Tissot Shrinks The Seastar 2000 Professional; UNIMATIC's Summery Poolside Colors; A Fantastic Sporty Fears Brunswick; Panerai's Smaller SEALs Submersible; Bovet's Perpetual Calendar Récital 31

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s a holiday here in Croatia today, so this one is a bit on autopilot as I hang out with the family. Hope you still enjoy it.

In this issue

• Tissot Shrinks The Seastar 2000 Professional And Gives It Five New Colors

• UNIMATIC Brings Poolside Summer Colors To The Modello Uno And Modello Cinque

• Fears Brings The Brunswick Back To The Sports World With The All-Brushed Helmsman ES

• Panerai Shrinks Down The Navy SEALs Submersible, But Don’t Get Excited Just Yet

• Bovet Puts A Slightly Simpler To Use Perpetual Calendar Into The Récital 31

👂What’s new

1/

Tissot Shrinks The Seastar 2000 Professional And Gives It Five New Variants

The Tissot Seastar 2000 Professional has always been a bit of a polarizing thing to me. It was incredible value at under a grand, offering stuff that you would have to pay much more for at other brands. Stuff like a helium escape valve and 600 meters of water resistance. But there was one major downside. It was a porker of a watch. And you know it was huge when I call it large. It was 46mm wide and 16.25mm thick, kind of ruining the package. Now, Tissot redid the entire collection, gave it new colors and shrunk the case. It’s still large, but it’s a step in the right direction.

If you had not known the dimensions of the previous variant, you would balk at the new size of 44mm wide and 15.29mm thick. I mean, you’ll likely still balk, but it’s significantly smaller than the previous version. It’s still made out of stainless steel, with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces. The screw-down crown gets guards, and the helium escape valve sits at 9 o'clock. There's a display caseback, a steel unidirectional bezel with a ceramic insert and engraved 60-minute scale, and two of the five references come with a black coating. The watch still keeps the 600 meter water resistance.

The colors are deep blue, bright orange and stormy grey. The blue versions get a matching blue bezel, while the grey and the orange both have black inserts. Orange is the standout here, a first for the 2000 dial after years of black, blue, green and white. The engraved wave pattern carries over, as do the big luminous hands and indexes that have always made these easy to read underwater.

Inside is the Powermatic 80, Swatch Group's reworked ETA 2824-2 running at 3Hz with a Nivachron balance spring and up to 80 hours of power reserve. There's a new diver's clasp with a security lock and push-button extension, which should make on-the-fly sizing far less of a chore, and Tissot's interchangeable system lets you swap between the steel bracelet and a rubber strap without tools.

The new Seastar 2000 Professional is part of the permanent collection and available now. Pricing starts at €975 for the blue and orange on rubber, €995 for the stormy grey on bracelet, and €1,025 for the two black-coated versions. See more on the Tissot website.

2/

UNIMATIC Brings Poolside Summer Colors To The Modello Uno And Modello Cinque

UNIMATIC built its reputation on stripping a dive watch down to the essentials, usually in black, white, or grey. The Swimming Pool Collection breaks from that. It’s not the first colorful collection from the brand, of course, but it’s one that’s perfect for scorching afternoons near the pool this summer. This collection includes six limited references, three dial colors, two case sizes. It's a softer, warmer palette than you would expect from them, but it’s great.

The three Modello Uno references use a sandblasted 316L stainless steel case measuring 41.5mm wide with the bezel, lug-to-lug of 49mm. You get a 120-click unidirectional bezel with a matte deep blue countdown insert, a flat sapphire crystal with internal anti-reflective coating, and the 8mm Alchemical Sun screw-down crown that has become a UNIMATIC signature. The smaller Modello Cinque trio drops to a 36mm case with a fixed monoblock bezel, which gives it a lighter, flatter wrist presence. Both share MIL-STD-810H testing and water resistance of 300 meters.

The dials are the obvious change. Three colors are available over the two case shapes: Crystal Blue, Infinity Mist, and Acqua Laguna, each a soft luminous tone offset by deep blue detailing. Hand-applied 3D markers and Super-LumiNova C1 fill both the markers and the hands. Matte dark navy ladder hour and minute hands are used alongside a reverse lollipop seconds hand, with deep blue open seconds rails and dial trims tying it together.

Powering all six is the quartz VH31A with a sweeping seconds hand, backed by UNIMATIC's 360 protection system and a battery life of roughly two years. Each watch is individually numbered on the closed caseback that’s engraved with "Swimming Pool". The Modello Uno references come on a deep blue TPU two-piece quick-release strap; the Modello Cinque references get a tapered version of the same, both with sandblasted UNIMATIC-signed hardware.

Each reference is limited to 99 pieces and it’s on sale now for €525, without taxes, for the Modello Uno and €495, also without taxes, for the Modello Cinque. See more on the Unimatic website.

3/

Fears Brings The Brunswick Back To The Sports World With The All-Brushed Helmsman ES

Last year's Redcliff 39.5 ES went hard with a frosted, DLC-darkened case, and it was a really good step further for Fears into the sports world. It was a great sports watch, but some (me) wanted to see a more traditional Fears shilouette turned into a sports watch. And here we go, Fears just made my favorite watch of theirs. This is the new Brunswick 40 Helmsman ES, a yachting-themed sports watch that’s perfect for the summer.

The case is 316L stainless steel, 40mm wide and 11.9mm thick, in the familiar cushion shape with short lugs that help keep the lug-to-lug to 46.5mm. Everything that could be brushed has been brushed: bezel, lugs, case sides, crown. That matte finish is supposed to kill glare off the water in strong sun. I just like the way it looks. On top is a sapphire crystal gets antireflective coating on both sides, also helping with the glare. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dial is matte textured white with a subtle sector groove that adds depth, framed by a marine-blue chapter ring with crisp white printing. Applied numerals sit at 12, 3, 6, and 9 with baton markers between them. The two pipette hands use Grade A BGW9 Super-LumiNova; the blue PVD seconds hand matches the chapter ring and the hands.

A sapphire caseback gives you a glimpse at the La Joux-Perret G101 automatic, with a 68-hour power reserve and a decorated blue "Bristol Flower" rotor. The watch comes on a textured white 20mm FKM rubber strap with blue contrast stitching, a black FKM lining, blue keepers, and an all-brushed pin buckle, with quick-release spring bars.

The Fears Brunswick 40 Helmsman Endurance Specification is a regular-production model, available now for £3,450. See more on the Fears website.

4/

Panerai Shrinks Down The Navy SEALs Submersible, But Don’t Get Excited Just Yet

The Panerai Navy SEALs Experience Edition was never supposed to be a small watch, but 47mm is pushing it a bit even for Panerai standards. So Panerai decided to apply the same partnership with the U.S. Navy SEALs unit, same dark tacti-cool character, onto a smaller watch. And sure, that’s in line with the trend we’ve seen in the industry recently that has brands shrinking watches, but a smaller watch means something completely different in Panerai’s world. The new PAM01738 comes in at 44mm wide. Good luck!

The case is three millimeters smaller than the Experience Edition, which means it’s 44mm wide and it’s still made out of brushed stainless steel. From my experience, and keep in mind that I have large wrists, it fits on a wrist like a smaller watch, thanks to the cushion case and shortish lugs. It is thick (Panerai doesn’t give us a thickness measurement), so that might throw off the proportions a bit. On the side is the classic crown protector and on top is a unidirectional bezel with a matte black insert, surrounding a sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 500 meters.

The dial is practically unchanged from the previous Navy SEALs Experience Edition. It's a textured anthracite surface with a smoky grey-to-black fumé effect. Large round hour markers and bold hands are filled with Super-LumiNova, and the hands are partially skeletonized. Small seconds sit at 9 o'clock with an orange-tipped hand, the only color on an otherwise monochrome dial, and there's a date window at 3 o'clock.

Inside is the automatic Panerai P.980 calibre, running at 4Hz with 72 hours of power reserve. Panerai includes two straps: a black rubber strap with a steel buckle and a grey canvas strap.

The Panerai Submersible Navy SEALs PAM01738 is part of the permanent collection and costs €12,100. See more on the Panerai website.

5/

Bovet Puts A Slightly Simpler To Use Perpetual Calendar Into The Récital 31

Every Bovet I've ever written about has been some flavor of theatrical high complication, and you have to love them for it. This one, while still spectacular, tones things down a bit. The Récital 31 is a perpetual calendar built to be set without dread. It slots into the same calmer, more contemporary lane the brand opened with the Récital 30, sitting alongside the Récital 21 Retrograde Perpetual Calendar and the Récital 20 Astérium in the Fleurier manufacture's calendar lineage.

The watch uses Bovet's familiar 44mm Dimier case, 13.3mm thick, available in grade 5 titanium or 18k red gold. The lines are cleaner and the profile better balanced than some of the wilder family members, and on top sits a box sapphire crystal lifted straight from the Récital 30. That high-rising crystal keeps light moving across the dial, which gives the watch a lot of visual energy for something this restrained. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The somewhat clever part lives out back. Perpetual calendars are notorious for cryptic correctors, the kind that send you digging for the manual to avoid setting something wrong, and Bovet's fix is almost embarrassingly simple: the date, day, month and moon phase correctors are clearly labelled on the caseback. There are still safe-setting windows to respect, 9pm to 4am for the calendar and 4am to 8am for the moon phase, but no more guesswork about which pusher does what. On the front, the perpetual calendar indications are located in highlighted rounded apertures that are easy to find and read, day at 9, month at 3, leap year at 12, with a spherical precision moon phase and a serpentine retrograde date hand sweeping across the dial. Central hours and minutes run on a dotted minute track marked at five-minute intervals. Three dial colors are available for this model: blue, red and black.

Inside is a new manufacture movement built specifically for this reference, 469 components and 39 jewels, running at 3Hz, with a five-day power reserve. The back is where this feels most like a Bovet, every bridge richly decorated, and for the Récital 31 the manufacture created a new engraving motif called étoiles carrées, or square stars, which Bovet says takes more than 15 hours to execute by hand. Each watch comes on a matching rubber strap.

The Bovet Récital 31 is limited to 60 numbered pieces per color, priced at CHF 102,000 in titanium and CHF 122,000 in red gold. See more on the Bovet website.

⏲️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

• Under hot studio lights, a teenage girl faces a maze of shifting walls, rubber creatures, and a magnetic rock star king. Jim Henson’s Labyrinth baffled critics and flopped on release, only to quietly enchant a generation later. How did a misunderstood fantasy of puppets and adolescence become a lasting rite of passage?

• In a quiet Indiana town, a beloved doctor who prayed with patients and ran miles before dawn unraveled into something unrecognizable—overprescribing opioids, exploiting the vulnerable, leaving deaths in his wake. After his own brain became evidence, scientists were left with a chilling uncertainty: where does culpability end and disease begin, and who, in the end, was responsible?

• Morning fog lifts off a mountaintop where symmetry and silence promise Enlightenment ideals—until a child’s handprint in brick interrupts the view. In Gary Shteyngart’s account, a father and son wander Monticello, tracing invention, inheritance, and unease, confronting a nation’s elegant contradictions as belonging itself begins to feel unsettled.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

YouTube really has some pretty good documentaries on there. I have them playing in the background all the time.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk