Seiko Revives Cult Japanese Partnership With TiCTAC; Nivada's Blue Super Antarctic; Astor+Banks' Cool Field Watch; Fears Marks British Watchmaking With Silver Brunswick; Genta Keeps Things Simple

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. That Astor + Banks is a really good looking watch. I love it when a field watch isn’t afraid of overstepping its bounds. Have a good weekend everybody!

Also, I want to point out that this weekend is the last chance to buy the Alpina × TRTS Seastrong Diver Extreme. I reviewed it a couple of weeks ago, if you’re interested. I loved it, despite (or maybe because) the fact it was made by my friends from The Real Time Show.

In this issue

• Seiko Revives A Cult Japanese Exclusive Done In Partnership With TiCTAC

• Nivada Adds A Beautiful Blue Dial To The Already Great Super Antarctic

• Astor+Banks Introduces A Just-Different-Enough Take On The Field Watch With A Great Price Tag

• Fears Marks British Watchmaking Day With The Limited Brunswick 40 1846 Edition In A Silver Case

• Gérald Genta Keeps Things Simple With The Time Only Geneva Duo

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 61: The Tudor Advisor, An Alarm Wrist Watch That More People Should Remember

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko Revives A Cult Japanese Exclusive Done In Partnership With TiCTAC

There are hundreds of sensational Seiko watches that are unfortunately completely off-limits to us who don’t have the privilege to live in Japan. Every now and again, one of these watches will break out of Japan if not for real, then at least as a cultural touchstone, and gain following in the rest of the world. This is what happened to the SZSB series, introduced in 2019 as a partnership between Seiko and Japanese retailer TiCTAC to celebrate the retailers 35th anniversary. Now, the two are coming together again to update the collection, both in design and in technicalities, with the SZSB036. And while it will still remain a Japanese exclusive, TiCTAC offers an option to ship it out of the country!

The case is very familiar here, made out of stainless steel with brushed and polished surfaces, and measuring 40mm wide. The crown sits at 3 o’clock, on top is a hardlex crystal and water resistance is 100 meters. There’s not much more to say here because we’re looking at the new dial.

While the setup of the dial is familiar, what’s new is the great looking new blue-green sunburst dial. You get Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock, with applied markers for the rest. Around the edge of the dial is a tightly printed minute track and at 3 o’clock is a framed date aperture. The central seconds hand is finished in gold, while the minute and hour hands get the Alpinist’s cathedral-style hands done in silver with lume inside.

Inside is the very expected calibre 4R35. It’s not the best of movements, as we all know. It beats at 21,600vph and has an OK power reserve of 40 hours. Most controversial is the accuracy rating of the movement, which Seiko states between +45/-35 seconds per day, which really isn’t that great. However, in reality, the majority of these movements perform much better. Another big update to these collaborations is the lack of strap here. Previous TiCTAC collaborations came with leather straps, but now the watch comes on a steel three-link bracelet.

So, the new Seiko x TiCTAC SZSB036 is not limited, but it is available only through the retailer in Japan. However, TiCTAC also has a global forwarding service and you can use that to get the watch delivered to you. Price is set at JPY 55,000, which translates to approximately $347. See more on the TiCTAC website.

2/

Nivada Adds A Beautiful Blue Dial To The Already Great Super Antarctic

Despite being founded in 1926, and being one of the legendary Swiss watch manufacturers, Nivada Grenchen has had a tough time during the quartz crisis and went under. Thankfully, in recent years, watch entrepreneur Guillaume Laidet has brought the brand back and is churning out hit after hit, with most of their releases being reissues of old Nivada watches. Some time back, they reintroduced the Super Antarctic, based on the Antarctic model from the 1950s that was used in the Operation Deep Freeze 1 mission to the South Pole in 1955/56. It’s a great watch that came in a variety of colors. While the white dial ones were appropriate for its intended use and quite striking, Nivada just added a blue version of the watch and it’s quite the looker.

The case remains the same as on the majority of the collection, as well as the one used in the collaboration with Ace. It’s made out of stainless steel, with brushed and polished finishes. The case measures a pretty great 38mm wide, if a bit thick at 12mm. On top is a double domed sapphire crystal, while out back you’ll find a gold colored medallion. Water resistance is right where it should be at 100 meters.

New is the dial color, which is a really, really good looking shade of blue with a sunray finish. You get applied indexes and triangle markers at the cardinal positions, except for at 3 o’clock, because that’s where you’ll find a framed date aperture that has a square magnifier on the crystal above. Only, you don’t have to get the date if you don’t want one. I love it when brands give us options like these. The silver hands and indexes all get white lume painted inside, matching the white printing on the dial. No faxutina here.

Inside the watches is the automatic Soprod P024 based on the very familiar ETA 2824-2. It operates at 28,800vph, and has a 38-hour power reserve. The watch can be ordered on a blue tropic-style rubber strap, a blue leather strap, a three-link bracelet or a beads-of-rice bracelet.

