Timex Releases Much Smaller Intrepid; Bulova Has A Timascus Dial Lunar Pilot; Stowa Updates Flieger With Sunburst Dials In Multiple Sizes; The Octo Finissimo Skeleton Looks Good In Black Titanium

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Sorry for being so late, it was a long day of meetings. I might have some more interesting news to share, despite it being the dead of summer. Speaking of summer, we’re entering summer mode here at IAT, so you might see a bit of a different setup to this newsletter, with less news and more writing. You’ll see, it’s fun.

Also, THE LACO GIVEAWAY IS STARTING!! Scroll down to see how you can enter to get one of the best looking watches of the year.

In this issue

• Timex And Dimepiece Release A Smaller And Much More Wearable Kennedy-Favorite Intrepid

• Bulova Teams Up With Brazilian Artist Thiago Rosinhole For A Timascus Dial On The Lunar Pilot

• Stowa Updates Their Flieger With Blue And Green Sunburst Dials In Multiple Sizes And Configurations

• The Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days Looks Really Good In Black Titanium With Gold Details

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS: Watch School Wednesday: Scratches That Tell a Story; The Legacy of Watch Repair Marks

👂What’s new

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Timex And Dimepiece Release A Smaller And Much More Wearable Kennedy-Favorite Intrepid

We’ve all seen that Timex is on quite a roll with recreations of their most iconic watches. Most of these watches have been from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But I’ve been saying for a while that, at least for me, Timex saw their golden age in the 1990s, and they should start brining back these fantastic pieces. They did this in the first half of the year, when they released the new 1995 Intrepid Reissue, based on a sailing watch Timex made in, well, 1995. The watch was made famous by John F. Kennedy Jr., who wore this watch on his sailboat and off, often contrasting with a suit. But that was a chunky watch, measuring 46mm across. Now, Timex has teamed up with Dimepiece, a magazine that focuses on women and watches to release the Intrepid x Dimepiece Edition, a much more sensible version of the Intrepid at 36mm.

The new case of the Intrepid x Dimepiece Edition keeps the stainless steel construction and cushion shape with short and angled lugs, along with a brushed finish. But now it comes in a much better size — 36mm wide and 10mm thick. On top you still get the mineral glass, a recessed crown at 4 o’clock, but what sticks out most, literally, is the oversized button at 9 o’clock which lights up the dial with Timex’s Indigo. While on the original recreation the button was green, here it’s purple. On top is a unidirectional bezel with six raised claws for better grip, featuring a black 60 minute insert instead of the slide rule. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Gone is the stark white for the dial, replaced with a cream color. The outer discs holds the black hour markers, while the inner sunken disc holds black Arabic double-digits for the minutes. There’s an additional flange around the periphery that holds a black seconds track with purple highlights that match the button on the side, with purple being the signature color of Dimepiece.

Inside, you’ll find an unnamed quartz movement, but that’s exactly what this throwback watch needs. It ticks and will tick for years, without any input from the owner. And the watch comes on a black rubber strap.

The Timex Intrepid x Dimepiece Edition doesn’t seem to be a limited edition, and priced at €239, this will be a really nice unisex summer sports watch. See more on the Timex website.

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Bulova Teams Up With Brazilian Artist Thiago Rosinhole For A Timascus Dial On The Lunar Pilot

On August 2nd, 1971, as part of the Apollo 15 mission, Commander David R. Scott exited the Falcoln lander on the surface of the moon and became the seventh man to walk on the moon and the first to drive the Lunar Rover. On his wrist was Bulova chronograph watch. Designed specifically for the harsh conditions of space, the Lunar Pilot watch was crucial for tracking time, ensuring astronauts did not exhaust their oxygen, water, or battery power. Additionally, it served as a backup timer for the critical reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. It always lived in the shadow of the big shot Omega Speedmaster Professional, but the Lunar Pilot line — reinvigorated in 2021 on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 15 — has had its loyal fans. And it’s the Lunar Pilot that Bulova and Brazilian pop artist Thiago Rosinhole are paying homage to with the new Lunar Pilot x Budii. Rosinhole is best known for this Budii sculpture, a mouse-like astronaut figure that he then renders in various finishes.

The case of the modern Lunar Pilot is very much reminiscent of the original watch, and remains virtually unchanged here. It measures 43.5mm wide and has almost C-type lugs that slope from the fully round central part of the case. The way Bulova integrates the pushers is also very interesting, giving them a very large surface area that makes the case look asymmetric. Also the one difference on this limited edition is the inclusion of blue details on the case — on the pushers as well as on the bezel. The entire case has a brushed finish and gets 50 meters of water resistance.

But you’ll easily forget the case when you see the dial. It’s made of Timascus, which is titanium that has been manipulated in the style of Damascus steel. By heating up the material and folding it like steel, you get incredibly colored striations ranging from blue to brown. It’s an interesting look. Around the dial is a tachymeter scale, with a classic tri-compax sub-dial configuration.

Inside, you’ll find the NP20 High Precision Quartz (HPQ) chronograph movement, boasting a precision of 1/20th seconds. It also has a sweeping seconds hand, despite being a quartz movement. The watch comes on a three link bracelet.

The new Bulova Lunar Pilot x Budii comes with a Budii figure, limited to 5,500 pieces. Price is set at $1,650. See more on the Bulova website.

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Stowa Updates Their Flieger With Blue And Green Sunburst Dials In Multiple Sizes And Configurations

The German manufacturer Stowa is particularly well known for their fligers, especially those with a B-Uhr configuration. And for very good reason, as they are one of the five original companies — including A. Lange & Söhne, Laco, Wempe and IWC — that was awarded the contracts to construct the the original pilot’s watches ordered by the newly formed Luftwaffe in the early 1930s (I wrote about the history of the flieger here, and I unlocked the article that was exclusive to paid subscribers so you can read it for free). And while they still make extremely faithful recreations of the original flieger, they also make more modern takes. And that’s exactly what we have here, the new Stowa Flieger Classic with new sunbrust dials blue and green dials and in two sizes.

Let’s start off with the cases, as always. The watches come in familiar looking pilot’s cases made out of stainless steel with a matte finish, with two sizes to choose from — the smaller measures 36mm wide, 10.8mm thick and has a 44.6mm lug-to-lug, while the larger measures 40mm wide, the same 10.8mm thick and has a 48.6mm lug-to-lug. And as expected, on the side is an oversized onion-shaped crown and water resistance is 50 meters.

Now, Stowa claims that the new sunray brushed dials have a dégradé color gradient, which would suggest that it fades from a lighter shade in the centre to a darker on the outside, but I can’t exactly say that I see this. But that doesn’t really matter, because the dials really are beautiful, in both green and blue. There are two basic setups of the dial — Type A which features a white minute track with white Arabic numerals, which comes on the 36 and 40mm watches, and the Type B, which has an additional inner ring on the dial which holds a 24 hour scale. All of the dials have nickel-coated pilot’s hands filled with lume.

Inside, you get a choice of movements. Both are Sellita SW200 based movements in their top grade configuration, but you get a choice of either hand wound or automatic. They all beat at 4Hz and have an approximate run time of 40 hours, while the automatic version gets a custom Laco rotor. The watches can be had on a tan or brown leather strap with rivets at the lugs, or a Milanese-style metal bracelet.

The new Stowa Flieger Classic watches are on sale now, priced at between €1,355 and €1,508, depending on the size, dial setup, movement and strap option you choose. See more on the Stowa website.

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The Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days Looks Really Good In Black Titanium With Gold Details

Over the past few months, Bulgari has been on an absolute tear with releases in their Octo Finissimo range. The one they said they won’t develop further, but that’s a topic for another day. We’ve seen a new Octo Finissimo with a green marble dial, a perpetual calendar in sandblasted rose gold, a regular sandblasted rose gold OF. However, in that lineup, Bulgari released another watch that I missed, the Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days Titanium with a black case and dial, with some really nice gold details.

We’ve had a few of these Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days models, in a variety of materials, including steel, golds and titanium. This latest release uses the titanium case, but pairs it with a black DLC coating. While it’s not a record-breaking thin watch, it’s still pretty impossibly thing. The case measures 40mm wide and has a thickness of 5.95mm. Sapphire crystals are mounted on top and bottom, for a great view of the movement, and the crown interrupts the black of the case since it’s made out of rose gold. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial is fully openworked, with matte black skeletonised bridges and plates. From the front side you get to see the huge barrel that sits between 12 and 2 o’clock, which gets you the 8 day power reserve. Around the dial is a black octagonal chapter ring with a gold minutes track and applied rose gold-plated indices. At 12 is a gold Arabic numeral, and time is indicated with rose gold-plated openworked hour and minute hands. Between 7 and 8 o’clock is a combination reserve indicator and small seconds, with more gold details.

Inside, you’ll find the manually wound calibre BVL 199 SK. It beats at 3Hz and thanks to the huge barrel that sits between noon and 2 o’clock, you get 8 days, or 192 hours, of power reserve. That’s cool. The watch, surprisingly, doesn’t come on a titanium bracelet, but rather a black rubber strap with a DLC coated titanium pin buckle.

The new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days in black DLC titanium is available now and priced at €28,000. See more on the Bulgari 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: Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 46: The Military Failures of the Pulsar G10 Field Watch

We continue with our exploration of watches we shouldn't spend our money on, but most likely will. 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

• Where, really, does your seafood come from? When the label on the piece of fish you just bought reads responsibly caught, can we trust it? In this informative and enjoyable Food & Wine story, Kim Cross asks: “If I couldn’t trace my fish back to the source, what could I learn if I switched directions? Could I follow a salmon from net to plate?” Cross starts her journey in Alaska and boards a commercial fishing boat in Bristol Bay, “the mother lode of wild Alaskan salmon.” As she follows the fish off the boat to become fillets, she takes us on an adventure through the wild salmon supply chain and discovers what it actually looks like to buy and eat sustainable salmon in the US.

• Twenty years after Hurrican Katrina, Clint Smith recalls returning to his family’s home in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans after the floodwaters receded. Confronted with destruction, debris, and streets devoid of the sounds of life, Smith recounts the human suffering her witnessed while evacuated and how forever after, the storm has become a common reference point to demarcate a point in time for those who survived.

• Under the Trump administration, US allies who once trusted in a rules-based US order now face a landscape where access to critical systems (think the dollar clearing system, F-35 maintenance, and Starlink internet as examples) could be weaponized against them with little warning. As Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman report for Wired, this abrupt about face from the US is pushing allies to investigate technological independence despite high costs and technical hurdles.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Again, YouTube continues to delight with the wild things you get to see. Like, for example, what it takes to maintain an off-shore lighthouse. Would you ever seek this out? Likely never. But it’s such a fun view.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk