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Post by timelessluxwatches on Apr 16, 2021 9:30:47 GMT -6
Well done! This is a gorgeous watch to begin with, and you guys really gave it a special update. In your usual good taste, of course! Such a shame this size is going to be discontinued by Zenith. This will certainly be a great tribute to the lucky 38! I should mention how I love that you simplified the text at the top to simply 2 lines, something I have always secretly thought should have been done by Zenith. Cheers, Carl Thanks Carl! I imagine this won't be the last 38mm Chronomaster, but it will be the last 38mm using this particular case; my guess is that they're overhauling it bottom to top, so it will look quite different, but it's not as if I actually know anything internal to Zenith so this is just my speculation.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Apr 11, 2021 10:27:54 GMT -6
I really like this one, I think you guys nailed it. It will certainly sell quickly. Thanks Chip! We appreciate it!
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Apr 11, 2021 8:19:57 GMT -6
Timeless is very excited to introduce you to our second Zenith limited edition, the Chronomaster Final Edition. We’ve called it the Final Edition because this will be the last time the Chronomaster is offered in this specific 38mm case. As a sendoff to what was, in our opinion, the ideal El Primero, we’ve created a very limited run of 38 pieces. In the process, we made a series of small, but significant, tweaks to make it both bolder and more timeless, no pun intended. Whereas our last Zenith was unapologetically vintage in design, with a very specific inspiration, the Final Edition aims for something quite the opposite. It’s designed to not to look like any particular El Primero of the past, and yet somehow resemble all of them. As various blogs are already writing independent reviews of the watch, I thought I could best add to the conversation by walking you through our design process, which is at least a view that only Timeless can provide, so join me as I explain in excessive detail how each color and element was chosen and why.
For the Final Edition, there were a few key details that we knew we wanted. Like our A273-inspired limited edition that came before, we knew wanted the 38mm case, as this is, in our opinion, the ideal size of the El Primero. Granted, in this instance, it was a bit of a foregone conclusion as the project began because of the discontinuation of our favorite case, but we would have been using the 38mm case one way or another. Not only is it the size of the original El Primero back in ’69, it’s a size that has remained viable throughout the subsequent 50+ years, and, I must assume, shall stay viable in the 50 to come.
The key to the Final Edition is, quite simply, color. More time was spent on perfecting the colors and the arrangement of the colors than everything else combined. It’s called the tri-color dial, after all, one of the most iconic designs in watchmaking history, so it stands to reason that it deserves some emphasis when approached anew. If the key to the Final Edition is color, then the key to the color is red, or rather, this very specific version of blood red. It’s not quite dark enough to be maroon, yet not so bright as to draw all of the attention away from the rest of the watch. The same color is used for the chronograph seconds hand in addition to the accents on the two chronograph subdial hands; that is to say, the red is the unifying element across all three subdials.
Using multiple colors has always been a challenge for us when designing LEs. If you look back over our numerous previous limited editions, we almost always only use two colors when the second color is merely an accent. Here both blue and red are very prominent, but to make that work aesthetically, we had to make everything else more subtle. The very specific white, for instance, was a delicate balancing act. A “polar” white would have been far too bold, and too modern, for the look we were going for. The solution was to go with something warmer, like an eggshell or cream, but if we introduced too much of a yellow hue to the dial, it would make the watch look distinctly vintage. So we ended up with something in between them; we settled on calling it opaline, but this is more a consequence of us failing to find this exact, precise white in a standardized color palette. Suffice it to say, it’s off-white.
Critically, faux-vintage lume was avoided for this project in favor of the more contemporary style because (A) we think it looks better and (B) it would have meant the Final Edition was easily placed as a vintage-themed watch instead of being something more timeless. The texture was very important too. The Final Edition, aside from being quite colorful, has virtually no shiny surfaces on the dial, excepting, of course, the steel hour markers. Gone are the sunburst subdials, which, although I admittedly like most of the time, were simply too shouty for the look we were going for. It’s a difficult balancing act to have a red and blue subdial on the same watch while simultaneously trying to make it subdued, so every other design element was metaphorically “turned down” a notch.
The restraint continues beyond the color selection to what’s on, or rather what isn’t on, the dial itself. First, there is the obvious, and for those who have observed our past limited editions, predictable: there is no date. Aside from perhaps the 410, which made the calendar its centerpiece, the date has usually been a tight fit on El Primeros, often residing at 4:30 or at 6:00. In typical Timeless fashion, we’ve sidestepped the entire issue and just removed it. The El Primero is, at least for me, all about the chronograph, so the date felt superfluous from the get go.
The more interesting change is the elimination of any unnecessary text at 12:00. The Final Edition isn’t the only Chronomaster with minimal text, of course, but quite often you’ll find the words “CHRONOGRAPH” and “AUTOMATIC,” one above the other. That an El Primero is (A) automatic and (B) a chronograph seems to be among the best known facts in the entire history of watchmaking, and therefore the writing feels quite unnecessary. We did retain the embellished El Primero writing, better tying it to the original ’69 model as relative to the more common (reissues exempted, naturally) plain EL PRIMERO print on many modern Chronomasters. Oddly, I think that the El Primero writing on the dial is one of my favorite parts of this watch.
Today we’re showing the Final Edition on the bracelet, but the production version will also come with three calf leather straps, one red, one blue, and one gray, all with contrast stitching, to perfectly accent the dial, along with a deployant clasp. Two versions of the Final Edition are offered, one with three straps and one with the three straps plus this bracelet, all of which will include a strap changing tool. The 38 unit run, however, is not 38 per style; that’s 38 between them total. It’s our hope that owners find it as versatile as we do and will change straps (or bracelet) on a whim to suit whatever look they want that day. Due to its moderate size and restrained execution, we’d like to see this be an everyday watch. As per the photography, the watch we’re looking at here is just a prototype and the straps weren’t yet available for this all-important week in the watch world, so hopefully we’ll have more photos in the near future to show off what it’ll look like on the straps; I particularly like the gray strap myself.
Returning to the “prototype” theme, this particular case back isn’t precisely the one that’ll come on the full version (hence it’s artfully out of focus). Worry not, however, as, in typical Timeless fashion, we’ve eschewed any clumsy brand tie-ins. Indeed, the production case back doesn’t mention Timeless at all (nor does any other part of the watch). Rather, the only differences you’ll find between this LE’s back and its production predecessor is a limited edition #/38 number and the name of the model (Final Edition) written on the steel back. The view of the beautiful El Primero remains entirely unobstructed.
We hope that you find the Final Edition a fitting sendoff for one of the most beloved watches Zenith has thus far made (and certainly one of our favorites at Timeless). Each watch will come in a special box and include a plaque, in addition to the three leather straps (plus a bracelet, if so ordered), a deployant clasp, and a strap tool, so it’s a fairly kitted-out release. The Final Edition is available sans-bracelet for $8,800, and if you want to include the bracelet they’re $9,850. Given that the bracelet also appears to be being discontinued, unless you already have a 38mm Zenith bracelet you can use, I’d probably get the bracelet version as otherwise you might not have that option down the road (plus I think it looks tremendous on bracelet). As I mentioned earlier, 38 of these will be available, and that’s 38 total shared between bracelet and leather orders, so it’s an extremely limited run.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Mar 21, 2021 20:23:48 GMT -6
This is fantastic, thanks for sharing! I've got great admiration for Zenith Chronograph watches and this is no exception. So nicely done and I'm a huge fan of showcasing that lovely movement! Thanks for the compliment! Glad you enjoyed it. You can thank our new photographer Andy for the shots, I'll let him know you liked it.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Mar 20, 2021 10:36:35 GMT -6
The Zenith Chronomaster Sport has, quite unexpectedly (at least to me), become perhaps the most important new watch of 2021 thus far. Yes, somehow surpassing watches like the White Birch Grand Seiko and an all-new Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, we’ve received an incredible degree of interest of this model. And yet, despite what may be the birth of a new Zenith icon, the watch is also the subject of controversy, as many have rushed to compare it, sometimes favorably and sometimes not, to the Rolex Daytona. The question I have to answer, then, is why this model has such a powerful resonance with fans and whether it even ought to be compared to the Daytona. Before I entertain the deeper questions about the Chronomaster Sport, we should first examine it in a vacuum, simply as a watch.
There are a few elements that make the new Chronomaster Sport stand out against its dozens of brethren and predecessors, but surprisingly, none so highlight the difference as this simple photo of the bezel. We first spy the bezel itself, in a gleaming black ceramic that is quite provocative in its own right. You don’t often see bezels this bold outside of divers, with, of course, some notable exceptions. That marks the beginning of a stylistic change, but the writing on the bezel is at least as profound. Instead of the ordinary, and borderline useless, tachymeter writing you traditionally find on chronographs, you find something far more interesting: a tenth of a second declaration, and, stranger still, a bezel that only counts up to 10, not 60. That’s because this chronograph, unlike almost all others in existence, has a chronograph seconds hand that makes a full rotation around the dial once every ten seconds. More on that later.
It’s worth pointing out, of course, that the bezel is not entirely novel for an El Primero; you’d find something similar in the old, somewhat obscure, Zenith De Luca, a comparison that many reviewers, and even Zenith, are apt to make. Personally, I don’t find this comparison particularly compelling. In my opinion, the Chronomaster Sport has much more in common with the relatively recent Stratos Flyback Striking 10th. The De Luca is far more utilitarian, and has a lot less El Primero design DNA. The Stratos Striking 10th, by comparison, has the familiar Tri-Color dial but with the black bezel. That said, I’m unclear as to why commentators are in such a hurry to find historical connections. The Chronomaster Sport is intentionally a contemporary watch. Those who want a Zenith of great provenance should go for the more conventional Chronomasters, or ideally, the A384. This new model is designed to push forward into modernity.
Setting aside the ceramic bezel, I’m left with another question about the Chronomaster Sport: wasn’t the Chronomaster already pretty sporty? It’s not as if the various long-running versions of the Chronomaster were discreet dress watches (that’s why we felt the need to do a new A273-inspired model to begin with), after all. In some ways, weirdly, I think the Chronomaster Sport is actually more subtle than some existing Chronomasters. There’s no open heart dial available, for instance, and only the tip of the seconds hand is red compared to the entire hand. The size isn’t even extravagant at 41mm, a totally ordinary case size by modern standards (particularly with a large bezel making it wear a bit smaller than you’d expect), and you can get non-Sport Chronomasters larger than it. Don’t get me wrong, of course, the Chronomaster Sport is clearly a sports watch, but so are almost all of the other Chronomasters. The visual distinction here is mainly limited to the bezel, but this is ultimately a good thing. We don’t need another crazy Defy Xtreme; the Chronomaster is sufficiently sporty that it doesn’t need an overhaul to gain a “sport” moniker.
Consequently, most of the Chronomaster Sport is familiar. We’re greeted with the Tri-Color Dial, among my favorite design elements of all time. We also see minimal overlap of the subdials, another plus in my book. The dial itself (as opposed to the bezel) is cleaner than most Chronomasters as there is no longer a tachymeter scale, which looks great, and Zenith took the time to color-match the date rings on both the black and white models. I would definitely have preferred a no-date option on these watches to clean up the dial even more, but the date complication is at least very discreet.
Looking just at the hands now, we can see that Zenith has color-coded the Chronomaster Sport’s functions. All timekeeping hands (i.e. for telling what time of day it is) are silver, while all hands involved in chronograph functionality have red tips (the 6:00 subdial is a bit hard to see, but if you look through the star counterbalance you can find the red tip). The Chronomaster Sport is a very interesting watch to read, and this is one of the confusing nuances that you have to confront when exploring the model. You might think, for instance, that the Chronomaster Sport is a unique El Primero model in that it has 1/10th of a second precision, but, in fact, all El Primeros have 1/10th of a second precision (in contrast to almost all other chronographs, which are generally limited to 1/8th of a second). What’s special here is that the main chronograph seconds hand gets to use an entire revolution to break down 10 second increments rather than 60. The result is that, while any ordinary Chronomaster would stop on 1/10th of a second increments, you can actually read it to a tenth of a second now. That is to say that the advantage of the Chronomaster Sport over most other El Primeros isn’t horological precision, it’s legibility. I’ll call gimmicks out where I find them (and I often do), but this isn’t a gimmick. The watch is genuinely much easier to read, at least, if you’re doing the kinds of things that benefit from split-second precision.
Just because other El Primeros already have 1/10th of a second precision doesn’t mean that the movement in the new Chronomaster Sport isn’t special. The El Primero is among the most venerated watch movements of all time, and is arguably the single most important chronograph movement ever made, but horology has moved on a bit since it was initially released in 1969, and this new 3600 version basically gets it caught up to speed. The 3600 is not a totally new beginning the way the El Primero 21 is; rather, it’s evolutionary, not revolutionary. Without getting deep into the minutia, the EP 3600, at least in my view, differs from its predecessor in three noteworthy different ways: the chronograph seconds hand, the power reserve, and hacking. While, as I’ve mentioned above, the Chronomaster Sport isn’t the first Zenith to feature a 1/10th second chronograph seconds hand like this, it is still an exotic and rarely seen feature even among Zeniths. What’s unique here, then, is the mainstreaming of the design in a high-volume model.
The next two features I’d describe more as significant pluses rather than headline achievements, but they can make living with the watch easier. The power reserve has been increased to 60 hours from 50, reflecting a normalization of lengthy power reserves that’s occurring, more or less, industry-wide at this point. While 60 hours may sound merely good, as opposed to great, by contemporary standards, keep in mind that high-frequency movements are notoriously power inefficient. Achieving 60 hours on a 36,000 BPH movement is a significantly more impressive number than it would be on a conventional 28,800 BPH movement. Finally, Zenith adds hacking (stop seconds) to the El Primero. As I pointed out in my preview, even this isn’t entirely novel, as the obscure Zenith Synopsis featured this, but the 3600 is the first El Primero chronograph movement to have hacking (and, bizarrely enough, you’re reading that right; the Synopsis was an El Primero with no chronograph). Hacking will allow you to stop the seconds hand while setting the watch to get the time just right, so for the obsessively precise this will be highly valuable. Personally, I kind of liked Zenith’s weird holdout against hacking in the El Primero (a stance they didn’t take with their other modern movement line, the Elite). I’m sufficiently neurotic that I feel a need to get the seconds just right when I set my watches, and being literally unable to do that actually ended up freeing me from that compulsion, at least where Chronomasters were concerned. That said, I have no doubt that the addition of hacking is going to be one of the single most well-received features of the 3600.
Setting aside the prominent ceramic bezel for a moment, the case of the Chronomaster Sport isn’t especially sportier than the ordinary Chronomaster. The size remains surprisingly everyday-wearable at 41mm, which, while on the larger end of Chronomasters, is hardly the largest available. The overall shape and design of the lugs is pretty typical to the Chronomaster as well. This is all to say that, if you liked the Chronomaster’s case before but wish it had a massive ceramic bezel, you’ll really love this watch. Again, it’s more evolution than revolution.
Now, I suppose, I’m required by some emergent standard to compare the Chronomaster Sport to a Daytona. Sure, they’re both chronographs with black bezels, but so is the equally-famous Speedmaster and dozens, if not hundreds, of other watches. The Tri-Color dial immediately sets the Chronomaster Sport apart as, well, a Zenith, an iconic design that’s been produced for over five decades. The design of the subdials themselves, setting aside the color, is extremely different as well, with a ring-like depiction on the Daytona compared to the disk appearance of the Zenith. The pointy hour markers of the Rolex are absent, too, replaced by the more conventional (and, in my opinion, more attractive) rectangular markers found on many other Zenith models. The Zenith (unfortunately, in my book) has a date; the Rolex does not. The Rolex’s case has a crown guard and more streamlined lugs while the Zenith lacks crown guards and has more angular lugs. And this is all before we get into the movement, which is profoundly different from the Rolex’s. That is to say, the differences are numerous and important, and I’m left wondering why these were even considered unusually similar to begin with. About the only thing I find remarkably similar here are the hour and minute hands, but even these aren’t new to the Chronomaster Sport, as Zenith has been using similar hands for decades. Clearly, I’m the odd man out on this, but in my opinion, this is nothing more than a case of watch pareidolia. That said, I’m not a fan of viewing these kinds of comparisons as zero-sum games; it’s perfectly reasonable to like both the Daytona and the Chronomaster Sport. Nor do I think people should rush out and buy Chronomaster Sports merely because they’re more affordable or accessible; sure, those should be factors in deciding what watch to buy, but they shouldn’t be overriding factors.
Nonetheless, the right watch for me is the Zenith Chronomaster Sport, with the better price ($10,000 on bracelet, or $9,500 on strap) and availability simply being icing on the cake. I just like how it looks more than the Daytona and I think the movement is far more interesting. That said, the El Primero has always been my favorite chronograph, so I was firmly entrenched in the Zenith camp long before this watch came out. The much more difficult question, at least for me, is whether the white dial or black dial is better. I vacillate between these choices constantly, but right now, at this particular moment, I think I prefer the black dial. I suspect that’s because of the consistency between the bezel and the dial that makes the watch feel a bit more low-key than it otherwise would, but tomorrow I might very well change my mind. I would, however, get the watch on the bracelet, which just suits the character more regardless of the color.
But returning now to the first question I posed, why does this watch, as opposed to so many other great watches in a surprisingly strong 2021 lineup, resonate so deeply with enthusiasts? I think that this is, in part, just a reflection of adopting a more contemporary design that’s already quite well-loved. Ceramic bezels, particularly black ones, are increasingly popular, and we’re seeing this design pop up in many other watches, like the new TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche model and even, dare I say it, various Grand Seikos. So there is a mundane answer insofar as the Chronomaster Sport is basically just joining an emergent market trend. Furthermore, there was a significant contingent of would-be El Primero buyers that simply refused to buy a watch without hacking. But that doesn’t really explain precisely why this watch, and not the others that have added similar bezels and already had hacking, has become so wildly popular.
I think that answer may be in how effortlessly the Chronomaster Sport blends the present with Zenith’s past. It marks a step into the future, but not a leap. The design is thoroughly contemporary while still being recognizably El Primero, and this is reflected in the updated movement as well. In this regard, the Chronomaster Sport separates itself from another great new watch, the Speedmaster Moonwatch, which, despite an updated movement, doesn’t make nearly the aesthetic jump that the Zenith does. It meets a need, therefore, for fans of the El Primero that wanted something bolder, sportier, and more contemporary, but didn’t want to lose any of what makes El Primeros great. It’s far too early to say for sure, but the Chronomaster Sport is emerging as a serious contender for best watch of 2021, and, as you’ll recall, the A384 was my favorite chronograph of 2019, so Zenith is really putting out a lot of hits lately.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Feb 12, 2021 15:52:16 GMT -6
For this special release, Timeless is excited to announce that we’ll have a custom-wrapped Porsche 911 in front of our Plano location from Saturday (2-13-21) to Monday (2-15-21)! Due to COVID-19 considerations, we won’t be having our usual Timeless Event party, but we will be taking appointments to see the new watch in-person or via Zoom Saturday and Monday. Of course, walk-ins are always welcome, but we want to make sure we still have some available for you to see when you get here. We’ll also have Dimitrios Vitalis from TAG Heuer available to answer all of your questions! To make an appointment, please e-mail us (sales@timelessluxwatches.com) or call us at 214-494-4241.
TAG Heuer just announced a historic partnership with German sports car icon Porsche, and this new watch, the TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph is the first product of that relationship. In many ways, TAG Heuer and Porsche go together in such a logical, self-evident way it’s kind of amazing they haven’t been collaborating on watches for a lot longer than they have. Perhaps most obviously, their most prominent lines both bear the name Carrera, but this isn’t merely some historical coincidence. Rather, both Heuer and Porsche were apparently so impressed with the Carrera Panamerica, a notoriously exciting and deadly road race in Mexico back in the ’50s, that they seemed to have independently chosen it as a major step forward for their companies.
Porsche, of course, got the 911, easily one of the top ten most important sports cars ever made, and Heuer got the Carrera chronograph, arguably a watch more associated with motorsport than any other. That is, other than Heuer’s own Monaco, of course, which was made famous on the wrist of Steve McQueen driving, you guessed it, a Porsche in the classic film Le Mans (1971). But Heuer doesn’t get all of the credit here. TAG worked with Porsche independently of Heuer in the development of the Porsche-TAG TTE P01, AKA the TAG Turbo engine, for F1. TAG’s support for Porsche and McLaren resulted in one of the most dominant F1 engines of the period. It seems like no matter which way you look, TAG Heuer and Porsche have somehow been on similar trajectories for decades. As much as TAG Heuer is involved in motorsports, Porsche seems to be into watchmaking, with many watch designs already to its name.
But the TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph is quite different from Porsche Design watches, and similar collaborations with brands like IWC. The TAG Heuer + Porsche collaboration, at least this one, is much more TAG Heuer than Porsche. Whether or not you’ll view that as a good thing depends on whether you connected to Porsche’s rather hardcore industrial styling. Although I do like Porsche’s almost utilitarian approach to watch design, this new watch has a much wider appeal, taking Heuer’s popular new Carrera Chronograph and adding numerous Porsche-inspired touches throughout. The most important of these touches is the asphalt-inspired textured dial.
Oddly, this isn’t even TAG Heuer’s first dial designed to resemble a road (or track). Their recent Formula 1 X Indy 500, for instance, has a dial inspired by the famous Indy Brickyard. This dial, however, more closely resembles an ordinary street than a freshly-prepped racetrack. My suspicion is that this resembles the conditions of the original Carrera Panamericana, which took place on open roads as opposed to tracks, but that’s just my guess. Regardless, it gives the watch a much more aggressive, purpose-built look compared to the radial-brushed dials of its most similar Carrera chronograph brethren. It’s also a good opportunity to take a close look at the date, which is enclosed in a simple, but not reckless, engraved window into the subdial. I like that TAG Heuer took the time to give it a frame, even if it isn’t applied, since there are so many sport watches that seem to have a last minute decision to add a date and simply remove a small rectangle from the dial. Nonetheless, in a purpose-built model like this, particularly in such a dense area of the dial, I would suggest that future models skip the date entirely. It is, at least, quite subtle, thanks to matching the date ring to the subdial.
Contributing to that more aggressive styling (which is saying something as the non-Porsche Carrera chronographs are already pretty aggressive) are the red accents throughout. Most notable is the Porsche logo emblazoned in red on the black ceramic bezel. This replaces the, in my opinion anyway, useless tachymeter writing that this space would ordinarily occupy, so if you’re going to use conspicuous branding, this is a pretty good place to do it. Perhaps it’s my inner 911 fan speaking, but I think this is oddly my favorite part of the whole design. I love how red pops against black on the bezel, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have red “tachymeter” writing even on the non-Porsche models.
Another change is the move from simple indices to large, luminescent Arabic numerals, and this may be one of the easiest ways to tell this and other Carrera chronographs apart at a distance. These numerals are said to closely resemble those found in Porsche gauge clusters, but they’re also somewhat reminiscent of the Carrera Calibre 16 Day Date, one of the best-looking modern Carreras. To that point, it’d be great to see them offer similar hour markers without lume in future models to capture that cool chromed-out look of the older Cal. 16. In some ways, due to these numerals and the red accents, this new Porsche watch is perhaps the successor to that popular model.
I’ve always been a fan of the Carrera case (perhaps my favorite element of the line of watches in general), with particular fondness for its angular lugs. They have a certain crystaline-esque quality to their shape that I find very appealing. The size of this new TAG Heuer + Porsche Carrera, on the other hand, is a bit too large for my wrists at 44mm. While substantial, this is an acceptable size for such an openly aggressive watch, but it does mean that people with smaller wrists might be turned off. Perhaps they’ll offer a version of this in the 42mm case down the road, but that would probably mean giving up this cool black ceramic bezel, and I’m not sure that’s a compromise I want to make. Given the choice, I might just end up wearing a watch that’s a bit too large for me because I think the bezel is just too integral to its sporty design. With a more understated dial, however, the 42mm case could work quite well.
The rotor, too, has been redesigned for purposes of this collaboration, and to anyone that’s sat behind the wheel of a 911, the influence is self-evident. You also find some special edition writing in addition to a Porsche logo on the right side of the rotor. What I like most about the rotors used on Heuer 02s in general, however, including both the special and regular editions, is that they’re highly skeletonized and don’t obstruct an attractive and unique looking movement. The movement itself, so far as I can tell anyway, is unchanged from other Heuer 02s in these next-generation Carrera chronographs, but that’s not a bad thing. It retains its unique TAG Heuer character with a sharp, industrial design, far removed from the gently curved bridges found in most Swiss watches.
TAG’s in-house movements tend to resemble something more like a car’s engine, which is a kind of beauty achieved by sheer functionality, or, at least, the impression of it. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, as the brand has already released some pretty amazing movements, like the V4, specifically designed to invoke these comparisons. I particularly like the bright red column wheel, here seen at 12:00, as an unnecessary but welcome visual flourish highlighting that yes, the Heuer 02 is a column wheel (and vertical clutch) chronograph. The Heuer 02 remains a highly competitive movement at this price point and shouldn’t be overlooked by those who have dismissed TAG Heuer in the past.
When it comes to collaborations between brands, I think there usually two potential types of people that will be interested. There are those that like one or both brands enough that merely being a collaboration itself is sufficient to warrant a purchase. Then there are those like myself, who basically decide on a watch based on its independent merits, without considering the brand tie-in at all. Not being a particularly brand-conscious individual, I can only evaluate it in the second sense. Consequently, I find the TAG Heuer + Porsche chronograph a compelling alternative among an already strong lineup of next-generation Carrera chronographs. It’s not necessarily “the one to get,” but if you found yourself looking at those recent releases and wishing they were either sportier or more unique, then this new Porsche model may be for you. It is, after all, just $300 more (in a bracelet-to-bracelet comparison) at $6,050, or $5,850 on strap, hardly a significant increase at this price range.
In some ways, this new model is as much a green light for a new partnership as it is a watch. Both companies have been quite clear that this is the start of a long-term collaboration between them, so we can look forward to many more TAG Heuer + Porsche watches to come. What this watch had to do, then, was attract sufficient attention to the partnership and provide an aesthetic foundation to build on. In that regard, it has certainly succeeded. While it’s a good looking watch, I’d love to see TAG Heuer and Porsche explore more of their vintage roots in the future, perhaps using that 42mm Heuer 02 Carrera that was recently released, or possibly by incorporating some of that bold Porsche Design approach to cases. The future remains to be seen, but they’re off to a good start.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Nov 2, 2020 14:24:51 GMT -6
Thanks guys, you're always so kind to us!
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Oct 29, 2020 19:27:18 GMT -6
Timeless is very proud to announce our latest limited edition, and our first with our brand partner Zodiac, the Blackout LE. We wanted to somehow combine the carefree and casual design that Zodiac is so beloved for with a slightly serious tool watch edge, so we began with the Super Sea Wolf GMT, a design that would inherently lend itself to something of a split personality by way of its gorgeous bezel. Also, a special thanks to Chip who, on very short notice, was able to create some amazing photography--most of what you see here is his work. The Blackout, which takes its aesthetic cues from the world of night diving, makes numerous changes to the Super Sea Wolf GMT formula. The diving aspect, of course, is taken care of by the Super Sea Wolf case, rated for 200 meters of watch resistance, suitable for pretty much any aquatic hobby, nocturnal or otherwise. Likewise, the night’s influence is equally easily found, not only on the black dial, but also on the black DLC case and bracelet, a relatively hard to find feature in this price range that will keep this watch looking good for a long time. But it’s the blue used throughout that brings the design together. The color, a variant of powder blue, is reminiscent of the amazing bioluminescent waves sometimes found on the California coast. This beautiful natural phenomena, the result of a bloom in dinoflagellates, can cause waves (and on occasion even other sea life) to glow an incredible blueish-green hue. In keeping with our theme, this wonder can only be appreciated at night. Crucially, the color retains some of that laid-back Zodiac character that we love so much. A darker or more saturated blue would have contributed to a more aggressive, serious look, but we wanted something with a more relaxed attitude. In that way, the light blue color is doing two jobs, both literally contrasting with the black dial, but also figuratively contrasting with the otherwise all-business look. Flowery design language aside, legibility is always a high priority in a Timeless design, whether we’re making a dress watch or a diver, and the Blackout is no exception. Blue luminescent paint is present outside of each applied hour marker, and, of course, each hand. As usual, we’ve color-matched the date ring, as is only proper, so that it remains legible yet visually discreet. Aesthetically speaking, it’s the bezel that first captures your attention. This bidirectional rotating GMT bezel is aimed more at world travelers or international businesspeople than professional divers, but regardless of its nature, the GMT design allows for a much more visually interesting split of colors. And that brings us to the GMT complication, which allows the wearer to track two different time zones simultaneously. This is most useful for frequent travelers, of course, but even these days Zoom meetings with friends and business partners on other parts of the globe make useful this increasingly popular complication. I’ll admit, however, that one of the reasons I like it so much here is because it gave us the ability to use a matching blue GMT hand, which we’ve been fond of using as an accent since our Grand Seiko SBGE249 release. The steel case continues our theme of everyday practicality, with a restrained (at least by diver standards) 40-millimeter size. When it came to the color of the case, we knew immediately that we wanted it to be black, but that it had to be DLC as opposed to the cheaper, less durable options that are generally used at this price point. To make the watch more versatile, each Blackout comes with both a bracelet and the popular Tropic strap. The bracelet is also DLC coated, so that black finish should hold up nicely to this often-scratched area, particularly the polished center links. We also include a strap changing tool so you can switch between them easily. Powering each Blackout is the ETA 2893-2, the GMT version of the very respected ETA 2892. This reliable automatic movement has been the staple of many great watches over the years, widely perceived as the high-end alternative to the omnipresent 2824 and derivations thereof. So that’s our new Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GMT Blackout ZO9407, with every unique element that makes it a limited edition designed and rendered in-house right here at Timeless. The new Blackout is a limited edition, and in this case, very limited, with just 82 pieces being produced. Priced at $1,895, it’s $200 more than the recent Super Sea Wolf “Sherbet” GMT, but for that you’re not only getting a small-run limited edition, but also an extra strap and a DLC coating. If you find yourself enamored with it, please click here to visit our pre-order page where you can get one for yourself. We expect to start delivering watches beginning November 15th, 2020.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Mar 14, 2020 9:22:24 GMT -6
Oh definitely, but I think that's already a supremely crowded market. TAG's playing to their base, and there are some really dedicated fans out there (although they're not usually on the watch forums) that'll try to get all-TAG gear.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Mar 14, 2020 4:10:41 GMT -6
For 2020, TAG Heuer has released an all-new smartwatch, simply known as “TAG Heuer Connected,” and while superficially it’s an updated and more refined version of prior Heuer smartwatches, the third-generation is the biggest overhaul yet. Join me as we do a deep dive into the watch, from the styling of the case and bezel, to the operating system, and to the hardware inside that makes it all work.
Perhaps the most obvious and noteworthy change is the end of the “Modular” motif that typified the 2nd generation Heuer smartwatch. While smartwatches are intrinsically more customizable than their mechanical counterparts, due to the vast variety of watch faces a wearer could choose, the Connected Modular took a radical approach that even allowed owners to replace the entire smartwatch component with a mechanical watch if they wanted. Interesting and cool those features might have been, but they do create design constraints on how the watch is ultimately put together. By moving to a non-modular design, Heuer was not only able to create a thinner watch, but also one that more closely resembled their Carrera line of mechanical watches, arguably their most attractive. It’ll be interesting to see if the Modular was merely an experiment that has come and gone or if it’ll make a return at some point in the future. Personally, I’d like to see it again, if only because it was a very unique option.
Aesthetically, the 45mm Connected closely resembles the Carrera Heuer 02 chronograph, both from the perspective of the case and bezel, but also in the choice of digital dials. That’s a fairly self-evident choice, not merely because the Carrera is probably the best looking line of TAG Heuers today, but because it’s one of the most popular luxury watches in the world. Monaco fans might disagree, of course, and I’m sympathetic to their view, but adopting a square case would be counterproductive in trying to achieve a mainstream appeal and separating it from its most noteworthy rivals.
Where it does differ from those new Carreras is with the pushers and crown, which makes perfect sense since the functionality of these is radically different than that of the mechanical watch. TAG has apparently made a priority of giving the user the ability to avoid the touchscreen if they’d prefer more tactile operation, and in practice, this works quite well. For instance, from the watch face start location, the top pusher is a shortcut directly into TAG’s fitness application, while the bottom pusher goes straight to a chronograph/lap timer. As is often the case with smartwatches, pushing the crown either takes you to a list of apps or, if in some place other than the watch face, back to the default watch face. Most interesting, however, is the ability to scroll up and down from the watch face screen, either to adjust settings or to see notifications. The latter is much more useful than the former, and in future versions TAG should consider swapping the swipe down and scroll down function from settings to Google’s screen, which gives you context-sensitive data like weather and calendar entries. That said, on many smartwatches, like the Apple Watch, the functionality of the crown is extremely limited on a watch face, unless you happen to be using the Siri face, forcing users to use touch instead. With the Connected, you at least have the choice, and it’s a non-trivial one because the tactile feedback of scrolling or using a pusher is a lot more confidence-inspiring than dragging your finger across the screen, the same reason why most people prefer physical keyboards to touch screen keyboards.
Thickness has decreased from 13.7mm to 13.5mm, this despite increasing battery capacity from 410 mAh to 430 mAh, significantly more than some competitors, such as the Apple Watch Series 5, which has just under 300. The slimmer watch will be appreciated by all, although I would have preferred an extra few tenths of a millimeter for greater battery life. Still, I’m clearly in a tiny minority, as virtually all smartphone and smartwatch manufacturers favor thinness over battery life. Battery life for the Connected remains rated at around 20 hours, fairly ordinary for the segment.
The lack of battery life increases despite a larger battery is probably due to a superior always-on display with a higher resolution than its predecessor. The Modular also had an always-on display, but it was using an older generation of hardware that reduced it to simple monochrome displays when not active to conserve battery life. Improvements in the CPU (which is completely different in this generation, more on that later) has allowed the watch to have a relatively complex colorful passive display when inactive. In a fashion-forward watch like the Connected, these little touches count.
Some of that thinness was made possible by a more conventional non-swappable case, but some techniques were more clever. For instance, the new antenna(s) are placed underneath a ceramic bezel, which, despite being far harder than steel, is much less radio-opaque. The ceramic bezel is standard across all four versions of the watch (today we’re looking at the SBG8A10.BT6219), although one version, the SBG8A12.BT6219, appears to have a steel bezel. This is apparently some sort of coating on the ceramic itself to give it a convincingly metallic look without interfering with radio connectivity. As to the connectivity itself, you’ve got Bluetooth 4.1, 2.4 gHz Wi-Fi, and GPS, a fairly standard complement for a smartwatch in 2020.
The panel on the new Connected is very nice. PPI was acceptable on the Modular 45, at 287, but that’s way up in this generation to 326 a number that, I’m sure by pure coincidence, is identical to the current generation of Apple Watches. In either case, from the normal distance that we look at our watches from, the screen won’t look pixelated, but rather smooth and seamless. Regardless, the panel has extremely high contrast and vivid colors, no doubt thanks to its OLED design. Furthermore, unlike its Apple competition, this is a truly edge to edge display. The Apple Watch does a good job of hiding this with a true black backdrop and the perfect contrast of its own OLED panel, but a black border remains. The edge of the Heuer’s display is likely hidden underneath the the ceramic bezel, eliminating any visible black border, and doing a better job of appearing as a simple watch, which is essentially the entire point of the Connected: to look like a “normal” Carrera, not like a miniaturized smartphone on your wrist. This it accomplishes well.
While the Connected runs Google’s Wear OS, the de facto operating system for Android-friendly smartwatches, it does receive a lot of customization from TAG Heuer that makes it a different experience than that of competitors. The first and most visible sign of this is the legitimately very cool custom watch faces that come pre-loaded on the watch. This one, for instance, titled Orbital, can present either a stylized digital readout (my preference, and seen above) or an analog one, but more interestingly, the background is a fully-animated constellation of points designed to resemble some sort of neural net. That’s cool enough, but the seconds hand is actually indicated by the “net” reaching out to the bezel, here seen around 9:00.
My favorite is underwhelmingly titled “Timekeeping,” which resembles the clocks the brand uses at various sporting events, or perhaps the old Microtimer, one of my favorite TAG Heuers. Not only does it look awesome, it has a lot of useful information right on the display, from battery life and status indicators to the number of notifications you haven’t seen yet. This, for me anyway, is perhaps the sweet spot for smart watches, designs which embrace their fundamentally electronic nature but do so in a useful and legible way.
By far the most popular will be the Heuer 02, seen here (and seen in another photo of mine earlier). This, of course, closely resembles the Heuer 02 and is the face that gets closest to just wearing a Carrera. Three subdials can be selected to give whatever information you prefer. Here I’ve chosen a step counter, the day, and the temperature, but you could put almost any information the watch has available in those spots. In this sense, this is the converse of the “Timekeeping” dial, where the watch attempts to look exactly like an existing mechanical watch yet preserves some of the advantages that smart watches have. For instance, this face is highly customizable, and here I’ve chosen gold accents. You can choose different hour markers, colors, “complications,” and even the color of the seconds hand to create a personalized look, or just to change the look when you get bored of the last one. This also ensures that, while there will undoubtedly be many Connects in the wild, owing to the brand’s immense popularity, your Connected is almost guaranteed to be unique. This customization is available for all of the faces in varying degrees. Also keep in mind that there are other faces on the watch, but for brevity I’ve stuck to my favorites.
One of the unique applications that’s very central to the new Connected is TAG Heuer Sports. Fitness tracking and athletics has become somewhat core to the smartwatch mission for every manufacture, so success in this area is pretty much vital. TAG’s approach is bespoke and quite good looking. Currently it has modes for running, cycling, and a broader category for fitness, but I think the golf mode will be by far the most interesting for Heuer fans. It interfaces with the TAG Heuer Golf phone application, available for both Android and iOS, and possesses a wide variety of tools to track your golf performance. Also nice is that all of this can be accessed without using the touchscreen or without going through a lot of menus. A single use of the top pusher from the watch face will bring you to the sports app, where you can scroll with the crown and select again with the top pusher. You can, of course, do all of this with touch if you’d prefer, but re-introducing a physical, tactile interface makes using this watch much more like using a conventional watch than that of a smartwatch, again, advancing TAG’s agenda of making the smartwatch more, well, watch-like.
Pushing the lower pusher from the watch face will take you here, to a very cool-looking lap timer. This can be used either as a simple chronograph or something more akin to a rattrapante, and again, requires no touch interface to use. The ability to jump right to a chronograph quickly and easily makes it a lot more likely that people will actually use it, as opposed to hitting the crown, scrolling through menus alphabetically until you find the timer, touching the timer icon, and finally getting to the screen. With the Connected, this is just a single button away from your watch dial. It’s clear that the Connected was built with sports and fitness at its heart, which is in-line with the broader brand philosophy of TAG Heuer.
Although TAG Heuer’s custom interface is layered on top, at the watch’s heart is Google’s Wear OS. Because Heuer opted to use this more common operating system rather than create their own, you get access not only to a huge variety of apps, but also to Google’s powerful features and ecosystem. For instance, swiping right at the dial will bring you to a Google readout of contextually relevant information based on your Google account. This could include simple things like weather forecasts and temperature, reminders, upcoming calendar events and many other useful or fun pieces of information. In 2020, the argument for best digital assistant has narrowed primarily to between Alexa and Google Assistant, with Siri falling into third place while Bixby and Cortana languish far behind the pack. I won’t debate whether Alexa or Google Assistant is better (or even Siri), but rather, I think what’s best depends on the tech ecosystem you currently live with. Certainly, coming with built-in integration for one of the two leading digital assistants is a good start for most people.
While several tech blogs have incorrectly reported that the Connected has no microphone, the watch will respond to OK Google inquiries with ease. Because of the incredibly limited interface necessitated by a tiny screen on any smartwatch, voice interfaces become far more practical. OK Google is disabled by default, which perhaps threw those reviewers off, but you can access it by holding down the crown for 2 seconds. If you find yourself using OK Google frequently, there is a setting which enables OK Google (i.e. you can simply say a command and the watch will hear you without touching a button first). I personally find this somewhat necessary for any smartwatch, principally because there are so many times your hands are occupied by whatever you’re doing that you don’t have a hand free to use a button.
The new sensor array finally includes a heart rate tracker, pretty much essential to be taken seriously as a smartwatch, but this also gives us a good look at the strap and bracelet changing system Heuer is using. A small spring-loaded slider on the underside of each strap can be moved down to unlock the strap and remove it. This is extremely fast and easy, even more so than the Apple Watch’s popular strap changing system. Inside the watch runs the Snapdragon 3100, the latest and greatest watch chipset from Qualcomm. This is a huge change from the unusual Intel Atom CPUs that powered prior Connected watches and puts it more in line with other premium Android Wear devices, even if it ultimately does make it less weird and special.
The 3100 itself is an interesting chip, combining an older quad core Cortex A7 with a lot of updates and refinements, the most important of which is the far more sophisticated QCC1110 co-processor. Unlike the aging A7 cores, the new QCC1110 uses a superior manufacturing process (the very contemporary 7nm versus 28nm for the A7) which contributes to its power-sipping nature, as well as a much lower-performance design. That might not sound particularly exciting, but the co-processor basically offloads passive functions from the less efficient, but more powerful, cores, allowing the watch to run longer while doing background functions like using the always-on screen and monitoring the various sensors. The 3100 has played a big part in why the battery life rating didn’t suffer even though the new Connected is thinner than its predecessor while running a significantly higher resolution screen (454×454 vs 400×400), monitoring a heart rate sensor, and using a more complex always-on display.
While we’re here, it’s a good time to talk about the included charging puck for the Connected. Like other Android Wear devices, TAG’s chosen to use a prong-based connection rather than Apple’s wireless approach. It works fine in practice, but it does mean you have to pay attention to the watch orientation in a way you simply don’t need to with a conventional wireless connection. I’d like to see TAG switch to that kind of connection in the future because these little touches add up as you do them every day, or perhaps even multiple times in a day. That said, TAG’s charging implementation does have one key advantage over Apple’s, namely a removable USB-C cable. This makes it much easier to travel with, particularly if you’re already using a modern Android phone (which will very likely also use USB-C), as you don’t need to double up on cables. Many modern laptops even charge over USB-C, like the Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13, so in theory, a single cable could be all you need to charge your watch, your phone, and your laptop. In the Apple sphere, you’ll need a puck for your Apple Watch (with the cable permanently attached), a USB-C cable for your laptop, and a Lightning cable for your phone, a minimum of three cables for most Apple devotees. Just as having to worry about the orientation of the watch as you place it on a charger is a small, but repetitive, annoyance, having to make sure you always travel with at least three different cables is also a small but frequent annoyance. Of course, your mileage will vary, depending on the smartphone and laptop you happen to use, but as we enter 2020 and 2021 approaches, a USB-C powered world is already emerging, so this will apply to more and more people by the day. Also please note that, although it’s not in the photo, the Connected does come with a small wall adapter (as one would expect for $1,800).
The new Connected is available on either this rubber strap or a bracelet, but I’d recommend getting the rubber. Smartwatches are almost invariably aimed at fitness and active living, in which case, the watch will be lighter, more comfortable, and have some ventilation through the strap. I also happen to think it’s a very good looking strap. Because these straps are so incredibly easy to change, I’d probably also consider picking up one or two extra straps from TAG, as they’re available in red, orange, or “khaki” (olive drab, in my book), as well as my favorite, the “Black with a Touch of Red” rubber strap with a leather look.
At $1,800 (on strap, $1,950 on bracelet), the Connected is one of the highest-end smartwatches in the world, but not one without a role to play. In my opinion, the Connected is perhaps the ideal “transitional” smartwatch, either from smartwatches to luxury mechanical watches like a Carrera or a Seamaster, but also from those mechanical watches to smartwatches. For up-and-coming young people may be far more comfortable with smartwatches than with mechanical ones but want a higher-quality and better-looking case than they get from other manufacturers. In that scenario, the Connected allows them to jump into Carrera styling without giving up their smartwatch utility, and I’m sure TAG hopes that they will eventually jump into a mechanical watch from there. Conversely, fans of mechanical watches, particularly fans of TAG Heuer, may want to try smartwatches but not want to give up the look and feel that they’re used to. The Connected offers a transition for them, as well, and this is more than merely superficial. The design of not only the case and strap, but also of the dials, the interface, the apps, and a newfound reliance on conventional pusher and crown interfaces provides less of a hurdle than conventional smartwatch design, which amounts to a smartphone on your wrist with a clock face.
Furthermore, well-heeled fans of Android phones (although the Connected works fine with iPhones, I should point out), forever cut off from the ubiquitous Apple Watch, may simply want the highest-quality Android Wear watch they can get, which is arguably the Connected. This would be even more true for people deeply embedded in the Google ecosystem. Finally, I think golfers in particular might find special use in the Connected, as the Golf phone and watch apps seem extremely sophisticated. Not being a golfer myself, I’m in no position to evaluate them, but I can tell TAG Heuer has put a lot of time and money into the app, as demonstrated by a 5 star average review at the time of this writing in Apple’s App Store.
The Connected, therefore, is a niche product, but it’s for a niche that exists. A huge number of people are turned off by conventional smartwatch design, most notably the Apple Watch’s unusual (although I, and apparently Moser, find it attractive) gently rectangular case, but also that of many other smartwatches which were designed by tech companies first, watch companies second. TAG Heuer, conversely, is very much a mainstream design leader when it comes to watches, with broad appeal among the masses, not merely watch collectors, so it’s in a unique position to incorporate better design into smartwatch functionality. It takes time to appreciate the Connected, because at first glance you’re tempted to think of it as an ordinary Android Wear watch in a nice case, but the differences are deeper. The way the watch modes look, in addition to their reliance on pushers and the crown, actually make it feel quite a bit different from your everyday Android Wear watch. Whether or not that’s worth it to you is another question, but it is a distinction with a difference. For Android Wear enthusiasts looking for an upgrade, or for TAG Heuer fans who want to give smartwatches a shot, it offers something unique, and it does so while improving in many ways over its own predecessor.
The new Connected is currently available in 4 designs, including a blacked-out titanium one, and you can see them all here. My favorite is the one in this review, the SBG8A10.BT6219, which also happens to be the most affordable.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Mar 5, 2020 3:27:12 GMT -6
All New Hi-Beat Calibre
Grand Seiko introduces a radical all-new mechanical movement, known as the 9SA5, today. GS guarantees that this isn’t merely an improvement on an existing movement, but rather an entirely new caliber built from the ground up. Like its predecessor, the 9S85, and legendary Hi-Beats before it, the 9SA5 beats at a very Grand Seiko-esque 36,000 BPH. Everything else, however, is a wild departure from GS design.
As you can see, this new anniversary LE version of the 9SA5 is a radical departure from GS design in many ways. First, it’s using an entirely new dual impulse escapement. More on how that works soon. Second, it’s clearly using a new free-sprung balance, which is something completely out of left-field for a company that has had a preference for smooth balances going back decades. In fact, aside from its frequency, there’s almost nothing here that would indicate GS design.
The dual impulse escapement is clearly the most technically impressive aspect, and so far as I’m aware, duplicated nowhere else. This thing is so wildly different from the current mainstream design that it’s borderline unrecognizable. Typically, power is transmitted to the balance wheel and hairspring by the pallet fork via the escape wheel for both directions (the characteristic locking and unlocking that keeps time). In the 9SA5, the way it works is that power is transmitted to the pallet fork, and then to the balance wheel, in one direction, yet in the other direction, the power is transmitted directly through a new assembly attached to the balance itself, which, according to GS, results in an efficiency improvement. I’m going to have to see it in action to get a good understanding of how it works, but this is the best I can grasp from the literature. I’ll update this in the future if I learn otherwise.
Note also that we’re seeing a free sprung balance with recessed screws in the rim, a la Breguet, as opposed to the smooth balance/regulator combination that we’re so used to in Seiko and Grand Seiko. This is an enormous departure for the watchmaker as this marks a fundamental shift in how these watches are adjusted, no small feat for a brand so associated with precision adjustment. However, free sprung balances are well-loved for their stability and are widely adopted by Rolex, Omega, Breguet, Patek, AP, and other highly-revered brands for chronometric performance. I personally prefer free sprung balances, as I find it to be a more elegant design, so this is a really nice perk for me, and it makes the 9SA5 one of extremely few free sprung high-frequency movements, as its closest rival, the El Primero, retains the smooth balance/regulator design.
Also fascinating is the adoption of a Breguet overcoil. I feel confident in saying that the 9SA5 is the most radical departure from Grand Seiko movement (and Seiko movement broadly) design in the history of the company. The 9SA5 has the hallmarks of being one of the most sophisticated mechanical movements ever made, at least where timekeeping is concerned. Grand Seiko claims that the hairspring design alone was the product of over 80,000 simulations to obtain the best possible design in all positions.
Although not entirely unprecedented in GS’ history, balance bridges are very atypical of modern GS design. The balance bridge is widely considered to be a more robust design than the balance cock, which is anchored on only one side of the balance, and is common to Rolex, Omega, the latest Nomos movements (DUW 3001) and a few others. It remains, like the free sprung balance itself, a relatively uncommon feature of movements, but one that’s got a lot of fans.
Furthermore, fans of thin watches, like myself, not only get a better movement, but one that’s somehow 15% thinner than the current 9S85 (and derivations thereof). This is due to a much improved layout of the gear train. It’s also now got sequential double barrel mainsprings, upping it from 55 hours in the 9S85 to 80, an extremely impressive number for a high frequency movement, a genre notorious for energy consumption. Grand Seiko, bless them, finally gives us an instant date change, something I’ve wanted for years.
It’s important to emphasize that 9SA5 is a revolutionary new movement for GS, not an evolutionary one. You can essentially throw away everything you know about GS movement design and start totally fresh here—the hairspring and balance wheel most closely resembles a modern-day Breguet, but the new escapement makes it entirely its own thing.
The New SLGH002 Hi-Beat
After all that, it’s easy to forget that it actually goes inside a watch, namely the SLGH002. This gorgeous watch is in some ways a major departure from GS design, yet in others is the Grand Seiko you already know and love.
One thing I already love is its dimensions. 40mm in diameter, a great size in my opinion, and just 11.7mm thick—an ultra-thin it isn’t, but neither is it too thick, once again showing GS’ commitment to listening to fans and producing thinner watches. I’m perfectly satisfied with the dimensions of this model.
Where it really starts to set itself apart from existing models, like its predecessor the SBGH001 (or SBGH201), is with the hands and markers, both of which are wider and bolder than most GSes before it, giving it a sportier look. Otherwise, the dial is classic GS with a simple, but refined, silver sunburst dial and date frame.
You can, of course, appreciate the amazing new movement from the back. The SLGH002 is a limited edition of just 100 pieces and is priced at $43,000. It’s available at GS boutiques this August.
All New Spring Drive
Introducing two new items, the all-new 9RA5 spring drive and the amazing diver that will contain it, the SLGA001. We’ll start with the 9RA5 since it’s the more revolutionary of the two. Spring drives have always been a good fit for GS divers, in part because they’re impeccably stable, and in part because they’re intrinsically resistant to the kinds of shocks and rough movements that diving can present. That GS has chosen to debut a new spring drive in a diver, however, represents a major change of pace for the company, which has historically introduced its highest-end movements in dress watches. That changes today, because not only is the 9RA5 thinner than the 9R65 that has usually graced GS divers, but it’s even more rigid and shock resistant.
That thinness (0.8mm thinner) is the product of an overhaul of the famous magic lever bidirectional automatic winding system, which has powered spring drives for a long time now. This new system uses an off-centered layout, which allows the movement to be thinner with no cost to efficiency. The magic lever system continues to be among the simplest and most robust solutions to bidirectional winding, but now it’s updated for the future.
The improvements in rigidity are curtesy of a new gear train layout and a strong central bridge that holds it all together. While I’m sure the 9RA5 will make its way into other Grand Seikos in the years to come, it means that, for the first time, we have a spring drive that was built from the ground up for enhanced toughness, instead of it being an incidental, albeit desirable, byproduct of the spring drive technology itself. The only reason Grand Seiko would bother doing that, I speculate, is if they plan on releasing a lot more dive watches (and various other forms of tool or exploration watches) in the future. It seems as if the 9R31, released last year, is going to be sent to dress watches while the 9RA5 will be aimed at sports watches, so you’ve actually got an entirely new spring drive playing field across the board.
Power reserve has been improved to an immense 120 hours thanks to an unusual dual-size barrel layout. Apparently, this was due to the space restraints of the 9RA5, but regardless, 120 hours is extremely impressive, particularly in a dive watch.
As if it being thinner, stronger, and longer lasting weren’t enough, it’s also more accurate. The 9RA5 actually includes thermocompensation, a feature of the very best quartz movements, and improves the stated accuracy from +/- 15 seconds per month to just +/- 10, a figure that we are confident it will exceed in the real world.
The All-New SLGA001 Diver
Now to the watch itself. The SLGA001 is a limited edition of 700, expected this August, and it’s more evolutionary than revolutionary, at least as compared to its new movement. It features styling that’ll please the vast numbers of fans of the SBGA229, even though this new one is more aggressive—I love those lugs, for instance. The dial color, which is called “Grand Seiko Blue,” is only going to be available in this LE, and it looks great.
This new model is rated for 600 meters and will no doubt have some of the most impressive lume on the market.
Predictably, it’s cased in high-intensity titanium, GS’ proprietary blend that’s lighter (in appearance) and harder than most other titanium alloys. Interestingly, GS says that ease of disassembly and maintenance were priorities in the design of this rather large (46.9mm, 16mm thick) case.
Perhaps most amazing of all, Grand Seiko managed to create a power reserve where up points to full (just kidding GS, I know the 9S67 did too).
Purists who prefer their tool watches to be, well, tool watches, will be pleased to know that GS has once again opted for a solid back to their watch, although I personally would love to see that gorgeous 9RA5 inside.
Something for the Traditionalists
You didn’t think a year could go by without GS doing some sort of homage to a 1960s model, did you? It’s unthinkable. And this year we’re in for a special treat with three nods to the very first Grand Seiko all the way back in 1960, the watch that started it all, which only makes sense for the 60th anniversary of the brand.
There will be three versions, the SBGW257 in platinum, shown here, a yellow gold SBGW258, and a blue dial in titanium, the SBGW259.
The hour markers and even the dial of the platinum model are made in gold as well.
Likewise, the yellow gold model has matching hour markers, although it lacks that gorgeous engraved Grand Seiko writing.
The third model, the SBGW259, throws a bit of a curve ball with its blue dial and titanium case. That titanium, by the way, is GS’ Brilliant Hard Titanium, an alloy exclusive to Grand Seiko. It’s brighter than even Seiko’s High-Intensity Titanium and twice as hard as stainless steel, making it an amazing all-around material. Each are powered by the 9S64, an existing, albeit excellent, hand wound movement. All three models will be exclusive to GS boutiques and will become available around June of this year.
Two Very Cool New LEs
Next we look at two very impressive limited editions, also powered by the 9S64 hand wound movement, each representing an aspect of the Shizukuishi studio.
According to legend, Shizukuishi is named from the sound of water drops in a deep cave onto the rocks below. This is the inspiration for the painstaking engraving in each SBGW263. Each of the 20 made is engraved by a small team lead by master engraver Kiyoshi Terui entirely by hand, including the GS and Grand Seiko writing on the dial.
Another nice touch is the old-school gold medallion on the back, harkening back once again to the greats of the ‘60s.
The next new model, the SBGW264, is inspired by the forest of birch trees near the studio, and will no doubt appeal to fans of the famous Peacock SBGJ227, although this one appears a touch darker green and more intricate in its textures. Just 120 of these will be made. Both will be available at GS boutiques in July of this year.
New Jewelry Watch
Seemingly out of nowhere, Grand Seiko also decided to make a jewelry watch. It takes its inspiration from the winter mornings of Shinshu which, love or hate the jewelry aspect of the watch, is quite beautifully represented in the diamond dust dial. Look very, very closely, and you can see the subtle markings of the constellation Leo (the lion).
The SBGD205 is powered by the super high-end 9R01 spring drive movement, used in only a handful of GSes currently, which has an amazing 8 day power reserve. It’ll be available in June of this year at GS boutiques.
A New Start for Grand Seiko
Grand Seiko perceives the 60th anniversary as the start of a new cycle for the brand, hence the new movements, foundations for the future, but this year Grand Seiko is taking the enormous step of building an all-new facility for GS alongside Morioka. This will be dedicated just to Grand Seiko mechanical movements and watches and create the space necessary for the brand’s expansion. It’ll also have an exhibition space for visitors so this will be a great place to check out next time you’re in Japan.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Sept 26, 2019 9:31:32 GMT -6
Yeah, the original Black Bay Black was a very weird move by Tudor. They released a new version of the Black Bay (back in the ETA days) just before they announced that the Black Bay line in general was getting overhauled (dial and case modifications with an all-new movement), so the Black Bay Black with the ETA movement (circular self-winding text, rose logo) was produced for a very short time.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Sept 14, 2019 9:58:23 GMT -6
Great photos Carl, you actually got to see this one before I did. It reminds me a lot of the F117 Nighthawk, what do you think? Wow! I actually had go Google F117 Nighthawk. I think you are right on the money there! The first image that popped up, I thought "That looks just like the case/bracelet design on the ProPilotX!". Great observation! Cheers, Carl I knew it reminded me of a particular jet, but I couldn't figure out. I probably looked for 10 minutes before I figured out that it was the F117, at least in my imagination.
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Sept 13, 2019 14:14:33 GMT -6
Great photos Carl, you actually got to see this one before I did. It reminds me a lot of the F117 Nighthawk, what do you think?
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Post by timelessluxwatches on Sept 3, 2019 13:28:41 GMT -6
Yes, such a great watch, you're very fortunate to have it. I had to let this one go since I was just reviewing it! While I pretty much only review watches I already like, there's a small percentage of them that I would actually consider buying and greatly miss them when they're gone, and the A384 is certainly one of those. It's kind of funny since, when I began doing these two reviews, I was a lot more interested in the Inventor (if only for the movement) and less so the A384. But the A384 really, really grew on me while I was writing the first review (of the Inventor), and by the time I got to the A384, I had completely flipped my interest in the two watches.
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