Straum And The Real Time Show Release Prettiest Watch Of The Year; Benrus Brings Back Ultra-Deep; Mr Jones' Final Watch; A Smooth Bezel Hanhart; UG Continues Teasing; Richard Mille Brings Back The Worldtimer

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There’s good news and bad news. Croatia has socialized medicine, which is great in theory. The bad news is that it’s riddled by incompetence and corruption. For example, I was given an appointment to see a physical therapist (whose opinion is needed before they admit me into hospital) in May. Of next year. Thankfully, I am in the position to pay for most of this out of pocket, so things are moving faster than if I relied on the system. I won’t be asking for any help from you, don’t worry. But… you were considering doing a paid subscription at some point in the coming weeks, I would appreciate it if you could do it sooner to offset some of this cost. If not, no worries at all, just bear with me if I’m a bit off schedule.

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In this issue

• Straum And The Real Time Show Join Forces On The Jan Mayen “Stormy Seas” With The Best Dial Of The Year

• Benrus Brings Back The Legendary Ultra-Deep With Super Compressor-Like Case

• Mr Jones Releases Final Watch For This Year, The Space-Themed Continuum

• Hanhart Teams Up With Porsche Fahrer Magazin For A Smooth Bezel 417 ES Mocha Flyback Date

• Universal Genève Continues Teasing Actual Launch With Wildly Priced Tribute to Compax Nina Special Editions

• Richard Mille Brings Back The RM 63-02 Automatic Worldtimer In Bubblegum Pink

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Historical Perspectives: The Other Space Watch, Fortis and the Russian Space Program

👂What’s new

1/

Straum And The Real Time Show Join Forces On The Jan Mayen “Stormy Seas” With The Best Dial Of The Year

A few years ago a couple of guys involved in the production of the Jan Mayen collection of the Norwegian brand Straum had a genius idea. To promote the watch they would sail some 600 km of cold, grey ocean from Svalbard all the way to the Jan Mayen island, the namesake of the collection. There, they would attempt to summit the Beerenberg volcano. What followed was a harrowing journey that could have ended up in tragedy multiple times. First, they were caught in a horrific storm that pushed the steel-hull sailboat deep beneath the icy blue waves, eventually snapping their mast. The team reached Jan Mayen, but they were faced with more issues there and had to rethink their life decisions without reaching the summit of Beernberg and turning around. It was an incredible journey, even without reaching their destination and they documented it very well in video and photos on their website.

One of the people on the expedition was Rob Nudds, a guy I got the privilege of calling a dear friend over the past few years. Rob is co-host of The Real Time Show, perhaps the most important podcast in the watch industry if you are interested in the inner working of the industry. They don’t exactly talk watch releases, but they do interview some of the most influential people who make watches. The other host is my other friend Alon Ben Joseph, owner of Ace Jewelers. I point out that we are friends so that there is full disclosure for what I am about to say next. And believe me, I don’t let our friendship influence when I say it. The Real Time Show has just teamed up with Straum to release the Straum × The Real Time Show Jan Mayen “Stormy Seas” and it is, without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite watch of the year. Even if you’re not a fan of the case for some reason, or dislike the strap, the Stormy Seas presents to us the prettiest dial of the year, with incredible textures and colors. Sure, this is my subjective perception, but prove me wrong, I’ll wait.

The Stormy Seas comes in Straum’s recently redesigned case, which means that it’s made out of Grade 5 Titanium, bead blasted and then given polished accents. The size and shape remain largely unchanged, which means you get a case that measures 38.7mm wide, 11.5mm thick including the crystal (just 9.7mm without) and a comfortable 45.7mm lug-to-lug. On top is a double domed sapphire crystal with internal anti-reflective coating, surrounded by a blasted and polished flat bezel. The crown on the right side gets two very nice guards and water resistance is 100 meters.

Then we have that dial. That stunning dial. This is what Rob had to say about it: “I never lost the image of the grey/blue sea and the thought of one or all of us floating along its surface in those fluorescent orange suits. The contrast was stark — as stark as the danger had been in that moment. I resolved that should Lasse and Øystein ever give me the honour, this would be the colour scheme I’d choose for my very own Jan Mayen model.” And you can see it vividly right there. The dial has a gradient from a lighter blue in the center to a darker one on the periphery, with a sharp, very three dimensional texture applied to it. It really does look like a stormy sea, which is a rare feat in watches. The dial has applied silver lumed hour markers, and the same look is used for the hour and minute hands. The seconds hand, however, is bright orange and a perfect match. I saw the prototype of this watch in Geneva in September and in the glaring sun, I fell in love. I am not kidding when I tell you this is a stunningly beautiful dial.

Inside, you’ll find the La Joux-Perret G101 automatic which beats at 4Hz and has a 68 hour power reserve. It’s also made to the soignée level, which means it’s adjusted in four positions. Straum claims accuracy of ±7 seconds per day. The watch comes on a black FKM rubber strap, very blocky and very cool.

The new Straum × The Real Time Show Jan Mayen “Stormy Seas” is available for pre-order now, and will be available during the pre-order window which closes on November 20th, 6:00PM CET. Whoever orders a watch in that time will be guaranteed one, after which it’s gone. Price is set at €1.820, which is the exact same as the regular Jan Mayen watches. Go buy this right now, you won’t regret it for one second. See more on the Straum website.

2/

Benrus Brings Back The Legendary Ultra-Deep With Super Compressor-Like Case

The Benrus, apart from having a very cool story that I really need to tell soon, has also been on quite a rol over the past year. They have always been known as the maker of some of the best military watches in history, watches worn by U.S. soldiers during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In fact, the Benrus Type 1 MIL-SPEC is perhaps one of the most recognizable military watches of the 1970s. And in the past few months we got recreations of some of these very cool watch. Now, it’s time to bring back the Benrus Ultra-Deep, their legendary diver.

The original Ultra-Deep came in an EPSA Super Compressor case instantly recognizable by its double crown setup, one to wind and set the time, and the other to operate the internal bezel. But that wasn’t what made those cases special, it was the fact that they got more watertight the deeper they went and the more pressure was exerted on them. That was freaking cool. However, it’s also kind of difficult and expensive to produce. If I’m not wrong, the only sub €1,000 true super compressor case watch you can buy now is the Circula SuperSport. Everything else is way more expensive.

This new Benrus Ultra-Deep, unfortunately, doesn’t give us a real super compressor case, but does follow the design closely. The stainless steel case has a surprisingly compact construction, measuring 36.5mm wide, 13.8mm thick and has a very comfortable 41.5mm lug-to-lug. On top is a double-domed acrylic crystal with internal date magnifier, and on the side are the twin crowns — time setting at 2 o’clock, bezel action at 4. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial remains quite simple, with a black internal rotating 60-minute dive bezel and a black base to the dial. You get a white minutetrack, C3 Super-LumiNova circular and rectangular hour markers and bezel markings at the cardinal points. The one flourish are the very dramatic cathedral hour and minute hands.

Inside you’ll find the Soprod P024 automatic which has been showing up lately more and more as an ETA-2824/Sellita SW200 alternative. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a Jubilee-style bracelet and you get an additional blue nylon NATO.

The new Benrus Ultra-Deep is available now as part of the regular collection, priced at CHF 1,105, without tax. See more on the Benrus website.

3/

Mr Jones Releases Final Watch For This Year, The Space-Themed Continuum

OK, so by now we know that Mr Jones are the absolute masters at creating what can only be described as art watches. Watches that don’t necessarily do a good job at telling the time, but are incredibly beautiful, while keeping costs funny low. What we don’t point out as much, and we should, is how incredibly diverse their lineup is, from absolute minimalist design watches to very maximalists painting, like that crazy watch they did of a bee on a flower. Now, they are launching the last watch of the year, and it’s groovy. Taking inspiration from space travel, this is the new Continuum.

I usually breeze through stuff like the case on Mr Jones watches because they use the same case all the time, but this comes in their recently introduced new case. This new case is much more traditional, with filled out lugs and made out of stainless steel. It measures 37mm wide and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. has a 50 meter water resistance. Inside is the TY2709 20 jewel automatic mechanical. The watch is mounted on a 18mm wide strap, in this case a grey silicone one.

The dial was designed by British illustrator and pattern designer Jacqueline Colley, Continuum is a retro-futurist space scene filled with shooting stars, aliens and an ever-in-motion kaleidoscopic wormhole. The hour is shown in the circular window of the rocket, while the meteor rotates around the face pointing to the minutes.

The new Mr Continuum is a regular addition to the collection and available right now. Price is set at £245 / $395 / €295. See more on the Mr Jones website.

