The New Yema Superman Comes In Titanium, With A Lunar Dial; Grand Seiko Celebrates New Osaka Store; Beaubleu Teams Up With Monnaie de Paris; RZE's Type A Pilot Watch; Greubel Forsey Says Goodbye

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I love how incredibly distinct the RZE style is. They can apply it to anything and it’s clear that it’s their watch.

In this issue

• The New Yema Superman MoonTide CMM.11 Comes In Titanium, With A Very Lunar Dial

• Grand Seiko Celebrats Opening Of New Osaka Store With The Very Limited SBGA521

• Beaubleu Teams Up With Monnaie de Paris For La Pièce 1 & 2 With Minted Dials

• RZE Gives The Iconic Type A Pilot Watch Their Incredible Utilitarian Spin

• Greubel Forsey Says Goodbye To The Balancier Convexe S² In White And Black Ceramic

👂What’s new

1/

The New Yema Superman MoonTide CMM.11 Comes In Titanium, With A Very Lunar Dial

The Yema Superman has been the brand’s flagship diver since the late 1960s and has covered a lot of ground since then — bronze cases, manufacture movements, even a tourbillon version, all developed at Yema’s own workshops in Morteau in the French Jura. The Superman Titanium MoonTide is the latest, and it combines three things that make sense together: a full Grade 2 titanium build, a moon-textured dial, and the brand’s newest in-house calibre.

The case keeps the classic Superman silhouette at 38.5mm wide, 11.3mm thick, with a 47mm lug-to-lug and 19 mm lug width, and now in Grade 2 titanium throughout including the bracelet. Curved lugs follow the wrist shape, keeping the proportions comfortable despite the size. Water resistance is 300 m, as expected from a watch with Superman in the name. The unidirectional ceramic bezel runs a full 0-60 minute scale with a luminous triangle at 12, and Yema’s bezel-lock system via the crown prevents accidental rotation during use. Double-domed sapphire crystal up front, sapphire caseback.

The dial is where the MoonTide name does its work. The surface texture comes from an oil-press process applied to a sandblasted titanium base, producing a cratered, lunar-surface appearance that reads as distinctive without being overdone. The applied markers and black-plated hands get Super-LumiNova BGW9 Grade A lume, and there’s a date window at 6 o’clock.

The movement is the in-house CMM.11, the CMM.10 with the addition of a date function. It beats at 4Hz with a 70-hour power reserve and is rated at -3/+5 seconds per day, with shock protection and a symmetrical layout visible through the sapphire caseback. The watch comes on Yema’s fantastic titanium Scales bracelet, which draws from the brand’s 1960s vintage dive references, with an FKM rubber strap available as an alternative.

The Superman Titanium MoonTide is limited to 400 pieces, priced at €2,190 on the titanium bracelet and €1,890 on the rubber strap. See more on the Yema website.

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Grand Seiko Celebrats Opening Of New Osaka Store With The Very Limited SBGA521

Grand Seiko has a long history of tying limited editions to specific places and occasions in Japan, and the SBGA521 follows that pattern closely. It was made to mark the reopening of the luxury watch floor at the Hankyu Umeda Main Store in Osaka, one of the country’s most prestigious department stores, and is limited to just 45 pieces — available exclusively through the Grand Seiko boutique inside that same store. The watch draws its design language from the Kansai region’s violet blossoms, which is exactly the kind of precise, location-specific inspiration that Grand Seiko does better than almost anyone else.

The case is 40mm wide and 12.5mm thick, made out of high-intensity titanium, finished with Grand Seiko’s signature combination of sharply defined edges and alternating polished and brushed surfaces. Water resistance is 100 m. Both front and back are sapphire crystal, and the matching high-intensity titanium bracelet with folding clasp follows the same finishing approach as the case, keeping the watch light and coherent on the wrist.

The dial shifts between soft purple and deeper blue tones depending on the angle of light, with a textured surface that evokes floating petals rather than depicting them literally. Polished applied hour markers and sharply finished hands sit over the texture, and a discreet application of lume handles low-light legibility. As expected, you get a power reserve indicator at 8 o’clock..

Inside is the Spring Drive 9R65, an automatic movement that beats at 4 Hz with a 72-hour power reserve and 30 jewels. The defining characteristic of any Spring Drive is the Tri-Synchro regulator, which replaces the conventional lever escapement with an electronic brake, giving you that smooth, smooth sweep. Accuracy is ±15 seconds per month, another cool feature of the Spring Drive.

The SBGA521 is limited to 45 pieces and available exclusively at the Grand Seiko boutique in Hankyu Umeda, Osaka. Price is upon request. See more on the Grand Seiko website.

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Beaubleu Teams Up With Monnaie de Paris For La Pièce 1 & 2 With Minted Dials

Collaborations between watch brands and institutions outside the industry can go either way, but Beaubleu’s pairing with the Monnaie de Paris is certainly an unusual one. But it works really, really well. The French independent founded in 2017 by designer Nicolas Ducoudert and known for its circular orbiting hands has teamed up with the Monnaie de Paris, the official French national mint, one of the oldest continuously operating institutions in the world, founded in 864. The result are two new sub-collections, La Pièce no. 1 and La Pièce no. 2, both getting minted dials.

Both watches share the same 39mm wide round steel case, 10.2mm thick, with hollowed flanks, sweeping lugs, a hidden crown, and a raised bezel with a mirror-polished bevel and brushed surface. The case is available in steel and gold PVD-coated steel. A double-domed sapphire crystal sits over the dial on both versions and water resistance is rated at 50 meters.

La Pièce no. 1 has a concave, stepped dial structure with three distinct levels progressing from the edge inward: outer tracks, a chapter ring with pad-printed Roman numerals, and the brand logo at the lowest central point. Beaubleu’s signature round hands tell the time on the hour and minute, while the seconds indicator is the standout detail — a round disc fixed to a transparent axle mounted above the hour and minute hands, creating the convincing impression that the seconds hand is floating in mid-air. The gold PVD case comes with Champagne and Moka dials; steel pairs with Olive Green, Burgundy, Graphite, and Empire Blue.

La Pièce no. 2 shares the same floating seconds setup but goes further on the dial decoration: the sloping chapter ring features a series of gills and mirror-polished hour markers machined directly from the monobloc dial material, with hour and minute hands in satin-brushed finish and a grained texture on the floating seconds disc. These are available in Black, Silver and Rose Gold.

The automatic movement is made by France Ebauches, assembled in Maîche in the watchmaking region of France near the Swiss border, running at 4 Hz with a 46-hour power reserve. Both models come with interchangeable metal mesh bracelets or leather straps.

The new Beaubleu La Pièce no. 1 and La Pièce no. 2 are available for pre-order now, with deliveries expected in September. Each colour variant is limited to 888 pieces. Price is set at €1,790 on leather and €1,890 on the mesh bracelet. See more on the Beaubleu website.

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RZE Gives The Iconic Type A Pilot Watch Their Incredible Utilitarian Spin

The Type A pilot watch dial has a specific origin. In the 1940s, the German Luftwaffe commissioned watches from five manufacturers — IWC, Stowa, Laco, A. Lange & Söhne, and Wempe — to strict government specifications. The resulting Beobachtungsuhren, or B-uhren, came in two dial layouts. Type A was the simpler of the two: black dial, white printing, minute hashes around the periphery, Arabic numerals at the hour positions, and a triangle with two flanking dots at 12 for quick orientation. It was built entirely around legibility at a glance in a bright cockpit, and the layout has influenced pilot watch design ever since. Singapore-based RZE, which already has a Type B interpretation in the Fortitude line, now adds the Resolute Type A — its take on the simpler format.

The case measures 39.5mm wide, 11.5mm thick, and has a 46mm lug-to-lug in brushed Grade 2 titanium with RZE’s UltraHex scratch-resistant coating. It’s compact for a pilot watch, but this is a modern interpretation rather than a period-correct recreation, so the proportions make sense. Water resistance is 100 m, and the very cool caseback has a curved aperture that lets you see part of the movement inside, a detail that reads nicely as a cockpit instrument reference.

Three dial options are available: Carbon Black with beige lume, Polaris White with black markings, and Medallion Yellow. All three share the classic Type A layout — minute track around the outer ring, 11 Arabic numerals, triangle at 12, with an applied RZE logo below the 12 o’clock marker. The black and white variants add a pale orange seconds hand for contrast. The yellow version carries RZE’s signature grainy texture, a recurring detail across the brand’s lineup. The black dial is the most period-adjacent of the three, with lume executed in a beige, aged-radium hue rather than the usual crisp white, though the modern case keeps it from reading as a vintage pastiche.

The movement is the Miyota 82S0 automatic, running at 3 Hz (21,600 vph) with a 42-hour power reserve and unidirectional winding. A dependable Japanese workhorse, well suited to a tool watch at this price point. The watch ships on RZE’s TecTuff strap at 20 mm lug width with a bayonet quick-release system, and a flattened five-row titanium bracelet is also available.

Preorders open March 20th. Interestingly, there’s no pricing on the website, but from what I gather, the watches could be priced at $499 on the strap and $699 on bracelet. But don’t hold me to that, I might be wrong. See more on the RZE website.

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Greubel Forsey Says Goodbye To The Balancier Convexe S² In White And Black Ceramic

Greubel Forsey introduced the Convexe case back in 2019 with a specific idea in mind: a double-curved construction that follows the wrist’s natural contour. The Balancier Convexe S² followed in 2021 with a fully openworked architecture built around the brand’s incredibly cool 30-degree inclined balance wheel, and has since been offered in titanium and carbon. Now, Greubel Forsey closes the chapter on the S² with two final editions in ceramic, one in black ceramic with 5N red gold, one in white ceramic.

The case is difficult to measure, thanks to the double-curvature Convexe profile, with curved sapphire crystals front and back, a three-dimensional bezel with variable geometry. The wild architecture of the case is emphasized by profiled lugs secured with visible screws. The best measurement is the 41.5mm width at the case and 44mm at the bezel. One case is done in black ceramic, with a beautiful red gold bezel, while the other is all white. The two materials give you two different thicknesses — the white ceramic is 12.85mm thick, while the black is 13.25mm thick, but that’s only at the case. If you include the domed sapphire crystal, the total thickness goes up to 14.8mm. But that doesn’t tell the whole story, of course, since it contours to the wrist. Water resistance is 30 meters.

There is no dial in the traditional sense. The hour ring sits high under the sapphire crystal, polished steel hands filled with Super-LumiNova sit atop the suspended arch-shaped bridge at the centre, and the lower section opens up around the large inclined balance wheel, which is the focal point of the entire composition. Small seconds sit beside the balance wheel on a gold subdial, and a sector-style power reserve indicator is integrated into the movement’s layered architecture. It reads more like a cross-section of a mechanism than a watch face. The black version comes with a black base, and the white gets a white one.

Inside, you’ll find the hand-wound calibre GF09XV, a beautiful movement that has 301 components, including a 68-part escapement platform built around the 30-degree inclined balance wheel system, designed to reduce positional errors. You get two coaxial barrels that provide 72 hours of power reserve, with a beat rate of 3Hz. Finishing on the titanium bridges and mainplates is frosted and hand-finished throughout, with polished bevels, straight-grained bridges, and engraved limitation numbers on the gold plate visible from the back. Both versions come on a hand-sewn textured rubber strap in matching color with a titanium folding clasp, and a three-row titanium bracelet with fine adjustment is available on request.

The new Greubel Forsey Balancier Convexe S² is available now, limited to 11 pieces each. Price is on request. See more on the Greubel Forsey website, when they update it with the new models.

⏲️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

• A history of New York, as told through a single badge and the seven policemen who wore it. This is “Lucky, Heroic, Profane: The Story of N.Y.P.D. Shield No. 13558”

• The odds of being struck by lightning in America in a given year are one in 1.2 million. How does the experience reorient a person’s sense of chance, of fate?

• From Gaza to Iran, the pattern is the same: precision weapons, chosen blindness, and dead children. The cost of failing to regulate AI warfare is already too high. These aren’t AI firms, they’re defense contractors.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Hey, we live in a world in which the same actor plays George of the Jungle and Dwight D. Eisenhower. How wild!

Thanks for reading,
Vuk