Zenith Introduces Two Defy Divers In Blasted Titanium; A Wonderfully Green Swatch x Blancpain; Heron Follows Up The Marinor Diver With The Mirabel GMT; Laurent Ferrier's Sport Auto 79 In Red Gold

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Swatch and Blancpain broke me, I’m getting this one.

In this issue:

• Zenith Introduces Defy Extreme Diver and Defy Revival Diver Shadow Editions In Blasted Titanium

• The New, Wonderfully Green, Swatch x Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms Has Me Wanting One

• Heron Follows Up Their Fan-Favorite Marinor Dive Watch With A Nice Travel Option — The Mirabel GMT

• Laurent Ferrier Releases Their Beautiful Sport Auto 79 In Red Gold

👂What’s new

1/

Zenith Introduces Defy Extreme Diver and Defy Revival Diver Shadow Editions In Blasted Titanium

I feel like I’m in the minority by being a huge fan of what Zenith has been doing over the past several years. But I really am a fan. Especially with what they have been doing with the more avant-garde releases in the Defy collection. The line has been revived in 2017, with things getting more serious last year when they introduced two divers in teh collection, the very modern Zenith Defy Extreme Diver, and a vintage-inspired version, the Defy Revival Diver. Now, Zenith is updating both of those versions with a really, really cool sandblasted titanium case and neon yellow details. These are the Defy Extreme Diver and Defy Revival Diver Shadow Editions.

Starting with the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver, the microblasted titanium is very angular and very chunky, measuring 42.5mm wide, 15.5mm thick and has a 47.4mm lug-to.lug. On top is a black ceramic unidirectional bezel, on one side is a helium relief valve and on the other is a screw-in crown. Water resistance is a hefty 600 meters. The dial is very familiar, with the Zenith star pattern engraved into it. The centre of the dial has a dark grey finish to match the case, and around the perimeter is a bright neon yellow rehaut with a black printed minute scale. There’s a date aperture at 3 o’clock. The hands are skeletonized, with a touch of neon yellow, and with oversized lumed tips.

Inside, you’ll find the automatic El Primero 3620 beating at 5Hz, with 60 hours of power reserve. The watch comes with three carrying options — a micro-blasted titanium bracelet with a folding clasp, a black cordura-effect rubber strap with a folding clasp and a black & yellow fabric strap with a pin buckle. Price is set at €12,900. See more on the Zenith website.

Then we have the Defy Revival Diver Shadow. It comes in the same microblasted titanium case, but a much smaller one. This measures 37mm wide, 15.5mm thick and has a 44mm lug-to-lug. It’s a retro inspired case, with a lot of angles that could have been found on 60s and 70s watches. On top is a unidirectional bezel with a bright yellow sapphire insert. The crown is set at the 4:30 position and water resistance is also set at 600 meters. The dial has a flat black base with a very broad bright yellow track on the outside that holds the minute track and lumed hour markers. The date sits at 4:30 and the hands are neon yellow with white lume inside.

Inside, you’ll find the Zenith in-house Elite 670 automatic which beats at 4Hz, with a 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a matching micro-blasted titanium bracelet, closed with a folding clasp. Price is set at €8,600. See more on the Zenith website.

2/

The New, Wonderfully Green, Swatch x Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms Has Me Wanting One

I completely understand the strategy Swatch is going for with the Swatch x Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms. At least when it comes to me. They are just chipping away at my self control release by release. The original releases were quite cool and I thought I could get either the Arctic or Antarctic Ocean versions. Gave up on that for a while, but then started thinking about the black Ocean of Storms. Cooled on that as well. Then it was the wild Pink Ocean version. Could I pull that off? Maybe… But I never pulled the trigger. Until now. This is the new Green Abyss Scuba Fifty Fathoms, and it’s fantastic.

The case is the same as the existing models - 42.3mm wide, 14.4mm thick and still made out of bioceramic, a material that is made up of two-thirds zirconium oxide ceramic powder, with one-third biosourced material derived from castor oil. But most people just call it plastic because that’s exactly what it feels like. You get 91 meters of water resistance (50 fathoms). The Green Abyss has a wonderful dark green case, with a dark green bezel and a black insert that looks very vintage. Contributing to the vintage feel are the cream markings on the bezel.

More cream lume can be found on the dial on all the markers, where it’s paired with a matte green dial. The broad hands are also green with more cream lume inside. Above 6 o’clock is a moisture indicator, as featured on vintage Blancpain models, split between dark green and cream. It’s a fantastic look.

Inside, and seen through the transparent caseback, is the mechanical Sistem51 movement. It beats at 21,600vph and has an impressive 90 hour power reserve. The rotor is again decorated with a nudibranch, a shell-less type of Gastropod, this time the felimare picta. Of course, there’s much debate over this movement as it’s unlikely to be serviced due to it’s fused components, but it’s still a nifty piece of engineering. The watch no longer comes on a NATO-style strap, instead you get a two-piece nylon strap done in green with two cream lines and one black, made of recycled fishing nets removed from the oceans

The Swatch x Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss goes on sale on June 7th and will once again be priced at €400. See more on the Swatch website.

3/

Heron Follows Up Their Fan-Favorite Marinor Dive Watch With A Nice Travel Option — The Mirabel GMT

Despite being just two years old and having one line of watches — the Marinor dive watch — Canaidan-based Heron has built quite the cult following. And I have to say, they really managed to squeeze out as many styles out of that one model, in the best possible way. But time has come for a followup to the fan favorite dive watch. And it’s the Heron Mirabel GMT, a perfect travel watch with not just a great movement, but also some pretty good looks.

While the Marinor came in a much more traditional case, the Mirabel gets an interesting C-shaped case that has a very interesting side profile. It also has pretty good proportions, measuring 37.5mm wide, 11.8mm thick, with a 43.5mm lug-to-lug. The stainless steel case has top surfaces polished, while the sides and caseback are satin brushed. There’s an option for an uncoated version and one that has a gold PVD coating. On top is a fixed polished bezel — an unusual choice for a GMT, but more on that later — surrounding a box-style sapphire crystal. Btw, speaking of the caseback, it has a really nice enamel centerpiece, surrounded by engraved time zones and world city names. The crown on the side is push-pull and water resistance is 50 meters.

The Mirabel GMT is available in four color variants: the gold PVD-coated cases are paired with either a black or brown dial, while the stainless steel version comes with either a blue or white dial, all of them enamel. And it’s the dial where Heron places all the GMT functions, for a very unique look. It’s a sector dial setup, with applied numerals and faceted alpha-style hands. At the outer edge is a cleanly printed 24-hour scale in Arabic numerals, followed by a railroad track and a strip of polished Roman numerals and indices. The second time zone is indicated with a heat blued GMT hand. It all looks great.

Inside is the Miyota Cal. 9075 automatic GMT movement. It was the first accessible third-party movement with a flyer-style GMT, meaning that you independently adjust the local hour hand, and it still dominates the market. It beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve. The watches come on padded calfskin leather straps made by Delugs, which you know will look and feel great.

The new Heron Mirabel GMT goes on sale tomorrow, June 5th, priced at $690. That’s a great package. See more on the Heron website.

4/

Laurent Ferrier Releases Their Beautiful Sport Auto 79 In Red Gold

Laurent Ferrier’s history is deeply linked to automotive racing. The man the brand is named after has raced cars before becoming a indie watchmaker, back in the 70s, and this is very evident in their Sport Auto collection. It’s a young integrated bracelets sports watch collection, one that until yesterday just had two watches — a titanium cased one with a blue dial, and a Sport Auto 40, also in titanium, with a green dial and limited to 40 pieces. Now, Laurent Ferrier releases the third version, the Sport Auto 79 in red gold, as a tribute to the friendship between race car driver François Servanin and Laurent Ferrier who took on the 1979 Le Mans.

The new Laurent Ferrier Sport Auto 79 continues the soft and elegant shape of previous versions, measuring 41.5mm wide and 12.7mm thick, made out of red gold. The case has a very unique look, with an almost square rounded bezel on top that holds down the domed sapphire crystal. The finishes include satin brushing and polished accents, and out back is another domed sapphire crystal. Water resistance is 120 meters.

Working in perfect harmony with the red gold of the case, the watch gets a dial that has the lightest of cream colors, with a hint of very light pink and an opaline finish that gives it a slight texture. You get applied red gold applied markers and assegai-shaped hands, all filled with lume. The dial still has the crosshair in the middle of the dial, the very cool sloped date aperture at 3 o’clock and a snailed small seconds at 6 o’clock.

The watch is powered by the calibre LF270.01, a more robust version of their micro-rotor with a classic Swiss lever escapement. The platinum micro-rotor is placed between the mainplate and the rotor bridge to improve stability and winding power. You get 72 hours of power reserve and the platinum rotor is laser-engraved with hints to the 1979 race. The watch comes on a 3-link red gold bracelet with a matching sating brushed finish with polished edges, closed by a folding clasp.

The new Laurent Ferrier Sport Auto 79 Red Gold is part of the permanent collection and priced at CHF 79,000. See more on the Laurent Ferrier 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

• I used to read a lot. I don’t have as much time now. But I still try to navigate through what’s published on a daily basis. I try to pass on at least some of these articles I read to you, through this section of the newsletter. And one of the cool things about trying to read as much as possible is that you often find out about things way before other people. That’s how I ended up subscribed to Curtis Yarvin’s newsletter way before the media started paying attention to him. Who is Curtis Yarvin, you ask? He’s a borderline crackpot political analyst with some wild ideas, including turning the US into a monarchy. People dismissed this as a joke, but the more Elon Musk quoted him before the election, the more I was sure it was actually happening. Now The New Yorker has a good profile on Yarvin and his plot against America.

• Speaking of modern U.S. politics, this is a great profile of Butterworth’s, a new Capitol Hill restaurant where the majority of the Trump administration hotshots get together to do caviar bumps. Of course they do caviar bumps. The worst food trend we have ever seen.

• Who would marry Robert Durst? Debbie Charatan stood by him through his murder trials. Now she could inherit his wealth, unless the courts stop her.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

David Simon, the author of The Wire, has had a number of his lectures on the state of America recorded and they show up on YouTube ever so often. It’s uncanny how far in the future he saw and how accurate he was.

Thanks for reading,
Vuk