4/

Hanhart Teams Up With Porsche Fahrer Magazin For A Smooth Bezel 417 ES Mocha Flyback Date

After World War II ended, and Germany was allowed to build up its military again, the various divisions had a huge need for new equipment. A major part of the equipment were watches. And the first pilot’s chronograph for the German armed forces after the war was the Hanhart cal. 417, still a classic to this day. And not only as a vintage piece, but also as a modern reinterpretation. In 2020, Hanhart released the 417 ES, which was a pretty faithful recreation of the original, down to the red mark on the fluted bezel. But since the 417 ES is such a legend, it’s interesting to break the rules a bit and see what can be done. For their latest such experiment, Hanhart teamed up with Porsche Fahrer Magazin to create a very interesting 417 ES, called the Mocha Flyback Date. Not only does it have a very cool mocha dial, it also gets a smooth bezel. Interesting.

Over the years, Hanhart made many versions of the 417, including cases in two sizes — 39mm and 42mm. And this release comes in the larger of the two. That means you have a stainless steel case that comes in at 42mm wide, the same 13.3mm thick and with a 49.75mm lug-to-lug. On top you get a highly dome sapphire crystal which is now surrounded by a smooth polished bezel instead of the iconic fluted one. While the bezel loses the red mark at 12, you still get the classic pusher at 2 o’clock and a red pusher at 4 o’clock, made out of HyCeram, a hybrid ceramic material. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial has all the familiar aspects of the 417 ES, including Arabic numerals and syringe hands, plenty of SLN X2 C1 lume, two white sub-dials at 3 and 9 o’clock and a central flyback chronograph hand also done in white. The novelty is a mocha colored base of the dial which balances on the verge of being too fauxtina-like. Instead, it’s a great look.

Inside, you’ll find the AMT5100M, made by Sellita’s high-end division, AMT. It’s a hand-wound chronograph with a column wheel and a flyback function. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 58 hour power reserve. The movement is also regulated in-house to 0 to +8 seconds per day. The watches can be had on either a 3-link brushed steel bracelet or on a sensational brown calfskin strap lined with Alcantara that has a removable Bund lower strap.

The new Hanhart 417 ES Mocha Flyback Date is limited to 200 pieces, available now and priced at €2,690 on leather and €2,890 on the steel bracelet. See more on the Hanhart website.

5/

Universal Genève Continues Teasing Actual Launch With Wildly Priced Tribute to Compax Nina Special Editions

Jochen Rindt’s name lives in infamy in Formula 1 circles. To date, he is the only driver to have won the World Drivers' Championship posthumously. He did so in 1970s with Lotus, amassing enough points that even his death at the Italian Grand Prix couldn’t stop him from winning the Championship. While that is a macabre achievement, the Rindt name is well known in F1 circles thanks to his wife, Finnish supermodel Nina Rindt. She was a constant presence trackside at his races and an absolute style icon, adored by photographers. One of the style details that was often noted was her choice of watch, a Universal Genève Compax given to her by Jochen. But it wasn’t just any old Compax — it was customized to replace the chronograph’s black seconds hand with a red one and legend says that Nina saw a leather cuff in a store window in Paris and mounted her racing chronograph onto a Bundt strap. An instant legend was born and these vintage watches are still known as the Nina.

Now, Universal Genève is bringing the Nina back. But in a very complicated way. Two years ago, Breitling’s CEO Georges Kern announced that they have acquired the Universal Genève brand and would be reviving it in 2026. Since then, we have gotten a teaser of a watch, a remake of the legendary Pole Router but in a severely limited production run. Now, they are teasing the return of the Nina, with the new Tribute to Compax Nina special editions. There are six watches in this limited series, making each effectively a unique piece due to their differing dials and case materials, with an absolutely bonkers price behind them. I guess this is Kern’s way of hinting that the new Universal Genève watches will not be affordable, while at the same time testing out what the market wants to see from them.

The new Tribute to Compax watches come in extremely interestingly sized cases. They are all 36mm wide and 12.67mm thick, which is not something you see in chronographs these days. So kudos on that. The cases are made out of white or rose gold, three of each. Keeping with the very retro inspiration, on top is a wonderful box-shaped sapphire crystal, surrounded by black tachymeter scales. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dials also keep their vintage inspiration, with a tri-compax setup, lumed dagger style hands and the iconic red central chronograph hand. There are several colorways available. You get the classic panda and reverse panda displays in black and white in each of the metals, a brown dial paired with a rose gold case and a blue and black paired with the remaining white gold case. All of the dials are made from Grand Feu enamel.

Inside, you’ll find vintage and restored movements, the Universal Genève 281 which was used int he 1960s. Since they are old movements, you’ll note the 2.5Hz beat rate and 36 hour power reserve. Then, there’s the bund straps that are made by Satoru Hosoi, a Japanese artisan who now works in France and come in incredible colors, made from three pieces of calf leather sewn together.

These Universal Genève Tribute watches are impossible to buy. Or at least as close to impossible. While I get the promotion of the watches ahead of launch, I’m a bit annoyed as to where this is headed. But we’ll see. These watches are sold in two sets of three, priced at CHF 135,000. See more on the Universal Genève website.

6/

Richard Mille Brings Back The RM 63-02 Automatic Worldtimer In Bubblegum Pink

Think of a Richard Mille watch. Chances are, you are picturing a tonneau watch that is hard to describe in words that don’t include gaudy, excessive and weird. However, years ago, RM made some pretty cool stuff. I still maintain that the RM 61-01 Yohan Blake is one of the best watches of all time. The RM 35-03 Rafael Nadal Carbon TPT was incredibly cool. The RM 25-01 Tourbillon Adventure was wildly over the top, but in a good way. Sure, RM watches were always very expensive — too expensive for their own good — but they incorporated very innovative materials and actually did wild things with their movements. But it seems that in the past few years, these advanced releases were few and far between. They keep cranking out a tonneau after tonneau in weird colors and ever increasing colors. Do I dare say we might see a glimmer of hope that the old Richard Mille is coming back with their latest release. It’s not great, I know, but it is a recreation of a watch that we saw introduced 10 years ago, the RM 63-02 Automatic Worldtimer, now in red gold and pink and burgundy dial colors.

The RM 63-02 Automatic Worldtimer has always been a chunky watch, as are most non-tonneau watches from RM. The case is milled out of a chunk of 5N red gold, with a satin finish and polished bevels, as well as a grade 5 titanium caseband with a brushed finish. The case is made out of three parts, held together with 12 grade 5 titanium screws, and on the side is a huge crown done also in red gold, but with a Alcryn collar in a burgundy color. Alcryn is a material that feels like vulcanised rubber, but is way more resistant. On the side at 4 o’clock is also a pusher that selects the function of the crown, one of my favorite RM features. At 4 o’clock on the dial is a small display that shows whether the crown is used for winding, hand setting or is in a neutral position, cycled through with the pusher. Richard Mille likes to boast their high tech materials, so they point out that the watch uses two Nitrile O-ring seals. However, water resistance is just 30 meters.

Where stuff gets cool is on the dial side. The design is expected from RM, with a lot of openworked bridges. The hands are typical to Richard Mille, with large chamfers and a straight brush finish. Time is pointed by indexes printed on a sapphire crystal that covers the movement. The final indication of the watch is a large date displayed by 2 skeletonized discs at 12. But that’s not the coolest thing. The coolest thing is a pink and burgundy 24-hour time wheel , surrounded with a white flange that shows the world cities. That flange is part of the microblasted 5N red gold bezel mounted on ball bearings which allows you to rotate the bezel and instantly get the reading of a local time in one of the 24 cities. IWC used something similar in their world timer and I maintain it’s one of the coolest ways to deal with the complication.

Inside, you’ll find their in-house CRMA4 automatic that’s built on grade 5 titanium bridges and baseplate, with black rhodium coating, beating at 4Hz, with a 50 hour power reserve. Decorations include polished bevels and brushed edges, microblasted bridges with PVD and electro-plasma treatments and circular-brushed wheels.

The new Richard Mille RM 63-02 Automatic Worldtimer is limited to 100 pieces and priced at an eye-watering CHF 220,000. See more on the Richard Mille website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Historical Perspectives: The Other Space Watch, Fortis and the Russian Space Program

How a Swiss brand became ROSCOSMOS's official timekeeper while Omega dominated the narrative. 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

• In tracing the “paranoid style” from Kennedy’s assassination through QAnon and AI-driven misinformation, this essay explores why conspiracy thinking thrives in modern America. Drawing on history, psychology, and communication tech, it reveals how eternal myths of secret plots adapt to new media—shaping politics, fueling distrust, and threatening the foundations of open society.​

• Vitalia, a pop-up city on Roatan, Honduras, aimed to fast-track anti-aging drug research by bypassing traditional regulations. Backed by Silicon Valley billionaires and biotech entrepreneurs, it offered a futuristic vision of medical innovation. Yet despite early promise, regulatory challenges and political turmoil stalled much of its scientific progress, raising questions about fast-tracking life extension therapies.

• The Trump family’s crypto empire, World Liberty Financial, has reshaped modern finance and presidential influence, amassing nearly $1 billion in income—largely from foreign investors, including controversial figures. With minimal transparency, stalled tech, and sweeping regulatory changes benefiting their ventures, this cash machine blurs the line between government and personal wealth, raising unprecedented ethical and legal concerns.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I love this Last Meals video series, but the episode with Christoph Waltz is just magic.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk