Timex And Dimepiece Bring Back The Instantly Sold Out Intrepid And New Watches From Formex, UG, Fears and Hermès

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. That Hermès is really, really, really attractive. Is an H08 in my near future? I think it might be.

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👂What’s new

1/ Timex and Dimepiece Follow Up the Sold-Out Intrepid With an All-Black 36mm Version

Last summer Timex, Brynn Wallner’s Dimepiece, a watch media outlet focusing on women, and Alan Bedwell of Foundwell, a vintage watch dealership, did something quite unexpected. They took the Intrepid, Timex's 46mm tactical diver from 1995, and remade it as a modern variant. Only, it wasn't a recreation of that chunk of watch. No, it was a wonderful edition that measured 36mm wide, had a steel case, cream dial and purple details. It was a viral sensation and sold out pretty much within days. Now, the trio is coming back together for a new version of the same watch, now with a dark case.

The case is made out of stainless steel with a black PVD coating, 36mm wide and 10mm thick, with 18mm lugs. The bezel rotates and is black coated too. The crown sits at four o’clock, where it won’t press into the back of your hand, and a pusher at nine o’clock turns on the INDIGLO backlight. On top is a mineral crystal, and you get 100 meters of water resistance.

The watch keeps the cream dial, which looks even better against the black case. The hour and minute hands are mostly cut away, which keeps the dial open. Dimepiece’s purple shows up in three places: the seconds hand, the triangle at 12 o’clock and the INDIGLO pusher on the case flank. Press the pusher and the whole dial lights up blue-green.

Inside is a quartz movement, which is pretty expected. The watch comes on a black rubber strap with a pin buckle and a tonal TIMEX INDIGLO deboss.

The Timex Intrepid x Dimepiece ‘Blackout’ Edition (ref. TW6A19800) is available now, priced at $269. Neither Timex nor Dimepiece say this is a limited edition watch, but some outlets have reported that production will be capped, with no numbers given. See more photos here and the watch on the Timex or Dimepiece website.

2/ Formex Returns To The Essence Ceramica Dark Matter With A Darker, Racier Redshift Edition

Formex launched the Essence Ceramica in March 2025 as an all-ceramic version of its everyday sports watch, and I like to believe it's one of their better watch releases in recent years. That was followed up with the Dark Matter, which got a meteorite dial and a black case, and we're now getting a natural progression – the Dark Matter with red accents. This is the new Formex Essence Ceramica Dark Matter Redshift.

The case is made out of black zirconium oxide ceramic, 41mm wide and 11.2mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 46.2mm. That's a pretty good lug-to-lug on a 41mm wide watch, which means it will almost certainly wear much smaller than the width number suggest. The surfaces now have a sandblasted matte finish for less fingerprints all over the place, and they keep the diamond-polished bevels on the edges along with a new facet on the lower bezel. The screw-down crown is ceramic and gets the same treatment. This being a Formex means that you have the Case Suspension System, Formex’s patented setup that floats the movement in a grade 2 titanium container. Sounds like a gimmick, but it works wonders for comfort. There are sapphire crystals on both sides of the watch, both with AR treatments and you get 100 meters of water resistance.

Most meteorite dials are a thin slice glued onto a brass base. Formex uses the Muonionalusta meteorite itself as the dial and solders the feet straight onto it, then coats it in black-gold galvanic plating less than a micron thick. The Widmanstätten pattern still shows through, only darker. Red appears on the logo, the flange and the seconds hand, and the gunmetal applied indices and hands are filled with BGW9 Super-LumiNova.

The movement is the Sellita SW200-2 Power+, the upgraded version of the familiar workhorse movement that still beats at 4Hz, but in the Power+ configuration has a 65 hour power reserve, compared to the 38 hours of the standard SW200-1. The movement is also COSC-certified, rated at -4/+6 seconds a day, and has a date at 6 o'clock. The bracelet is solid ceramic with the same sandblasted links and polished bevels, 22mm at the lugs, closing on a ceramic clasp with 5mm of on-the-fly micro-adjustment in four 1.25mm steps.

The Formex Essence Ceramica COSC 41mm Dark Matter Redshift is technically not limited, but production will be capped to 100 per year. Deliveries start at the end of November and price is set at €4,190. See more photos here and the watch on the Formex website.

3/ Union Glashütte Shrinks the Belisar Chronograph Speedster to 40mm Inspired By A Porsche 911

Most watches inspired by a car borrow from the manufacturer. Union Glashütte’s 2026 Belisar Chronograph Speedster borrows from one specific Porsche 911, owned by Mainz artist Markus Haub, which is where its beige and orange checkered scheme comes from. The Speedster is a yearly limited edition within the Belisar line, Union Glashütte’s retro chronograph collection, and since 2021 each release has been made around a particular car or rally, most recently the Lancia Delta Integrale. This is the first one to come in a 40mm case instead of 44mm, to which I can say: finally.

The steel case is 40mm wide, 14.65mm thick and has a lug-to-lug of 48mm. While they have managed to shrink down that width, the thickness really stands out here in these dimensions. But consider two things: last year's variant was 15.1mm thick, and these particular chrono movements are notoriously tall. The screwed side flanks and mushroom pushers remain unchanged, finished in a mix of brushing and polish. A narrow bezel holds down a domed sapphire crystal, the crown screws down, and water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is gloss beige with orange checkered accents lifted from Haub’s 911. Three matte black subdials with snailed finishing are used for the 30-minute counter, running seconds, and a 12-hour totalizer with the date window tucked inside it at six. A tachymeter scale runs around the outside. Hands are black nickel-plated and white lacquered, and only the two main hands get Super-LumiNova.

Inside is the automatic UNG-27.S1, based on the Valjoux 7750, upgraded with a silicon hairspring and 65 hours of reserve. It’s decorated, assembled and regulated by hand in Glashütte, and you can see it through a screwed sapphire caseback. The date is set via a recessed pusher at 10. It ships with a perforated black calf leather rally strap stitched in orange and a steel bracelet, both on double folding clasps, with a quick-release system for easy swapping.

The Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Speedster 2026 (ref. D009.227.16.282.09) is limited to 288 numbered examples and costs €3,450. See more photos here and the watch on the Union Glashütte website.

4/ Fears Swaps Hobnail for Onyx on Its Classy Rectangular Watch

Last year, after a run of very interesting but also incredibly classic sports watches, Fears gave itself a little bit of leeway to be even more classy. The released the new Arnos line, a rectangular watch named after Arnos Vale, the part of Bristol where the brand is based. It's an incredibly dressy watch, almost like it fell straight out of the 1920s and 30s. Now, they've launched the Arnos Opera Black, with a slab of onyx with a disc of white lacquer in the middle.

The steel case is 22.6mm wide, 33.5mm long and 8.4mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 40mm. Those are small numbers, and it really does fit pretty much any wrist. The sapphire crystal and the solid caseback are both curved, so the case follows your wrist instead of sitting on top of it like a tile. Water resistance is 30 meters, which is more than I expected it to have.

The dial is made out of onyx stone, so you know it will be extremely black, and it contrasts well with the slightly milky white of the lacquer in the middle. Fears is well known for its mastery of fonts, largely thanks to their brilliant designer and font aficionado Lee Yuen-Rapati, and it's very evident here by how well the thin white Roman numerals are integrated in a circle around the white lacquer center. The hands are Fears’ pipette design, faceted and done in black gold, so they pick up light at angles. The Pewter Blue, the launch model, had a hobnail texture and the complete lack of texture very much changes the feel of the watch.

Inside is a top-grade Sellita SW1000-1b automatic, running at 28,800 vph with 46 hours of power reserve. Fears had Sellita remove the seconds hand and fitted a blue rotor engraved with the flower-of-Bristol motif, which you’ll never see behind the closed back. I love moves like that. Two 20mm straps come in the box: black Epsom leather lined with blue Alcantara, and black grosgrain silk. Both have quick-release spring bars and a Fears pin buckle.

The Arnos Opera Black is part of the regular collection, priced at £4,350 or about €5,180. See more photos here and the watch on the Fears website.

5/ Hermès Brightens the H08 Composite With Blanc Chantilly and Bleu de Malte Versions

The H08 is Hermès’ everyday sports watch, a cushion-cased three-hander with date that has been around some five years. And I try to argue to as many people as will listen that it just might be the perfect sports watch alternative if you're looking for something that's not on every wrist. You can get it in titanium, ceramic or, my favorite, a woven composite, and in a wide array of colors. Now, they're adding new colors to the woven composite and they're sensational.

The case is 39mm wide and 10.6mm thick, in braided glass fiber with an aluminium-coated surface that is noticeably brighter than the 2023 slate versions. The weave stays visible, and I love the look. Very sporty. The bezel is made out of ceramic, sunray brushed with polished chamfers and available in either blue or white. There’s a screw-down crown, sapphire crystals front and back, a titanium caseback and 100 meters of water resistance.

The white Blanc Chantilly version is almost monochrome: white lacquer dial, applied ruthenium-plated numerals filled with Super-LumiNova, black-gold hands and a grey minute track. The only color is the orange tip on the seconds hand. The Bleu de Malte model uses a sandblasted rhodium-plated dial with blue PVD hands, a blue chapter ring and orange markers on the seconds track. Both keep the large H08 numerals, and a date at 4:30.

Inside is the Hermès H1837, an automatic calibre made by Vaucher Manufacture, running at 4Hz with a 50-hour power reserve. Through the caseback you can see it decorated with perlage and snailing on the mainplate, brushed bridges and a brushed rotor with Hermès H motifs. The watches come on a rubber strap matched to the bezel color, closed with a titanium folding clasp, with a lug width of 21mm.

The Hermès H08 Blanc Chantilly and H08 Bleu de Malte are part of the regular collection, priced at €8,150. See more photos here and the watches on the Hermès website.

⚙️Watch Worthy

• A review of the IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 and 35 50th Anniversary
• Hands on with the Nivada Grenchen Chronoking Black Amber

⏲️End links

• Forrest Welborn had nothing to do with the Yogurt Shop Murders, the grisly killing of four young women in Austin, Texas, in 1991. His buddy, Maurice Pierce, had been under pressure to confess by investigators who wanted a collar for the crime. Eventually, Pierce caved under questioning. He implicated himself and his best friend, Forrest, along with two others, in a crime they did not commit. For Texas Monthly, Michael Hall covers the case and its horrific aftermath.
• John Berger spent a meaningful portion of his life thinking, with precision and care, about how to look at the world—an effort he detailed in numerous essays and books, among them Ways of Seeing and About Looking. “Reading them, you often feel you’re standing next to him in the museum or even looking through his eyes at a painting or a sculpture,” writes A.O. Scott. “You pay attention to his attention.” Scott, an attentive reader himself, brings Berger’s lifelong project into our famously distractable era; his consideration of Berger is a primer for observation and study, a gentle nudge to focus, lest we lose sight of something essential.

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While I am still extremely skeptical on the notion of simulated manual transmissions, it's just wonderful to see what Chris Harris does to a car.

Thanks for reading

Vuk

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