May « 2014 « AZ Fine Time Blog

Campanola Eco-Drive Minute Repeater Perpetual BZ0030-08W

After a couple of years of being discontinued in the international market, Citizen’s beautiful and elaborately designed Campanola series will be returning to Arizona Fine Time, now with Eco-Drive technology! Previous models of Campanola were battery driven, allowing for an entire Urushi lacquer dials,which was only on a couple of models. Over the course of the last year, Citizen has finally reintroduced the Grand Complication models with Eco-Drive technology in some unique and modern designs. The previous year brought a new perpetual calendar moon phase model, of which we will be receiving one style. There’s a lot to look forward to, even though supply will be extremely limited. Let’s take a look at the new line up of Campanola.

CAMPANOLA ECO-DRIVE MOON PHASE PERPETUAL BU0020-03B

First in this line up will be the moon phase perpetual BU0020-03B. This Eco-Drive model has a 6 month power reserve from a full charge, moon phase, day, date, month display, and the renowned beautiful burgundy lacquer that everyone loved so much in the original series of Campanola. The gold flaked urushi lacquer aspect of the dial is located in a large circle at 6:00, which also includes the moon display. The Duratect coated stainless steel case measure out at 43.5mm wide and 14.4mm thick and will retail for $3,750.

CAMPANOLA ECO-DRIVE MINUTE REPEATER PERPETUAL BZ0030-08E

Next in the line up is the first set to utilize Eco-Drive technology in their Campanola Grand Complication series, with the hand assembled and finished G910 caliber. These more modern designed Campanola’s will be in cases 44.6mm wide by 15.9mm thick. The 1st model is the BZ0090-08E, with black clouded lacquer ranging from about the 5:00 to just past 9:00. This will come on a black crocodile leather with a grey/white contrast stitching. The retail will be $4,800 and include Citizen’s 5 year warranty.

CAMPANOLA ECO-DRIVE MINUTE REPEATER PERPETUAL BZ0030-08W

The second in the series will be the BZ0030-08W, with a surprisingly gorgeous purple dial. Purple can be a difficult color in a mens watch, but for some reason, this shade maintains a masculine look and looks truly impressive. The same type of clouded lacquer appears in this model in purple, and the black crocodile strap has purple stitching. These pieces will have both chronograph and minute repeater modes that can easily be toggled between by holding the lower left button. The BZ0030-08W will also retail for $4,800.

A new set of Grand Complications were just released this year prior to Baselworld, using the same G910 caliber as the two models above. These styles bring back more of the traditional Campanola design, using larger roman numerals on the chapter ring of both models, in two stunning color combinations.

CAMPANOLA ECO-DRIVE MINUTE REPEATER PERPETUAL BZ0030-16F

The BZ0030-16F will come with gold accents, not just on the dial, but also a matching color accented in the straps stitching. The lacquer used on this dial will be black urushi, with sprinkles of mother of pearl dust laid throughout. This gives a cosmic appearance, symbolizing the heavens and the strength and brightness of life born into harshness. The retail on this model is $5,000. All models of Grand Complication Eco-Drive featuring the G910 movement will have a 12 month power reserve from a full charge.

CAMPANOLA ECO-DRIVE MINUTE REPEATER PERPETUAL BZ0030-16E

The final piece in our new line up of Campanola will be the BZ0030-16E. This model uses a black and red urushi lacquer, expressing the earth in the form of glowing magma starting to cool. There will be red roman numerals along with black crocodile strap with red stitching. The displays on these models will have day of week near the 11:00 area, leap year/chronograph hours display at 8:00, month/chronograph minutes counter at 6:00 and a 24 hour display at 3:00. The BZ0030-16E will have an MSRP of $4,900.

These models are currently available for pre-order direct through AZFineTime.com HERE, or you can call us at 1-800-486-3996. Delivery is expected some time this summer. Be sure to keep an eye on the site for more details.

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To celebrate 40 years of Seiko’s luxury brand Credor (debuted in 1974), the introduction of a new limited edition Signo model has come forth. You may remember a few weeks ago when we shared a live experience of Seiko’s Master Engraver, Kiyoshi Terui, doing a hand engraving at the Baselworld Fair (which can be seen HERE). This was a sneak peak of what we knew was coming, but was not officially released until today. We are proud to introduce the first Credor model ever to make its way to the USA, the new Seiko Credor 40th Anniversary Signo Cherry Blossoms Skeleton GBBD965.

This new limited edition model will express the motif of cherry blossoms with 3 pink mother of pearl cherry blossoms, floating down a stream from the 3:00 to 6:00. The blossoms symbolize Japanese aesthetics, with every part of this skeletonized movement hand engraved by Seiko’s artisan, Mr. Terui. The ring around the outer edge of the dial is a blue toned mother of pearl, with a 37.4mm wide, 6.6mm thick platinum 950 case.

Seiko has utilized their 6899 ultra thin hand wound caliber in this new limited model. The movement itself is is a part of the caliber 6800 series, which was actually developed in 1969. The hand engraving executed in this model has to be within an extremely tight tolerance. The movement itself is only 1.98mm thick, and parts in this caliber can be as thin as 0.25mm thick. A delicate depth of only 0.15mm can be engraved on the components, and the artists patterns engraved are within an astounding 0.01mm tolerance.

The 6899 caliber has a 37 hour power reserve in order to keep a +25/-15 second a day accuracy rating. While this is not going to be close to the actual performance (as we have learned in other Seiko timepieces performing much better then their rating), this is extremely difficult to achieve in a movement this thin. This dual level movement has a unique feature in order to achieve stable accuracy. Due to the skeleton design of this caliber, air resistance in the balance is reduced and the swing angle of the balance increases. To correct this, a “torque control wheel” is used to control the stability of the watches accuracy and improve the swing angle of the balance. This caliber is produced in extremely low volume at Shizuku-Ishi Watch Studio in Morioka, Japan.

The 40th Anniversary of Credor is expressed in engraving on the case back. In the highlighted area in the image above, “CR. 40” will be engraved subtlety. Arizona Fine Time is extremely proud to be receiving very few of these extremely limited models, with only 40 pieces produced for the entire world. The MSRP on the GBBD965 is $26,000 and is scheduled to be released by the end of 2014. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 1-800-486-3996 or submit an inquiry to AZFineTime.com.

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