Zenith Concludes Surfer Trilogy With White Ceramic Defy Skyline Skeleton; Hanhart's Panda And Reverse Panda 415 ES; Mido's New Multifort TV Big Date; A Very Complicated IWC; And A Blue Armin Strom

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Still sending these from the road, so I hope everything is working as it should. But more importantly, I’m very much digging those Hanharts.

In this issue:

• Zenith Concludes Time+Tide Partnership On The Surfer Trilogy With Defy Skyline Skeleton White Surfer

• Hanhart Releases Panda And Reverse Panda Versions Of Their 415 ES Chronograph

• Mido Adds More Color To The Multifort TV Big Date Collection With A Great Blue And Orange Combo

• The Complicated IWC Portugieser Tourbillon Retrograde Chronograph Gets A Black Lacquer Dial

• Armin Strom Introduces The Mirrored Force Resonance In Ice Blue

👂What’s new

1/

Zenith Concludes Time+Tide Partnership On The Surfer Trilogy With Defy Skyline Skeleton White Surfer

Back in 2021, the Australian watch website Time+Tide released an absolute banger of a watch in collaboration with Zenith. Their version of the Defy Classic Night Surfer was a stunning watch that came in a microblasted titanium and with a blued skeletonized movement. In 2023, they continued the collaboration with the Defy Skyline Skeleton Night Surfer, which continued the theme of grey cases and dark blue dials. Well, it’s 2023, and Zenith and Time+Tide are concluding the Surfer Trilogy, but now with a slightly different watch, the Defy Skyline Skeleton White Surfer which comes in a stark white ceramic case and a light blue dial.

Made out of white ceramic, the new Defy Skyline Skeleton White Surfer measures 41mm wide and 11mm thick. The case has brushed and polished surfaces, with flat sapphire crystals on top and bottom. The crown screws down, as you would expect from a watch called White Surfer, and you get 100 meters of water resistance.

While the white ceramic case looks good, it’s not even close to how gorgeous the dial is. Not for its skeletonization, we’ve seen that before. But for its color, which has one of the best gradients this year — from a darker blue on top to a lighter one on bottom — but with such a tiny shift that it’s just wonderful. The hour markers which sit on the minutes track running on the periphery, the faceted rhodium-plated hour and minute hands, the tip of the seconds hand on the 6 o’clock sub-dial, as well as the Zenith star underneath 12 o’clock are all coated in Super-LumiNova.

Inside is a slightly modified El Primero 3620 SK automatic movement. It beats at 5Hz and has a power reserve of 55 hours. The high beat rate means that the seconds hand is actually a 1/10th of a second counter. The movement is finished in light blue, matching the dial and it has the signature star-shaped rotor. The watch comes on an integrated white ceramic bracelet, secured by a folding clasp and you get an additional white rubber strap.

The new Zenith Defy Skyline Skeleton White Surfer Ceramic is limited to 100 pieces and sold through Time+Tide, Zenith boutiques, and authorised retailers. Price is set at €20,500. See more on the Time+Tide website.

2/

Hanhart Releases Panda And Reverse Panda Versions Of Their 415 ES Chronograph

The German watch brand Hanhart has a super long history with the German Military. They started their business in 1902 as a producer of stopwatches, but have since then found their place on many wrists of German pilots and naval officers for decades. Their pilot’s watches have always been known as incredible tool watches with some nifty features, like the recognizable red pusher that hopefully prevents pilots from accidentally zeroing the timing. And it’s this red-pushered, fluted-bezeled 417 ES that’s the star of the brand. Late last year, they released a different type of chrono, one inspired by mid-1960s military watches, the 415 ES Chronograph. Now, Hanhart adds the very classic panda and reverse-panda dial setup.

You would expect a sports chrono made by an aviation-focused brand to make huge watches, and they do. But this one is not that bad. Sure, a bit thick at 13.5mm, but the 39mm width and 46mm lug-to-lug make it very wearable. On top is a bidirectional rotating bezel with a black matte ceramic insert that has a 60-minute graduation with numerals at the quarter-hour positions and a triangle at 12. The bezel has a slight knurling on the edge. And you get very vintage pump-style pushers on the right side. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The 415 ES recreations have made a name for themselves with the creative use of scales — a tachymeter scale and a red 100-unit scale — which make for an interesting dials, but these two releases keep it as simple as possible, with the classic panda and reverse-panda colors. You know what that means — the panda gets a white dial and black sub-dials, while the reverse panda is, well, reverse of that. The sub-dials are a 30-minute totalizer at 3 o’clock and a running seconds at 9 o’clock. You also get Arabic numerals painted on with green glowing C1 Super-LumiNova, with black outlines on the Panda. The same lume is painted on the white sub-dials on the reverse panda. The minute and chronograph seconds hands have bent tips to better follow the dial.

Inside, you’ll find the ubiquitous chronograph offering from Sellita, the SW510. It beats at 4Hz and has a 58 hour power reserve. Previous versions of the 415 ES came on a number of leather strap options, and while you still have the choice, there’s also a new bracelet option that has a folding clasp with tool-free fine adjustments of up to 10 mm.

The new Hanhart 415 ES panda and reverse pands is available now and part of the regular collection. The price is set at €2,490 on leather and €2,690 on the steel bracelet. See more on the Hanhart website.

3/

Mido Adds More Color To The Multifort TV Big Date Collection With A Great Blue And Orange Combo

I’m a sucker for Mido. While a large part of their lineup are decent, stylish and mostly traditional looking watches, every now and again they come out with something fantastic. Take a look at the Ocean Star GMT, a fantastic looking watch. Or the Ocean Star Decompression Worldtimer, currently one of my favorite watches on sale. Or the incredible Multifort TV Big Date S01E01 that was unfortunately a very limited edition. They really do know how to make a fun watch. And their Multifort TV is such a great platform. Now, there’s a new version of the TV Big Date, a sort of continuation of a similar watch that came in a black case with a grey dial. This new one gets the same black case and the same orange details, but now parked with a really great blue dial.

The new Multifort TV Big Date comes in a stainless steel three part case that gets a black PVD coating and measures 40mm wide, 11.5mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 46.85mm. It’s unlike most watches out there in terms of proportions, but it’s easy to get used to. The finishing is a combination of brushed and polished surfaces that make it look less like a gimmick and more like a true watch. On top is a flat sapphire crystal, on the right prominent crown guards and water resistance is rated at 100 meters.

The dial has horizontal, brushed grooves with a slight gradient from blue in the middle to black on the periphery. The blue is paired with recessed round indices and rectangular markers at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock that are filled with orange Super-LumiNova. The same orange can be found on the black baton hour and minute hands. Of course, at 12 o’clock is the signature big date window with blue date discs and orange numerals.

Inside, you’ll find the trusty Powermatic 80, with its shock-resistant and anti-magnetic Nivachron balance spring, 4Hz beat rate and 80 hour power reserve. The movement is equipped with a customised Mido rotor with Geneva stripes. The watch comes on a great looking blue canvas strap with orange stitching.

The new Mido Multifort TV Big Date is part of the regular collection and it’s priced at €1,350. See more on the Mido website.

4/

The Complicated IWC Portugieser Tourbillon Retrograde Chronograph Gets A Black Lacquer Dial

IWC has been very busy. We’ve seen watch placements in movies before, but I don’t think we’ve seen the level of synergy as we have over the last few weeks in the lead up to the premiere of the F1 movie. IWC has been flying journalists all over the world, pumping millions into advertising and showing off all the watches that show up in the movie. It’s been all about Formula 1. That’s why a lot of people missed the press release on their website saying that they are releasing a new version of the Portugieser Tourbillon Retrograde Chronograph, one of their more complicated watches which now gets a gold case and a black lacquer dial.

This new Portugieser comes in a 18-carat Armor Gold that measures 43.5mm wide and 15.9mm thick. On top is as box shape sapphire crystal, surrounded by a polished bezel. There are more polished surfaces on the tops of the lugs, while the sides of the case get a crushed treatment. The case is quite traditional, round, with short lugs, and with a large 3 o’clock crown flanked by integrated button pushers that operate the chronograph. Water resistance is 30 meters.

While the dial gives off a sense of being traditional, it’s anything but. It has a sub-dial at 12 and an aperture at 6 o’clock for the tourbillon which completes a revolution once a minute, thus also serving as a seconds indicator. At 9 o’clock is a retrograde date display while at 3 is the IWC logo. The base of the dial is done in black lacquer, which is a step away from the anodizing process that IWC used on other dials for this model. Around the perimeter of the dial is a gold minute track, gold applied hour markers and gold hands.

Inside the watch is the IWC Calibre 89900, an automatic movement with 68-hour power reserve. It has a silicone pallet lever and escape wheel, which are both coated with a Diamond Shell coating for reduced friction. It also has a stop tourbillion, which is functionally the same as stop seconds meaning that when you’re setting the time, the tourbillon comes to a complete halt so that you can set the watch with extreme precision. The entire movement looks absolutely stunning and you can see it through the caseback. The watch comes on a black alligator leather strap.

The new Portugieser Tourbillon Retrograde Chronograph is available now, limited to 100 pieces and priced at €154,000. See more on the IWC website.

 5/

Armin Strom Introduces The Mirrored Force Resonance In Ice Blue

The resonance in the name of the new watch from Armin Strom, the Mirrored Force Resonance doesn’t refer to a sound a watch might make, like in a chiming watch. But any confusion might be excused because resonance is a term originally derived from the field of acoustics. It occurs when two close vibrating frequencies synchronize, mutually absorbing each other’s energy and eventually arriving at the same frequency. It is also one of the most elusive phenomena in watchmaking, one that Armin Strom is very well known for making use of. It was Armin Strom co-founders Serge Michel and master watchmaker Claude Greisler who invented a way of connecting two independent balance wheels to have them synchronize, as a way of protecting from gravity, temperature and motion disruptions. This system was first introduced in 2016, and further refined with the Mirrored Force Resonance in 2022. Now, we’re getting the watch in ice blue, with a first use of guilloché.

The watch comes in a stainless steel case that measures 43mm wide and 11.5mm thick. The case has polished tops of lugs, beautiful polished facets and a polished plain fixed bezel, while the sides of the watch have a vertically brushed finish. On top is a domed sapphire crystal that extends all the way to the edges, while out back is a flat sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The setup on the dial remains exactly the same, but with new colors and finishes. That means that time is told on an off-center dial, which now has a sunray guilloché pattern done using a hand-operated rose engine lathe. It also gets a new color, an ice blue, paired with beveled indices and hands, and surrounded by a black minute track. But the more interesting part of the dial can be found to the left of the time-telling dial, where you can see the resonance mechanism, two balance wheels oscillating in opposite directions, connected by Armin Strom’s patented resonance clutch spring. It’s cool to have this on the front of the watch as you can see the resonance in action.

Through the caseback, you can see the manually wound Caliber ARF21, which beats at 3.5Hz and has a 48 hour power reserve. It has two independent oscillators, each equipped with its own balance wheel and hairspring, synchronized via the brand’s patented clutch spring. To show this off, the movement has twin seconds counters, which can be reset with the pusher at 2. You will then get to witness them synchronize once again. The watch comes on a dark blue Alcantara strap, closed with a stainless steel pin buckle.

The new Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Ice Blue is imited to just 15 pieces and priced at CHF 78,000. See more on the Armin Strom 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

• Mary Jane Gibson’s account of Nicole DuFresne’s murder is a sharp critique of the ways in which media coverage can expand the blast radius of violent crime. In her memoir for Rolling Stone, Gibson spends little time on the murder itself; she is clear about the limits of her “scattershot version” of the night, in which she and DuFresne were ambushed by seven young people, most of them teenagers. Instead, she tallies the complex dynamics that shaped a fatal encounter, then notes how her best friend’s actions were weaponized against her in reactive, fearmongering news coverage.

• Beneath Rome’s ancient myths and marble ruins, a wild world thrives. From wolves prowling archaeological parks to freshwater crabs evolving in hidden sewers, discover how the Eternal City’s animals—past and present—shape its tangled, untamable story.

• In this conversation at Atmos, Daphne Chouliaraki Milner talks with geology professor Marcia Bjornerud about rocks, Earth’s geological billion-year history, and the importance of time literacy—a deep awareness of and respect for time that most people lack. “It’s a real frustration that, in this time when we know more about the way the Earth’s system works than ever before,” says Bjornerud, “our political and economic systems are not designed for long-term thinking.” Bjornerud argues that humans need to think on longer timescales if we want any chance of tackling the many crises we’re in, especially the climate crisis, and must stop viewing the natural world as a “passive backdrop” with finite resources.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

When’s the last time you had a good summer? You always make plans to make it good, but then the days slip away and before you know it, it’s September and you did nothing. James Pumphrey on how to actually have a good summer.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk