Yema Updates Superman Date With In-House Movement; Ming's Monochrome 37.02 Ghost; Junghans Embraces The 1970s With A Bullhead; Panerai’s Ceramic GMT Luminor; Moser Channels Their Inner Pop Artist

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Here’s another early issue, as post-Easter lunch is waiting for me, and there’s no way I’m missing that… In the meantime, enjoy the very funky Junghans. Love stuff like that!

In this issue:

• Yema Releases The Updated Superman In Two Sizes, With A Date And Their In-House Movement

• Ming Gives An All Monochrome Palette To The Aptly Named 37.02 Ghost

• Junghans Embraces The 1970s With A Fully Round Bullhead Chrono, The Competition Chronograph

• Panerai’s Luminor Gets A Black Ceramic Case And A GMT Movement In The PAM01574

• Moser Channels Their Inner Pop Artist With Dozens Of Colorful Stone Dials

👂What’s new

1/

Yema Releases The Updated Superman In Two Sizes, With A Date And Their In-House Movement

Last week, I wrote about the new Yema Superman Skin Diver, with some great updates, including their proprietary CMM.20 micro-rotor calibre. I love the look of that watch, but it was quickly pointed out to me by many people, that the star of their release was actually their other release from last week — the new Superman Dato in two sizes, subdued colors and their in-house automatic. Sure, I get it. But I still prefer the no-date options.

The new Dato uses the new and improved Superman case, which ditches the iconic bezel clamp that locks it in place and replaces it with a bezel that has to be pushed down to unlock it and turn. This solves the issue of having to unscrew the crown to adjust the bezel, which is dangerous to do around water, but introduces a few mm in thickness. The new Dato comes in two stainless steel cases, one measuring 39.5mm wide and the other 41mm wide. One gets a 47mm lug-to-lug, while the larger measures 48.7mm. Interestingly, Yema says that they both measure 11.5mm thick, and that’s without the double-domed sapphire crystal on top. On top are unidirectional bezels which have ceramic inserts in black or blue. Water resistance is 200 meters.

The dials are super simple. They come in one of three glossy lacquer renditions — white, blue or black, with the blue and black getting matching bezels and white getting a choice of either blue or black. They all have applied hour markers filled with Super-LumiNova, just like the hands. All the hardware is polished for the black and blue dials, but has a black-IP matte finish for white dials. At 6 o’clock is an aperture for the date wheel, which is color-matched to the dial.

Inside is the CMM.10 movement, designed by Yema and made almost exclusively in Switzerland and France. Designed by watchmaker Olivier Mory, this time-only movement has an anti-magnetic Glucydur balance wheel, is regulated to chronometric precision (but without actual certification), beats at 28,800bph, and has a modern 70-hour power reserve. The watches come on the beautiful Scales Slim stainless steel bracelet, also called a coffin-link bracelet. It has a double-security folding clasp with a new micro-adjustment system.

The new Yema Superman Dato CMM.10 is available now, priced at €1,890. See more on the Yema website.

2/

Ming Gives An All Monochrome Palette To The Aptly Named 37.02 Ghost

Over the past year, Ming has entered new price points with their watches, extending into the five digit range with some really cool and unique pieces, while also focusing on their award-winning dive sports watches. However, that doesn’t mean that they forgot about the watches that built the company. Now, they’re releasing a time-only watch that’s as simple as can get. This is the new Ming 37.02 Ghost. And you can see why it got that name.

Being a 37 series watch, the case has great proportions. It measures 38mm wide, 11mm thick and has a 44.5mm lug-to-lug. The case is made out of grade 2 titanium and has the curvy body, pagoda-style lugs and notched crown of the 37 series. The sapphire crystal extends to the very edge of the case, and has surfaces matte brushed in various directions to create contrast. While the official depth rating of the Ghost is 100 meters, Ming says they’ve tested it to 260 meters, and it will survive.

The monochromatic look of the machined case continues on the concave dial, which is also made out of grade 2 titanium. The central part has circular brushing, while the flange has radial brushing. In the best Ming tradition, the hour track is engraved into the bottom side of the crystal and then filled with Super-LumiNova X1. The same lume is applied to the hands.

Inside, you’ll find a modified Sellita SW300-1, which gets skeletonised bridges and plates. It beats at 4Hz and has a 45 hout power reserve. All the bridges, plates and rotor are finished with an anthracite coating. The watch comes on a case-matching grey goat leather strap.

The new Ming 37.02 Ghost is limited to 250 pieces and priced at CHF 3,500. See more on the Ming website.

3/

Junghans Embraces The 1970s With A Fully Round Bullhead Chrono, The Competition Chronograph

A month or so ago, I wrote how Junghans, the legendary German watch brand, embraced their 1990s heritage and released the Mega Futura, a very cool recreation of the world’s first commercial radio-controlled wristwatch that the brand released in 1990. Now, they’re looking to a different part of their history, to recreate another legendary watch — a bullhead-style chronograph Junghans 1972 Competition. OK, technically, the brand released a version of this watch earlier, but in yellow and orange. Now, it’s releasing a black or white version, for those who want subdued colors, but still a extravagant case.

And what a case it is. Made out of steel, it measures 45.5mm wide. Sounds huge, sure, but the lug-to-lug is just 41mm, making it sit perfectly on a vast majority of wrists. Technically, it’s not a lug-to-lug, but rather a case length. That’s because the case sits on a caseback that’s heavily curved for two reasons — to act as the lugs and to better form against your wrist. That curved caseback and a chronograph movement do mean it’s quite thick at 14.5mm, but it all works together. You’ll either fall in love with this case or you’ll hate it, I can’t imagine much indifference here. On top is a dramatically curved sapphire crystal, the crown sits at 12 o’clock surrounded by chrono pushers for that bullhead look, and you get 100 meters of water resistance.

The dials, especially on these two new versions, are the exact opposite — quite subdued. They come in either black or white lacquer, with a sunray brushed finish and color matched oval-shaped sub-dials. The sub-dials are positioned vertically, at 12 and 6 o’clock. At 3 is a date aperture and on the preiphery is a tachymeter scale on a matte inner flange.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre J880.5, which is essentially just a Sellita SW-500. It beats at 4Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. Junghans says that the movement is finished with stripes, perlage and blued screws, but you’ll never know because the watch has a solid caseback. The watches come on dial-color-matching perforated leather straps with a folding clasp.

The new Junghans 1972 Competition duo is available now as a regular addition to the collection. Price is set at €2,590. See more on the Junghans website.

4/

Panerai’s Luminor Gets A Black Ceramic Case And A GMT Movement In The PAM01574

Despite introducing a major update to the Luminor line at Watches and Wonders just a couple of weeks ago, Panerai is introducing a new version of the watch these days. And there’s a reason why they didn’t bunch these releases together. That’s because this new Lumimor GMT Power Reserve Ceramica PAM01574 is released as part of Panerai’s official timekeeping of the Salone del Mobile, the largest furniture trade show in the world, held every year in Milan.

The case of this watch will look very familiar — 44mm wide, with the iconic crown protector that has the unlocking lever, but not made out of steel. instead, it’s made out of high-tech black ceramic with a really nice matte sandblasted finish and a couple of polished details. On top is a sapphire crystal, while the back gets a smoked sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 300 meters.

The dial is also very familiar, with its sandwich construction, with the top disc has a blue sunray-brushed base with cutouts for the numerals and the bottom disc is painted in white Super-LumiNova X2 with a green emission. The same lume is used on the central hour and minute hands and the running seconds hand at 9 o’clock. At 5 o’clock you’ll find the power reserve gauge, and there’s an additional central 12-hour GMT hand. Both of these hands are painted in blue-emission Super-LumiNova.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre P.9012 automatic. It beats at 4Hz and the two barrels give it 72 hours of power reserve. It’s a traveler style GMT movement, which means that you adjust the local hour hand independently. One cool feature more watches should use is when you pull out the crown, the seconds hand resets to zero. The watch comes on a blue alligator strap and you get an additional rubber strap.

The Panerai Luminor GMT Power Reserve Ceramica PAM01574 is available now and doesn’t seem to be limited in absolute numbers, but is limited in annual production. Price is set at €16,800. See more on the Panerai website.

5/

Moser Channels Their Inner Pop Artist With Dozens Of Colorful Stone Dials

For various reasons, I’m still catching up with some releases from Watches and Wonders. Like, for example, this new Pop Collection from H. Moser & Cie., which marries their Endeavour model (the Small Seconds, Tourbillon and Minute Repeater Tourbillon) with s very on-point trend — stone dials. This is some seriously cool dialmaking here.

First, the watches, and in brief. The Endeavour Small Seconds Concept Pop comes in a 38mm steel case, powered by the HMC 202 automatic calibre with a 3-day power reserve. Moving up to the Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Pop, it gets a 40mm case, with the HMC 805 automatic calibre with a flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock. And at the top of the line is the Endeavour Minute Repeater Tourbillon Concept Pop, which comes in a 40mm wide red gold case, powered by the HMC 904 hand-wound calibre that has the gong and hammers visible from the dial side.

Then, we have the dials. There are 18 different references across the three models, meaning there are 6 combinations for each watch. The stones are impressive — Burmese jade, turquoise, coral, pink opal, lapis lazuli, and lemon chrysoprase, all selected from specific locations due to their purity and natural vibrancy.

All three watch variations are available in 6 combinations: Burmese jade, turquoise, coral, pink opal, lapis lazuli, and lemon chrysoprase, all selected from specific locations due to their purity and natural vibrancy. In typical Moser style, there are no logos or printing. You can flip the stone setups, ending up with, for example, Burmese jade as the background, with the pink opal discs, or visa-versa

The Small Seconds and Tourbillon models come on a grey ostrich leather strap, while the Minute Repeater comes on a grey alligator leather strap. These are all, of course, limited editions. The Small Seconds will be made in 28 pieces, the Tourbillon in 8 pieces and the Minute Repeaters are all unique pieces. Price is set at CHF 30,500 for the Small Seconds, CHF 75,000 for the Tourbillon and CHF 305,772 for the Minute Repeater, all without tax. See more on the Moser 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

• Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic is experiencing a renaissance. This makes more sense than you might think. So, why is everyone reading 'Lonesome Dove,' an 858-page western from 1985?

• Timmy Reen’s life was upended by obsessive-compulsive disorder. Joseph Goldstein’s feature is no less affecting for its reportorial remove, chronicling how the disease shaped Reen long before the advent of COVID brought things to a breaking point. You’ll be thinking about this story, and particularly its ending, long after you finish reading it.

• At Orion Magazine, Christopher Solomon recounts the life and death of Muffy, a Buff Orpington chicken seriously wounded by a neighbor’s dog. Using a weary, yet stoic approach and wry humor, Solomon attempts to nurse Muffy back to health. As he does so, he considers his uneasy relationship with the land he stewards and the farmyard lives he’s become responsible for.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

The idea of owning a motorcycle is so much better than the reality of it. The reality is, I’m too afraid of killing myself to own one. But how awesome is it that there’s a bike otu there nicknamed Whispering Death. Also, I love the style of these videos.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk