Seiko Releases Sonar-Inspired SRPM09; Mido's Two Tone Multifort 8 One Crown; A New Raymond Weil’s Toccata Heritage; Heron’s Mirabel Firehorse Punches Above Its Weight; Louis Moinet Honors The Past

In partnership with

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I started booking meetings for Watches and Wonders and let me tell you… this will be the most packed calendar for me to date. And there will be a lot of new content for you. I also started looking at hotels. I swear, rooms are tripling in price every year. All I can say is: please subscribe to the paid side of the newsletter, because this is going to be an expensive trip…

In this issue

• Seiko And HUF Team Up Again For A Time Sonar-Inspired SRPM09

• Mido Has A Two Tone Variant Of The Recently Introduced Multifort 8 One Crown

• Raymond Weil’s Toccata Heritage Looks Good In Red And Rose Gold

• Heron’s Year Of The Horse Watch, The Mirabel Firehorse, Punches Way Above Its Weight

• Louis Moinet Honors The Past With The Speed Of Sound Collection Powered By Wonderfully Restored Valjoux 88

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 64: Plastic Fantastic, The Fortis Flipper That Beat Swatch to the Punch

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko And HUF Team Up Again For A Time Sonar-Inspired SRPM09

It’s probably a given that the watch community doesn’t particularly like collaborations. Not because they produce bad watches, on the contrary. it’s because they are necessarily always limited editions. And Limited editions are just a bummer. Well, we have a new collaboration today, one between Seiko and the legendary lifestyle and streetwear brand HUF started by iconic skateboarder Keith Hufnagel. This is the second time that the two are coming together, where the first collaboration was a very groovy retro-inspired Seiko 5. This new one is inspired by the vintage “Time Sonar” model and it’s the Seiko 5 Sports HUF Limited Edition SRPM09. Sure, it’s limited, but that means something completely different in the Seiko universe.

Unlike previous revivals of the Time sonar, this one comes in a smaller brushed steel case with a fixed polished bezel. The watch measures 39.4mm wide, 11.6mm thick and has a 48.1mm lug-to-lug. It’s basically a regular 5 Sports case, with the crown at 3 o’clock and a Hardlex crystal on top. The caseback has a green-tinted mineral crystal and a graphic inspired by San Francisco, the city where HUF was founded. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is the main focus of the Time Sonar inspiration and uses HUF’s signature green color. The bright green is used for the semi-transparent dial that gives you a view of the day-date mechanism underneath. On top of the dial you’ll find applied markers, an orange triangle at 12 o’clock, with a black stripe down the middle that holds the day and date apertures on the right side. The hour and minute hands are candlestick shaped and filled with lume, while the central hand is bright orange.

Inside, you’ll find the mediocre but well known 4R36 which beats at 3Hz and has a 41 hour power reserve. It will tell the time, as well as the day and date, but keep in mind that Seiko rates the accuracy of this movement at +45/-35 seconds per day. of course, this is often much better in real life, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow. The one cool thing is that you can see the movement through the caseback, but it’s covered in a lime green glass. The watch comes on a three-link stainless steel bracelet.

Like I said, the Seiko 5 Sports HUF Limited Edition SRPM09 is limited. But don’t worry, 7,000 pieces will be made, so it’s not like a regular limited edition. The watches go on sale in March at a price of €410. See more on the Seiko website.

2/

Mido Has A Two Tone Variant Of The Recently Introduced Multifort 8 One Crown

Mido is on an incredible speed run to expand their collections as quickly as possible. I noted recently that they are on a very healthy trajectory to become the go-to entry level luxury watch of the Swatch Group, and they are clearly trying to fill every need of the market. Just a month or two ago, they dropped a crown from their integrated sports watch, the Multifort 8 Two Crowns, and released the Multifort 8 One Crown collection. Quick on its heels, the One Crown is getting a two-tone treatment.

The new Multifort 8 One Crown comes in a stainless steel case that measures 40mm wide (although, the Mido website mentions 38.4mm for case length… not sure what measurement that is) and a very svelte 9.9mm thick, with a very comfortable 44.86mm lug-to-lug with an integrated bracelet. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a fixed metal bezel with eight sides cut out of it. The bezel on this version has a rose gold PVD treatment. The lugs are faceted and there’s a single narrow mid-link to connect the watch to the strap. On the side is a single crown positioned at 3 o’clock and water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial on this version is black, with horizontal lines cut into them. The applied indices and lumed tri-faceted hour and minute hands, as well as the seconds hand, are all treated in the same rose gold PVD. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture and all the printing is done in white.

Inside, unlike the two crown, you’ll see the Powermatic 80, a staple in the Swatch Group. It beats at 3Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve. The movement also has a signed and decorated rotor that has Côtes de Genève. The watches come on metal flat three link bracelets, which has its central links also done in rose gold PVD.

The new Mido Multifort 8 One Crown Two Tone is available now, priced at CHF 960. See more on the Mido website.

3/

Raymond Weil’s Toccata Heritage Looks Good In Red And Rose Gold

Late last year, Raymond Weil proved once again that they have great taste when it comes to recreating some of the most iconic vintage watch shapes. They did it first with the Millesime, which was very much inspired by the 1930s. They repeated it with the Toccata Heritage, which took on the classic shapes of Patek, Universal Genève, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron — the ellipse watch. The initial release of the Toccata Heritage was met with a lot of approval and now we’re getting a new version, one that pairs a gold case with a red dial, a very good combo.

Just like the other watches in the Toccata Heritage collection, this one measures 33mm wide, 6.95mm thick and is 38mm long, which makes it pretty fantastic in the classic dress watch size. It’s not a gold watch, obviously, but rather a stainless steel case with a rose gold PVD finish. On top and bottom you’ll find sapphire crystals. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial keeps things simple, just like previous versions, with a sunray-brushed finish, now available with a very nice shade of red. Keeping with the simplicity of the dial, you get faceted Dauphine hands for the hours and minutes, a printed minute track and applied, polished hour markers.

While the rest of the collection uses both mechanical and quartz movements, this one comes with the mechanical movement. It’s called the RW4100, based on the hand-wound Sellita SW210-1. It beats at 4Hz and has a 45 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black calfskin leather strap with an alligator-style pattern, closed with a steel rose gold PVD pin buckle.

The new Raymond Weil Toccata Heritage in red is available now and part of the permanent collection. Price is set at CHF 1,650. See more on the Raymond Weil website.

4/

Heron’s Year Of The Horse Watch, The Mirabel Firehorse, Punches Way Above Its Weight

Unfortunately, sometimes watches sell out so fast, I don’t get to write about them. But also, sometimes these sold out watches are so cool, I can’t help myself and not mention it, despite the fact you won’t be able to get one. At least you might keep an eye out for them on the secondary market. One such watch is the Héron Mirabel Firehorse, the Canadian brand’s take on the Lunar New Year watch, inspired by the hongbao, small red envelopes given during the New Year with money in it for good luck. And it has a neat little trick on the dial.

The case of the Mirabel Firehorse is a very classic C-shape that could have easily been used on a late 1950s watch. It’s made out of stainless steel, with a gold PVD coating and some pretty nice proportions — 37.5mm wide, 11.8mm thick with the box style sapphire crystal and a comfortable 43.5mm lug-to-lug thanks to the very short lugs. The caseback has an engraving of a Firehorse and the inscription that reads 马年通宝 (Mǎ Nián Tōng Bǎo), often found on ancient Chinese cash coins, translating to “Circulating Treasure of the Horse Year.” On the side is an oversized crown with a red cabochon. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The case is cool, but that dial… oh, that dial… The base of the dial is made out of agate stone, which has a fiery orange hue to it, with darker striations, perfect for a fire horse. If that wasn’t cool enough, beneath the stone is a layer of Swiss C3 Super-LumiNova which backlights the stone at night. And if that wasn’t cool enough, the seconds hand is replaced by a clear disc that has a replica of an ancient Chinese coin which travels around the dial. Around this very cool layered central dial is a gold colored heavily grained chapter ring that and the hands are also gold colored and faceted.

Inside, you’ll find the Miyota 9039 automatic. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a brownish-red premium Baranil leather strap, closed with a gold colored pin buckle.

Like I said, the Héron Mirabel Firehorse is sold out, which makes sense since only 50 were made and they were priced at €535. That’s an incredibly cool watch. See more on the Héron website.

5/

Louis Moinet Honors The Past With The Speed Of Sound Collection Powered By Wonderfully Restored Valjoux 88

I’m honest when I say that I was never particularly interested in much that Louis Moinet does. No idea why. They never popped off the screen at me, and some of them are very thick. But last year in Geneva I got to try one on for the first time and it was instant love. Sure, they are a bit weird, a bit too thick and quite expensive, but absolutely delightful. Now, we’re getting some new watches from them — three new Speed of Sound watches, heavily limited, very bright, and powered by a fantastically decorated Valjoux 88 movement from the 1940s.

Like almost all Louis Moinet watches, it’s quite large — especially standing up from your wrist — but also like other Louis Moinet, it’s made out of titanium, which makes it relatively light. The titanium can handle the 40.7mm width, but the 18.7mm thickness really does sound substantial on paper. It’s substantial in real life as well, but a lot of that thickness is dedicated to the oversized domed sapphire crystal. On the side you get the familiar piston-style pushers, and the case is satin brushed with polished details and bevelled lugs. Water resistance is meh at 30 meters.

There are three dial colors available — black, green and a bright orange. They all have a fantastic hand-guilloché mesh-like pattern engraved into it, with three silver sub-dials. But look closer and you’ll see that the 3 and 9 o’clock (30 minute counter and small seconds, respectively) sub-dials are framed in silver but actually have grey Aletai iron meteorite inlays in the center. At 6 o’clock is a hand-drawn moon phase indicator that has a fragment of Dhofar 457, a rare lunar meteorite. You’ll find applied Arabic numerals on all the positions except for 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, as well as openworked hour and minute hands. Around the perimeter of the dial is a telemeter scale that measures the speed of sound.

Inside, you’ll find a vintage Valjoux 88, restored and modified by Louis Moinet in house. The watchmakers remove the calendar complications and 12-hour totaliser and replace the original pointer date function. It’s a manual-winding column-wheel chronograph with a horizontal clutch and swan-neck regulator It beats at 18,000vph and has a 40 hour power reserve. But the movement is also incredibly decorated, with hand engraved floral motifs on the gold bridges. The watch comes on color matched rubber straps with triple-blade folding clasps.

The new Louis Moinet Speed of Sound trio is limited to three pieces per color. The orange one is already sold out, by the way. Price is not disclosed but is likely about CHF 50,000. See more on the Louis Moinet website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 64: Plastic Fantastic, The Fortis Flipper That Beat Swatch to the Punch

The budget Swiss sports watch that sold modularity, fun and 200‐meter water resistance as a single package. 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

• Eleni Polinski was a rising pot star in New York. Even Carmelo Anthony said he loved her stuff. Then a stunning police raid upended everything and shattered her family. Rosalind Adams draws on a wealth of surveillance footage, electronic communications, and other materials to tell a story that highlights how razor thin the margin can be between whether a person in the cannabis industry is celebrated as an entrepreneur or charged as a criminal.

• For skiers and snowboarders, speed has long depended on PFAS-based wax, made with the harmful “forever chemicals” found in household products and the environment. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation banned fluoros in 2023, making this year’s Winter Olympics the first fluoro-free games. In this Grist story, Joseph Winters and Tik Root examine the sport post-ban and explore why the transition hasn’t been easy for professional athletes.

• For Aeon, Yogi Hale Hendlin explores solarpunk, a vision of the future in which humans take their cues from nature’s living systems rather than working against them. Hendlin, an environmental philosopher and public health scientist at the Feral Ecologies Lab, highlights ecologically grounded cities built within Earth’s limits—and asks “what it would mean to make the built world hospitable again.”

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I know I might be overdoing it with music videos, but I think I just found my favorite cover of all time. Wouldn’t work without the video, of course.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk