G-Shock Australia is giving away a gym kit with the purchase of a G-SQUAD watch at the official Casio Australia site (casioau.com). The offer is valid from August 10, 2023, to September 3, 2023. The qualifying and available models range in price from AU$319 to AU$649 and include some from the the GBA900, GBD200, GBDH2000, […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Coming in September to Japan is the G-Shock Euphoria Series of multi-colored watches, which is not related to the HBO television series. These models have a resin bezel with silver metallic-style paint and colorful bands and faces for an energetic style. The models include the green DW-5600EU-8A3, orange DW-5900EU-8A4, and blue GA-100EU-8A2. As we’ve seen […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Iconic New York-based streetwear brand Hidden NY (a.k.a. Hidden) is releasing a DW-5600 collaboration to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of G-Shock. The limited edition and made-in-Japan G-Shock DW5600HDN227 features a translucent bezel and band with a bone-like color, green accents, and a white resin case that is visible beneath the bezel. The Hidden logo appears […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Los Angeles-based sneaker and streetwear boutique Undefeated and G-Shock U.S. teased an upcoming collaboration on Instagram. A video shows a black DW-6900 watch with a yellow face and blue bezel lettering. The text of the post states “UNDEFEATED x G-SHOCK” and “8.19.23,” suggesting that the watch will be released on August 19, 2023. Globally recognized […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Japanese musician Dai Harai is releasing the G-Shock DW-5600 HIRAIDAI signature model featuring a unisex style with a purple and orange face. Dai Harai is a singer-songwriter who is heavily influenced by Hawaiian music and American musical styles. The watch will be available for pre-orders on August 15 for “Locals Only” official fan club members […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
We missed the July release of this G-Shock DW-6900 collaboration with Club América, but it’s still available in Mexico. Club América (full name “Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V.”) is a professional soccer club based in Mexico City which has more titles (13) than any other Mexican team. The DW-6900CLUBA22-2 features the dark blue […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
As Lamborghini celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2023, so it finds itself at a crossroads. The glory days of pure internal combustion recede in the rear-view mirror, its first full electric vehicle is due by 2029 at the latest, and the new Revuelto supercar launches this year, bridging the chasm between two very different worlds. During a 60th get-together at Silverstone, Oracle Time recently met with Lamborghini design boss Mitja Borkert to ask how 60 years of history feed into this striking new design.
The Revuelto is old school Lamborghini with a sustainable twist. Like its Aventador predecessor, the newcomer is the halo on a three-car range and places a 6.5-litre V12 engine behind the passenger compartment. Once again it sends drive to all four wheels, seats only two, and suggests you pack lightly for that long weekend away. The twist is a new plug-in hybrid system that includes a small lithium-ion battery, a single electric motor at the back, and two more to individually drive each front wheel.
Lamborghini Revuelto
Power is the biggest draw. It’s boosted to 1,001bhp – over 20% more than the most potent Aventador – and the 0-62mph dash is dusted in 2.5 seconds, yet this carbon fibre supercar can drive for short periods on nothing but electricity alone, officially cutting CO2 emissions by 30% versus an Aventador.
Borkert’s task is to ‘package’ all this hardware, not just creating enough space for it but to fulfil cooling and aerodynamic requirements. It can’t overheat, it has to stay firmly in touch with the ground at its 219mph-plus top speed… tricky stuff with so much performance. Creating extra space for two passengers was another must – Revuelto passengers enjoy 26mm more headroom and 84mm more legroom than an Aventador.
Mitja Borkert sketching the Revuelto
White, middle-aged, male, well educated… Borkert is in many ways the stereotypical Western car designer, but his background is less conventional. “I was born in East Germany in 1974, which today seems 100 years ago,” he grins. “I was since a little baby interested in cars but I didn’t have access to Western magazines, and when my brother got me Hungarian car magazines, I created my own car catalogues by cutting them out. But honestly about Lamborghini I didn’t know so much. My love for the brand was manifested more around the early 2000s – the Reventon, Sesto Elemento and Estoque (concept cars).”
Borkert graduated from a design course at the University of Pforzheim in the late 1990s and was working at sister brand Porsche when he was approached for the Lamborghini top job in 2016. He quickly began “sketching, Photoshopping, getting all my ideas together” as well as re-familiarizing himself with Lamborghini’s back catalogue. There was a lot to take in.
Lamborghini 350GT
When industrialist and entrepreneur Ferruccio Lamborghini founded his eponymous company in 1963, he set out his stall with the 350GT – a luxurious front-engined, two-plus-two seater that today seems more redolent of Maseratis and Aston Martins than Lamborghinis.
The 1966 Miura led the way to the modern ‘super sports car’ era with a mid-engined V12 layout long before Ferrari made the switch from front engines, but it was Marcello Gandini’s Countach that set the design template. Initially a minimalist wedge on its launch in 1974, later covered in wings and bulges during its 1980s pomp, the Countach still informs Borkert’s work to this day (in fact, he recently created a modern homage based on the Aventador that Lamborghini offered in extremely limited numbers). He grabs a sketch book to demonstrate.
Lamborghini Countach
“The starting point of Lamborghini is our design DNA, and the design DNA is like a very tasteful Italian pasta of two ingredients. The first is the Lamborghini silhouette,” he says, sketching a line that arcs flat and low like a stone skimmed perfectly over water. “When I joined Lamborghini in 2016, my son was two years old, I was working and he came to my desk and said ‘papa Lamborghini’”. This is the point, it should be easy for everyone to immediately understand.
“Then in the front and rear view, we have always this inclined side window and a very flat greenhouse [the glass area], and these massive shoulders – almost looking like a spaceship from the rear.”
This, however, is simply the starting point, the next step is to identify each car’s purpose. Borkert expands: “Is it a track car that needs wings to generate aerodynamic downforce, or do we want to make an elegant, very puristic car like a Countach? The Revuelto is somewhere in between because it is integrating all the aerodynamics.” (ie the spoilers deploy when needed).
Lamborghini Revuelto
Other familiar Lamborghini touchpoints that recur in the Revuelto include scissor doors, side windows that dip low like a plunging neckline and flat surfacing clearly modelled on stealth fighter jets. Inspiration from the Diablo and Murcielago – the post-Countach V12 bloodline – also goes into the melting pot. The Y-shaped graphic that recurs throughout makes for a key differentiator. “We were developing this kind of floating hood and I like motorcycles, so I took inspiration with these headlights that are kind of hidden in a hole,” says the 49-year-old.
The Y graphic repeats for the taillights, alloy wheels and interior, but perhaps most striking is the huge Y-shaped air intake behind each door, which creates a boundary line between interior and engine. It provides the Revuelto with – in Borkert’s words – a “maximum mid-engined look”, as all the volume at the back tapers to an arrowy tip ahead of the driver.
Revealing Revuelto to the crowd at Silverstone is the end of a journey that began way back in 2016 and took in an incredible 17 third-scale models – the most in Lamborghini history, but necessary so that Borkert “could look in the mirror and know we were assessing every idea – this project is so, so important”. Sold out until well into 2025, the Revuelto seems to have gone down well. What comes next is arguably the bigger challenge.’
Lamborghini Terzo MIllennio Concept Car
Lamborghini’s design language is inseparable from the exotic mechanical ingredients it shrouds like a superhero cap, so how does its design boss prepare for an electric era when such components are surplus to requirements?
“It would be a disaster to jeopardise our DNA whatever engine or powertrain is inside,” comes the assured answer. “Today of course we have a big engine and big exhaust system and in future they won’t exist, but maybe I can use these spaces for the battery, or for smart aerodynamics. We have this gift of a design that looks like a spaceship silhouette, it’s crucial to keep that, but I can play with the silhouette and create so many different characters for cars. We have ideas for the next 50 years for sure.”
The Terzo Millennio electric supercar concept gives a taste of how that might play out, but the zero-emissions era represents a huge leap for Lamborghini, never mind the East German kid who grew up cutting out cars from magazines.
More details at Lamborghini.
Oracle Time
When Tissot launched their long teased and much anticipated PRX Powermatic 80 35mm back in June it pretty much lived up to everyone’s expectations with one notable exception. Where was the ice blue edition? Afterall, it was the ice blue edition at 40mm that instantly became the collection highlight and yet the colour was inexplicably missing at 35mm. Well, now we have our answer, the Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 35mm ice blue is simply fashionably late to the party. Alongside the launch of the ice blue, there’s a new golden edition too.
The original Tissot PRX from 1978
Structurally, the PRX 35mm ice blue is identical to its black, white, green and dark blue siblings. That means it has a 35mm diameter case in stainless steel with a tonneau shape and flat, brushed surfaces leading into an integrated bracelet. It’s inspired by the original integrated sports watch design of the PRX from 1978. Despite its smaller size, the 35mm version is just as robust as its larger counterpart with 100m water resistance.
Focussing in on the dial and to be honest, unless you have a reference for scale, you would not be able to tell that the 35mm and 40mm versions are different. The new piece has the same colour, the same square pattern texture, the same indices and set of hands, even the date window looks the same. It’s all just a little bit smaller with the exception of the square pattern which hasn’t been scaled down.
Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 40mm vs 35mm
Interestingly, the fact that the squares are the same size across both models gives us our way to identify which is which if you don’t know their relative sizes. If you zoom in on the index at 12 o’clock on both models (you can see the 40mm version here) the 35mm fits three squares within its span while the 40mm fits four. It’s that kind of small detail and nuance that many collectors love.
While it’s the less exciting launch, we should also touch on the gold edition as well. It’s golden. That’s about it. Purposely obtuse remarks aside, it is actually a nice addition to the collection with a gold PVD coating on its steel case and a golden dial. It’s cool in the same way that a gold Casio is cool, adding a bit of shine and pizzazz to an accessible watch.
Inside, both new versions house the Powermatic 80 automatic movement. If I’ve said it once, I’ve probably said it a thousand times, this is one of the best value-for-money movements on the market. It has an 80-hour power reserve and a Nivachron hairspring in a watch that costs less than £750. Specifically, the ice blue is only £610 while the extra PVD on the gold edition puts it at £745.
Ultimately, I think the 35mm ice blue is going to be incredibly popular. People wanted a smaller PRX in the colour and here it is. Personally, I think I’d still opt for the 40mm but there are definitely collectors who will prefer the vintage size.
Model: Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 35mm Automatic
Ref: T137.207.33.021.00 (gold), T137.207.11.351.00 (ice blue)
Case/dial: 35mm diameter x 10.9mm thickness, stainless steel or gold PVD coated case with gold or ice blue dial
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Tissot calibre powermatic 80.111, automatic, 23 jewels
Frequency: 21,600 vph (4 Hz)
Power reserve: 80h
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date
Strap: Stainless steel or gold PVD coated bracelet with interchangeable system and triple blade folding stainless steel clasp
Price/availability: £610 (ice blue) and £745 (white)
More details at Tissot.
Oracle Time
While we here at Oracle Time are already working on the rest of the year – check here to see what we have planned for the end of the year – the sun is still out (mostly), schools are on holiday and Christopher Ward have just dropped two bright and cheerful colourways for summer. Those new watches are the C63 Sealander GMT Dragonfly Blue and C63 Sealander Automatic 36mm Mulberry Red.
The C63 Sealander GMT is a 39m stainless steel watch with a 24-hour bezel and a combination of brushed and polished finishing. Now, for the first time, it’s available with a vibrant blue sunburst dial that makes it look almost iridescent – hence the name Dragonfly Blue. It adds a fun and colourful variant to a collection that so far consists of dark green, black and white.
A particularly nice feature of the Dragonfly Blue model is that the date window is the same shade of blue. Too many times do watchmakers take the lazy route of having a black or white date wheel that stands out like a sore thumb against coloured dials. CW have taken the extra step and it is appreciated.
Beyond the colourway, there is also one other new design element being introduced with the Dragonfly Blue edition, a brand-new bracelet. Dubbed the Consort bracelet, it’s a five-link stainless steel piece with thicker external links and alternating brushed and polished finishing. From a direct angle it almost reminds me of the Rolex Jubilee except that from a side-on view you can see that it’s far flatter. The new design is completed with a butterfly clasp.
Inside the C63 Sealander GMT Dragonfly Blue is the Sellita SW330-2 Automatic GMT movement. It has a 56-hour power reserve and features hour, minute, second, GMT and date complications. All that’s left to touch on is the price, £905 on rubber strap or £1,060 on Consort bracelet.
Case/dial: 39mm diameter x 11.85mm thickness, stainless steel case, sunray dragonfly blue dial|
Water resistance: 150m (15 bar)|
Movement: Sellita calibre SW330-2, automatic, 25 jewels|
Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)|
Power reserve: 56h|
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date, GMT|
Strap: Rubber or stainless steel bracelet|
Price/availability: £905 (rubber strap) and £1,060 (stainless steel bracelet)
Accompanying the 39mm GMT edition in blue is the new C63 Sealander Automatic 36mm Mulberry Red. The overall design is almost identical to its GMT cousin except for the fact that it lacks a 24-hour bezel, instead featuring a brushed ring. Plus, it’s been downsized to 36mm, making is a good unisex watch.
As for the colourway, it’s a rich fuchsia that skirts around tones of purple, red and pink. It emanates summer vibes – I keep wanting to describe it as some type of summer drink, like a red wine at sunset or a strawberry daiquiri, but the colour doesn’t quite match either of those examples. Sex on the Beach maybe?
Like the Dragonfly Blue, the Mulberry Red is also available on the new Consort bracelet. Compared with the chunky three-link bracelet that the C63 Sealander typically uses, the new one is more refined. It’s not a massive aesthetic shift – it still sits within the wheelhouse of an accessible daily beater – but it definitely leans away from the technical tool watch origins of the collection. Speaking of accessibility, it’s £685 on leather strap or £840 on Consort bracelet.
Case/dial: 36mm diameter x 10.75mm thickness, stainless steel case, sunray brushed mulberry red dial|
Water resistance: 150m (15 bar)|
Movement: Sellita calibre SW200-1, automatic, 26 jewels|
Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)|
Power reserve: 38h|
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date|
Strap: Leather or stainless steel bracelet|
Price/availability: £685 (leather) and £840 (stainless steel bracelet)
More details at Christopher Ward.
Oracle Time
Last year we here at Oracle Time took a pretty big step; we launched the Oracle Time Watch Awards. The point wasn’t to slap our industry friends on the back or push advertisers, but to give you, our readers and community, the chance to have your say in what you considered the best watches of 2022. Now, the Oracle Time Watch Awards are back for 2023 and this year we’re going even bigger with even more emphasis on community and the watches you love as well as more giveaways for you to win.
Last time, over 5,000 of you voted for your favourite watches across ten different categories. The competition was fierce in every one – you can find the full results here – eventually crowning the Grand Seiko Kodo the Reader’s Choice 2022, a worthy winner as it’s one hell of a watch (check out our December 2022 issue where it graced the cover).
The format will be slightly different this year. Previously we curated a shortlist of watches in each category and left an option for you to disregard our choices and enter a completely open vote instead. This time we want you to be involved right from the start by helping us to create the initial shortlist. From August 15th – September 15th, we’ll be asking for your three favourite watches across each of the categories. An important note is that entries must be a wristwatch launched within the last 12 months. If you’re not sure when a watch was released, check this very website. From there we will collate the eight most popular watches per category into the official Reader Shortlist.
Once the Reader Shortlist is complete, it’s time to vote. The winners of each award will eventually be announced, once again, in our December issue and then online a week later for our digital readers. While the methodology is a little different this year, the end result is ultimately the same: a completely open, community driven watch awards. There will just be a little more focus when it comes to the final voting process and shortlist thanks to your help.
Last year’s Readers Choice winner: Grand Seiko Kodo Constant Force Tourbillon SLGT003
The categories themselves are remaining largely the same with a few tweaks here and there, representing the length and breadth of the watch world. Those categories are: Dive Watch, Dress Watch, Chronograph, Travel Watch, Field/Pilot Watch, Microbrand, Accessible, Innovation, Sports Luxe and the big one, Reader’s Choice aka the Best Watch of 2023.
I mentioned that there are also going to be more giveaways this year. While voting for your favourite watches should be its own reward, we completely understand that you deserve something a bit more. Participating in the awards will enter you into a lottery to win prizes – a detailed list of which will be published in due course. Taking part in the shortlisting and voting will each net you an entry, meaning if you do both you’ll have double the chances of winning.
To recap the dates: we’ll be opening the shortlisting stage on 15th August, which will be live for a month, closing 15th September. Voting will then take place during the entire month of October and the results will be announced in our last issue of the year, out 1st December. If you don’t want to remember all of that, that’s not a problem, just sign up to our newsletter where we’ll be keeping everything up to date.
And there you have it, the second, improved edition of the industry’s only entirely community focused awards. Start having a think about the watches you want to enter into the shortlist and feel free to let us know what you’ll be voting for in the comments below or on social media. And don’t forget to share once voting opens to make sure your favourites win.
Oracle Time