Yema Wristmaster CMM.29 Goes Full Snow Camo; Orient Star Revives A Cult Diver; MeisterSinger Breaks One-Hand Run; Baillod Tells Personal Story; The Impressive Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. I just got off a great call with one of the readers of the newsletter and we’re launching something super cool this week. If you like Formula 1, don’t miss the Wednesday issue of this newsletter.

In this issue

• Yema Gives Their Wristmaster Slim Small Seconds CMM.29 A Full Snow Camo Treatment

• Orient Star Revives A Cult Japanese Diver With The 75th Anniversary M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m

• MeisterSinger Breaks Their One-Hand Schtick With A Jump Hour Complication

• Baillod Tells A Very Personal Story With The Chapter 8 Family Legacy Special Editions

• The Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale Is A Very Impressive Watch

• FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 67: A Great Deal On A Piaget; A Duo Of Vintage Chronographs; A Fantastic Ana-Digi Omega; And A Stunning Rolex Dial

👂What’s new

1/

Yema Gives Their Wristmaster Slim Small Seconds CMM.29 A Full Snow Camo Treatment

Over the past few years, Yema has been recreating some of their best watches from the archives, but now more robust, often with proprietary movements, and at some decent prices. After a couple of years where they slipped up a bit on customer support and quality control, Yema seems to have gotten things together and are now on an upward trajectory that is quite impressive. Last week, they unveiled a couple of new versions of their Wristmaster Slim CMM.20, a watch that was added to the regular lineup late last year. The most impressive of the releases is the new Wristmaster Slim Small Seconds CMM29 Limited Edition that comes with not just a camo case, but also a full camo case and bracelet.

The proportions of this watch are pretty fantastic. The untreated stainless steel watch measures 39mm wide, just 9mm thick, and with a 43.5mm lug-to-lug. The L2L is short due to the fact that the watch has no lugs, thanks to the integrated bracelet. On top is the signature bezel with a slight octagonal shape and six internal scallops. Those cutouts on the bezel remain brushed, while the rest of the case, as well as the bracelet, is laser engraved to create a camo effect in light and dark grey tones. Water resistance remains 100 meters.

The same pattern is applied to the dial, in the exact same color, which is then paired with polished trapezoidal markers with black outlines and lumed inserts. The hour and minute hands are faceted, polished, and with the same lumed inserts. There’s a small seconds display at 9 o’clock which is a great position and it continues the pattern from the rest of the watch.

Inside, you get the Oliver Mory-designed manufacture CMM.20. It’s wound with a tungsten micro-rotor, beating at 4Hz and with a pretty great 70-hour power reserve. It’s also quite accurate at -3/+7 seconds per day.

There are also two other versions of the Wristmaster Slim CMM.20 regular being released, with a brushed case and a purple/blue and green dial, now rendered without the rippled pattern on the dial. The camo version is limited to 100 pieces, while the other two are part of the regular collection. Price is set at €2,399 for the camo and €2,249 for the other two. See more on the Yema website.

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Orient Star Revives A Cult Japanese Diver With The 75th Anniversary M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m

Orient Star, the higher end variant of Orient, is fixing a lot of their issues. One of the biggest gripes I’ve had with the brand is their inistance to not have a website, let alone sell their watches online. Even worse was their communication strategy in which they never told anyone when they launched new website, and the only way to figure out new watches came out was by closely monitoring a website that must have been built by an intern in the 1990s. Recently, we got a new website and we’re in the midst of their onslaught of new releases, as part of their 75th anniversary celebration. Their latest release is a upgrade of their vintage 1964 Olympia Calendar Diver with what has to be the worst name in watches. This is the new Orient Star M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m. I guess there’s more work to be done, but in the meantime, the watch is quite decent.

Technically, this isn’t an all new dial, since Orient Star already makes a similar diver. This one gets a new dial, but more on that later, but also a new solid steel brushed unidirectional rotating bezel with a coin edge. The steel case measures 41mm wide and 14.5mm thick, which is quite significant but also includes the sapphire crystal. Still, could have been thinner. Water resistance is pretty appropriate at 200 meters.

The new dial has a gradient steel blue finish, darker on the outside and lighter towards the middle. Orient Star says it’s inspired by the deep sea and night sky. You get their signature power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock, love it or hate it, as well as a date aperture at 3 o’clock, a board-arrow style hour hand and applied rectangular indices.

Inside is the Orient Star F6N47 automatic movement. Interestingly, Orient makes their own movements in-house and this exact movement has been used in the first edition of the 1964 Diver in 2021. It beats at 21,600 bph and has a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a five link stainless bracelet.

The new Orient Star M42 Diver 1964 1st Edition F6 Date 200m is limited to 700 pieces, goes on sale in March and is priced at €1,300. See more on the Orient Star website.

3/

MeisterSinger Breaks Their One-Hand Schtick With A Jump Hour Complication

OK, MeisterSinger will forever have a special place in my heart. They are just hilariously consistent with their releases that are all based around their one driving force — make single-handed time telling the universal norm. At least that’s what I think they are doing, because what other reason would there be for dozens and dozens of quirky watches that use just one hand. And good for them, I support them in their fight for one hand dominance. However, we have a plot twist right here. While I’m not a historian of MisterSinger and I allow that they made non-one handers before they got on my radar, it seems that the one-hand supremacy is over. MeisterSinger is celebrating their 25th anniversary with the Panthero Jumping Hour which adds a jump hour aperture to the one hand display.

While a lot of MeisterSinger watches come in similar, if not identical, cases, this one gets a brand new case. Made out of steel, it measures 40.5mm wide and 11.25mm thick, with a super thin bezel that gives you a full look of the dial. The flanks of the case have recesses for a bit of interest and the case has brushed, blasted and polished surfaces. On the right side is a cool spiral crown and on top and bottom are sapphire crystals. Water resistance is 50 meters.

Three dials are available — a lacquered white or black, and a hand-guilloché silver dial that’s truly beautiful. But despite the difference in looks, they all have the same setup, one that stands apart from what they usually do. While the recognizable style of a MesiterSinger is a single hand that indicates both the hours and minutes, this one has an aperture at 12 o’clock that shows the jumpin hours. In the top half of the dial is a minutes ring indicated by a single hand, and right below it, overlaping it a bit, is a wheel that looks like the brand’s fermata logo and indicates the seconds.

Inside, you’ll find the calibre MS-JH-01, which is the Sellita SW300 automatic that’s paired with a new proprietary jumping-hour module, developed in collaboration with Dubois-Depraz. Being the SW300, it beats at 4Hz and it has a 47 hour power reserve. Decorations include an anthracite rotor and a base plate with perlage. The watches come on crocodile-embossed calfskin straps in black and white for the matching dials, and a brown one for the guilloché dial.

The new MeisterSinger is available now, with the black and white part of the regular collection and the guilloché dial limited to 25 pieces. Price is set at €6,990 for the black and white and €7,990 for the guilloché dial. See more on the MeisterSinger website.

4/

Baillod Tells A Very Personal Story With The Chapter 8 Family Legacy Special Editions

I have long been a fan of BA111OD watches. Their whole thing has always been offering Swiss-made watches, whether with or without complications, at pretty unbelievable prices. That doesn’t mean that they make cheap watches. Far from it, despite them covering pretty much the entire price band. They just make watches that are not available at that price point from other Swiss brands. And that's pretty cool. I’ve liked them even more ever since I met Thomas Baillod, the founder of the brand, in Geneva. The passion was instantly recognizable and he carried with him a pocket watch that was signed “Charles Baillod, Locle”, a part of the Baillod family name history that dates back hundreds of years in the region. It was a great presentation at the time, so it’s fantastic to see that the pocket watch is making a visible impression of the current collection. BA111OD is launching the Baillod Family Legacy Special Editions, two watches that pay homage and are styled after the very pocket watch Thomas showed me last year.

The watch is made out of stainless steel and there are two versions available of the watch, one completely untreated and one with a soft gold PVD treatment. The case has a very elegant shape, with rounded lugs, a concave bezel, with satin brushed and polished finishes. The size might sound a bit large, but I’ve found them to wear a bit smaller. Plus, this seems to be the size that sells to masses. It’s 41mm wide, 12.75mm thick, including the domed sapphire crystal, with a 48mm lug-to-lug. The crown sits at 4 o’clock, with an almost onion-like look that mimics the look of the pocket-watch crown. Water resistance is 50 meters.

While the cases have different colors, the dials are practically identical. They both have a sector style display, with a central guilloché style disk and peripheral Roman numerals. There’s also a small seconds sub-dial at 7 o’clock. This very much looks like the pocket watch, with very similar Breguet-style hands with circular tips. The steel version comes with blued hands, while the gold PVD one comes with black hands.

Inside, you’ll find a movement from Soprot, as BA111OD has been known to use their movement quite successfully. Here, it’s the Soprod C110, and automatic that beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watches come on black leather straps with crocodile-style embossing, closed with double-folding deployant clasps.

The new Baillod Family Legacy Special Editions are available now, with both watches priced at €1,500. See more on the Baillod website.

5/

The Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale Is A Very Impressive Watch

You will never walk into a watch store and just buy an Andersen Genève. That’s because they only make limited edition watches, usually already spoken for by collectors, that are incredible display of traditional hand craftsmanship. One of their specialties over the past 30ish years that they’ve been around have been world time watches, and now they’re pairing the world time display with a split-seconds chronograph in the new Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale.

The case of this beauty is made out of platinum, measuring 38.8mm wide and 11.95mm thick. It’s a wonderfully curvy case with a hand-polished mirror finish and a domed sapphire crystal on top and a sapphire exhibition caseback. You’ll want that caseback to see the wonderful movement inside. The crown with the integrated pusher and the chronograph pushers are located on the left side of the case. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial is even more breathtaking. Fully made out of white gold, it’s finished with vertical brushing. That surface is left untreated in the center, surrounded by a blue enamel track and applied indexes. In the center is a bi-compax setup that has a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and a small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock. Around the entire central part of the dial is a sapphire disc with city names for the 24 time zones printed on it. The alpha-style hands are polished and faceted, while the two central split-seconds chronograph hands are blued.

Inside, you’ll find the very cool manually wound Venus 179 calibre, modified by Andersen Genève with an ultra-thin world time mechanism. The movement beats at 2.5Hz and has a power reserve of 42 hours. The watch comes on a blue handmade suede strap closed by a platinum pin buckle.

The new Andersen Genève Rattrapante Mondiale is limited to just 8 pieces, priced at CHF 184,000. I would say see more on the Andersen Genève website, but they’re really not up to date on there.

FOR WATCH CLUB MEMBERS Your Next Watch, Week 68: A Couple Of New Rolexes; A Vintage Omega They Need To Remake; And A Complete Banger Of A Seiko

We continue with our exploration of watches we shouldn't spend our money on, but most likely will. 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

• YouTube baker Rosanna Pansino stares down AI slop flooding her feeds—gummy rings smeared impossibly on toast, fake bunnies trampolining into virality. She recreates the fakes with butter molds, peach oil, and grit, pitting human ingenuity against algorithmic spam. As slop drowns real creators in politics, deepfakes, and dead internet, one woman's kitchen rebellion sparks a fight for authenticity.

• A former Nickelodeon star turned #MeToo activist discovers a vicious anonymous site accusing her of blackmail and marrying a predator—then learns she’s not alone. The same crude smear formula links sex-trafficking trials, Hollywood feuds, K‑pop power plays, and a hard‑charging crisis PR machine, raising a queasy question: when reputations are weaponized, who’s really on trial?

• Joe Rogan channels the midnight-radio ghosts of Long John Nebel and Art Bell into the world's biggest podcast—a three-hour sprawl of weed-fueled wonder, martial arts lore, and unfiltered rants that now sways elections. Once a marginal comic dodging his violent dad and fearing loserdom, he's morphed into America's swing-voter kingpin, hosting presidents, provocateurs, and conspiracy whispers with gleeful, guileless curiosity. But as power floods his zone, does hospitality become complicity?

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