Tudor's F1 Black Bay Chrono Carbon; Rado Adds Blue To The Captain Cook Ceramic Chrono; Echo/neutra Goes Silent; Zeitwinkel Scales Down Its Signature Watch; Moser Releases A Miami Vice Fever Dream

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It’s May 1st today and I hope you’re reading this from a country that gives you a day off. I know I’m taking today off, manning the grill today and tomorrow!

In this issue

• Tudor Updates The Black Bay Chrono Carbon For A New Formula 1 Season

• Rado Adds Blue To The Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Chronograph

• Echo/neutra Teams Up With seconde/seconde To Get Rid Of The Echo

• Zeitwinkel Scales Down Its Signature Large-Date Watch With the 173°

• H. Moser & Cie. Releases A Miami Vice Fever Dream Of A Pioneer Tourbillon For Bucherer

👂What’s new

1/

Tudor Updates The Black Bay Chrono Carbon For A New Formula 1 Season

Last year, Tudor released the Black Bay Chrono Carbon 25 in partnership with the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team, a 42mm chronograph in a carbon and titanium case that leaned hard into the team's livery. It sold out fast. With a new F1 season underway, Tudor is doing exactly what you'd expect: same watch, new colors, matching the new livery. The Black Bay Chrono Carbon 26 swaps last year's blue accents for yellow, updates the edition number to 2,026 pieces, and otherwise changes almost nothing.

The case is 42mm wide and made from the same combination of carbon fibre and titanium as before. Carbon handles the middle case, fixed bezel, and end-links; titanium, PVD-coated in black, takes care of the crown, pushers, and caseback. The tachymeter bezel markings are integrated into the carbon one-piece bezel. Screw-down pushers add a bit of inconvenience for anyone actually trying to time laps, but they do get you to 200 meters of water resistance.

The dial is what’s new. The racing white base returns, as do the carbon fibre sub-dials and the carbon-framed date window at 6. The layered construction, alternating brass discs and carbon fibre sheets, is also unchanged. What's new is the color: bright yellow now runs across the minute track, sub-dials, and date disc, replacing the blue of the Carbon 25. The yellow comes from the VCARB 03, the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team car for 2026. Applied markers and the handset are outlined in black.

Inside is calibre MT5813, Tudor's Breitling B01-derived automatic chronograph. It runs at 4Hz, stores about 70 hours of power reserve, is COSC-certified to -2/+4 seconds per day, and comes with a silicon balance spring and variable inertia balance. The watch ships on a hybrid leather-rubber strap with PVD-coated pin buckle.

The Tudor Black Bay Chrono Carbon 26 is a limited edition of 2,026 pieces, priced at €7,980. See more on the Tudor website.

2/

Rado Adds Blue To The Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Chronograph

Earlier this year, Rado released the Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Chronograph in two colorways: a black ceramic case with rose gold detailing, and a plasma ceramic case with a dark green bezel insert. This blue version is the third in that lineup.

The case is 43mm wide, 16.2mm thick, and has a lug-to-lug of 49.8mm — it's a big watch, no getting around it. The monobloc construction is matt plasma high-tech ceramic throughout, with a titanium caseback featuring a sapphire display. The bezel has a polished blue high-tech ceramic insert, with engraved numbers and markers filled with white Super-LumiNova. Chronograph pushers and the screw-down crown are rose gold-coloured PVD stainless steel. Box-shaped sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides, and water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial is blue, with polished rose gold-coloured applied hour markers filled with white Super-LumiNova. Hour and minute hands are the same finish. The three chronograph subdials — minute counter, hour counter, and running seconds — each have a polished rose gold chronograph hand with a red tip, a retro detail. Date sits at 6 o'clock.

Inside is the Rado calibre R801, the same automatic chronograph movement found in the other two versions. It uses a Nivachron antimagnetic hairspring, beats at 4Hz, and has a 59-hour power reserve. The bracelet is matt plasma high-tech ceramic with polished plasma middle links, closing with a titanium triple-fold clasp. Rado's high-tech ceramic bracelets wear exceptionally well — lightweight, body-temperature adapting, and very comfortable.

The Rado Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Chronograph in blue, reference R32195202, is available now. Price is €5,935, the same as the original models. See more on the Rado website.

3/

Echo/neutra Teams Up With seconde/seconde To Get Rid Of The Echo

If you don’t know who seconde/seconde/ is, his name is Romaric André and he is a banker-turned-watch-customizer. There was a period of a couple of months about a year or year and half ago when seconde/seconde/ watches were coming out almost weekly. He almost overdid it with the collaborations and we got a bit desensitized by them. A couple of them were a bit shark-jumpy, which he obviously knew himself because he worked on a collab that actually did jump the shark. Since then, he took it a bit of a break, which makes his new collaborations that much sharper. And I’m glad he did, because his new work with the Italian brand echo/neutra is sensational. The two took echo/neutra’s already cool Rivanera square watch and give it an obvious, but fun, pun.

The outside of the watch remains unchanged, and they still reflect a vintage piece — 27mm wide, with a 40mm lug-to-lug, and an incredible 5.5mm thin. 5.9 mm with the crystal. But this is no vintage watch. It is deeply modern. Not only is the watch made out of Grade 5 titanium, it gets a very rough sandblasted finish. All of this gives the case a very sporty anthracite look. On top of that, the case has dramatic and polished beveled edges. Water resistance is not spectacular at 30 meters, but who cares.

The collaboration comes on the dial. First, the dial gets a blue base with a pyramid-texture. Cool, in itself, but even cooler when you consider what they are mimicking: an anechoic chamber. Even if the name doesn’t sound familiar, I guarantee you’ve seen one before. An anechoic chamber is a specialized room designed to completely absorb reflections of sound, otherwise known as echo. They usually do it by lining the walls with foam pyramids. The pun makes itself, but they double down by striking through the “echo” part of the brand name. The 6 o’clock small seconds display has the same pattern at the center, with just a polished metal track for the numerals. The hands are also polished metal, and the minute hand is a simple pencil shape, while the hour has a little flair with its Breguet shape.

To keep things super thin, Echo/Neutra put the hand-wound ETA 7001 caliber inside, which beats at 21,600 vph and has a decent power reserve of 42 hours. There’s a very nice circular cutout on the back that shows off the movement, and the caseback is individually numbered for the 50 pieces that will be made. This Rivanera comes on a textured blue leather strap that matches the dial, with an additional grey suede strap delivered with it.

The new echo/neutra Rivanera + seconde/seconde/ goes on sale at 6PM CEST today, priced at exactly the same as the rest of the collection at €1,490. I’m guessing this will go fast. See more on the echo/neutra website.

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Zeitwinkel Scales Down Its Signature Large-Date Watch With the 173°

Zeitwinkel has been on my radar since 2023, when the MAKS series landed and made clear that a small Swiss independent could produce genuinely impressive in-house work at a competitive price. Since then, the brand updated its central-seconds 082° and hours-minutes-only 312° models with new dials and case sizes. The consistent thread has been those German silver movements, hand-finished and produced entirely in-house. The 273° Saphir Fumé, however, has remained the brand's most distinctive proposition: a smoked sapphire dial with the movement architecture and large date visible from the front. It's been available only at 42.5mm, which has always been the one thing keeping it from a wider audience. The new 173° fixes that.

The case is stainless steel with polished and textured surfaces, a recessed midsection and softer lines than the angular 273°. It measures 39.7mm wide and 12.9mm thick — that thickness includes the domed sapphire crystal — with a lug-to-lug of 48mm. The 6.7mm fluted crown sits at 3 o'clock and uses a double O-ring seal. A sapphire caseback is fitted. Water resistance is 50 meters, same as before. I tried one on in Geneva and it wears beautifully, despite the apparent thickness on paper.

Two dial versions are offered: Saphir Fumé, which carries the smoked aesthetic of the original 273°, and Saphir Bleu, a light-reactive alternative with a more contemporary feel. In both cases, the dial elements are metallised and deposited directly onto the sapphire surface using LIGA lithographic techniques. The large date sits at 11 o'clock, a signature position carried over from the 273°, and there's a power reserve indicator on the right side of the dial.

The calibre is the same ZW0103 that powered the 273°, so nothing changes on the movement front, which is not a complaint. The automatic runs at 28,800vph with a 72-hour power reserve and is built on untreated German silver plates and bridges with a frosted finish available on request. And trust me, you want the frosted finish. Those warm, champagne-toned plates remain the visual heart of this watch. Straps are calf leather or rubber, 20mm tapering to 18mm, with a deployant clasp as standard and a pin buckle available on request for leather.

The Zeitwinkel 173° is available now, priced at CHF 21,500 excluding VAT, made to order. See more on the Zeitwinkel website.

5/

H. Moser & Cie. Releases A Miami Vice Fever Dream Of A Pioneer Tourbillon For Bucherer

The Pioneer is H. Moser & Cie.'s sportiest model, which makes it the natural home for anything F1-adjacent. While we’ve previously seen Moser watches made with the Alpine F1 team, this one is a bit different. This is the Bucherer Exclusive Pioneer Tourbillon Miami, a 28-piece limited edition sold strictly through Bucherer's 1888 retailer, made ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, draped in turquoise and pink the way only South Florida can make you believe is actually tasteful.

The steel case measures 40mm wide and 12mm thick, including the domed sapphire crystal. A screw-down crown and 120 meters of water resistance keep it appropriately credentialed as the Pioneer's sportier charter, even if the watch's real spiritual home is poolside rather than pitside.

The drama is very much on the dial. A turquoise sunray-brushed base takes the full Florida treatment with a pink flange ring around the perimeter, and then the hands come in with vibrant green lume — three colors on a single dial, all of them screaming. It looks like a heat-and-humidity fever dream, which is exactly the point. There's no date to interrupt things, just hours, minutes, and the tourbillon aperture sitting at 6 o'clock.

Inside is the HMC 805 automatic tourbillon, the same calibre found in the Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic I wrote about just two months ago. It beats at 21,600vph with a 72-hour power reserve wound via a skeletonised rose gold rotor. The watch comes on a pink rubber strap with an additional white rubber strap included.

The Pioneer Tourbillon Miami is limited to 28 pieces and priced at CHF 59,300, available exclusively through Bucherer 1888. This watch is a lot. It is knowingly, deliberately, and successfully a lot — which is exactly what Miami is about. See more on the Bucherer 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

• Infinity makes sense as a concept, even if we can’t necessarily wrap our heads around it. But according to some scholars, that’s not enough of a reason to believe in it. Welcome to the world of the ultrafinists—mathematicians who refuse to accept infinity unless it can be proven in a practical sense, not just a theoretical one. If you’re looking to break your brain, look no further than Gregory Barber’s piece about how far down those turtles actually go

• Classical music has always relied on patronage—as Jeffrey Arlo Brown notes, musicians were often little more than “glorified servants” in European courts. Still, for much of history, it was primarily talent that determined a musician’s rise. That changed when orchestras became the playthings of the ultra-wealthy, whose egos demand that they insert themselves into the proceedings. Brown’s report on the rise of pay-to-play in classical music is a scathing examination of what happens when money trumps talent.

• A phone call out of the blue transformed Daisy Whitner’s understanding of her own inheritance, revealing her as a descendant of the 19th-century enslaved potter David “Dave” Drake. As his vessels fetch millions at auction, his heirs are now navigating the painful chasm between their family history and the art world’s commodification, ultimately asking: who owns the legacy of the enslaved?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

OK, another day, another trailer, but this is super interesting. It’s been a couple of years since James Gunn took over DC Studios, and while his Superman was a decent movie, that’s not what we want from him. Do you remember a time before Guardians of the Galaxy when only the biggest comic book nerds knew who the Guardians were? And then Gunn dug them out of obscurity and turned them into a multi-billion-dollar franchise. That’s what Gunn seems to be best at. And he’s applying the same principle to DC. Clayface won’t be a multi-billion-dollar franchise, but to see such an obscure character get its own high-budget movie is cool.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk