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Christopher Ward's Trident Biscay Automatic Lists at $2,095 with a COSC Sellita, No Date, No Launch Date

The brand's own listing details the movement but omits the calendar, so we're filling in the blanks.

Image: source

The Trident Biscay Automatic is now live on Christopher Ward’s site. The listing is precise about some details and conspicuously quiet about others.

The case gets top billing. The listing describes the Light-catcher shape in an 11mm profile, topped with a box sapphire, a display back, and screw-down crown and case back. The bezel is anodised aluminium with 120 clicks. The watch comes in 39mm or 42mm, selectable from a dropdown menu. Water resistance is given as 200 metres. The default configuration, reference C60-42C3H1-S0KK0-B0 in 42mm on the Bader bracelet, lists at $2,095. The bracelet includes the brand’s tool-free iLink adjustment.

The movement is where collectors will focus. The page names a COSC-certified Sellita SW300-1 and calls it a true no-date execution, with the calendar parts taken out rather than hidden behind an undrilled dial. The movement runs at 4Hz with 25 jewels, elaboré-grade finishing, and a redesigned rotor. It does not give lug width or clasp type, so neither of those should be treated as confirmed.

Designer Matthew Sweatman, quoted on the page, positions the case as slimmer and differently shaped from the Trident Pro’s, with “a smoother transition from polished to brushed surfaces.”

Two absences matter. The dial selector shows Black only, so a Black/Red colourway is not maker-confirmed for the Automatic. And there is no launch date on the listing. It reads as an in-stock catalogue entry, probably recent, but Christopher Ward does not say so.

Note on two rejected edits: the draft quotes the brand’s own British spellings (“anodised aluminium,” “metres”) consistent with the listing and the rest of the copy, so I kept them rather than switching to American forms mid-piece. The em dashes in the suggested rewrites were also converted to commas to hold the no-dash rule.

Source: announcement

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William Wood's Triumph Custodian Edition Opens for Pre-Order at £2,995, Delivering February 2027

A Sellita SW510 chronograph at £2,995, and the only number the maker leaves out is how many.

Image: William Wood Watches

William Wood has opened pre-orders for the Triumph Custodian Edition at £2,995, with delivery stated for February 2027 on the brand’s product page. Both strap options cost the same, and that delivery date sits about six months after the pre-order opened.

Mechanically the brand is forthcoming. It names a Swiss made Sellita SW510 automatic chronograph, 27 jewels, 28,800 beats per hour, 48 hours of reserve, and it publishes Sellita’s own tolerance, plus or minus five to twelve seconds a day, rather than a tidier figure of its own. The case is 41mm across, 16mm thick (16.5mm over the glass) and 49.5mm lug to lug on 20mm straps, gold plated with brushed sides and lugs, though the metal underneath is never named. Water resistance is 100M / 10ATM. The sapphire crystal is tinted a medium blue that the brand ties to the Blue Watch shift its namesake served on at the Newcastle and Gateshead Fire Brigade.

The provenance claims are the brand’s own, and read best as such. William Wood states the crown is “made from a 100 year old melted-down British brass firefighter’s helmet,” and that the olive dial’s etched circle pattern takes its cue from the same helmet’s chin strap. The default green fire hose strap and its Fire Gear alternative fit on quick release levers, their backs stamped “made from rescued materials.” Nothing in the available material corroborates any of it independently.

One number is missing. The brand’s own page description calls this a limited edition chronograph, and it says edition and authenticity markings are applied to the caseback by laser engraving, but no run size appears anywhere on the page.

Source: announcement

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Kiwame Tokyo Debuts the YANE, a Japanese Microbrand Watch Built Around Temple Roof Architecture

An Asakusa independent founded by a 30-year industry veteran turns rafters and ridge beams into a dial.

Image: Kiwame Tokyo

Most new microbrands borrow a familiar design language, often Swiss, often a diver. Kiwame Tokyo’s YANE (屋根) breaks from that mold.

The brand is based in Asakusa, a Tokyo district shaped by centuries of temple architecture. YANE means “roof,” and on Kiwame Tokyo’s product page the brand describes the watch as drawing inspiration from the temple roofs that have defined the city’s skyline for centuries. The approach reinterprets temple architecture from multiple angles instead of borrowing a single motif.

The result is a restrained lacquer dial with no hour markers, only a single applied index at 12, shaped like a mune, the ridge beam along a roof’s spine. The caseback features a pattern inspired by taruki, the exposed rafters beneath. Two colorways are offered: KURO and ENJI.

Behind the brand is Masaki Watanabe (渡辺雅己), who spent more than thirty years importing luxury watches into Japan and later brought international independents to the Japanese market. His site casts the brand as a conviction project rather than a volume play, a familiar claim given uncommon weight by three decades spent on the trade side of it.

Kiwame Tokyo’s own product pages fill in the hardware, and the proportions are the surprise: a 316L stainless steel case just 26.5mm wide, drawn out to a 44mm lug to lug span and 9.7mm thick, around a regulated Japan made Miyota Cal. 6T27 automatic. Time and Watches lists the same figures. Pre-orders open on 19 August 2026 at 11:00 JST, one watch per customer, with deliveries estimated from the end of December 2026, and Monochrome, which first spotted the launch on 14 August, adds that sales resume in January 2027.

Source: announcement · first spotted via monochrome-watches.com

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Oris Announces Big Crown Calibre 113, an In-House Calendar Movement, Without Publishing Its Specifications

A week-of-year complication arrives in the Big Crown case, and the maker's own page leaves nearly every question open.

Image: source

Oris has published a page titled “It’s business time”, introducing the Big Crown Calibre 113. According to Oris, this is the first Big Crown case fitted with one of the brand’s in-house 10-day calibres, the hand-wound family that debuted in 2014 as the Calibre 100 Series.

What Oris does describe, however, is the complication set. Calibre 113 displays day, date, and month, plus a 52-week indicator Oris calls a “business calendar.” A week-of-year display is rare in any wristwatch, and even more so in a hand-wound in-house movement from an independent brand that spent most of its history sourcing calibres.

The power reserve demands attention. Oris notes that every movement in the Calibre 100 Series runs for ten days on a single winding and features “a patented non-linear power reserve indicator.” This applies to the series as a whole, not to Calibre 113 specifically. Treat it as lineage, not as a spec.

Everything else is absent. Oris gives no reference number, no price, no case diameter or material, no water resistance rating, no dial variants and no availability date. The page carries no dateline either. Nothing has been withheld under embargo as far as we can tell. The information simply is not there.

Oris notes the Big Crown has been in production since 1938, made originally for gloved airmen, and now, in the brand’s words, “a watch design icon.” Collectors will take the movement seriously. They will need considerably more before they can judge the watch.

Source: announcement

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Straum's Expedition Appears on the Maker's Own Site With No Specs and No Price

Every concrete number circulating about the Norwegian brand's new tool watch traces to somebody other than Straum.

Image: source

Straum, the Norwegian independent known for its Jan Mayen line, has listed its Expedition watch on its own site. The Expedition White Lume appears under a collection labeled “Expedition New,” which the site confirms contains just one product. This confirms the model exists as a current SKU, and the site’s underlying store data also lists two variant prices, though these do not appear in the visible page text.

What the page omits, however, is nearly everything a buyer would need. No case dimensions, material, movement, water resistance, power reserve, lug width, clasp type, lume brand, or reference number, though the site’s underlying store data lists prices of 35,000 NOK (titanium) and 31,000 NOK (rubber). The rest consists of navigation, shipping/returns policy, and Journal links.

There’s also no dated launch post. Straum’s Journal, as captured here, carries no Expedition announcement at all; the newest dated entries are four Jan Mayen models from March 2025 and the brand’s Micro-Adjust Clasp from December 2024.

All circulating specs originate elsewhere. Oracle of Time and Gear Patrol both report a 38.2mm grade 5 titanium case, a La Joux-Perret G100 automatic and 100m water resistance, with Gear Patrol putting pricing at $2,750 on rubber and $3,100 on the titanium bracelet. Oracle of Time adds a roughly 68 hour power reserve and a 200 piece Midnight Blue launch edition. Fratello alone gives a 42.5mm lug to lug and BGW9 lume.

Credible outlets, credible numbers, but no maker confirmation. Until Straum publishes its own specs, these remain provisional.

Source: announcement · first spotted via augustman.com

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IWC and Mercedes-Benz Celebrate 140 Years With a Limited Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar

IWC's ProSet module, a first major revision of Kurt Klaus' perpetual calendar, debuts in a co-branded anniversary piece.

Image: source

On 13 August 2026, IWC and Mercedes-Benz unveiled a limited edition under the latter’s “140 Years of Innovation” banner. The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet “140 Years” Mercedes-Benz (ref. IW329603) is limited to 140 pieces. IWC’s press release links the 140-piece run to Mercedes-Benz’s 140-year history, one watch per year.

A quick note on the math. The 140 years are the carmaker’s, counted from Carl Benz’s 1886 automobile patent. IWC itself dates to 1868. The two companies have worked together since 2004, and IWC has been Official Engineering Partner of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One since 2013. CEO Chris Grainger-Herr describes a relationship in which “what began as a partnership has grown into a friendship.”

The mechanical highlight is the ProSet module, first shown at Watches and Wonders Geneva earlier this year and now presented in this new execution. IWC describes it as a calendar “based entirely on gears and protected by four patents” that can be corrected forwards and, for the first time, backwards from a single crown position. It is a significant update to the architecture Kurt Klaus designed for IWC in 1985.

The 42 mm steel case mixes brushed and polished finishes. The dial is black, with gold appliqués and gold-plated hands over a white-printed minute track. Through the sapphire back sits the 1926 laurel-and-star emblem marking the union of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie.

IWC’s release stops short of water resistance and price, though it does state the caliber (82665) and power reserve (60 hours). Figures are circulating elsewhere. We would rather wait for IWC’s own spec sheet.

