Timex Takes Inspiration From A Vintage Omega; More Colors On The Tissot PR516; ML's 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde; Monochrome And Angelus Team Up; Moser Skeletonizes The Endeavour Tourbillon

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I will never get over the looks of an Angelus. I think this needs to be my next watch. Good luck to me!

Also, I want to point out that there are a couple of more days to buy the Alpina × TRTS Seastrong Diver Extreme. I reviewed it a couple of weeks ago, if you’re interested. I loved it, despite (or maybe because) the fact it was made by my friends from The Real Time Show.

In this issue

• Timex Takes A Lot Of Inspiration From A Vintage Omega For The New Marlin Draper Automatic

• Tissot Adds Two New Colours to its PR516 38mm Powermatic 80

• Maurice Lacroix Throws It Back With A Skeletonized 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde

• Monochrome Teams Up With Angelus For A Beautiful Chronographe Tachymètre With A Gold Dial

• H. Moser & Cie. Skeletonizes Their Beautiful Endeavour Tourbillon

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 61: The Tudor Advisor, An Alarm Wrist Watch That More People Should Remember

👂What’s new

1/

Timex Takes A Lot Of Inspiration From A Vintage Omega For The New Marlin Draper Automatic

I don’t think that even the designers at Timex hide what inspired them when they came up with the new Timex Marlin Draper Automatic. I’ve seen a website call it a dupe of the vintage Omega Constellation. And while that might be a bit harsh, it really does look familiar. Ironically, I just rewatched Mad Men for the first time the show aired, and while I appreciate what Timex was doing when they named this the Marlin Draper Automatic, a throwback to the 60s style that was so well captured in the character of Don Draper, I also paid a lot of attention to the watches Draper wore in the show. And there was no Omega Constellation. There was, however, an Omega Seamaster. But that’s less important. What’s more important is that the new Timex Marlin Draper Automatic is a great looking vintage hommage at a great price.

So, the new Marlin Draper Automatic comes in a steel C-shaped case that made the Constellation so iconic. To keep the vintage influence, the top part of the case has a deep brushing, with polished bevels on the edges. On top is a domed mineral crystal that plays into the vintage aspect with its shape, but would be so much better if it was rendered in plexiglass for the full mid-century experience. Water resistance is 50 meters.

There are three versions of the watch available. One has a black dial with a stainless steel case and matching metal bracelet, one has a silver-white dial combined with gold-tone accents across the case, bracelet, and dial, and the third has a steel case, white dial and brown leather strap. All of the dials feature applied hour markers and slim baton-style hands. Both the hands and the indexes are lumed, which is a nice addition to a vintage-looking watch. At 3 o’clock is a day and date function with white discs inside on both dial colors.

Timex says that this watch is powered by an automatic movement, but then doesn’t say what the movement is. Going off of similar watches from them, it’s likely the Miyota 8215 which beats at 3Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. Like I said, the watch can either be had on a three-link bracelet in all silver or two tone, or on a brown leather strap. Timex isn’t particularly known for their bracelets, so I might go with a strap here.

The new Timex Marlin Draper Automatic is available now, priced at €240 on leather, €289 on the steel bracelet and €299 on the two-tone bracelet. See more on the Timex website.

2/

Tissot Adds Two New Colours to its PR516 38mm Powermatic 80

While nothing will hold a candle up to the PRX in term of success, Tissot is diligently working on expanding their non-PRX offering. Two years ago, they launched a brand new collection that was somewhat compelling, the PR516. It came in an interesting vintage-inspired case with either a quartz or mechanical movement. It seems to have had at least some success because since then we’ve seen them rendered in a smaller case, with a chronograph option and with a variety of colors. Now, they’re doing it again, this time with the smaller PR516 38mm Powermatic 80 version which gets two new colors.

The case measures 38mm wide and 11.2mm thick, which is just fine and it keeps the vintage inspiration that is most evident in the dull lugs, deeply brushed surfaces and faceted edges. Both of these new watches have a black bezel on top with a full 60 minute graduation. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Two dials are new to the collection — a classic matte white dial which is paired with dark grey colored applied markers and a gradient aqua blue which has silver colored markers and hands. Both versions have a date aperture at 3 o’clock, and both have white date discs inside. Works well on the matte white, but looks quite out of place on the blue dial. Also gone from these are the brightly colored seconds hands which are matched to the rest of the hardware here.

Inside, you’ll find the Swatch group staple, the Powermatic 80, a continuation of the ETA2824 which beats at 3Hz and has an 80 hour power reserve. The watches come on jubilee-style metal bracelets, closed with a butterfly triple-fold clasp.

The new colorways of the PR516 38mm Powermatic 80 are available now, priced at €745, which is the same as the previous versions of the same watch. See more on the Tissot website.

3/

Maurice Lacroix Throws It Back With A Skeletonized 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde

Maurice Lacroix is on a bit of a roll recently, expanding their collections every which way, trying to appeal to a wider audience. Some of the stuff is just new colors, but other watches are doing interesting stuff. Which makes sense, as they just celebrated 50 years last year. For their latest release, they take their very subdued and classic 1975 collection that was introduced last year for the anniversary and they pair it with not just a big date complication and retrograde weekday, but also an interesting skeletonization. This is the new 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde.

The new watch comes in a stainless steel case that measures 42mm wide and 12.75mm thick. That sounds like a lot, and it’s certainly not small, but it also has quite short lugs, which could help with the lug-to-lug measurement and wearability. On top is a box-shaped sapphire that adds to the drama of the case, while the steel has a brushed and polished finish. But there’s not much more to it, other than a 50 meter water resistance.

There’s no dial. Instead, you see the sandblasted underside of the mainplate of the movement that has a black rhodium treatment. Over it, you have brushed rhodium-plated bridges that form very dramatic and deep triangles. Time is indicated by trapeze style hands filled with lume. But despite the visual drama of the bridges, what’s most impressive here is the large date complication that is completely exposed to the world, with both of its transparent discs that hold the white numerals. In the bottom part of the dial you’ll see the retrograde weekday display, with an arched sapphire disc and a blued hand pointing at it.

The movement you see through the dial is the calibre ML302, which is based on the Sellita SW200-1 that holds a proprietary display module for the date and retrograde days. Being a SW200-1, it beats at 4Hz, with a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black alligator strap with the Maurice Lacroix logo on the 6 o’clock strap.

The new Maurice Lacroix 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde is part of the regular collection, priced at €7,950. See more on the Maurice Lacroix website.

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Monochrome Teams Up With Angelus For A Beautiful Chronographe Tachymètre With A Gold Dial

For at least a decade, Hodinkee dominated the media-watch industry collaboration scene. One could argue that an overproduction of these models might have contributed to at least one of their downfalls. Other watch media, like Worn and Wound and Fratello, are also very active collaborators. My friends from The Real Time Show also make some fantastic collabs (don’t miss their Alpina watch that’s only on sale until the end of this week). But there’s one large watch media on the scene that hasn’t really thrown around their weight in collaborations, and that’s the other Dutch website, Monochrome. They’ve opted to work with select brands on fewer and more exclusive releases. How few they’ve made is demonstrated by the fact that what we have today is only their fifth collaboration. That said, it comes on the heels of the Montre de Souscription 4 which they made with Habring² , which sold out in hours. Now, they’re teaming up with Angelus for the Monochrome Montre de Souscription 5 x Angelus Chronographe Tachymètre.

The watch is based on the already pretty spectacular smaller version of the Chronographe Télémètre released last year, here made out of brushed and polished stainless steel, with a polished lateral bevel, measuring 37mm wide and just 9.25mm thick. This is a chronograph — sure, a manually wound one, but still a chronograph — that measures under 10mm. On top is a box sapphire crystal and out back is a screwed steel caseback with a sapphire crystal, with the engraving of the individual serial number surrounding it. Water resistance is not great at 30 meters, but who cares with a watch this beautiful.

But like so many Angelus releases, it’s the dials that blow you away on first glance. Here, the domed dial has a 2N gold-coloured galvanic base with a grained finish and snailed recessed sub-dials: 30-minute elapsed timer at 3 and a small seconds at 9. You get applied indices, Arabic numerals at 12 and 6, and syringe-style hands all rhodium plated, with lume on the hands. While the previous version of this watch had a telemeter dial, the Monochrome crew opted for a grey tachymeter snailed scale, with a base of 1000, from 500 to 300 units.

Inside, you’ll find an incredible movement. Made by La Joux-Perret, it’s the in-house A5000 integrated manual-winding monopusher chronograph. It features a column wheel and a horizontal clutch, beats at 3Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. It’s beautiful to look at with a circular grained 3N gold finished mainplate, 3N gold finished bridges, Geneva stripes and polished chamfers, circular-grained wheels, polished screw heads, as well as straight-grained and bevelled steel chronograph parts. The watch comes on a grey nubuck leather strap with steel pin buckle.

The new Monochrome Montre de Souscription 5 x Angelus Chronographe Tachymètre is available for order now, but only for the next 10 days, with a maximum of 20 pieces being made. Deliveries are expected in April. Price is set at €18,500 without taxes and a required €5,000 down payment at order. See more on the Monochrome website.

5/

H. Moser & Cie. Skeletonizes Their Beautiful Endeavour Tourbillon

I don’t know about you, but when I think of H. Moser & Cie, I picture minimalist watches. Simple cases, executed perfectly, and paired with very simple but beautiful dials in great colors and with minimal decorations. Sounds boring, but is anything but, because of Moser’s attention to detail which is pretty much at the top of the game. I could also be wrong, but the last Endeavour Tourbillon we saw from Moser came about almost a year ago, when they stripped a teal textured dial of everything except for the two hands and an opening for the Tourbillon. Now, however, they’re turning their signature concept on its head with a fully skeletonized Endeavour Tourbillon that gives it a completely different attitude.

The case of the watch remains largely unchanged and in line with the rest of the Endeavour line. It’s made out of 5N red gold and measures 40mm wide and 10.7mm thick. On top and bottom are sapphire crystals, giving you a full view of the movement, and on top it’s held down with a polished concave bezel. On the right side you’ll find a conical crown and it has the collection’s polished groove that runs either side of the watch. Water resistance is 30 meters.

There is no dial here. All you get is a flange on the periphery that holds the gold plated applied hour markers and gold plated and polished leaf-shaped hands. The rest is a full look at the movement inside at the thin in-house calibre HMC 814. The bridges and main plate have an anthracite coating that matches the flange. At 6 o’clock you’ll find the flying tourbillon with a double hairspring, while at the other end you’ll see the large barrel of the movement.

The Calibre HMC 814 is an automatic movement based on the HMC 804. It beats at 21,600vph and has a 72 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a dark brown alligator nubuck leather strap.

The new H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Tourbillon Skeleton is available now, as part of the regular collection and it’s priced at CHF 85,400. See more on the Moser website.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Watches You Might Not Have Seen, Week 61: The Tudor Advisor, An Alarm Wrist Watch That More People Should Remember

A Vulcain with an alarm is cool. But you know what's cooler? A rare Tudor with an alarm. 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

• A failed actor's flop sends his heart into fibrillation and sparks a tense call from his billionaire dad. Two decades later, David Ellison—once Larry's Hollywood nepo gamble—now eyes a media empire spanning Paramount and Warner Bros., fueled by Top Gun triumphs and Oracle billions. But can the millennial mogul outmaneuver Netflix and prove he's no mere Ellison proxy?

• Fresh from a $16M Trump settlement, CBS hires anti-woke firebrand Bari Weiss to lead 60 Minutes amid plunging trust and ratings. But pulling a last-minute exposé on El Salvador's brutal deportee prison sparks fury — exposing tensions between Ellison's empire-building, Weiss's heterodox vision, and broadcast news's fading grip on truth.

• Fresh from sealing multimillion-dollar gifts abroad, Sasha Suda stepped into a boardroom ambush at the Philadelphia Art Museum: fired for alleged dishonesty amid a bitter power struggle. This insider account exposes a boardroom bloodbath—ego clashes, woke wars, and a millennial leader’s ouster—revealing Philly’s entrenched elite sabotaging their own crown jewel.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I’ve been doing some research on iconic design for a separate project I might be doing, and YouTube saw it fit to serve me this short doc on Dieter Rams. Thanks, it’s just what I needed!

Thanks for reading,
Vuk