Seiko's Youngtimer Solar Speedtimer Trio; Timex Titanium Diver; A Scottish Nivada Grenchen; Baume & Mercier’s Clifton Year of the Fire Horse; Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune In Platinum And Titanium

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. A solid lineup of affordable watches today. Good to see days like those as well.

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 Expands The Prospex Speedtimer Solar Chronograph Collection With The New Youngtimer Trio

• The Very Cool Titanium Deepwater Reef 200 Diver Gets A New Colorway

• Nivada Grenchen Teams Up With Retailer Wallace Alan For A Scottish Themed Chronoking With Five Bezels

• Baume & Mercier’s Clifton 10839 Year of the Fire Horse Has A Playful Date Indicator

• Hermès Does The Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune In Platinum And Titanium

👂What’s new

1/

Seiko Expands The Prospex Speedtimer Solar Chronograph Collection With The New Youngtimer Trio

Late last year, Seiko introduced in short succession a duo of fantastic Prospex Speedtimers. First was the SSC937, an EU exclusive, and the globally available SSC953. They came in a beautiful blue and stunning red dial respectively and I think I argued at the time that the Prospex Speedtimer might be a really cool and unexpected platform for Seiko to be more courageous with. And it happened over the years. We got the racing inspired models, the ones dedicated to the World Athletics Championships in Japan and the SSC813 Motoring Edition. Now, we’re getting three more watches built on the platform — the new Prospex Speedtimer ‘Youngtimer’ Solar Chronograph collection. Youngtimer is a term used for older cars that are not yet older than 30 years, which would make them oldtimers, but are still somewhat special. Which is great inspiration.

Seiko is using the smaller of the chronograph cases here. That means the steel case measures 39mm wide, 13.3mm wide and with a very decent 45.5mm lug-to-lug measurement. It has circular-brushed top surfaces and a high-polished case band, with a fixed black bezel with a tachymeter scale engraved into it. The crystal is sapphire and the lugs curve down slightly. Water resistance is 100 meters.

There are three dial configurations to choose from. There is a traditional white dial with black subdials, but the other two are much more funkier. They both have black subdials, but one has a minty green base, while the other has a pink base. Both of these colors are light and are almost pastel-like. I’ve been saying we need more pink dials! Those black subdials also function as solar cells that charge the watch and feature a running seconds at 9 o’clock, a 60-minute chronograph register at 6 o’clock, and a 24-hour (AM/PM) indicator at 3 o’clock. A neat trick is hidden in the 6 o’clock subdial which also serves as the power reserve indicator, with an “E” for empty and an “F” for fully charged, if the chronograph is not running. The hour and minute hands, as well as the central chrono hand, are silver and filled with cream lume. The only thing spoiling the great look of this watch is the date aperture with a black date wheel at a bit after 4 o’clock.

Inside is the solar-powered quartz V192 movement. Sure, a mechanical movement might have been much more attractive, but can you really complaing that much? You get 6 months of power reserve in complete darkness, accuracy of + / - 15 seconds per month and is super durable. The watch comes on a three-row stainless steel bracelet with polished center links and brushed outer links.

The new Seiko Prospex Speedtimer ‘Youngtimer’ Solar Chronograph trio go on sale in February, as part of the regular collection. Price should be somewhere in the €750 range. See more on the Seiko website.

2/

The Very Cool Titanium Deepwater Reef 200 Diver Gets A New Colorway

There’s no denying the fact that Timex has been on quite the roll these past years. They have put out banger, after banger, after banger, after banger. I’m not sure what’s more impressive, their designs or their ability to keep watches really affordable. However, if there’s one thing that might be a bit questionable is the quality of their watches. They’re not bad, not at all, they can just be a bit flimsy sometimes. While I haven’t yet seen one live, it seems that they fixed that issue with the Deepwater Reef 200, their first dive watch that meets the ISO standards for a dive watch. This collection was released in 2024, and now we’re getting new colors for this well made, affordable diver.

While the collection launched with three versions — a stainless steel version with quartz, a stainless quartz GMT model and an automatic movement in a titanium case — this update comes to just the titanium model. The case, which has a vintage-inspired skin diver look with super short lugs and a square stance that make it look like an H-case, measures 41mm wide and 13mm thick. On top is a sapphire crystal surrounded by a 60-minute unidirectional dive bezel that’s now done in black, with white numerals and an orange triangle at 12. Water resistance is 200 meters.

This new version only has one new dial, but it’s a good one. Bright orange, it harkens back to some pretty iconic divers of the bast. This version also has lume blocs for the markers, which is pretty cool, while the hands are black, partially skeletonized and filled with lume in the top halfs. There’s a date aperture at 3 o’clock, with a cyclops above it, just like the previous version.

Inside, Timex actually names the movement for once. It’s the Miyota 8215 automatic with a 42-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black rubber strap.

The new titanium Timex Deepwater Reef 200 in orange is available now, priced at €549. still a decent price, but also a significant increase from the €479 price tag in 2024. See more on the Timex website.

3/

Nivada Grenchen Teams Up With Retailer Wallace Alan For A Scottish Themed Chronoking With Five Bezels

You know darn well that you looked longingly at your watch at least several times in your life and thought: “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could swap out these bezels? It would be like owning 10 watches in one.” I know I did. There were a few brands and a few models that tried doing interchangeable bezels, but it never stuck. Mostly because it wasn’t very intuitive to use and often ended up with bezel-less watches as they would pop-off mid wear and disappear into the ether. But you know who did it, did it recently, and did it successfully? Nivada Grenchen did! A year ago, or so, they introduced two versions of their Chronomaster model and one Chronoking, each delivered with five different bezels that you could hot-swap on the go. I will say that this is one of the coolest party tricks on the market, and now the brand is teaming up with UK retailer Wallace Allan for a very Scottish take on the Chronoking with five different bezels. This is the new Nivada Grenchen Chronoking x Wallace Allan limited edition.

The case of the Chronoking Wallace Allan remains the same as the one on the regular Chronoking. That means that it’s made out of stainless steel, with a brushed and polished finish, and measures 38mm wide, 13.4mm thick and has a 46.5mm lug-to-lug. It’s a very vintage-inspired case, with faceted lugs and a puston style pushers. On top is the interchangeable bezel, which is the new version — no longer with a smooth turning, instead you get 60 clicks. There are five of the bezels, all of which have a world time scale on the outside with a tachymeter on the inside, but in different color combinations. There’s two monochrome version — black bezel with white printing, a white bezel with blue markings; and three bi-color versions white printing on the blue worldtimer half and vice versa on the tachymeter half (the best looking one), royal blue and sky blue, and a gray and white. Also, all of the bezels replace Greenwich with Ayr, Wallace Allan’s home town, on the worldtimer bezel. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial remains familiar, with new colors. The base of the dial is black, with a rough surface to it. Around the perimeter is a white and blue minute track, the sub-dials are snailed, and the sub-dial hands and central chronograph hand are done in a blue that matches the blues on the bezel.

Inside the watch is the Seiko Mecha-Quartz caliber SII VK63, meaning that it combines a quartz movement for the regular timekeeping and a mechanical chronograph. The watch comes on Nivada Grenchen’s beads of rice bracelet.

The new Nivada Grenchen Chronoking Wallace Allan is available now, limited to just 50 pieces. Price is set at £820. See more on the Wallace Allan website.

4/

Baume & Mercier’s Clifton 10839 Year of the Fire Horse Has A Playful Date Indicator

We still have another two weeks before the start of the Chinese New Year, which will be the year of the fire horse. That also means that we have about 10 more days in which brands will slide in with last-minute Year Of The Horse watches. Some will be the expected red and gold creations. Others will approach the problem like this new Baume & Mercier Clifton. Based on their universally adaptable Clifton, they didn’t go the red and gold route. Instead, this is quite an understated watch that drops a horse in a very cool date aperture. This is the new Baume & Mercier Clifton 10839 Year of the Fire Horse.

The case of the watch is as simple as can get. It’s made out of stainless steel, with polished and brushed surfaces, and measuring 40mm wide and 11.3mm thick. There’s not much to this case, except for very compact lugs that have to help with wearability. On the side is a very elegant unprotected crown, completing the 50s look. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is dark grey, with a gradient that lightens as you move towards the center of the dial. That is paired with tin applied triangular gold hour markers, gold colored Alpha-style hands and a gold colored crosshairs in the middle of the dial, as found on many other Clifton models. At 6 o’clock is a wide aperture for the date, showing five days at once, but with the even numbers exchanged with illustrations of a horse in various stages of a gallop, moving through the month. I love how well this is done.

Inside the watch is the brand’s Baumatic movement which beats at 4Hz, it features 21 jewels and offers a power reserve of 120 hours or five days. It’s also chronometer-certified and features a silicon hairspring. The movement also has some nice finishings, although nothing to write home about. It comes on a black alligator strap.

The Baume & Mercier Clifton 10839 Year of the Fire Horse is limited to 100 pieces, and I think the brand has an error on their website, as they say that the watch will go on sale at the end of November… Price is set at €3,900. See more on the Baume & Mercier website.

5/

Hermès Does The Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune In Platinum And Titanium

The Slim d’Hermès was already a very impressive watch, with a refreshingly simple approach to dress watches right at the time when it wasn’t as popular a genre. Over the past 11 years, Hermès built on the watch to turn it into a platform that can take pretty much any complication, culminating with the Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune, a skeletonized version of the already intriguing watch. Now, we’re getting two new takes on the model, one in platinum and one in a very interesting titanium.

From afar, not only do these two watches look similar to previous versions, they even look similar to each other. If you disregard the dial colors, that is. They both measure 39.5mm wide and 8.8mm thick. But look at them up close, and boy, is there a notable different. One is made out of polished platinum with a polished platinum bezel on top. The other is made out of titanium, but with an incredible bead-blasted surface on the middle-case and caseback, which is hidden under a polished anthracite DLC coated bezel. The textured case is just uniquely cool.

Sure, technically both of these watches have skeletonized dials, but both have enough of a base to include a colorful signature, including a rehaut on the periphery and a formed opening for the double moonphase at 6 o’clock. On the platinium version, these parts are done in blue, and on the titanium they are done in grey. But the skeletonized movement also plays a role in creating a colorscape. On the platinium version the bridges of the movement are coated in a blue color, while on the titanium, they have an absolutely stunning shade of very light green they call Vert d’Eau or aqua green. The bridges have bead blasted finishes and diamond-polished bevels.

Inside, you’ll find the Calibre H1953, based on a Vaucher movement. It’s an ultra-thin skeletonised automatic wound with a micro-rotor, beating at 21,600vph, with a 48 hour power reserve. The platinum version comes on a blue alligator strap with polished platinum buckle, while the titanium has a grey alligator strap with bead-blasted grade 5 titanium buckle.

The new Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune are part of the permanent collection but prices are on request. See more on the Hermès website.

⏲️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

• Brooklyn dawn-dwellers queue for Aldi’s big-box debut—quarters for carts, boxes for shelves, Oreo knockoffs at half-price. German thrift kings conquer inflation-weary America with private-label fever and middle-aisle mania, luring Mercedes from Mercedes. But home turf heats up as Lidl stalks the discount throne.

• Michael Saylor's Miami laser-eyes vaporize fiat foes in holographic glory, as his rebranded Strategy morphs from software snooze into a $24B Bitcoin war chest—fueled by zero-interest debt and "safe" preferred shares promising 11% yields. But with BTC tanking, junk ratings flashing, and $21B debts looming, the messiah hoards cash, hints at sales. Infinite glitch or epic unravel?

• Tehran aspirant hunts literary elders; all prescribe Hedayat's Blind Owl, Bombay-stapled opium haze of cypress-idyll turned butcher-reeking cuckold hell. Painter's termite-wound devolves from Anahita's lily to axed slut, owl-shadowed self-hate. Iran's Dostoyevsky: pre-Islamic glory lost in Gandistan filth, birthing suicidal genius's undying grip.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Post Malone, Duff McKagan, Slash, Chad Smith, Andrew Watt perform "War Pigs", a Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards. The video is crap, but you only need the audio.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk