Benrus revives one of its best-selling dive watches with the new Benrus Ultra-Deep, a recreation of one of the watchmaker’s historic models from the 1960s.
The new Benrus Ultra-Deep.
Originally created in response to the rise of scuba diving for sport, the Benrus Ultra-Deep retains the 36.5mm case size of the original model’s ‘compressor’ case. Such cases, built for the U.S.-based Benrus by Swiss-based Ervin Piquerez, would become more water resistant as the diver went deeper because the caseback would pressurize. Modern screw-down cases fulfill the same role in new watches.
The revived Benrus Ultra-Deep also retains the dual-crown design found on the original model.
One crown rotates an inner timing bezel instead of an external bezel, which makes it less likely the bezel will be shifted by mistake, leading to timing errors under water.
Also note the same cathedral-style hour and minute hands and magnified date window as the original.
The new models of course benefit from numerous technical updates, including a screw-down winding crown, C3 SuperLumiNova hands and dial markers. Inside, Benrus fits a reliable Soprod P024 automatic movement. The watch arrives on a high-end Jubilee-style stainless steel bracelet and also includes a blue nylon NATO dive strap.
Breitling adds a tourbillon to three models in its Top Time Classic Cars Collection, the series of luxurious sporty chronographs that celebrate classic automobiles. The new models honor the legacies of the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Corvette and Shelby Cobra, three famed cars Breitling has linked to existing watches in the collection.
The new Breitling B21 Top Time Ford Mustang.
The watchmaker combines the new tourbillon addition with a variety of case metals and dial treatments (including one with a walnut burl dial) meant to add some contemporary technology to the essentially retro-themed Top Time collection.
The new Breitling Top Time B21 Shelby Cobra
Breitling fits each watch with Caliber B21, the same movement Breitling developed with the movement maker Manufacture La Joux-Perret and the same caliber seen first inside last year’s Breitling Premier Tourbillon.
The new Breitling Top Time B21 Chevrolet Corvette.
The Caliber B21 has a column-wheel-controlled design with a horizontal clutch and is a COSC-certified chronometer with a skeletonized oscillating weight. The wearer can enjoy a view of the column wheel on each watch through the caseback.
Breitling first introduced the Top Time Collection in the 1960s and revived it in 2021 as a ‘modern retro’ series built with mushroom-style chronograph pushers and an up/down dial design.
For the new models, Breitling places the tourbillon carriage at 12 o’clock with the chronograph minute counter at the 6 o’clock position, in part to recall the look of vintage automotive dashboard gauges. You’ll also find tachometer scale just inside the bezel of all three new models.
The Watches
One debut model, the Top Time B21 Ford Mustang, boasts a 43-mm bronze case with a titanium back and a green dial, colored to match the first-generation Ford Mustang (1964 to 1974.)
Breitling Top Time B21 Shelby Cobra
A second debut, the Top Time B21 Shelby Cobra, has a 44-mm black ceramic case with a titanium back, crown, pushers, and buckle. Its blue dial matches the color theme of 1962 model, famously developed by Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby.
Breitling Top Time B21 Chevrolet Corvette.
The third debut, the Top Time B21 Chevrolet Corvette, pairs its 44-mm black ceramic case with a titanium back, crown, pushers, and buckle. Its unusual walnut burl dial and perforated leather racing strap are an homage to the steering wheel and dashboard inlays of the legendary 1960s “Sting Ray” Chevy Corvette.
Bell & Ross expands its BR 01 Cyber Skull collection with the new BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue, a 45mm clear sapphire watch with an automaton skull whose jaw moves when the watch’s crown is turned while winding the movement.
The new Bell & Ross BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue.
The high-tech composite sapphire case allows a completely clear view of the manual-wind caliber and its components, whether viewed from the front or back of the watch. The highlight ice blue skull, made of galvanized brass and blue PVD (on the dial side), serves as a backdrop and mainplate for the skeletonized caliber BR-CAL.209, with its 48-hour power reserve and 28,800 vph frequency.
Bruno Belamich, creative director and co-founder of Bell & Ross, explains that the newest skull hue “combines perfectly with the transparency of the sapphire of the case, like a faceted iceberg.”
The watchmaker notes that the case’s sapphire material is almost as hard and scratch-resistant as diamond. To produce the case, technicians use a hydrogen flame to heat an alumina powder to a temperature exceeding 2,000°C., a delicate and painstaking process
Bell & Ross equips the watch with a transparent soft silicone strap held to the wrist with a polished and satin-finished steel pin buckle. The new BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire Ice Blue is a limited edition of 25 pieces, each priced at $115,000.
Chronoswiss adds two new models to its Grand Regulator series, a collection of primarily 44mm steel watches featuring the watchmaker’s trademark regulator dial arrangement with a large central minute hand and smaller off-center hour hand.
The new Chronoswiss Grand Regulator Cowboy.
One model, the Grand Regulator Cowboy, offers a black case with a skeletonized black dial nicely accented with gold markers and typeface. The Cowboy comes affixed to a brown hornback alligator strap.
The new Chronoswiss Grand Regulator Night Prowler.
The second debut, the Grand Regulator Night Prowler, features a deep blue skeletonized dial, blue accents and markers and a black case. This model is attached to a black alligator strap.
Both watches are powered by a handsome skeletonized manual-wind movement, C.677S, which Chronoswiss builds from an ETA Unitas base caliber.
The independent Lucerne-based brand has teamed regulator timekeeping with a wide variety of other functions and displays since 1987, when Chronoswiss debuted the first serially produced wristwatch with a regulator-type dial.
In recent years, the Chronoswiss regulator collection has focused on bold, 44mm partially or fully skeletonized manual-wind watches, as well as automatic models in smaller (37mm and 41mm) diameters, many displaying more classical, dressy dials with time-only indications.
Chronoswiss will make each watch as a limited edition of thirty pieces.
Price: $13,300.
Specifications:Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton
(Two Limited Editions of 30)
CH-6725S-BKBL “Night Prowler”
CH-6725S-BKGO “Cowboy”
Displays: Off-center hours at 12:00, central minutes, small seconds at 6:00.
Case: Solid 21-part 44mm by 12.48mm stainless steel with a DLC-coating, satin finish and polished bezel with side knurling and curved, non-reflecting sapphire crystal, screw-down case back with satin finish and flat sapphire crystal, onion crown, water resistance up to 3 bar, strap bars screwed in with patented Autobloc system.
Movement: Chronoswiss caliber C. 677S, manual winding from a Unitas base, modified on Regulator dial; skeletonized, 18,000 vph, 46-hour power reserve.
Dial: Multi-level on skeletonized base with funnel construction. Middle level with individual number of limitation. Top level screwed on foundation blocks, hands are gold-plated or lacquered.
H. Moser & Cie. creates its thinnest and smallest Streamliner yet with the new Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel, a sleek 39mm cushion-cased steel watch that debuts automatic caliber HMC 500, the independent watchmaker’s first movement with a micro-rotor.
The new H. Moser Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel.
Boasting a very slightly elongated cushion shape and a seriously stunning Grand Feu ‘Aqua Blue’ enamel dial, the new watch retains Streamliner collection’s organic curves and integrated bracelet design.
And with the new, thin movement the watch is among H. Moser’s thinnest at 10.9mm high.
H. Moser mounts its new platinum micro-rotor on a ball bearing and equips it with a bi-directional pawl winding system that offers a solid seventy-four-hour power reserve.
Despite a smaller escapement, the movement’s performance remains as strong as H. Moser’s existing, larger calibers. (See full specifications below).
Made from solid platinum, the micro-rotor is mounted on a ball bearing, equipped with a bi-directional pawl winding system.
Developed in tandem with H. Moser’s sister company, Precision Engineering AG, the movement will serve as a base for the watchmaker’s small-case designs going forward, and will “enable us to introduce new complications, by combining it with modules developed in-house or in collaboration with our partner Agenhor,” explains Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie.
H. Moser artisans wash three different color pigments, which are then finely crushed and applied to the dial.
Moser creates the logo-free translucent enamel by painstakingly firing the substance twelve times to create the fumé effect. In a nice contrast to this primary dial, an offset small seconds display at 6 o’clock is lacquered with a circular pattern.
Price: $32,900.
Specifications: H. Moser Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel
(Reference 6500-1200, steel model, Aqua Blue fumé dial, integrated steel bracelet.)
Case:
Steel topped by a slightly domed sapphire crystal
Diameter: 39.0 mm
Height without sapphire crystal: 9.3 mm; Height with sapphire crystal: 10.9 mm
See-through case-back
Screw-in crown adorned with an “M”
Water-resistant to 120 meters
Dial:
Aqua Blue fumé “Grand Feu” enamel with hammered texture
Applique indices
Hour and minute hands with Globolight inserts
Lacquered small seconds sub-dial with a circular pattern
Movement:
Automatic calibre HMC 500, partially skeletonized
Diameter: 30.0 mm or 13 1/4 lignes
Height: 4.5 mm
Frequency:21,600 Vb/h
Automatic bi-directional pawl winding system
Solid platinum micro-rotor engraved with the H. Moser hallmark
Power reserve: minimum of 74 hours
Original Straumann hairspring
Finish with Moser stripes
Strap/bracelet:
Integrated steel bracelet
Folding clasp with three steel blades, engraved with the Moser logo
One crown rotates an inner timing bezel instead of an external bezel, which makes it less likely the bezel will be shifted by mistake, leading to timing errors under water.