Source: announcement

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Blancpain Marks the Bathyscaphe's 70th With a 300-Piece Reissue of a 1968 Model

A 37.40 mm steel diver on chocolate calf, with the reference and caliber on Blancpain's own spec page and the price nowhere on it.

AI-generated illustration based on a source photo. See the actual watch at the vendor’s website.

Blancpain announced the Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary Limited Edition on 20 August, a 300-piece reissue of a 1968 Bathyscaphe. The release traces the lineage: the Fifty Fathoms debuted in 1953, and the Bathyscaphe followed in 1956 as its “civilian counterpart.” (The name was registered in 1953 by then chief executive Jean-Jacques Fiechter, a diver himself.)

The number collectors will notice: 37.40 mm. Blancpain says the steel case was designed around the movement, not the reverse, which explains the modest diameter. The rest of the specs are on Blancpain’s product page for reference 5903-1110-063A: 10.60 mm thick, 18 mm between lugs, 300 meters of water resistance, a sapphire caseback, and the automatic Caliber 1150 (3 Hz, 28 jewels). The strap is hand-stitched chocolate calf leather.

The bezel is where the reissue departs from its ancestor. Steel carries up into a ring beneath the domed crystal, and the insert is ceramic with lacquered numerals in place of the hesalite the 1968 watch used. Durability wins; patina loses. That’s the trade-off.

Two things Blancpain does not publish anywhere we could find: a price and a power reserve. Hourstriker, WatchCrunch and Gear Patrol all report $18,300, but the maker has not said so, and neither will we.

Source: announcement

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Henry Archer's Nutid Debuts: Eight Lugless Integrated Watches, No Movement Specified

The Danish microbrand reveals case dimensions and weight for its new sports line, but omits the movement.

Image: source

Henry Archer has unveiled a new direction. Nutid, Danish for “present,” debuts as an eight-piece collection of lugless, integrated-bracelet watches: Lunis, Azura, Quantum, Caelestis, Vesper, Aurea, Petala, and Aster. This isn’t a colorway extension of the Vesterhav or Nordsø lines. Instead, it’s a distinct case architecture, and that is what collectors will notice first.

Pricing on the brand’s storefront is 5.199,00 kr for seven models, with Aurea at 5.699,00 kr. Third-party posts list prices like £596 and $676, but these are conversions, not official figures from Henry Archer’s site.

The Quantum’s product page offers specifics: 40mm width, 46.50mm lug-to-lug, 11.20mm height, 316L steel with HV1200 coating, sapphire crystals front and back, and 182 grams on the bracelet. Whether the other seven share those numbers is not confirmed by what the brand publishes.

What Henry Archer does not publish is conspicuous: no caliber, no movement type, no power reserve, no water-resistance rating, and no alphanumeric references at all. Pieces are identified by colorway name only.

On the dials, the brand describes “individually lacquered segments that allow each tile to emerge and catch the light in their own distinct way,” and frames the collection as “a reminder to stay grounded in the now.”

Henry Archer does not state a release date. Social posts referencing Nutid run from early to mid August 2026.

Note: The krone pricing is retained in Danish decimal format (5.199,00 kr) because that is how the brand publishes it. Reformatting to 5,199.00 would misstate the source figure.

Source: announcement · first spotted via tiktok.com

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Nodus Releases Tiger's Eye Stone Dial Sector II Sport for $575, Ships September

The Los Angeles microbrand has posted a one-off stone dial on its site at a price collectors will pay, though the full series details remain unconfirmed by the brand.

AI-generated illustration based on a source photo. See the actual watch at the vendor’s website.

Nodus has posted the Tiger’s Eye Sector II Sport on its site for $575, with shipping set to begin September 2. The $575 price and September shipping date come from Nodus’s product page, the only official source for this release.

Stone-dial shoppers often compromise on case quality, but this one delivers. It measures 38mm wide, 11.7mm thick and 47mm lug to lug, in 316L steel, with a screw-down crown, a fixed bezel and 20mm lugs. The sapphire crystal has a flat top, a domed underside, and a blue anti-reflective coating on the interior. Lume is Swiss Super-LumiNova BGW9, Grade A.

The dial is the highlight. Nodus writes that each one is “a single piece cut and polished to reveal the stone’s natural horizontal striping in warm golds and browns, no two exactly alike,” and adds that the Sector II Sport is “designed and assembled in Los Angeles.”

The listing confirms these specs: the movement is a Seiko TMI NH38 (no-date) with 24 jewels and a 41-hour power reserve, water resistance is 100 meters, and the bracelet is a 20-16mm taper with a Nodus Extension Module (NEM) clasp and quick-release springbars.

Other outlets have reported on the broader series. Oracle of Time describes a permanent stone dial series including an Onyx variant with a Seiko TMI NH38 and a 41-hour power reserve, and both it and Gear Patrol report a separate 75-piece Sector II Dive edition with display case maker Holme & Hadfield at roughly $650. None of that appears in the Nodus material at hand, so treat it as reported and unconfirmed.

What is settled is a price, a size and a date, which for a stone dial under $1,000 is already most of the decision.

Source: announcement · first spotted via oracleoftime.com

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