The Nivada Grenchen Super Antarctic Blue is available for pre-order now and the first batch is limited to just 30 pieces. As I’m writing this, their website says they have 11 available for order. Price is set at €985 on rubber or leather and €1.185 on the bracelets. See more on the Nivada Grenchen website. 

3/

Astor+Banks Introduces A Just-Different-Enough Take On The Field Watch With A Great Price Tag

Just like pilot watches and divers, the field watch has a formula that it is almost forced to follow. A field watch needs to be simple, capable and well constructed to be able to survive a few days in the field while giving you the time at a glance. And it’s when a brand embraces the constrains of the genre and plays with them that they get my attention. This is exactly what the Chicago-based Astor + Banks did with their take on the field watch. What at a glance looks like a very simple watch that tells the time actually gets better the more you look at it, whether it’s the case treatments, the sandwich-dial, the colors, the date complication or the surprising price. This is the new Astor + Banks Terra Scout

The entire collection comes in stainless steel cases that have a choice of three treatments. If go for the regular stainless steel version, it will have a sandblasted finish, while the other two are a black DLC treatment and a limited desert sand Cerakote. All of the cases measure 38.5mm wide, 12.4mm thick (10.4mm without the sapphire crystal) and with a 46mm lug-to-lug. There’s not much more to it, but we don’t need more because this is just right, both in execution and size. Water resistance is rated at 660 feet on the dial, which equals about 200 meters.

The dial is available in two colors, white or black, and has a sandwich construction. The white dial is fully lumed, with the lower layer in black displaying hours through baton-shaped apertures, and Arabic numerals in the cardinal positions. On the black dial, it’s the lower layer that’s lumed, shining through the top layer. Very cool. But even cooler is date indicator which is printed in a circle around the middle of the watch. The numerals have openings next to them and an orange indicator that travels in a circle. I love this. All variants feature lumed black hands, while the seconds hand is fully painted orange on the DLC and Cerakote versions and has just orange tips on the steel versions.

Inside, you’ll find the very familiar La Joux-Perret G100 automatic movement, which is becoming an increasingly more popular alternative to the ubiquitous but hard to source ETA 2824, and the Sellita SW200. However, it has a much better power reserve than those two at 68 hours, and the same beat rate of 4Hz. The watches come with two straps, a canvas (green on the steel/white combination and black on the rest) and an FKM rubber strap.

The new Astor + Banks Terra Scout is available for pre-order now, with deliveries expected in March. Now, for the price. I said it was fantastic, but I didn’t say it was cheap. It’s set at $875 for the steel and FLC versions and $975 for the Cerakote version. Still a chunk of money, but LJP G100 watches are very often priced above €1,000 these days and since the dollar is low right now, it’s even more affordable for us in Europe. See more on the Astor + Banks website.

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Fears Marks British Watchmaking Day With The Limited Brunswick 40 1846 Edition In A Silver Case

While you would be forgiven for seeing Fears as a newly started microbrand, you would also be very wrong. The company has been around for over 170 years. Many people do not believe that a relaunched brand should be able to bank on the heritage of the company, but with Fears things are a bit different. Yes, the original Fears shut down in 1976 and hasn’t been seen until it’s revival in 2016, but this is not just a case of an investment fund buying the rights to the name and cranking out vintage-looking watches. Fears has been restarted by Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, the great-great-great-grandson of Edwin Fear. So there’s an obvious through-line of heritage there. But it’s not just the heritage that I like with Fears. It’s the fact that they are on the forefront of British watchmaking, pushing the industry forward while not giving up on their past.

Sure, there are larger British watch brands like Christopher Ward which is UK based, but Swiss made. Then you have Bremont which is being successfully run into the ground by a piece of human garbage that would rather donate to the defense fund of ICE agents and buy wild card entries into professional tennis tournaments despite being at my level of tennis ability than take care of the company. Which leaves us with Studio Underd0g, Farer and Fears as the bastions of British watchmaking. And they embrace that role, each in their own style. Like last year, Fears is showing their Britishness with a special and edition watch that will be available only to visitors of British Watchmakers’ Day that takes place this year on March 7. This is the new Fears Brunswick 40 1846 Edition, with a very special case.

The new 1846 Edition has a very familiar Brunswick case that has the instantly recognizable cushion shape that we’ve seen from the collection before. But there are a couple of small, but significant, changes, and one much larger change. First, it’s not made out of steel. Instead, it’s made out of 925 sterling silver hallmarked in London, which is the third time that we get a limited edition from the brand in this very cool material. Silver watches develop an incredible patina, and the same is expected of this one. The more subtle change is in the dimensions. It’s still 40mm wide, but it’s now significantly thinner at 11.1mm, gaining a bit of lug-to-lug length to 47mm.

The dial is inspired by one of the first pocket watches produced by the brand in 1846. It’s one in white lacquer with Roman numerals, a recessed and oversize small seconds subdial and thermally blued spade hands. Incredibly retro and incredibly good looking. The dial is finished off with a railway-track around the perimeter.

Inside, you’ll find the La Joux-Perret G121M, a manually wound movement that beats at 4Hz, with a comfortable 60 hour power reserve. Fears points out that they chose this movement because it positions the small seconds complication further away from the central handstack, which gives it room for the oversize subdial. The watch comes on a blue pig leather strap that has an alcantara lining and is closed with a sterling silver pin buckle.

The new Fears Brunswick 40 1846 Edition will be limited to 25 pieces and only available at British Watchmakers’ Day. Price is set at £4,350. As a side note, 2026 is an important year for Fears. It’s the 180th anniversary of the founding of the brand in 1846, but also the 10th anniversary of the revival of the name, so I assume that we will be getting a lot of interesting watches this year from them. See more on the Fears website.

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Gérald Genta Keeps Things Simple With The Time Only Geneva Duo

When he wasn’t defining the entire watch industry with design icons like the Patek nautilus and the AP Royal Oak, Gérald Genta led his own eponymous brand since 1969. This is the place where he was free to explore his creativity to its limits, with some wild watches as a result. However, the brand was sold to Bulgari, where it stagnated, only to be sold to LVMH two years ago. The conglomerate since announced they will revive the brand as part of their high-end manufacture La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, and they have been making some really nice watches. They make a number of very interesting collection, including the very funky Oursin. But I’m a bit enamored by the Geneva collection which keeps things very simple, even when complicated. They show that with the minimalist Geneva Minute Repeater. Now, we’re getting an actually simple Gérald Genta Geneva, the Time Only Duo. At quite the price.

The watches keep the same cushion-shaped case we’ve seen before, but now with even more compact dimensions at 38mm wide and 8.15mm thick. There are two materials available at launch — white and rose gold. But there’s a lot familiar here, including the double gadroons around the case flank and the single-piece lugs on top and bottom of the watch. On top is a flat sapphire held down with a stepped polished bezel and Genta points out that all the finishings on the case, which include satin brushing and high polishing, are done by hand. You get 30 meters of water resistance, which is appropriate for a dress watch that might get caught in the drizzle.

Each of the two watches available at launch have a name. The Geneva Time Only Marrone sits in the 4N rose gold case and gets a smoked brown dial with rose gold applied indexes and hands, for a fully warm look. On the cooler side of things is the Geneva Time Only Grafite which has a white gold case and a grey dial with a gradient to a lighter silver in the middle. The hands and indexes are also rose gold on this one, which match it perfectly.

Inside, you’ll find an interesting movement. It’s the automatic calibre GG-005P, developed by La Fabrique du Temps for Gérald Genta but based on the well known Zenith Elite 670. It beats at 4Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watches come on handmade calfskin straps, the Marrone on a brown one and the Grafite on a grey one.

The new Gérald Genta Geneva Time Only should be on sale now and part of the regular collection. Price is set at CHF 25,000, without taxes. See more on the Gérald Genta website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Historical Perspectives: The Story Of Porsche Design And The Weird Watches That We Adore

How Ferdinand Alexander Porsche Built an Uncompromising Watch Empire After Being Pushed Out of the Family Car Company. Read it here.

IT’S ABOUT TIME PRESENTS THE TRTS PODCAST: Pierre Biver Outlines The Direction Of Watchmaking's Living Legacy Brand

This is a really fantastic episode, I’m not kidding. It’s The Real Time Show doing what they do best, brining you a insiders look at the watch industry. You get to go inside the brain of Pierre Biver as he outlines where the Biver brand is going, highlighting how the combination of his youthful perspective and his father’s legendary industry experience informs a bold approach to contemporary haute horlogerie. It explores the brand’s emphasis on craftsmanship, independent creation, and the balance between tradition and innovation in shaping its future. Listen to 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

• America's moonshot reboot is imploding: budget slashes, 4,000 quits, billionaire nominee drama, and Musk-Bezos lander feuds—while China grabs far-side rocks and eyes Shackleton's ice riches. Will Trump-era chaos let Beijing plant its flag first, ending the US space supremacy era? Insiders say yes.

• A GQ reporter crashes a California Breatharian retreat—$1,700 for juice fasts, enemas, and "prana" promises from ex-fire dancers claiming food-free bliss. Amid chakra scans and starry-eyed seekers chasing autophagy highs (and weight loss), deadly precedents loom: Is this wellness hack or starvation cult?

• n 1990s Texas, a boy’s “unschooling” dream turns dystopian: bleached baby-blond hair, all-day crawling, mall “lessons”—mom’s quest to halt his growth into adolescence. Grandma’s visit ignites rebellion, but escape demands confronting unchecked homeschool horrors thriving in oversight-free shadows.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Woah, this was fast. Not even a week after the murder of Alex Pretti, Bruce Springsteen put out a protest song that already has more than 5 million views in a day that it’s been out. This is done in the best manner of Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger and the other folk musicians that wrote some of the best protest songs of all time.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk