Seiko Brings Back Their Take On The Legendary Cartier Tank; Unimatic Goes Back To Basics; Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 Beach Editions; Bulgari's Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar In Sandblasted Gold

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Those Chopards… I don’t know, they’re pretty close to being my favorite watches of this summer.

In this issue

• Seiko Brings Back Their Take On The Legendary Cartier Tank And It’s As Good As You Remember It

• Unimatic Goes Back To Basics With The Vintage Inspired Diving Heritage Collection

• The Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 Beach Editions Come In A Pair Of Great Colors

• Bulgari Releases The Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar In Sandblasted Rose Gold

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS: Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 44: The Incredible Seiko Think the Earth WN-1

👂What’s new

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Seiko Brings Back Their Take On The Legendary Cartier Tank And It’s As Good As You Remember It

There seems to be a path that all watch enthusiasts follow as they mature in their taste. They start off adoring the iconic watches, but struggling to justify the often extremely high prices. Before their interest refine, a lot of enthusiast will look to affordable alternatives to these big ticket items. A Bulova Lunar Pilot instead of a Speedmaster, a PRX to stand in for an AP, a Hamilton Pilot’s watch instead of one from IWC. And for decades, the stand in for the iconic Cartier Tank has been the equally legendary Seiko Tank. That watch has come and gone over the years, and we just got a new version of it. These are the SWR103, SWR104, and SWR106, the return of the Seiko Tank.

A lot will be very familiar here. Not just because it looks very much like a Cartier Tank, but it’s also very similar to previous Seiko versions of the Tank. The new watches are narrower than the most recent generation of the Tank and measure 27.2mm wide, 6.4mm thick, with a 39mm lug-to-lug. Of course, this is just a tad less refined than the Tank Must and Tank Louis Cartier, which measure 25.5mm x 33.7mm. All three models are made out of stainless steel, with two models getting a gold colored treatment. When I say these look very much like a Cartier Tank, I mean it. Just look at the crown which has the cabochon.

There are three variants, differentiated by their colors. The SWR103 has a stainless steel case, white dial and Roman numerals. The SWR104 comes in a gold colored case with a white dial, Roman numerals and gold hour markers. Lastly, the SWR106 gets at gold colored case, a champagne-colored dial and applied faceted baton hour markers. All three watches are powered by quartz movements and come on black alligator-style leather straps.

The new Seiko Tank SWR103, SWR104, and SWR106 models seem to be available in Europe and Australia at the moment, but they are set to show up in the rest of the world soon. Price is set at around €240. See more on the Seiko Australia website for now.

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Unimatic Goes Back To Basics With The Vintage Inspired Diving Heritage Collection

Over the past several months, we’ve seen the Italian indie watch brand Unimatic knock out some pretty amazing collaborations. In fact, the more I think about it, I think they were all collaborations. But it also seems that they have found a pretty good watch to break that collaboration trend with — this is the new Diving Heritage collection, three new vintage-inspired watches in three colors and exactly why we like Unimatic.

All three models share the base case, which is made out of stainless steel, measuring 40mm wide, with a 41.5mm bezel on top. But things get different sized with each of the models. There’s the Modello Uno Heritage Diver and the Modello Uno Heritage GMT Diver which are 13.2mm thick and have a 49mm lug-to-lug, while the Modello Tre Heritage Chronograph Diver has a compeltely different shape which brings it down to 12.9mm thick, but with a longer lug-to-lug of 51.2mm. All of the watches have black aluminum bezel inserts with either 60-minute diving scales on the Heritage Diver and Chronograph Diver, or a 24-hour scale on the GMT.

When ti comes to the dials, they all have very much the same setup. Around the perimeter is a hashed seconds scale, with circular and rectangular hour markers done in lumed material. The differences come from the functions of the watch — the Heritage Diver has three hands; the GMT has three hands, plus an arrow hand for the second time zone; while the Chronograph has a central chronograph hand and a 60 minute counter at 9 o’clock. All of the hands are black with white lume in them. The bases of the dials come in three colors — black, navy and brown.

Inside, some interesting choices. Both the Heritage Diver and the GMT share a movement, the Seiko NH35A caliber. They beat at 21,600vph and have a 41 hour power reserve. They are reliable, but not very accurate. Still, a good affordable movement. The Chronograph, however, gets the Seiko VK64A meca-quartz caliber, which means that the time-telling part of the watch is quartz powered, while the chronograph part is mechanical. The watches come on color matched TPU straps, closed with pin buckles.

The new Unimatic Diving Heritage collection is limited to 300 pieces per model, which means that there will be a total of 2,700 pieces in various configurations and colors. The watches will be ready to ship out within two weeks. The past several Unimatic releases have also crept up in price, but this Diving Heritage collection doesn’t just bring back the classic looks of Unimatic watches, it brings back the pricing. The Modello Uno Heritage Divers and the Heritage Chronograph Divers are priced at €625, while the Modello Uno Heritage GMT Divers sit at €750. All of these prices are without VAT. See more on the Unimatic website.

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The Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 Beach Editions Come In A Pair Of Great Colors

There’s this thing that watchmakers loved to do for years when they tried offering a watch to women, and people mockingly called it “shrink and pink”. It would refer to a practice of taking a regular watch from their lineup, shrinking it down to 30-33mm, and slapping on some pinks and light blues with a dusting of diamonds. These watches were everywhere for a while, but it was kind of obvious that this wasn’t what women wanted out of watches. So the practice of shrinking and pinking is slowly fading away. However, Chopard, otherwise known for their subdued luxury watches, had another idea for the practice. They skipped the shrinking and just pinked it. This is the surprisingly funny duo of Chopard Alpine Eagle Beach Editions that come in pink and turquoise. But instead of a tiny case, they come in the regular 41mm one. That’s cool.

The case is made out of stainless steel. More specifically, Lucent Steel, a proprietary alloy using recycled steel with a brighter shine. The case measures 41mm wide and 9.7mm thick, with an overall brushed surface and a couple of polished details. There’s a sapphire caseback, as well as a sapphire crystal on top, surrounded by the round bezel with eight exposed screws divided into four groups. Water resistance is 100 meters.

But that’s all familiar. What’s new are the two spectacular dials. They feature the familiar sunburst pattern inspired by the iris of the eagle, with the two colors named Maritime Blue (turquoise) and Rock Jasmine (pink). According to Chopard, the turquoise is inspired by the waters of the Mediterranean, while the pink is inspired by the Alpine flower. The hands remain unchanged from the regular edition, and the date disc is matched to the dial.

Inside the watches is Chopard’s in-house 01.01-C automatic calibre. It beats at 28,800vph, has a 60 hour power reserve and gets COSC chronometer certification. The watches come on rubber straps that are matched to the color of the dial for a really good look.

The new Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 Beach Editions are available now, priced at €13,400. See the turquoise version here and the pink version here on the Chopard website.

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Bulgari Releases The Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar In Sandblasted Rose Gold

I need a sanity check here. Do we all remember Watches and Wonders last year when Bulgari said that they have achieved what they wanted to with the Octo Finissimo range and would be stopping production on it to focus more on the Octo Roma? Now, of course, no-one exactly thought that Bulgari was serious. We still expected a couple of limited edition Octo Finissimos, all the while they were expanding the Octo Roma line. It might just be me, but I swear that we have gotten at least a dozen new Octo Finissimo watches, including a record breaking one, while in the same time we only got two or three Octo Roma releases. I mean, I’m not complaining, just asking what that announcement was all about. But while I’m over here obsessing over nothing, Bulgari went ahead and released a pretty spectacular Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar in a sandblasted gold case.

Hey, this is a Bulgari Octo Finissimo here, so you know exactly what to expect. It measures 40mm wide and a stunning, almost unbelievable, 5.8mm thick. This watch is a perpetual calendar. That’s 5.8mm thick. It keeps the incredible construction, with stacked octagons and 110 facets. The finish is even more impressive than the design — the 18k rose gold case gets a microbead-frosted finish, which you really don’t see anywhere else. Oh, and it’s somewhat waterproof. Sure, just 30 meters, but still.

Then, there’s the matching dial. It’s also made out of rose gold, matching the case identically, with brown indices, numerals and skeletonized hands. Brown on gold is the new tan on green. At 12 o’clock you’ll find the dramatic retrograde indications for the date. At 6 o’clock is the leap years indicator, and then the week and months taking up two sub-dials at 4 and 8 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the in-house calibre BVL 305, which measures just 2.75mm thick. And that’s despite having 408 parts that in part make up the perpetual calendar. Despite the thinness, there are no compromises. It beats at 21,600vph and has a truly huge 60 hour power reserve. To keep things thin, the movement uses a gold micro-rotor. The integrated bracelet has single links and is made out of matching sandblasted rose gold.

The new Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar in rose gold is available now, priced at €98,000. Without tax. See more on the Bulgari website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS: Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 44: The Incredible Seiko Think the Earth WN-1

A massively cool wristwatch that turns into a desk clock. Read it here.

⏲️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

• When true crime fan Lou Schachter glimpses an empty frame at an art museum—once home to a stolen $100 million Willem de Kooning masterpiece—he’s drawn into a decades-old art mystery. His amateur sleuthing uncovers more stolen paintings, long-lost clues, and the remarkable double life of the quiet couple who allegedly masterminded it all.

• A South Dakota farmer’s dream of literary fame turns nightmarish after he falls victim to a sprawling $44 million author services scam. Behind the scheme: a Philippines-based company promising big publishing and film deals, charging soaring fees while leaving authors bankrupt and betrayed in an industry rife with predatory practices and elusive justice.

• Jennifer Senior was once a sound sleeper until insomnia appeared like a spectre in her 20s. For The Atlantic, she confronts the conventional wisdom about the necessary conditions for sound sleep (cool room, good bed, napping is bad) as well as the stigma around chemical sleep aids in a bid to better understand her own sleeplessness as well as the connection between insomnia and depression.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

As it turns out, media companies in the US really don’t have much a of a backbone. At the first fit thrown from Trump, they are folding like a cheap tent. Folding like a lawn chair. Collapsing like a soufflé. Crumbling like dry toast. They are going out of their way paying out extortion money and firing anyone the president’t doesn’t like. While they think they might be helping themselves, bowing down to threats only means you’ll get hurt more. One of the victims of this spineless groveling is Stephen Colbert, who just got fired last week. His friend, Jon Stewart, had a few things to say about that.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk