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Watch Of The Day

Doxa Adds Color to Carbon-Cased SUB 300

A year after Doxa launched a small-production series of SUB 300 Aqua Lung watches with a forged carbon case, the famed independent Swiss dive watchmaker revisits that high-tech case for the new SUB 300 Carbon collection, a non-limited, eye-catching array of ten models with six colorful dial and matching strap options.

One of ten new Doxa SUB 300 Carbon models. Here the carbon case frames a Caribbean (navy blue) dial. The rubber strap can be black or to match the dial.

At the same time, Doxa launches these bright new SUB 300 models at Watches of Switzerland locations in the United States, marking the brand’s first official U.S. brick-and-mortar distribution in years. Previously, Doxa sold its watches only online through its e-commerce web site. With the new Watches of Switzerland partnership, shoppers can try on the full Doxa collection at all Watches of Switzerland retail stores, as well as online.

The Doxa SUB 300 in yellow, or ‘divingstar.’

The new collection expands Doxa’s use of color within its SUB 300 collection, which already includes a range of colorful steel-cased options. Now with the forged carbon case, the newest collection sets six dial colors, including navy blue, turquoise, orange, yellow, silver and black, framed within the patterned matte black forged carbon case and unidirectional bezel and blackened crown.

The swirled, high-tech carbon pattern and dark hue offers a starker contrast to Doxa’s colorful dial and strap options than we’ve seen with the collection’s existing steel models. And all are currently offered only on black or color-matched rubber straps, unlike the steel-bracelet option available for the steel-cased SUB 300.

Historic link

Doxa touts its current SUB 300 collection as the heir to its groundbreaking original 1967 debut of the same name. Rated as water resistant to a depth of 300 meters feet, the original Doxa SUB 300 was the first consumer watch to feature a unidirectional bezel with a dual indication of dive time and depth, according to Doxa. But the model itself gained fans for another reason as well: its full-on bright orange dial.

Even as the SUB 300 Carbon’s 42.5mm case is lighter than the steel models, Doxa has been careful to maintain the full dive specs of the all-steel SUB 300. To that end, the watchmakers have fit the newest watch with a pressure-resistant titanium chamber and screw-down crown.

The new series also features a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment that retains the same dome shape of the curved Plexiglas found on the original series in 1967. The COSC-certified ETA-based automatic movement provides a power reserve of approximately 38 hours.

Doxa ensures an easy-to-read dial on the new series with a white dive time scale punctuated with a dot at 12 o’clock. The inserts of the bezel (graduated in meters) for depths are colored – either in orange, yellow or turquoise – for visual differentiation, with a light dot at 12. Generously set with SuperLumiNova, the dial’s hour indices are also very clear.

Price: $3,890

Specifications: Doxa SUB 300 Carbon

Case:  42.50mm x 45.00mm x 13.40mm forged carbon, glass box sapphire crystal, unidirectional rotating forged carbon bezel, titanium chamber and screw-in case back, screw-down crown, water resistance to 300 meters.

Dial: Painted indices and hands with SuperLumiNova luminescent inserts, painted minute track.

Movement: Automatic ETA-based, COSC-certified with power reserve of 38 hours, Doxa decorations.

Bracelet: Black or matching to dial color, folding clasp, PVD-coated, featuring the brand’s fish symbol, diver’s wetsuit extension.

Price: $3,890.

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Watch Of The Day

Accutron Legacy Model Recalls Railroad Watches

The ultra-clear dial on this Accutron Legacy R.R.-0 echoes one of the watchmaker’s most popular railroad watches. This new model, one of the handful of designs Accutron included in its retro-themed Legacy collection, is inspired by a particular Canadian Railroad watch from 1970.

The new Accutron Legacy R.R.-0

The dial design was one of the era’s most popular railroad watch designs. Its unusual name, shortened to ”zero railroad” or just “zero” because of the 0 numeral at the top of the dial, was a specification required at the time by the Canadian
 Railroad.

The original model was one of the first wristwatches to be approved by the North American Railroad. Prior to the advent of this designation, pocket watches were considered the only timepieces accurate enough to be “railroad-grade.”

The original Accutron Railroad watch from 1970.

The designation required that wristwatches included large Arabic numerals for legibility. It also required that setting the watch required the front crystal to be unscrewed first, and that regulation and adjustment was recorded in five positions.

The new Accutron R.R.-0 echoes the original with a 34mm 
faceted steel railroad case and 
a crown at 4 o’clock. With its bright white 
dial with easy-to-see Arabic numerals, the watch also recalls the original with its railroad-style 
hands and a red seconds hand. And instead of a tuning-fork movement, the new watch is powered by a Sellita automatic
movement with a date indicator. Bulova attaches the new model to a black leather strap.

Instead of a tuning-fork movement, the new watch is powered by a Sellita automatic
 movement, visible in part through the caseback.

The entire Accutron Legacy collection is available now online and in select stores with each design limited to 600 watches. The Legacy R.R.-0 is priced at $1,290.

 

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The Watches

Frederique Constant Refreshes its Classics

After updating its world timer and its Highlife collections in recent months, Geneva-based Frederique Constant now refreshes three models with the most basic time displays within its Classics collection.

Specifically, Frederique Constant has updated its Classics Index Automatic, Classics Quartz GMT and Classics Quartz, expanding these collections with eleven newly detailed models.

The new Frederique Constant Classic Index Automatic.

Classics Index Automatic

This collection now includes five new models. Frederique Constant has replaced two-part guilloché dials with cleaner, matte-finished blue, white or black dials. Instead of Roman numerals you’ll see applied hour markers, all of which have been bevelled and tinted with luminescent material. Formerly thin hands are now sword-shaped in an attempt to portray a geometric purity on the dial.  

The new Frederique Constant Classic Index Automatic, here with rose-gold plated steel case.

Four of the 40mm Classic Index Automatic models are cased in steel while one is made with rose-gold-plated steel (and a blued steel seconds hand). Frederique Constant powers all these new models with an automatic Sellita-based FC-303 caliber offering a power reserve of 38 hours. While one full-steel model features a blue dial and steel bracelet, the remaining watches are fit with a nubuck-finish leather strap in brown, black or blue. Prices start at 850 euros, or about $1,100.

Classics Quartz GMT

These travel-ready GMT models retain their easy-to-read dual-time dials. Three new 40mm steel-cased models now include a sunray-brushed dial and the required three hands for the hours, minutes and centrally set GMT hand. That second time zone indicator is tipped with a red arrow and points to the second time zone at a glance, calibrated to a 24-hour marker track encircling the dial.

The new Frederique Constant Classic Quartz GMT, here on a steel bracelet.

These watches also make it easy to adjust both the local time and the second timezone. The wearer simply turns the activated crown in one direction to adjust the time zone and in the other direction to adjust the date.

Frederique Constant offers three new Classic Quartz GMT models: one with a gray dial and a brown nubuck-finish calfskin strap, another with a blue dial and a blue strap and a third, sportier variation with a black dial on a steel bracelet. Prices start at 695 euros, or about $830.

Classics Quartz

Finally, Frederique Constant now offers its most basic 40mm two-hand watch, with date, in a new blue or black dial model. Except for the lack of a seconds hands, these watches echo the look and finish of firm’s mechanical models with a sunray-brushed dial, polished case, applied hour markers doubled at 12 o’clock and nubuck-finish leather strap or three-link steel bracelet. Prices start at 595 euros, or about $700.

The Frederique Constant Classics quartz, on a steel bracelet.
Frederique Constant Classics quartz.
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The Watches

Citizen Debuts New Automatic Caliber

Citizen this week launches The Citizen, a new automatic watch powered by Caliber 0200, the manufacturer’s first new mechanical movement since 2010.

The new movement was developed at Citizen headquarters in Japan with technical and finishing input from Manufacture La Joux-Perret, a Citizen-owned Swiss movement company.

The Citizen is a 40mm steel watch characterized by a new, integrated (lug-free) steel bracelet and a subtly sparkling, electroformed black dial.

Caliber 0200, which features a free-sprung balance, chronometer-level accuracy and sixty hours of power reserve, will make its debut inside The Citizen, a 40mm steel watch characterized by a new, integrated (lug-free) steel bracelet and a subtly sparkling, electroformed black dial depicting a ‘rippled sand’ effect.

Citizen says the new watch’s design was inspired by a 1924 pocket watch made by Citizen’s predecessor, the Shokosha Watch Research Institute. That 1924 design, which was named ‘Citizen,’ also displays a small seconds hand at 6 o’clock.

The Shokosha Watch Research Institute changed its name to Citizen after the name of its 1924 pocket watch.

The movement

Caliber 0200 is designed to exceed the Chronometer standard (ISO 3159) benchmark for accuracy. Citizen says the movement achieves an average daily accuracy of -3 to +5 seconds. By utilizing a free-sprung balance wheel, Citizen has also created a highly shock resistant caliber since watches with free-sprung balance wheels are known for their ability to maintain stability of rate over time. Citizen utilized the LIGA fabrication process (photolithography) to enhance the precision of escape wheel and the pallet fork.

Caliber 0200 is Citizen’s first new mechanical movement since 2010.

For Citizen, the look of the movement was as important as the technical aspects.

“We made countless layouts of the gears – the barrel, the balance wheel, the escapement – to create a beautiful movement,” according to Taro Nakagawa, who works in Citizen’s mechanical watch element development department. “Eventually we arrived at a layout that shows off the balance wheel, with its beautifully finished overlapping gears, to maximum advantage.”

The results of this aesthetic focus are clearly visible through the clear sapphire caseback. From the back the viewer can see polished gears and decorative finishing of all gear train
 components, including the rotor, the main plate 
and the bridges, which are satin-finished and feature diamond-cut edges.

Citizen applies different finishes to every detail—satinage for the upper surfaces of bridges and diamond-cut for the outer edges.

Rigorous testing

Citizen explains that its manufacturing facility tested the cased movement for a full seventeen days, under various conditions, and in six positions at three different temperature levels, before its watchmakers manually attach each The Citizen bracelet.

As noted, that bracelet is decidedly contemporary and fully integrated into the steel case of The Citizen. Technicians complete the bracelet and case by applying hairline and mirror-finishes, meant to capture the light at varying degrees as the watch sits on the wrist. Similarly, the sand-ripple-pattern electroformed black dial is also designed to reflect light in novel patterns.

At first look, finishing on the dial, movement and bracelet are exciting, and likely superior to Citizen’s previous mechanical models. As sample models become available, we’ll offer an ‘on the wrist’ assessment of The Citizen’s finish and fit.

Finally, Citizen adds a stylized eagle icon, with wings spread, to the top of The Citizen’s dial. The symbol marks The Citizen collection for the brand and is meant to depict “foresight and action based on a clear vision of the future.”

With the enhanced mechanical focus represented by the new Caliber 0200, and this eye-catching debut watch, Citizen seems well prepared for that future.

Price: $6,000, available in September.

 

Specifications: Citizen “The Citizen” (Model NC0200-90E)

Case: 40mm by 10.9mm steel, sapphire caseback and crystal with anti-reflective coating, water resistance to 50 meters.

Movement: Automatic Caliber 0200, accuracy of average -3 to +5 seconds per day, running time of approx. 60 hours when fully wound, 28,800 vph, Certificate of Compliance included.

Dial: Electroformed black to create sand-ripple pattern, hour, minute and small seconds indications. 

Bracelet: Steel, integrated into case.

Price: $6,000, available in September.

 

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The Watches

Chronoswiss Flies the Opus Chronograph Flag

Chronoswiss refreshes the skeletonized Opus Chronograph, one of the Lucerne-based watchmaker’s best-known watches, with new colors and finishes. The new version, dubbed Opus Chronograph Flag due to its red, white and blue colors, spotlights recent technical upgrades that include stronger water resistance, shorter lugs and superior anti-glare treatment.

The new Chronoswiss Opus Chronograph Flag.

First seen in 1995, the Opus Chronograph quickly became a favorite of skeleton watch fans. Chronoswiss notes that it was among the first watchmakers to utilize the then-new pantograph technique for cutting skeleton components when it created the watch’s signature mix of finely cut, filigreed bridges topped with clearly marked subdial perimeters.

The pantograph technique requires the manufacturer to create an oversized depiction of the movement. Then, computer–assisted machinery follows a steel finger along the pattern while a mechanical arm guides the tool that mills the movement’s components, essentially skeletonizing them.

Underneath the newest Opus Chronograph’s blue and white subdial perimeters you’ll see the eye-catching blackened, galvanic-finished bridges of the Chronoswiss Caliber C.741S movement, which Chronoswiss creates using an ETA Valjoux 7750 base. The chronograph hands (center seconds, 30-minute counter and 12-hour counter) are red.

As noted, this newest Opus, which initially debuted last year, allows the wearer to view the skeletonizing clearer than before now that the watch’s curved sapphire crystal is treated with anti-reflection treatment on both sides.

Chronoswiss finishes with watch with a satin-brushed case band, polished lugs and the knurled bezel and large onion crown well known to the brand’s fans. Water resistance has also been improved, and now protects to 100 meters. Price: $11,400.

 

Specifications: Chronoswiss Opus Chronograph Flag

Movement: Automatic Chronoswiss Caliber C.741S from ETA Valjoux 7750 base, skeletonized and CVD-plated blue rotor with Côtes de Genève, ball bearings; polished pallet lever, escape wheel and screws, 28,800 vph, 46-hour power reserve, skeletonized bridges and base plate with perlage, galvanic black color.

Dial: Skeletonized, galvanic blue and silver, sweep hours and minutes, seconds, analogue date, red sweep chronograph seconds, 30-minute counter and 12-hour counter. Hands are lacquered and curved with minute hand bent by hand.

Case: 41mm by 14.8mm 23-piece solid-stainless steel with satin finish and polished, bezel with partial knurling and curved, double coated anti-reflective sapphire crystal, screw-down case back with satin finish and sapphire crystal, onion crown, water resistance to 100 meters, screw-in lugs with patented Autobloc system.

Bracelet:  Louisiana alligator leather, hand-sewn with folding clasp.  

Price: $11,400

 

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