceted lume filled indexes. Most prominent on the dial are the twin ratchet wheels and their barrels balance, in constant motion. At the center of the dial are polished hour and minute hands, with a black small seconds display at 9 o’clock. Between ten and eleven you’ll see their signature three-dimensional power-reserve.

The movement that’s visible partially from the front and completely 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 stainless steel bracelet that closes with double-folding clasp.

The Armin Strom One Week Manufacture Edition Blue is available now, limited to 100 pieces and priced at CHF 32,000. See more on the Armin Strom 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

• If you thought the darts crowd was wild at the highest-level tournaments, you should see it at the kind anyone can enter. The Dutch Open boasts more entries than any other darts competition, and its dollar-and-a-dream appeal brings out the sport’s lovably rowdy side like few others. That doesn’t mean the best of the best aren’t there—particularly in the women’s field. For Victory Journal, Amos Barshad shadows two tungsten-tossing luminaries . . . and dispenses a little style critique in the process.

• For Texas Monthly, Mark Dent reports on Pantex, a facility near Amarillo, Texas where “nearly all of America’s nuclear weapons are assembled, dismantled, and maintained.” Over the years, workers have fallen ill and died after exposure at the plant. Dent introduces us to Sarah Dworzack Ray, an advocate who, after her husband died young of work-related cancer, has helped Pantex employees and their families get long overdue compensation for work-related illness and deaths.

• The opening salvo of “The Unfinished Revolution,” The Atlantic‘s year-long project “exploring 250 years of the American experiment,” includes a mighty musket shot from Caity Weaver, whose dispatch from a pair of Revolutionary War reenactments is an exemplar of the genre. Weaver, one of our most delightful participatory journalists, is game, observant, and self-deprecating throughout, snorting snuff with the Green Mountain Boys ahead of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and detailing the elaborate construction and outcome of her outfit before the Battle of Bunker Hill (“a shapeless mound of fabrics crowned by my plain stupid face”). In her hands, fake battles yield resonant ideas about the construction of history—”a free-for-all dash,” she reminds us, “subjected to the whims of regular people.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

We live in pretty unprecedented times, where we can sit on YouTube and watch someone masterfully restore a painting for two hours without a single boring second. I love it.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk