Yema And seconde/seconde/ Release Graffiti Regatta Timer; Timex Updates The Engima; Squale Expands Master Collection; Ressence Embraces Art Watch; MING Introduces 20.01 Series 5; GP Keeps It Subtle

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. That Yema might be a great entry point if you always wanted a yacht timer but didn’t want to spend huge amounts of money.

In this issue:

• Yema Merges Yachting Timers And Street Graffiti With The Help Of seconde/seconde/

• Timex Updates The Floating Hand Q Timex 1975 Enigma Reissue With New Colors

• Squale Expands Master Collection With The Master Grand In Titanium With Some Great Colors

• Ressence Embraces The Art Watch With A Type 8 Designed By Artist Daniel Engelberg

• MING Introduces The 20.01 Series 5, A Chronograph With A Dial You’ll Want To Get Lost In

• Girard-Perregaux Keeps It Subtle With The New Grey Grand Feu Enamel Dialed Laureato

👂What’s new

1/

Yema Merges Yachting Timers And Street Graffiti With The Help Of seconde/seconde/

A bit over a year ago, Romaric André, aka seconde/seconde/, the banker-turned-watch-customizer was everywhere. He was releasing a collaboration a week and his playful and witty approach to modifying watches was becoming worn out and corny. I believe he saw it happening as well, because we haven’t seen a seconde/seconde/ watch in a while. Which is a good thing, because when we get one it’s something special again. And here we have one, made in partnership with Yema. The duo took Yema’s iconic Yachtingraf big eye regatta timer and gave it a bit of a hand-drawn look. This is the new Yema × seconde/seconde/ Yachtingraff. I like it.

The Yachtingraff is based on the existing meca-quartz Yachtingraf Croisière, which means that that the stainless steel case measures 38.5mm wide, 12.3mm thick — including the vintage looking double-domed Hesalite crystal — and has a 46mm lug-to-lug. More vintage cues can be found on the case construction, which has lyre lugs, a polished top and brushed sides. seconde/seconde/ left his mark on the case as well, using the two piston pushers on the side into tiny spray-can heads, one blue and one red, obviously made to draw the dial. Out back is a caseback that needs a bit of explaining. It reads “La Croisière, ma muse”, which is French for “The cruise, my muse”. La Croisière is the name of the model, but it’s also similar to “La croisière s’amuse”, which is the French title of the TV series The Love Boat. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The seconde/seconde/ impact is most obvious on the dial. It gets the familiar black base with white seconds track on the periphery, along with applied markers and pencil shaped faceted hands, both with lumed inserts. But then, everything else is rendered as if it was drawn on by a graffiti artist, with paint drips and a great hand-drawn font for the numerals. The layout keeps the unfortunate 24-hour sub-dial at 3 o’clock but at least it gets a great look with a white dial and red cross. At 6 is a recessed running seconds sub-dial and at 9 is the iconic big eye countdown sub-dial, used to time regatta starts. Beneath the Yema logo at 12 is the Yachtingraf logo which now gets an extra “f” for this edition.

Inside the watch is the Seiko Mecha-Quartz caliber SII VK63, meaning that it combines a quartz movement for the regular timekeeping and a mechanical chronograph. The watch comes on a black tropic-style rubber strap.

The new Yema × seconde/seconde/ Yachtingraff goes on pre-order tomorrow June 25th at 4PM CET, with deliveries expected in September. It’s a shame they won’t be available for the summer, that would have been perfect. But to make up for it not being available in the summer, here’s two pieces of good news — the watches are not limited and the price is set at €449. See more on the Yema website.

2/

Timex Updates The Floating Hand Q Timex 1975 Enigma Reissue With New Colors

Aside from making some pretty great modern watch at incredible prices, Timex has employed a pretty foolproof strategy in recent years, one that so many brands are using as well. They looked at their immense back catalogue of watches — and it really is immense, with perhaps thousands of models released in the past 70 or so years — and recreated some of the best pieces they ever made. Last year, around this same time, Timex released the Q Timex 1975 Enigma Reissue, which was based on a watch from 1975 that was nicknamed the “mystery dial” that covered up the pivot of the hands with a dot on the crystal and had color matched hands with white tips, making them appear as if floating. Now, the watch is getting a paint refresh.

Housed in a fully polished steel case that’s somewhere between a cushion shape and a C shape, the watch measures 37mm wide and 12mm thick, and seeing how it has super short lugs, I assume that it has a very accommodating lug-to-lug measurement. Timex doesn’t disclose it. On top is a domed acrylic crystal, like on many Q Timex releases, and out back you’ll find a tiny battery hatch that allows you to swap them out yourself. On the underside of the crystal you’ll find the same painted dot to help with keeping the hands look floaty, either black or teal, depending on the dial color. Water resistance is 50 meters.

As I hinted with the crystal dots, there are two dial options — teal or black, both with a matte finish, which are now joining the anthracite/blue version we got last year. Both of the dials have black minute tracks on the periphery and the colored part of the dial is interrupted with only the Q Timex Quartz text at 9 o’clock and a day/date indicator at 3 o’clock. The hands are super simple sticks, the same color as the background, with white tips and lollipop seconds hand in either yellow or blue.

Like so many other Timex quartz watches, Timex does not say which exact movement is inside the Q Timex 1975 Enigma Reissue but it will keep reasonable time if past models are a benchmark. The watch comes on either a fabric NATO-style strap or a leather strap.

The new Q Timex 1975 Enigma Reissue colorways are available for purchase right now from Timex for a reasonable price of €179. See more on the Timex website.

3/

Squale Expands Master Collection With The Master Grand In Titanium With Some Great Colors

While they aren’t a mainstream household name, Squale has been making pretty cool dive watches for some time. In fact, they just celebrated their 65th birthday last year. But in fact, the brands history dates even before 1959 when founder Charles Von Büren registers the “Squale” trademark to him making diving watches for other Swiss brands. Squale struggled during the quartz crisis, fading a bit but never truly going away. After the retirement of Charles von Büren, the Maggi family which distributed Squale watches in Italy and the former Italian distributors of von Büren watches partnered with one another and in 2005 relaunched the brand. And since then they’ve just flooded the market with cool divers. Now we’re getting a couple of new watches in the Master collection, the Squale Master Grand in blue or green.

Like many of the other Squale watches, this is a tool watch, which means it has a presence on the wrist. The case measures 42mm wide, a hefty 15.5mm thick and a 49mm lug-to-lug. There’s a reason for that thickness, as the entire thing is built for pressure — the sapphire crystal on top measures 4mm, for example. All of this gets you 1,200 meters of water resistance. But it should be relatively easy to wear, since it is made out of Grade 5 titanium. Surrounding the chunky sapphire crystal is a unidirectional rotating bezel with a ceramic insert that comes in either black with teal numerals for the 60 minute scale or a medium blue insert with lighter blue scale. The case also has a helium escape valve, which is expected for watches that can go this deep.

There are two dial options available, a blue or a teal, both of which have a wave-textured pattern that looks very good. The hour markers and hands are chunky things, coated in lume, glowing in blue or green, depending on the color of the dial. Both the minute hands are slightly oversized and colored a very bright orange, a Squale signature move.

Inside, you’ll find the ubiquitous, easily servicable and robust Sellita SW200-1 which beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watches come on very cool straps. Despite looking like leather rubber straps, they are actually rubber straps with an alligator leather in it.

The new Squale Master Grand is available now and I don’t believe them to be limited editions. Price is set at €2,500. See more on the Squale website.

4/

Ressence Embraces The Art Watch With A Type 8 Designed By Artist Daniel Engelberg

You all know how much I love Ressence. And in my book, they can do no wrong. But with that being said, I was never madly infatuated with the Type 8 and Type 9 models. Don’t get me wrong, they are still stunning watches, ones I would easily own, but I find Ressence to be best when they use sub-dials to show the rotating dial at its best. Well, it seems that the answer to making the Type 8 even better is to turn it into an art watch. Ressence teamed up with Daniel Engelberg, a Munich-based sculptor and painter, to create the best Type 8 duo to date.

The Type 8 has a much sleeker case than most of the other Ressence models, but that doesn’t make it tiny. This version is still housed in a titanium pod-shaped case that measures 42.9mm wide and 11mm thick. It’s also incredibly light at just 42 grams with the strap. Like most Ressence models, it doesn’t have a crown — instead it’s adjusted and wound with a very cool rotating caseback. Water resistance is really not great — just 10 meters — enough to get slightly damp in the rain, but this is not a sports watch.

This is and Art Watch, which is evident on first look. Inspired by Engelberg’s art, the convex grade 5 titanium dial is engraved with concentric circles which are then filled with the same colors that the artist uses in his own works. There are two versions of the dial — both feature a blue gradient in the central part, but one has a turquoise surround while the other has a pink and red surround.

Inside, you’ll find the incredibly cool combination of a customised automatic ETA 2892/2 base calibre in combination with Ressence’s patented ROCS module which allows the dial and subdials to spin. The movement beats at 4Hz and has a 36 hour power reserve. The watches come on either a pink or a turquoise rubber strap with a titanium ardillon buckle, and both come with an additional blue leather strap.

The new Ressence Type 8 Daniel Engelberg is limited to 40 pieces in each color and priced at €25,000. See more on the Ressence website.

 5/

MING Introduces The 20.01 Series 5, A Chronograph With A Dial You’ll Want To Get Lost In

Ming, the darling indie brand, had an incredible journey. From incredibly cool and unique watches at a great price that had a few deliverability hick-ups, they are making some of the most interesting watches on the market, operating in a hugely broad price range and winning GPHG awards. They’ve also had a number of incredible limited releases that you just won’t see anywhere else. The latest release, the 20.01 Series 5, is exactly that — a limited edition with a completely unique dial and a great movement.

At first glance, you’ll instantly recognize this watch as a Ming, with its fully round case and signature openworked “flying blade” lugs. The watch measures 41.5mm wide and 14.2mm thick and it’s made out of stainless steel with a grade 5 titanium mid case that has a black DLC coating. There’s a whole lot of finishes on this watch, with brushed and polished details on the stainless steel, with blue PVD-coated pushers, one on either side of the case, while the crown sits at 4 o’clock. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, a flat one out back and you get a 50 meter water resistance.

Then, there’s the dial. I’ve seen a couple of reports highlighting the dial as something you might see in an SF movie as a starship accelerates to the speed of light, but I can see only one thing — a typewriter. Tell me that those incredibly looking blades on the dial don’t look like the blades that hold the letters on a typewriter… That, or the blades of a jet engine. The dial is laser milled from a single block of titanium, given a blue CVD coating before being detailed by laser even further. You really won’t see this anywhere else. Above the dial you’ll see the signature Ming hands, as well as the incredible centrally mounted seconds hand which can be split up to tell both the chrono seconds and minutes. All the time telling details, like we’ve seen from Ming before, are set on the crystal. The sapphire is laser etched with the flat and wide hour markers and a Tachymeter scale on the edge. The etching is then filled with Polar White lume.

The stunning movement you can see through the caseback is the incredible AgenGraphe by Agenhor calibre 6361.M1. It’s a manually wound chronograph movement which has a proprietary coupling mechanism, regulator and upgraded clutch system and gets 55 hours of power reserve. The movement doesn’t use sub-dials at all, despite being a chronograph, and it’s all told with centrally mounted hands. but best of all, it’s just beautiful. The bridges are coated in 5N rose gold and have polished angles, and you can see all the components ticking away. The watch comes on a dark blue Alcantara strap and you get an additional black FKM rubber strap.

The new Ming 20.01 Series 5 is limited to 25 pieces and goes on sale today, 24 June, at 1PM GMT. Deliveries are expected in August. Price is set at CHF 37,500. See more on the Ming website.

6/

Girard-Perregaux Keeps It Subtle With The New Grey Grand Feu Enamel Dialed Laureato

If I were in the market for a luxury integrated bracelet sports watch in steel, it would be a choice between three watches and the winner would likely be the Girard-Perregaux Laureato. It was one of the original watches in the genre and it’s still quite a looker. The latest release in the collection comes in the 42mm steel guise, with a really nice, but also understated, grey Grand Feu enamel dial.

On the outside, this is a familiar watch. The tonneau shaped case measures 42mm wide and 10.68mm thick, with horizontal brushing and bevelled edges. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, surrounded by the signature octagonal bezel on a polished plinth. On the right side is an oversized flat crown and water resistance is 100 meters.

But this release is all about the dial. Created by Donzé Cadrans, a master enameller of the Sowind Group, Girard-Perregaux’s parent company, the dial features a wonderful Grand Feu enamel dial. The base of the dial is first given a sunray pattern, which is then layered and fired in enamel until it gets a beautiful shade of grey. The dial has applied rhodium-plated indices, with matching hands. Keeping things elegant, there’s no lume on either the hands or the indices, but it keeps the date aperture at 3 o’clock.

Inside, you’ll find the in-house calibre GP01800, beating at 4Hz, with a 54 hour power reserve. This being GP, the movement is quite nicely decorated, with circular Côtes de Genève on the pink gold rotor the straight Côtes de Genève on the bridges. In addition, you get polished screws, bevelled edges and perlage on the mainplate. The watch comes on an integrated steel bracelet that has brushed outer links and polished central ones.

The Girard-Perregaux Laureato with the new grey Grand Feu enamel dial doesn’t seem to be limited and is priced at €18,800. See more on the Girard-Perregaux 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

• 280,000 eggs disappeared from America’s top producer. Then came a ransom note. This is the great egg heist.

• Harvard hired a researcher to uncover its ties to slavery. He says the results cost him his job. Why? Because he found too many slaves.

• He’s a sports mogul, small-business influencer, media personality, health-care disruptor—and the ultimate Trump foil. Is Mark Cuban the loudmouth billionaire that democrats need for 2028?

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

I guess it’s trailer season, because I’m back to posting them here. The Dylan movie wasn’t that great as a film, but the Chalamet kid was great. This Springsteen movie looks like it could be very good.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk