The New Blue And White Citizen Series 8 GMT Is Very Classy; Bremont Continues Summer Run Of Supermarine 500 Releases; Draken Updates The Chunky Krueger; Minase Adds An Ice Blue Dial To The Uruga

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. These newsletters are getting later and later, and I’m blaming the extreme heats… Just kidding, working on something pretty spectacular, so just bear with me for a few more days and keep your fingers crossed it works out. I’ve been so busy I haven’t even noticed how cool the new Draken is.

Also, don’t forget about the Laco giveaway!

In this issue

• The New Blue And White Citizen Series 8 GMT Might Be The Classiest Combination To Date

• Bremont Continues Their Summer Run Of Supermarine 500 Releases, This Time In Black Ceramic

• Draken Updates The Chunky Krueger Collection With Two Dial Setups And Three Possible Movements

• Minase Adds An Ice Blue Dial To The Uruga Series In Both 42mm And 31mm

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS: Watch School Wednesday: Diameter is just one part of the size, look at the lug-to-lug for a perfect fit

👂What’s new

1/

The New Blue And White Citizen Series 8 GMT Might Be The Classiest Combination To Date

Over the past several years we have been witnessing Citizen take up a lot of the space left in the market by Seiko radically increasing their prices without offering much of an improvement in watches. Citizen has always been known as the budget Japanese brand, but this image is changing. Quickly. And while they are showing this step up in a lot of their model lines, it’s perhaps most obvious in the Series 8 collection. And at the top of the mound of the collection is the Series 880, a great looking watch with a fantastic GMT movement. There’s already a few great color combinations of the watch, and this new one is no exception — a steel case, blue dial and blue and white bezel. Pretty classy.

First, the basics. The watch is made out of stainless steel, with deep and beautiful brushing and polished facets. The watch will certainly have a presence on wrist, with case measurements of 41mm wide and 13.5mm thick. On top is a bi-directional bezel that has a blue and white insert with a 24-hour scale in which the white part denotes the day hours. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is very similar to versions we’ve seen before, blue with the same pattern of squares of varying depth. Citizen claims this is inspired by the windows of its skyscrapers in the Tokyo skyline and all we can do is trust that it’s true. Contrasting the black dial are silver applied markers and hands, both filled with lume, and a silver GMT hand with an orange arrow tip.

Inside is the calibre 9054, an automatic flyer-style GMT Movement, meaning that you independently adjust hour hand. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a decent power reserve of 50 hours. Citizen claims an accuracy of -10 / +20 seconds per day. The watch comes on a brushed bracelet with H-shaped links and it’s opened with a folding clasp. I believe it has no micro-adjust, especially not toolless, but I’m not 100% sure on that.

The new Citizen Series 8 Mechanical GMT 880 in blue is available now, priced at $1,495. See more on the Citizen website.

2/

Bremont Continues Their Summer Run Of Supermarine 500 Releases, This Time In Black Ceramic

In all of watch releases this year, the one thing I would have never been able to predict is Bremont going on a run of releases in the middle of the summer, all being quite traditional divers. First we got the black dial steel Supermarine 500, then we got the white dial steel Supermarine 500 and, now, we get the black ceramic, white dial, Supermarine 500. Bremont has been rocking the boat lately, but I’ve already said I like this Supermarine 500 run, and I like this one as well. Despite not being a fan of ceramic.

Despite the change in material, the dimensions of the case remain unchanged. The case is fully made out of black ceratmic and measures 43mm wide and 12.98mm thick. On top is a domed sapphire crystal with a unidirectional bezel surrounding it with a matte black ceramic insert that has a 60 minute scale done in relief. It’s quite the capable watch, with a helium escape valve and a chunky crown guard. Water resistance, as the name suggests, is 500 meters.

From what I can tell, the dial remains exactly the same as the recently introduced steel version with white dial. That means that you get a wave pattern, not an engraved one but rather a 3D one that has a lot of peaks and valleys sweeping across the surface. The hour makers, including the arrow marker at 12, look familiar from previous Bremont watches and are done in white Super-LumiNova, the same one you’ll find on the sword shaped hands. The markers are surrounded in black, while the hands are silver. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture and the flange has orange minute markers at 60, 15 and 45.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre BB64AH which is essentially a rebranded Sellita SW300-1A. It beats at 4Hz and has a 56 hour power reserve. The watch can be had on either a black chevron rubber strap or a grey and black woven NATO-style fabric strap, there are no bracelet options here.

The new all black ceramic Bremont Supermarine 500 is limited to 150 pieces and priced at €7,628. Quite the number. See more on the Bremont website.

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Draken Updates The Chunky Krueger Collection With Two Dial Setups And Three Possible Movements

I’ve wanted to write about Draken for so long, but I always manage to miss their new releases. To be fair, I missed this one by a wide margin as well, but a buddy recently reminded my that I should circle back. And I’m glad I did. They just updated the Kruger chronograph to its second generation, and boy, there’s a lot to see here. Not only is this a chronograph that looks tough enough to serve as a hammer, it also comes with an astonishing number of possible customizations, 24 in all, before you even get to the straps. I’m not a huge fan of mixing and matching on watches, but it works so well on this one!

First, the case — basically the only thing that’s the same on all 24 pieces. It’s huge, measuring 44mm wide, 12.45mm thick with the mecaquartz movement and 15.6mm with the automatic (oh yeah, this will get good), with a 49.5mm lug-to-lug. Contrasting that immense size is the material — grade 2 titanium, with a transparent or black DLC coating that gives it more scratch resistance. On the side is a huge knurled crown with guards, flanked by rather small pushers, while out back is a closed caseback with an image of a white rhinoceros, one of the many endangered species the rangers of South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Bearing the same name, Draken gives 5% of Kruger sales to the National Park. On top is a double-domed sapphire crystal with an inner and outer anti-reflective coating. That is surrounded with a heavily notched 60-click bidirectional rotating bezel, which is where the customizations start — you can select whether you want a count up, a count down or a second time zone scale, all done in lumed white paint on black matte ceramic.

There are also two dials to choose from, version “A” and a version “B.” Version “A” has a full ring of Arabic numerals, with a triangle at 12 and markers at 3, 6 and 9. It has two sub-dials at 3 and 9, as well as a floating small seconds at 6. The function of the sub-dials reveals the movement used inside — at 9 o’clock, there is a 60-minute totalizer and at 3, a 24-hour indicator, which means that you get the Seiko VK63 mecaquartz inside. You can get it in either black or fully lumed, made of either BGW9 or C3 Super-LumiNova. Version “B” is paired with the Seiko VK67 mecaquartz which has a date at 4:30, a running seconds at the 6, a 12-hour totalizer at the 9, and a 60-minute totalizer at the 12. This is a similar setup that’s used for the ETA 7750 which gets a day/date complication at 3, a 12-hour totalizer at the 6, a running seconds at the 9, and a 30-minute counter at the 12. Both dials come with sword-style hands and plenty of lume.

Inside, like I already hinted, you’ll find either the Seiko VK63 or VK67, which have slightly different orientations, with the same combination of quartz for the timekeeping and mechanical for the chronograph. You get an accuracy of +/- 20 seconds per month and a battery life of three years. Then, the 7750. It’s an automatic movement that beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. Also, for a watch that has so many options, you don’t get a lot of strap options — a 2-piece green canvas, a one piece green nylon, a black rubber or a brown leather strap and a titanium bracelet with a tool-less micro-adjustment mechanism.

The Draken Kruger V2 is available for order now, with deliveries expected in mid-September. There are so many significant options to choose from here, I can’t imagine people saying: “if only they made one with…”. I guess it could be a smidge smaller, maybe? Pricing is also astonishingly great: the Kruger A/B is priced at €327, the Kruger A/B with black DLC coat is priced at €368, and the automatic powered Kruger is priced at €1,165. Now, all of these prices are without tax, so keep that in mind, but they also don’t change regardless of the carrying option. That means that the one on bracelet and one on green canvas cost the exact same. Wild. See more on the Draken website.

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Minase Adds An Ice Blue Dial To The Uruga Series In Both 42mm And 31mm

You will most likely know the Japanese brand Minase for their incredible cases, unlike any other in the watch industry, that have cutouts in the sides that let you see their beautiful dials made with traditional Japanese lacquering technique in a whole new light. Chances that you have seen a Minase in the flesh, on the other hand, are extremely low as they keep production to just 500 pieces per year and most of them are sold in Japan. But that won’t stop me from admiring them, because they really are something else. New from Minase now are ice blue dials in the Uruga series, in both their large and small case.

The outside of the watch hasn’t changed, and it still comes in a stainless steel case that measures either 42mm wide and 10.2mm thick for the larger of the two, or 31mm wide and 9.9mm thick for the smaller case. Other than the size difference, they are virtually identical, with four dramatic clamps holding down the domed sapphire crystal and a chunky bezel. The top surfaces are finely brushed, while the facets get Sallaz polishing, which is actually Zaratsu polishing. A quick history of this method of polishing: the technique comes from a German company called GEBR. SALLAZ, which produced polishing machines in the early 20th century. When Seiko acquired these machines in the 1950s for use at its Hayashi Seiki facility, the name “Sallaz” was pronounced “Zarats” in Japanese. Over time, the technique used with these machines became known as Zaratsu polishing. That means that the polished surfaces are completely distortion free and beautiful. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The new dials have an embossed wavy pattern that’s supposed to look like the waves of the Minase River, near the brand’s workshop in Akita Prefecture. The Japanese really love their nature references. The pattern now gets an ice blue color, paired with applied and faceted hour markers, pointed to by brushed and polished alpha style hands. At 3 o’clock is a date aperture. The two dials are the same, except for the smaller one having diamonds at the odd number hour numerals.

Inside, the larger one features the KT/7002 calibre, which is an ETA 2892 reworked by Minase. It beats at 4Hz and has a 50 hour power reserve. It’s decorated with perlage on the plates, diamond-polished bevels, blue screws, with a skeletonized rotor. The same decorations can be found on the ETA 2671 automatic which comes in the smaller of the watches. The watches can be had on either a textured rubber strap, a hand-stitched leather strap with deployant clasp or a stainless steel bracelet.

The new Minase Uruga watches with the icy blue dial are available now, priced at $5,200 for the 31mm version on rubber, $5,500 for the 42mm version on rubber and leather, and $7,100 on the steel bracelet. See more on the Minase website.

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Your Chance To Win This Absolute Bomb Of A Watch From Laco

Here we go. Like I promised you last month, I’m teaming up with Laco to celebrate their 100th year anniversary. As part of their celebration, they showed a very special watch, the Laco Frieda. There’s only one catch. You can’t buy one. Instead, Laco is giving away 100 pieces of this special edition watch in their “100 Years – 100 Days – 100 Watches” campaign. And you can get one here. The rules are simple — scroll down to the end of the newsletter, where you’ll find a referral window that says “Share It’s About Time”. Invite your friends to subscribe to the newsletter and for every subscriber you bring, you’ll get a “ticket” that enters you in a draw to win the watch.

This is the first time I’m doing a giveaway with this referral program, so if there are any hiccups and something doesn’t work, let me know and we’ll sort it out asap. The giveaway is open until August 25th, after which I’ll use a random email selector to find the winner and Laco will ship your brand new watch to you! Good luck.

Now, for a bit of info on thw atch. Laco typically names its models after cities or geographical features, but this model breaks tradition. For a good reason, as it’s named after the co-founder, Frieda Lacher. It’s a familiar watch but with a dial that makes it extremely beautiful. The watch comes in a stainless steel case that measure 39mm wide, 11.55mm thick and with a 46.5mm lug-to-lug. The case has a beautiful matte finish and on the side, you’ll find an engraving that reads “Laco 1925-2025”, while the caseback has an engraving of its unique number out of 100. On the opposite side you’ll find the signature deeply grooved onion-shaped crown. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Then, there’s the dial. It’s a classic Type A flieger, which has just the minute track along the edge of the dial and big numerals for the hours. The minute track and numerals are printed in white lume, while the sword-shaped hands are done in black, with white lume inside. But the star here is the base of the dial. Rendered in Laco’s signature red color, it has a sandy texture which makes it very special.

Inside, you’ll find the Laco S2 movement, which is essentially the Miyota 82S0. The movement beats at 21,600vph and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grey leather strap with red stitching.

Again, scroll down to the end of the email where you’ll find the share button and get to sharing!

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS: Watch School Wednesday: Diameter is just one part of the size, look at the lug-to-lug for a perfect fit

How lug-to-lug measurements and geometry determine whether your next watch will be comfortable or catastrophic. 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

• Every year, high in the Swiss Alps, soccer teams gather for a tournament on a picturesque pitch: Campo Draione sits on a ledge over a mountain stream and is surrounded by forest. In 2024, the celebratory event turned into a disaster scene when a catastrophic series of thunderstorms dropped nearly 8 billion gallons of water in just a few hours. Jonah Goodman has the harrowing story, which The Guardian translated from the original German version, published in Das Magazin.

• The world of comedy is in a weird place right now. A distinct strain of gleefully transgressive comics have embraced taboo-busting (read: bigoted) jokes to become arena-packing headliners and podcast luminaries. That shift has placed the epicenter of the form in Austin—and specifically in Tony Hinchliffe’s pressure-cooker of an open mic night known as Kill Tony, where comics look to launch their careers in front of crowds who mock them mercilessly. For Slate, Luke Winkie unpacks the many discomfiting layers of the crucible.

• In 2013, sea stars began dying along the North America’s West Coast, across a vast region from Baja California up to the Gulf of Alaska. To date, nearly six billion sunflower stars have died from sea star wasting disease. With the help of sophisticated new technology and RNA sequencing, scientists have finally figured out the cause: Vibrio pectenicida, a type of saltwater-loving bacteria that spreads fast in warmer waters. For bioGraphic, Craig Welch reports on this research in an illuminating, accessible science story, accompanied by stunning in-lab and underwater photography and video.

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One video you have to watch today

I like listening to other people explain why they like these particular watches.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk