Timex Is Summer Ready With Wildly Colored Plastic Watches; Bell & Ross Shrinks BR-05; Furlan Marri Celebrates With Hunter Case; A New Perfect Ochs Und Junior; Biver Continues Exploring Gold Cases

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. This is an early one... I have a lot to do today, but I mean, Ochs und Junior is quickly making their way up the ladder to join Ressence at the Mont Olympus of personal favorite watches. Just look at how incredible that watch is.

In this issue:

• Timex Brings Back Their Super Fun And Colorful Legacy Model Made Out Of Recycled Ocean Plastics

• Bell & Ross Shrinks Down Their BR-05 Models To A More Unisex 36mm

• Furlan Marri Celebrates 4th Anniversary With The Officer-Style Hinged Caseback Red Hunter

• The New Ochs Und Junior Due Ore Mese Is More Proof Why Ludwig Oechslin Is One Of The Best Watchmakers

• Biver Continues Exploring Gold Cases With The Automatique Yellow Gold & Atelier Series Carbon Edition

👂What’s new

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Timex Brings Back Their Super Fun And Colorful Legacy Model Made Out Of Recycled Ocean Plastics

When the Swatch MoonSwatch was released back in March of 2022, it left behind a huge wake. That little piece of plastic shook up the industry, sold a million watches in less than a year and dominated the hype cycle of watches. The domination was so strong, no one even noticed that Timex released the Legacy #tide, a very similar plastic watch, only this one made out of ocean-retrieved recycled plastics. Of course, people noticed, but the buzz was around the plastic MoonSwatch. Well, now that the MoonSwatch hype has become just a regular release cycle, Timex is showing their plastic Legacy #tide watches with some pretty amazing colors.

The cases of these Legacy models are made in partnership with the #tide organization which collects plastic from oceans and transforms it into watch parts. Here, the majority of the case and bracelet are made out of this #tide plastic and measure 37mm wide and 11mm thick. The watches are very classic looking dive watches, with a thin unidirectional bezel on top in a contrasting color with a 60 second scale. Speaking of color, there are three versions available — a seafoam green, a super bright pink and a purple. The seafoam and purple get slightly different shades of blue for the bezels, while the pink has a yellow bezel.

There’s just one major downside to how this watch is made. It is instantly obvious that this is a great summer watch. Something to wear to jump off the dock at the end of a hot day. But it only has 30 meters of water resistance. In fact, Timex says that “this watch is suitable only for hand-washing or accidental splashes of water. It is not suitable for swimming or diving.” This is pretty disappointing. However, I would bet that it could stand up to a lot of abuse in water.

The watches all feature the same dial setups, with very classic applied lumed markers, lumed mercedes-style hands, and a very nice wave pattern engraved into the dial. The dials all match the colors of the case. All three versions are equipped with an unnamed quartz movement, so there’s not much to note there other than it will keep ticking. The watches come on three-link color matched plastic bracelets with a metal clasp.

The new Timex Legacy #tide are available now and I still think they are fun watches to throw around in the summer, despite the low water resistance. Price is set at €129. See more on the Timex website.

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Bell & Ross Shrinks Down Their BR-05 Models To A More Unisex 36mm

Despite the fact that the Bell & Ross BR-05 comes in a 40mm case (or even larger for some of the complications) its circle within a square design and virtual lack of lugs, they always wore much smaller than one would expect. That’s easy to say for me with my mammoth wrists, but I know much smaller arms that rock the BR-05 on the daily. But even as such, to make the watch much more unisex, Bell & Ross just announced at Watches & Wonders a smaller version that comes in at 36mm, with a choice of dials.

While the case of the watch looks exactly like the BR-05 you know and (perhaps) love, it comes in at a much, much smaller size. Not only is the diameter shrunk down to 36mm, you get a pretty incredible 8.5mm thickness. To be fair, the 40mm version is also quite thin at 10.5mm. The case is brushed with some great polished details on the bezel bevels and the exposed screws. Water resistance is 100 meters.

There are four dial options for this new collection — a black, a grey and an ice blue, all with a sunray brushing, and a mother-of-pearl dial. A lot remains the same from the larger watches — bathtub-style indices filled with green glowing lume, rhodium-plated Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock and rounded baton hour and minute hands. New is the removal of the minutes track and date aperture to make it all fit on the smaller dial.

Inside, you’ll find the key for the thinness of the watch — a movement based on the Sellita SW-300 which beats at 4Hz and has a 54 hour power reserve. All of the watches come on their familiar stainless steel bracelet with h-shaped links.

The preorders for the new and smaller BR-05 are now open and deliveries are expected to start in May. Price is set at €4,500 for all versions, including the MOP one. See more on the Bell & Ross website.

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Furlan Marri Celebrates 4th Anniversary With The Officer-Style Hinged Caseback Red Hunter

Despite the fact that they are not one of those small indie brands that cranks out at least two new releases per day, it’s still pretty incredible to think that Furlan Marri has been around for four years. In that time, they’ve gone from a Kickstarter project to a GPHG winner. And to celebrate, they are introducing the Furlan Marri Red Hunter which marries their classic aesthetics with an even more classic hinged caseback, like those that could be found on specially protected pocket watches often worn by military officers.

The case of the new Red Hunter measures 36mm wide, 11.6mm thick and has a short lug-to-lug of 43.9mm. That thickness is mighty impressive considering the fact that the back opens up to reveal another caseback with a crystal. On the right side is an oversized crown on top is a fixed double stepped bezel. Sure, the case has a combination of brushed and polished surfaces, but all you see are those high polished ones and it looks great.

Even better looking than the case is the dial. A black base gets several grooves cut into it give it depth, made even more effective by the Roman numerals at cardinal positions that bulge out when they are on the higher segment of the dial. The black color makes it look deceptively simple, but isn’t. The numerals are polished, while on the outside of the dial you’ll find an off-white minute track that’s the perfect amount of busy. The lance hour and minute hands are polished, while the seconds hand is bright red, living up to the first part of the watch name.

The watch is powered by an automatic La Joux-Perret G100, which might be a better alternative to the SW200, especially with its nearly 70 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a grained, black leather strap with red stitching and a pin closure. There will be a five-link bracelet, which seems to use riveted links, available as well.

The new Furlan Marri will be available for a limited pre-order window from April 23, 3pm to May 4, 10pm Swiss Time and I assume all orders in that time will be honored. Price is still unconfirmed, but will be in the €2,100 range. See more on the Furlan Marri website.

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The New Ochs Und Junior Due Ore Mese Is More Proof Why Ludwig Oechslin Is One Of The Best Watchmakers

There is a very special reason why I love ochs und junior watches. And that’s their designer, Ludwig Oechslin. He has this incredible capability of turning hyper-complicated watches into something supremely simple. It’s as if Oechslin said “hold my beer” to the entire industry and started coming up with simple modules bolted onto regular movements to do what others need hundreds of parts to accomplish. The same things applies for the new releases, the due ore mese – or two time zones + date – in a lovely shade of bronze and with a brand new Ulysse Nardin UN-118 movement that Oechslin turned into a dual time zone watch with just 10 additional parts.

Like most ochs und junior watches, this one comes in a filly round case that has tiny lugs, giving it an almost pebble-like construction. It’s made out of grade 5 titanium and measures 42mm wide and 12.5mm thick. Water resistance is 100 meters. The dial is roundground to give the brown PVD treatment a special glow in the light. The markers, second time zone numbers, hour and minute hands, seconds dot, and power reserve dot are finished in a warm sandy tone, contrasting the brown.

And that great look is the least interesting part of the watch. It’s all about that movement and modifications made to it. Oechslin uses the base Ulysse Nardin UN-118 movement with a 60 hour power reserve, a departure from his usual use of ETA movements, onto which he builds his module that gets in an in house made module board, direction gear, gear wheel, date discs and power reserve indicator, all packaged with clever engineering.

For example, if you pull out the crown to position 1, turning it counterclockwise sets the timezone, while turning it clockwise sets the date. This is fairly common in the watch world, but nobody does it like Oechslin. The timezone disc is controlled by the date disc. Changing the direction of rotation while setting the watch causes the direction gear to disengage, breaking the connection between the timezone disc and the date disc. This ensures that force is applied only to the timezone disc during adjustment. While the watch is running, no additional gears interact with the timezone disc, ensuring optimal power transfer from the base movement.

Reading the function is just as fun as the construction inside. The hands display the first time zone. The number inside the open hour hand indicates the second time zone. The timezone disc in the center is adjusted so that the time difference between the two zones is displayed at 12 o’clock. If the second time zone is ahead (e.g., +3 hours), you set that number at 12 o’clock. If the second time zone is behind, subtract the difference from 12 and set the result at 12 o’clock.

The 30+1 holes around the perimeter of the dial display the date. The small circle beneath the 12 o’clock marker is the power reserve indicator, and the mirrored circle above the 6 o’clock marker is a seconds disc with a milled eccentric dot. This is such an incredibly cool watch and it comes on a brown ecopell coconut leather strap.

The new ochs und junior due ore mese can be ordered now, with a delivery time of 4 months, at a price of CHF 7,458, including Swiss taxes. See more on the ochs und junior website.

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Biver Continues Exploring Gold Cases With The Automatique Yellow Gold & Atelier Series Carbon Edition

While certainly very impressive, the watch that industry legend Jean-Claude Biver and his son used to launch their eponymous brand, wasn’t met with as much enthusiasm as would be expected. Many believe that the Biver Carillon Tourbillon was way too modern, had a controversial look and was introduced at a simply ridiculous price for a new brand — CHF 520,000 — despite being headed by Biver. It was hand made and finished, made out of exquisite materials and it sold, despite the price. But that was followed up with the much simpler Biver Automatique, a three hander that still had quite modern dials, but also at a more reasonable price. And there seems to be much better feedback around this release. Now, that Automatique line expands with a yellow gold dial and a new Atelier Series Carbon Edition with a carbon dial.

Both of these watches come in solid yellow gold cases that measure 39mm wide and 10mm thick. The cases are very classic with a bit of flair added through angular lugs. On top and bottom are sapphire crystals and, surprisingly, you get 80 meters of water resistance. Not something you would expect from such a dressy watch.

The solid yellow fold dial has many sectors and levels to it, with an engraved and applied gold minute track on the periphery, faceted anthracite-coloured indices, and hand-bevelled hour and minute hands. All of the hardware is done in gold and it shows. But while the all-gold dial is as classy as yellow gold can get, the Atelier Series Carbon Edition dial is the complete opposite. The centre section and chapter ring are are made from black carbon fibre, contrasted with indices, hands, and a minute track in yellow gold. This is a wild combination and I can’t help but like it, despite my utter distain for carbon fibre.

Inside is the calibre JCB-003, a movement powered by a bi-directional micro-rotor crafted from 22k gold, and produced with Dubois. It beats at 25,200vph and has a 65 hour power reserve. It has seven bridges, wheels with serpentine spokes, and an array of finishes, including clous de Paris engraving, circular graining, anglage, satin brushing and guilloché. It’s one of the most decorated movements you’ll see out there. The yellow gold version comes on a black nubuck leather strap, while the Carbon Edition is fitted with a black braided rubber strap lined in leather.

The new yellow gold Biver Automatique is priced at CHF 75,000, while the Carbon Edition comes in at CHF 89,000. Both of those are without taxes. See more on the Biver website.

⏲️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

• Max and Milo bonded over Harry Potter fan fiction. Five years later, they were in jail. How did two elite students fall for the Zizians cult?

• Liberals in the US make up about 15% of the prepping scene and their numbers are growing. Their fears differ from their better-known rightwing counterparts – as do their methods. This is an even more interesting article because it’s from the Guardian, a British paper.

• You’ve already seen how “diffusion” AI models have made it simple to generate illustrations, lifelike photos, and even videos. What that technology means for music is nearing an inflection point—and so is our understanding of what “creativity” really is. For MIT Tech Review, James O’Donnell unpacks the debate, and blind-tests colleagues and experts to see if they can identify AI-generated music. He also manages to make music fans very, very uncomfortable.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I totally understand why these Architectural Digest home tours are so popular — they hit close to home for millennials who grew up watching Cribs but now have to decorate our houses for adults. So we pretend like we’re taking inspiration from celebrity houses, despite the fact it’s mostly stuff like this eight figure Paris mansion owned by Lenny Kravitz and decorated with dozens of millions of dollars of art, furniture and unique pieces. One day.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk