Bathed in Bronze: Oris Updates the Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze with New Bracelets, Dial Colors

Bathed in Bronze: Oris Updates the Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze with New Bracelets, Dial Colors

Bronze watches are everywhere, and few brands have worked as much to capitalize upon the trend than Hölstein-based Oris. This week, Oris continues its place at the vanguard of the bronze wave while revisiting again one of its classic designs with the introduction of the updated Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze. The new watch – which includes four different dial colorways in green, brown, Bordeaux (red), and blue — is especially notable for offering all four with a new seven-link bronze bracelet in addition to their predecessors’ leather straps.

The familiar Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze design is evident in all the new models; you can read more about that venerable design in our last hands-on review of the model here. These hallmark elements include a 40-mm diameter for the bronze case, which takes direct inspiration from a vintage pilots’ watch produced by Oris back in the late 1930s, complete with a signature “big crown,” sans any guards; a coin-edged bezel; and sharp facets finished primarily with satin brushing.

As mentioned, the most notable update to the watch is its use of a new, all-bronze seven-link bracelet. This represents the second use of an all-bronze bracelet by Oris in one of its production series, following up on the 2021 introduction of the Divers Sixty-Five “Cotton Candy” Editions and the limited Hölstein Edition 2020 from the year prior, both of which used a three-link bronze bracelet. The use of a seven-link here points once more to the evolution of the bronze trend, with the brand now using the warm-toned metal in a larger way — not only for its divers’ models, but also within other product families as well, including the slightly more formal-wearing Big Crown Pointer Date collection.

On the dial, we find a familiar design hearkening back to both previous Big Crown Pointer Date editions, and by extension their 1938 historical source model. It features an outer analog date ring indicated by a red-tipped pointer, and a pre-war configuration in all its other details, incorporating printed hour markers and lume-filled, cathedral hands. The choice of four different color options allows a wide range of choices for fans of the style; the blue and red dials are the first to appear in Big Crown Pointer Date series, and the green dial is the first use of that color to in the regular production of it. Both the subtler browns and reds and striking blues and greens remind one of familiar Oris color palettes, but they all add a very cool contrast to the all-bronze tones of the cases and bracelets.

Inside the updated watches is the same caliber used in previous iterations, Oris Caliber 754, based upon the Sellita SW200-1 and finished in-house by Oris, equipped with a signature red rotor. The automatic movement stores a power reserve of 38 hours, and is equipped with a stop-seconds function for easy time synchronization. The use of the caliber allows for a clean dial aesthetic, but differs from the historical use of the “Pointer” Caliber 373 from 1938, with its signature 6 o’clock seconds counter (above), which Oris has revived in other modern models, including 2021’s Big Crown Pointer Date Calibre 403.

The bronze-clad series as we now know it was first introduced in 2019, with a vintage-inspired Big Crown Pointer Date version. The success of that launch solidified the use of bronze cases as a fixture in the brand’s catalog — following up a previous 2018 special edition of the Big Crown Pointer Date launched in celebration of Oris’s 80th anniversary. These new models continue to showcase the company’s interest in bronze, which it has amply demonstrated in recent years with timepieces like the Big Crown ProPilot Big Date Bronze, Carl Brashear Cal. 401 Limited Edition, and various two-tone Divers Sixty-Five models.

The Oris Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze, in all four of its color options, is available now, directly from the brand as well as its authorized retailers. Pricing begins at $2,100 on a standard leather strap, and rises to $2,500 on the new seven-link bronze bracelet.

To learn more, visit Oris, here.

The Most Exciting New Watches of 2022 (So Far)

Bookmark this page and return often, as we’ll update it throughout the year with the most notable new watches of 2022.

There are enough watches released each year that you wouldn’t be blamed for missing some of the coolest ones — but we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen. To help you cut through the horological jungle, we’re featuring the 2022 watches that collectors and watch nerds are talking about most. The year is kicking off strong already, with some killer debuts from Seiko, Zenith, Audemars Piguet and others.

While some new releases might only feature an attractive new dial color or minor change, others will set the watch world abuzz — it’s the latter that’s we’re interested in. You can find even more new watches in our weekly roundups here, but here we’ll focus on the important new products from the big brands — and some smaller noteworthy ones, too. We’ve got our fantasies and predictions for the year, but we’d rather be pleasantly surprised by daring, creative or innovative new watches. You’ll find that and more below.

The following watches are presented in alphabetical order, and we’ll be adding more on a regular basis.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding 50th Anniversary

Audemars Piguet

We knew it was going to be a big year for the Royal Oak. The iconic design is turning 50, but it was hard to guess how the brand could make the most of the moment — there are already Royal Oaks of just about every flavor you could want. What we got wasn’t a radical departure, but what you could call a new generation of Royal Oak. The brand released a wide range of models in the collection all at once, but the core Royal Oak Selfwinding and chronographs in a couple sizes got a range of aesthetic, ergonomic and technical tweaks that amount to a serious refresh. We’re particularly excited about the simple 37mm Selfwinding with its new movement and slim case.

Notable Features: New in-house automatic movement, “grand tapisserie” dial, thinner case and integrated bracelet, accentuated bevels

Diameter: 37mm

Movement: Audemars Piguet 5900 automatic

Price: $24,000

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Grand Seiko Seiko Spring Drive SLGA009 White Birch

Grand Seiko

The first Grand Seiko White Birch (AKA “Shirakaba”) watch came out in 2021 featuring a dial motif meant to evoke birch bark, another great example of the brand’s mastery of captivatingly textured, nature-inspired dials. It had a lot of what made Grand Seiko watches like the Snowflake a modern classic, but was powered by a Hi-Beat (5Hz) automatic movement.

Now with a Spring Drive movement, like the Snowflake, it seems to offer the best of everything Grand Seiko is known for, from its innovative tech to its famous finishing and beautiful dials. Not just any Spring Drive movement, however, this is the brand’s latest featuring five days of juice with the power reserve indicator on display through a caseback window along with a stunning movement view.

Notable Features: Spring Drive movement, automatic winding, 5-day power reserve, power reserve display, zaratsu polishing, unique textured dial

Diameter: 40mm

Movement: Grand Seiko 9RA2 Spring Drive

Price: $9,100

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H. Moser & Cie. x The Armoury Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse

Courtesy

Some of the coolest watch dials are those that you can’t even see. A new collaboration between independent Swiss watchmaker H. Moser & Cie. and the Hong Kong menswear brand The Armoury is one such example thanks to a technical material called Vantablack. Vision depends on light, and because Vantablack absorbs 99.965% of light that hits it, it offers virtually no optical feedback and can create a feeling as if staring into a void.

It’s not the first time for H. Moser & Cie. to use this material, but the new watch in its Endeavour collection offers something different and appreciated: indices. Though not quite as minimal as previous versions that featured hands appearing to float in emptiness, it makes up for it with ease of reading the time. Oh, and it’s got a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock, too. Powered by an impressive in-house movement, the two versions (one in steel and one with rose gold hands, indices and inner bezel) are limited to 28 examples each.

Notable Features: Vantablack dial, collaboration with The Armoury, in-house manually wound movement, limited to 56 pieces total

Diameter: 38mm

Movement: H. Moser & Cie. HMC 327 manual

Price: $25,900

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Hublot Big Bang Integral Time Only

Courtesy

You might have seen the Hublot Big Bang Integral watch before, but not like this. New models for 2022 are an extension of an existing line, but they’re also much more than that. Reducing the size to a slim 40mm (from 42mm) and offering a simpler, time-only version gives these watches a whole new, relatively toned-down character.

It’s one that’ll appeal to the many fans of so-called “sports-chic” watches like the Royal Oak and Nautilus — and in many ways opens up the brand to a new audience that might have found its boldly sized chronographs and other watches too loud. In three variations of titanium, yellow gold and blacked-out ceramic, it’s surely one of the strongest examples in its category (in titanium, particularly).

Notable Features: Time only, skeletonized dial, in-house movement, 50-hour power reserve, integrated bracelet

Diameter: 40mm

Movement: Hublot HUB1710 automatic

Price: $17,800+

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Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date

Courtesy

Bronze watches are all kinds of popular, but those with full bronze bracelets were unheard of until Oris introduced one in 2020. Now, a new version of the brand’s Big Crown Pointer Date watch gets the same treatment. With its seven-link, Jubilee-esque bronze bracelet, however, it feels special and is sure to be one of the coolest watches of the year. Only problem is that each the four dial colors of blue, green, red and brown accent the bronze so well, it’s hard to choose a favorite.

Notable Features: Full bronze bracelet, pointer date

Diameter: 40mm

Movement: Sellita SW200 automatic

Price: $2,500

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Porsche Design Chronograph 1 1972 Limited Edition

Courtesy

What else could Porsche Design have done for the anniversary of its founding and iconic debut product? It might not be surprising if you knew that the brand was turning 50 this year, but we’re happy to see the Chronograph 1 come back as a vintage reissue. Introduced in 1972, this was not only the product that launched the brand, designed by the man who also created the Porsche 911 (and other cars), F. A. Porsche, but it was also the world’s first watch with an all-black coating.

So, it’s a collectors' favorite for obvious reasons, aside from just being a super cool chronograph (that Tom Cruise wore in the film Top Gun). The brand announced this faithful reissue as a limited edition alongside some special edition cars and another version of the watch only available to Porsche car customers. We’d love to see some variation of it become a permanent part of the brand’s modern lineup with a slightly more accessible price, but that’s probably wishful thinking.

Notable Features: Faithful reissue of 1972 model, COSC-certified chronograph movement, limited to 500 examples

Diameter: 40.8mm

Movement: Porsche Design WERK 01.140 automatic

Price: $7,700

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Seiko King Seiko Modern Re-Interpretation

Seiko

Seiko has once again delighted, confused and polarized fans. King Seiko was yet another sub-brand from the watchmaker’s history, but one that mostly remained obscure to all but nerdy collectors. It was created, the lore goes, to actually compete with the brand’s own higher-end Grand Seiko watches. Based on the vintage “KSK” watch from the 1960s, the new King Seiko watches feel positioned somewhere between Presage and Grand Seiko with retro looks, thin 37mm cases, box-style sapphire crystal and the brand’s workhorse automatic movement. They come on steel bracelets in five dial variations.

Notable Features: Modern reinterpretation of a 1960s vintage watch, distinctive angular lugs, box-style sapphire crystal, 70 hours of power reserve

Diameter: 37mm

Movement: Seiko 6R31 automatic

Price: $1,700

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TAG Heuer Autavia Chronometer Flyback

TAG Heuer

1960s Heuer Autavia chronographs are classics that any vintage watch nerd knows. While TAG Heuer’s modern Autavia collection reflects their influence in some ways, it’s been quite its own thing for the last several years. Now with the introduction of a couple of chronograph models (and a GMT) for 2022, TAG gets a step closer to the collection’s roots for its 60th anniversary.

This isn’t a reissue as was seen in 2017, but a modern chronograph with just enough vintage Autavia to intrigue fans. With its flyback feature, it also seems to channel the Heuer Bundeswehr. But you can just ignore all that context if you want and simply appreciate it as a damn cool modern watch, particularly in its black DLC-coated version (shown here).

Notable Features: Flyback chronograph, COSC chronometer certification, black PVD steel case, ceramic bezel, in-house automatic movement

Diameter: 42mm

Movement: TAG Heuer Heuer02 automatic

Price: $6,950

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Zenith Defy Revival A3642

Zenith

Zenith has been knocking it out of the park in recent years with its Revival series of reissued vintage watches and models that build upon them. The Defy Revival A3642 is the latest among them and easily the funkiest. It recreates almost exactly the model that launched the Defy collection in 1969, still home to much of the brand’s most avant-garde design.

The Revival A3642 is chock full of the kind of design that’s typically associated with the 1970s, with its angular, geometric case and bezel and those tall, ridged hour indices. The original model was nicknamed the “Bank Vault,” and its octagonal case and will surely call Fitted with sapphire crystal, a modern automatic movement and water-resistant to 300m, though, this is no delicate vintage watch.

Notable Features: Recreation of a vintage model, gradient dial, in-house movement, ladder-style bracelet

Diameter: 37mm

Movement: Zenith Elite 670 automatic

Price: $7,000

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Zenith Defy Skyline

Courtesy

Zenith’s new collection hits multiple talking points at once: At first glance, the Skyline fits into the existing Defy collection with its modern, avant-garde and angular looks, and it simultaneously evokes the popular “sports-chic” genre with its integrated bracelet design and faceted bezel. The dial texture references the brand’s star logo. Look closer, however, and there’s a lot more going on, too.

If you see the watch in person, the first thing you’ll notice is its seconds hand at 9 o’clock doing a rapid lap every ten seconds — as opposed to 60 seconds as you’d expect. This is because it features a version of the brand’s “high-beat” (5Hz) El Primero movement, but here it’s a three-hand time-only watch instead of a chronograph. This helps it feel very much Zenith’s own thing and adds significant interest. At launch, it comes in three versions with white, blue and black dial variants.

Notable Features: New design, three-hand El Primero movement, integrated bracelet

Diameter: 41mm

Movement: Zenith El Primero 3620 automatic

Price: $8,400

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Swallows and Pocket Watches: Christopher Caldwell’s “The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battiste”

Welcome back to Reading the Weird, in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches.

This week, we cover Christopher Caldwell’s “The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battiste,” first published in the January/February 2022 issue of Uncanny Magazine. Spoilers ahead, but go ahead and read this one yourself!

“The Mother arrives on foot. She is small and slight, and hidden beneath her veils, mantles, and gowns of black byssus—the art of their construction lost when fabled Seabride was swallowed by the sea.”

In the second holiest city of the Lightcarrier, the Mother of Makhesthaines is anathema except during a rare astrological conjugation. On that night in Harvestmonth when the moon rises round and bronze as a betrothal promise watch, she enters the Grand Cathedral of Saint Ignace Battiste. She, the murderer’s patron, comes hidden beneath veils and robes of black byssus, stepping lightly, her trains stirring up no dust. Her brides accompany her: black-haired La’acroix in emerald brocade, smiling, hips swaying, a gilded dagger on her throat; muscular and bare-breasted Kravat dressed in hempen trousers, bearing a makhaira sword. Only those who have accepted Lightcarrier oaths may watch them into the basilica, where linkboys conduct them to a chapel. There the Mother unlocks the monstrance containing Saint Ignace’s calcified heart. Flanked by her brides, she will carry the heart to the Necropolis that crowns the city.

What happens there is unknown, until the unnamed narrator breaks the ancient covenant and follows the three.

Like every child, xhe knows how the soul-drinking Mother tried to corrupt the city, and how the martyr-patron Ignace defied her. Undaunted, he withstood her and her brides’ assaults until in vanquished vexation the Mother set his body aflame. But golden-throated swallows beat away the ashes with their wings to reveal the Saint’s unburnt heart and bronze watch, which are the promise of his continued protection. Thus are the heart and swallows and watch the symbols of the order.

Narrator is one of the acolytes assigned to escort the trio to the Necropolis gate. They then retire to watch the moon’s descent while contemplating their vows. Narrator, however, is more given to curiosity than contemplation. Before joining the order, xhe was a slipthief; xhe uses those old skills to creep undiscovered after the Mother’s party. They ascend through a forest lit by the lapis emanations of bioluminescent worms. The branches are heavy with roosting swallows and starlings. As the trees thin, Narrator hides behind tombstones and crypts until at last Mother and companions reach the summit rotunda and its pinnacle-statue of Ignace. There they approach a weathered plinth in the rotunda’s shadow. Now Narrator will see what torments they mean to inflict on the saint’s relic!

Instead xhe watches them gently lay the heart on the plinth. The Mother shrugs off veils and robes to reveal a youthful face and eyes the color of the winter sea. She unfastens a bronze promise watch, the replica of Ignace’s, and sets it beside his stony heart. As the moon dispels the rotunda shadow, the heart beats in time with the Mother’s watch. Swallows fly low and mass into the shape of a man. Their feathers rain down and then the figure is a man, seated naked on the plinth, unmistakably the saint himself, no more beautiful than the narrator or any other dark-skinned city crafter. The worried look on his face turns to tenderness when he sees the Mother.

Narrator eavesdrops on their conversation. And you return to me once more? asks the Mother. He will always return to her, always, always, Ignace responds. To the saint’s stern assertion that she should have razed “their” works, the Mother says that for vengeance’s sake she could bathe in “their” blood. Yet while “their” enchantment lasts, she and Ignace can reunite for one night every 23 years, when the moon renews their promise. A fleeting reunion, yes, but one night begins a life, and she’ll have a lifetime of them.

Shock sickens narrator as the bedrock of his faith is shattered, the fable of Ignace’s “violation, the sacrifice serene, the city’s salvation” rendered false. He creeps away unmolested. Next morning, he watches the prioress wipe from Ignace’s watch a single spot of verdigris, such as a tear might have left.

Narrator doesn’t leave his Order or declaim its lies, for he loves his city as much as “vengeful witch ever loved wronged saint.” And what will happen to the city when the enchantment fails? Though knowing them hollow, he keeps his oaths and rises through the ranks.

He lives to see the Mother and brides return. The second time, he wonders whether dust beneath the monstrance means Ignace’s heart begins “to crumble under the impossible weight it carried.”

As a third reunion approaches, the aged narrator observes ill omens. An envoy comes from afar, his attendant reeking of foul magic. Sorcerers fail in their glamour-casting, the queen is ill at ease, the air smells of smoke and blood. Will Mother and Brides make their pilgrimage to the Necropolis? Narrator searches a darkening sky for swallows or at least starlings, but his eyes are old.

Will Ignace come? “What means always to the dead?”

What’s Cyclopean: Some lovely alliteration this week: the callow youth given more to curiosity than calm contemplation, slipping skyclad through the window-slit into starless night.

The Lightcarrier offices also play with language, from the city’s “criators” down to the “linkboys.”

The Degenerate Dutch: Caldwell plays with Catholic terms and trappings in a less-than-perfectly-Catholic setting, and talks about his own religious experiences in an interview following the story.

Weirdbuilding: Our narrator makes wry reference to the sorts of things that might happen in a more traditional Weird story: gasping in horror at an unwelcome revelation, scrambling from the sight of that revelation pursued by “limbless horrors.”

Libronomicon: We learn little about the sacred texts of the order, other than what they don’t say: they don’t include the agreement that lets the Mother into the city once every 23 years.

Madness Takes Its Toll: Everyone appears sane, though our narrator seems increasingly anxious after 23 years serving and protecting a lie.

Anne’s Commentary

When the world of “getting and spending” was too much with him, William Wordsworth wrote:

Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

So say we all, or at least, so say a lot of us. We all live in the Real World, but we don’t have to set all our stories, spoken or written, heard or read, secular or sacred, in the realm of what actually is, what actually happened, what actually is bothering us or at least making us wonder. Storytellers can invent worlds of their own, for us to devour or spit out if they don’t suit our taste–if they don’t somehow, to whatever extent, ring true to our Real World. Or, too often perniciously, to the Real World we want to believe in, evidence be damned.

Christopher Caldwell’s “Ignace Battiste” reminded me of Lord Dunsany’s Pegana and Lovecraft’s Dreamlands. More obliquely, because of the French-based names, it reminded me of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series. Then again, the people of her Terre d’Ange live by the rule Love as thou wilt. Which, as it turns out, is just what Ignace Battiste and the Mother of Makhesthaines don’t get to do.

In the Uncanny Magazine interview accompanying his story, Caldwell names his influences as “the rhythms of Shakespeare, the visionary, ecstatic terror of William Blake, and the sort of delirious feel of my favorite Edgar Allan Poe stories, where something secret is revealed.” He also names Virginia Hamilton’s The People Could Fly, a collection of folk tales from the African diaspora retold “with a distinctive authorial voice,” which reminded me of Amos Tutuola’s Palm-Wine Drinkard, from which we enjoyed the simultaneously whimsical and unsettling “Complete Gentleman.”

“Ignace Battiste” certainly features a distinctive narrative voice, and with it a narrator at the story center, as Dunsany and Lovecraft’s omniscient narrators are generally not. In Pegana or the Dreamlands, Ignace’s story would have been the thing, told from an ironic distance. Caldwell’s thing isn’t what happened to the ill-fated lovers; in fact, we never learn their true history, only that it’s not the one underlying the narrator’s beliefs and those of his fellow citizens, their core shared narrative. Which in this and many cases is another way of saying their religious doctrine.

Caldwell also talks about how “being a queer person means sometimes having a difficult time reconciling what the life of faith says it offers and how people of that faith actually treat you.” It’s an understatement to say the narrator of “Ignace Battiste” has difficulty reconciling the extreme reverence professed by xher society for its self-martyred saint with the implied truth about his “martyrdom.” Every child in narrator’s world knows that the Mother killed Ignace when he by dint of sheer saintly will defeated her attempt to corrupt his city. So sacred was his heart that even she couldn’t burn it to cinders, as she did his body.

In following the Mother and her brides to the Necropolis, narrator expects to witness Ignace’s relic subjected to vengeful tortures–given the accepted story, how could xhe expect otherwise? Instead xhe sees Ignace re-embodied and treated with tenderness; instead xhe overhears the conversation of lovers, not archenemies. Narrator believes xherself undetected – would xhe otherwise escape the Mother’s wrath? Therefore xhe has no reason to think the Mother and Ignace would be telling other than their deepest truths.

What I infer from the pair’s exchange is that Ignace’s fellow citizens killed him, most likely because they’d discovered his highly nonadversarial relationship with the Mother. From his earnest wish that she’d responded by razing the city, his end wasn’t martyrdom but execution. For whatever reason, the story that serves the city authorities’ purposes is that Ignace was a hero rather than a sinner. The “ancient Parents of the Faith” manage to ward off the Mother’s ire by forming a covenant with her, the terms of which go conveniently unrecorded in sacred texts. An enchantment is cast that allows her at long intervals to reunite with her lover while also ensuring the city’s safety–that is the protection Saint Ignace provides, ironically through the strength of his betrothal promise to the “adversary.”

By learning the truth, narrator breaks the covenant. Is this why years later, as the Mother’s advent approaches, sorcerers fail in their glamour-casting and ominous omens proliferate? Narrator has chosen all xher clerical life to support the lie behind the city’s foundation-story. Xhe did this out of love–xhe didn’t want xher people to share xher own painful disillusionment. Better, xhe thought, for them to go on believing what they wanted to believe.

Was it better, or will it at last prove deadly? Narrator’s ultimate question is “What means always to the dead?” Xhe refers, in particular, to dead Ignace and Ignace’s declaration he’ll always return to the Mother. She counters that always means for as long as their enchantment (the city’s covenant) lasts. Even the Mother speaks of having a “lifetime” rather than immortality, and one of the city’s emblems is a watch. A watch is also its token of betrothal, of promise. A watch, not a ring.

Here in one of poetry’s greatest opening lines is what Henry Vaughan means by always:

“I saw Eternity the other night, Like a great ring of pure and endless light”

A ring, by its nature, has no beginning and no end. A watch marks out time in finite units, which suggests that time itself is finite. So aren’t they finite too, the life-expectancy of a watch, and of lovers’ reunions, and of a city’s endurance? Happily ever afters are therefore the province of fiction, and it’s grievous that Caldwell’s narrator has lost xher story and found the truth no adequate replacement.

Ruthanna’s Commentary

I sometimes describe the core question of horror as “What should we be afraid of, and what should we do about our fear?” But the Weird venns strangely (maybe even non-Euclideanly) with horror, and raises new questions. In much of the Weird, the answer to horror’s question is “knowing how the universe really works.” Because if you correlate all those contents, you just might learn that You Were Wrong. That everything you hold dear is based on a lie, ready to pop like a soap bubble when the truth is revealed.

Which still doesn’t address the second half of the question: what should you do when you learn that Everything You Know is Wrong? Lovecraft, for the most part, stopped at the breakthrough moment of undeniable realization. Which moment takes a lot for his protagonists, who harbor great skill at denial and are generally unwilling to believe in anything that isn’t actively biting them. Or, as this week’s protagonist would have it, chasing them naked down a hillside with fresh-conjured limbless horrors.

Death, insanity, or tenure are all possible sequellae to such a realization. Other unfortunate protagonists might attempt to share their revelations, switch to the winning side, descend into nihilism, or create a new order that leverages the truth rather than holding it as a deadly enemy. Some might even take a moderate approach, accepting the inevitability of being wrong and acknowledging their new understanding while attempting to live sanely and kindly in an uncaring universe. (This never happens.)

This week’s protagonist takes a surprisingly Lovecraftian view, while managing not to feel the least bit Lovecraftian. Maybe it’s the moderate calm with which xhe considers the discovery that xher order has been lying about everything. Maybe it’s the way xhe decides that if civilization is built on monstrous lies, and ready to pop like a soap bubble when the truth is revealed… well, a whole city of people who aren’t in on the lie still deserve to live in peace and safety. It’s a much more humane view of civilization, and thus of any illusions that might be propping it up.

While it’s understandable that the story doesn’t delve into details—since our protagonist fails entirely to explore xher order’s sub-basements in a frantic effort to dredge them up—I really, really wanna know the actual details of the truth. What kind of polycule produces the obviously-complicated relationship between the Mother of Makhesthaines, her butch and femme brides, and her only-mostly-dead fiancé? Were they all immortal beforehand? If Ignace wasn’t actually fighting the Mother, who did, and how did they win? And how did the Heart end up revered as a relic rather than flaunted as the trophy of a defeated enemy?

Should “Lightcarrier” be translated as “Lightbringer”?

And then, horror on horror, another aspect of the uncaring universe: nothing lasts forever. Even an illusion that you’ve sacrificed the truth to maintain. Little smudges of rust, a scattering of dust: these are deniable, until they’re not.

Next week, we finish up P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout with Chapter 9 and the Epilogue. In which, we hope, many monsters get punched.

Ruthanna Emrys’ A Half-Built Garden comes out in July 2022. She is also the author of the Innsmouth Legacy series, including Winter Tide and Deep Roots. Her short story collection, Imperfect Commentaries, is available from Lethe Press. You can find some of her fiction, weird and otherwise, on Tor.com, most recently “The Word of Flesh and Soul.” Ruthanna is online on Twitter and Patreon, and offline in a mysterious manor house with her large, chaotic, multi-species household outside Washington DC.

Anne M. Pillsworth’s short story “The Madonna of the Abattoir” appears on Tor.com. Her young adult Mythos novel, Summoned, is available from Tor Teen along with sequel Fathomless. She lives in Edgewood, a Victorian trolley car suburb of Providence, Rhode Island, uncomfortably near Joseph Curwen’s underground laboratory.

10 Americans to watch at the Beijing Winter Olympics

It’s only been six months since the festivities wrapped up at Tokyo’s Summer Olympics, but it’s time to learn who will be stealing nightly headlines at the Beijing Winter Games.

If you’re a sports fan who’s been more focused on Patrick Mahomes and Ja Morant than monobob or moguls in the past few months, let this be a guide to the big names from the 223 athletes the U.S. is sending to China.

Two of these athletes (Jamie Anderson and David Wise) are going for three-peats, which would tie them for the most consecutive Winter Olympic golds in the same event. Speedskater Bonnie Blair is the only American to accomplish the feat, winning the 500 meters, albeit in a shortened timeframe from 1988 to 1994. (Six Summer Olympians, including Michael Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley, have won four in a row in the same event.)

Shaun White meanwhile is going for four total golds, which would be a first for a Winter Olympian in the same individual event. He’ll also be one of four Americans attending their fifth Olympics (White, Lindsey Jacobellis, John Shuster and Katie Uhlaender).

Here’s a look at who will be hunting hardware in Beijing:

Jamie Anderson, 31, Snowboarding

Anytime you get to watch the best of all time in their sport, it’s worth tuning in. No woman has had more success in snowboarding than Jamie Anderson, a seven-time X Games gold medalist and the two-time defending Olympic champion in slopestyle. Anderson won the sport’s debut in 2014 and followed that up with gold in Pyeongchang. She’s been remarkably consistent in a sport that often comes down to who can stay upright for a “full pull.”

The California native will bring her megawatt smile and trademark blond locks to a third Olympics in Beijing, hoping to fend off a new generation she inspired. One of those women, 20-year-old Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand, edged out Anderson at last month’s X Games and the 2021 world championships (and already has a bronze as a 16-year-old competing in big air at the Pyeongchang Games). Australia’s Tess Coady, 21, and Japan’s Kokomo Murase, 17, will also be tough competition for Anderson.

Brittany Bowe, 33, Long-track speedskating

Brittany Bowe is among the recent spate of U.S. speedskating stars to make the transition from inline skates to blades. She had a disappointing 2014 Games and won just a bronze in team pursuit in 2018, but expects more individual success in 2022. Since Pyeongchang, Bowe set a world record in the 1,000 meters that’s stood for three years. Bowe currently leads the world cup standings in the 1,000 with two individual wins and is second in the 1,500 with one event win. She’ll be a medal favorite at both distances with a host of Japanese rivals in each distance.

Nao Kodaira and Miho Takagi have both bested Bowe in individual world stops at 1,000 meters, while Takagi has won three of four stops at 1,500.

Not only is Bowe a tremendous athlete, she is also a tremendous person. When Erin Jackson, the current world No. 1 in the 500 meters this year, caught her edge and finished third at the U.S. trials – meaning she would not qualify – Bowe, who won the distance in the trials, graciously passed her spot to her friend and countrywoman Jackson.

Nathan Chen, 22, Figure skating

Chen’s trip to Pyeongchang was supposed to end with a medal. Instead, the teenage prodigy fell apart in the short program and stood in 17th after night one. He showed just how brilliant he could be in the free skate, finishing first and landing six quads – four rotations in midair – including the first quadruple flip in Olympic history. The astonishing night two skate propelled him to fifth overall – off the medal stand but a portent of things to come.

He’s failed to win only one competition in the last four years, including gold medals at the last three world championships. (The championships were canceled due to COVID in 2020.) That includes a dominating win at the 2018 world championships a month after failing in Pyeongchang.

Chen will be a big favorite in Beijing, with familiar rivals from Japan as his main challengers: Yuma Kagiyama, just 18, who won silver at last year’s world championships, and two-time defending Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu, who led after the short program at the 2021 world championships before literally stumbling in the free skate. But Chen’s biggest competition may be the demons of what happened in Pyeongchang.

Jessie Diggins, 30, Cross-country skiing

Jessie Diggins immortalized herself in U.S. Olympics history in Pyeongchang when she out-sprinted the competition down the stretch in dramatic fashion in the women’s team sprint to win America’s first cross-country skiing gold alongside Kikkan Randall. Diggins is back in Beijing after four successful years between games proved 2018 was no fluke. She had a tremendous 2020-2021 season, becoming the first American man or woman to win the Tour de Ski, a cross-country skiing event modeled after cycling’s Tour de France, and finished atop the world cup rankings as well – the first American woman ever. She currently stands in third place in this year’s world cup standings and has two individual wins so far.

Diggins' compatriot in 2018 – Randall – will not be competing in Beijing. She’ll be a strong contender in the individual events though, especially the sprints. It’s cross-country skiing, so you know Scandinavia will be her top competition. Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist currently stands atop the world cup sprint standings while fellow Swede Frida Karlsson leads in the distance standings. Russian Natalia Nepryaeva, who is talented at both distance and sprint races – like Diggins – is on top of the overall standings.

Chloe Kim, 21, Snowboarding

Were there no age requirements in snowboarding, Chloe Kim would likely be going for a three-peat in Beijing. Kim was already beating the best in the halfpipe snowboarding world in 2014, but the minimum age to compete in the Olympics is 15. So, instead, the Princeton student will be going for a repeat of her gold medal win when she was just 17.

Her win in Pyeongchang launched her, well, higher than a Chloe Kim frontside air, into the ranks of most marketable athletes. She’s been made into a Barbie doll, appeared alongside Serena Williams and Simone Biles in a Nike ad, competed on “The Masked Singer” and been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. And when she wasn’t attending college classes, taking time off in 2019 and 2020, she’s continued to dominate in the halfpipe. She won gold at the X Games and world championships in 2021 and was last year’s Dew Tour champ.

In Kim’s last tuneup for the Olympics, she won the world cup tour stop in Switzerland on Jan. 15 needing just her first run. She’ll certainly be the favorite at the 2022 Games, but the home country’s Xuetong Cai and veteran Queralt Castellet of Spain will be medal contenders. Fellow American Maddie Mastro will also threaten the podium.

Elana Meyers Taylor, 37, Bobsled

Elana Meyers Taylor is no newcomer to the Olympics. In fact, this will be her fourth games. But her sport will be making its debut. Meyers Taylor made the transition from two-person bobsled – long in the Winter Games – to the monobob as it is contested at the Olympics for the first time in Beijing. In the two-person sport, the person in front is the driver and the one in the back – largely there for their pushing ability at the start – controls the brake. All of that is left to the sole athlete in monobob. It’s a discipline that has been dominated by the American leading up to the 2022 Games. She wrapped up the world cup title in the monobob Jan. 15 and will be the favorite in Beijing. In fact, her top competition is likely fellow American Kaillie Humphries, who won the world cup title last year.

Meyers Taylor is looking to get the monkey off her back when it comes to winning Olympic gold. In the two-women competition, she holds two silvers – in 2014 and 2018 – and a bronze from Vancouver in 2010. But an added hurdle was thrown into Meyers Taylor’s quest when she tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Beijing. She said she’s asymptomatic and is “optimistic” she’ll recover in time for her event, which doesn’t come until the second week.

Kai Owens, 17, Freestyle skiing

Kai Owens' journey has come full circle with a trip to Beijing and the 2022 Olympics. Owens was abandoned in a town square as an infant in China and sent to an orphanage in Anhui province, west of Shanghai, where she was adopted by an American couple at 1 year old. She grew up in Vail, Colorado, and took to moguls skiing, where she’s a rising star on the international circuit.

Owens competed in her first world cup event at just 15 and was named rookie of the year on the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup tour in 2021. While she’s not a medal favorite, just the journey may be impressive enough.

Mikaela Shiffrin, 26, Alpine skiing

If there’s a face of the Olympic Games, at least for Americans, it’s Mikaela Shiffrin. Shiffrin is one medal away from tying Julia Mancuso for most medals by a female American Alpine skier (four). A particularly successful games – two golds – would tie Shiffrin for most golds ever by a female Alpine skier (four) and three medals of any color would tie her for the overall lead (six). Both of those records are held by Croatian legend Janica Kostelic. Not only would six medals make her the winningest female Alpine skier of all time, it would tie her with Bode Miller for most medals by an American man or woman.

One thing is for sure: Shiffrin will have plenty of chances to move up the all-time leaderboards. She said she hopes to ski in all five individual Alpine events in the Olympics: downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and Alpine combined. Shiffrin was atop the world cup standings through 21 of 35 events and though she’s not No. 1 in any of the individual disciplines, she’s second in both giant slalom and slalom and fifth in both downhill and super G. And that combination of skills both in slalom and downhill makes her a big favorite in the Alpine combined.

Shaun White, 35, Snowboarding

Snowboarding, like its sibling skateboarding, is notoriously a young person’s game. But don’t tell that to Shaun White, who is about old enough to be the father of some of his competitors in Beijing. The 35-year-old is going to his fifth Olympics in 2022, a far cry from the “Flying Tomato” who won gold as a 19-year-old in Torino. (Danny Kass, the American who won silver in 2006, hasn’t competed in over a decade despite being only a few years older than White.)

A three-time gold medalist (2006, 2010, 2018), White is a long shot to win a fourth in Beijing. He’s become a part-time competitor on the international level, saving himself for Olympic years. For someone who was the face of the Winter X Games for a decade, winning 15 total gold medals, he hasn’t won gold since 2013 and has only competed twice in the last nine years. In his bid to qualify for Beijing, he just snuck onto the U.S. team with a third place finish Jan. 15 in Laax, Switzerland.

The favorite to win in Beijing will be Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, who earned silver in 2018 and has won the last two world cup stops, including in Laax. He’s also the only snowboarder to ever land a triple cork (that’s three off-axis rotations) in competition. Australia’s Scotty James, the reigning bronze medalist, and Japan’s 19-year-old Ruka Hirano, no relation to Ayumu, are other top competitors. James managed to edge Ayumu Hirano and Ayumu’s brother, Kaishu, at this year’s X Games. Win or lose, the greatest halfpipe snowboarder of all time – and probably the most famous winter athlete period – is worth a watch one last time in the Olympics.

David Wise, 31, Freestyle skiing

He doesn’t have the profile of Shaun White, but David Wise is a two-time defending gold medalist in the halfpipe. He just does it on skis. Like White, he’ll be fending off a slew of younger challengers after a few shaky years of world competition. His last win in world competition came in February 2019 and he hasn’t won X Games gold since 2018. But he took bronze at the X Games this year and stands fourth in the current world cup standings, so he’s still capable of winning a third straight Olympic gold.

While many of the top U.S. competitors in other sports – like White and Chloe Kim – sat out the X Games two weeks ago, the men’s ski halfpipe competition featured most of the top contenders in Beijing. New Zealand’s Nico Porteous, who earned bronze in 2018 at just 16 years old, won gold at last month’s X Games and will be tough to beat in Beijing. Gus Kenworthy, though he couldn’t put together a clean run in Aspen, will be a sentimental favorite since he will retire following the Olympics. Kenworthy earned silver in slopestyle in Sochi, won hearts by saving several stray dogs at those games and publicly came out as gay a year later. The five-time X Games medalist will be competing for Great Britain to honor his mother after competing for the U.S. at the last two games. Canadian Brendan MacKay and Wise’s fellow American Alex Ferreira did not compete at the X Games but are also contenders.

Chinese New Year Watches: 7 tigers roaring

Some of 2022’s best limited edition timepieces to celebrate the Year of the Tiger, the third animal in the Chinese zodiac cycle

To even comprehend the mad rush among the top luxury brands to create the best watches to celebrate Chinese New Year (February 1, 2022), we must understand the market of luxury watches first. The first 11 months of the calendar 2021 (just before the Omicron scare started slowing down travel) has thrown up stupendous numbers for the industry. The United States and China have clearly driven the growth in luxury watch sales last year, with the former back in first position with imports of CHF 2.8 billion over the first 11 months of the year (+55.7% versus 2020; +26.4% versus 2019). At CHF 2.7 billion, mainland China has benefited from the reshoring of luxury spending with the ban on international travel (+31.0% versus 2020; +53.5% versus 2019).

No wonder, almost every marque luxury watchmaker has launched a ‘Year of the Tiger’ edition as a limited series. This includes masstige brands like TAG Heuer or even Swatch, Casio and Gucci. This year sees the Tiger with the Water element, a combination said to possess high self-esteem and learning ability, in addition to the dominant traits of bravery and confidence. Through painstaking evaluation, we have chosen the seven best ‘Year of the Tiger’ timepieces, both for their individualistic expression of artistry and mechanism.

CHOPARD - L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger

Every year, Chopard has a new timepiece to celebrate the Chinese zodiac calendar. This year, the L.U.C collection welcomes the L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger timepiece, an 88-piece limited series. The artistic watch is housed in an ultra-thin rose gold case, with an in-house L.U.C 96.17-L movement ticking inside. The Japanese Urushi Maki-e technique combines lacquering and gold dust. Master lacquer artist Minori Koizumi of the century-old company, Yamada Heiando, reportedly takes 160 hours to complete each dial. Notice how the gold flakes – placed between layers of lacquer – light up the background and the tiger poised above a bay with its claws out and jaw turned sideways. Price: €22,900 approx

JAEGER-LECOULTRE - The Reverso Tribute Enamel Tiger

Nine decades after the Reverso was born (on the polo fields of Rajasthan), comes Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ‘Tiger’. Also coinciding with the opening of a flagship boutique in Shanghai, the new timepiece has the magnificent beast on the reverse side, engraved into the pink gold case metal, appearing to leap out from a black opaque Grand Feu enamel background. To create the illusion of movement and power, the Maison has used the polished surface of the tiger’s coat and a contrasting rhodium-brushed texture of its stripes to catch and refract the light. Volume and depth are courtesy ‘modelled engraving’, a technique that uses differently sized chisels to sculpt the metal step by step. The elegant simplicity of the Reverso Tribute dial, with its faceted appliqué hour-markers and chemin de fer minutes track, perfectly complements the pink gold of the case. Price: €90,000 approx

TAG HEUER - Carrera Year of the Tiger

TAG Heuer interprets this zodiac sign by keeping the tiger off the dial. Instead, the limited-edition watch infuses the traditional in the sporty Carrera model. The elegant dial on this piece – that can also be worn every day – marries a discreet, bluish hue with the dark stripes characteristic of tiger’s fur. The lighter blue tiger stripes are made of horizontally brushed metal coated with blue PVD treatment while the darker stripes are made of painted textured metal. A blue tiger crouching to attack adorns the sapphire crystal on the caseback of this timepiece limited to 300 pieces. The watch comes in a 41 mm steel case. Price: ₹3,10,250 approx

ULYSSE NARDIN - The Classico Tiger

Combining two centuries-old enamelling techniques, champlevé and paillonné, the Classico “Tiger” is a showcase of artistry and commitment. Champlevé is a decorative technique that allows recesses to be created on the surface to be subsequently filled with vivid vitreous substances, while paillonné enamelling comprises tiny gold or silver leaf layered on to a translucent enamel. The fragility of enamel dials is near forgotten when you view the majestic tiger, ready to pounce. The rose gold timepiece houses a self-winding UN-815 movement. Limited to 88 pieces. Price: €44,000 approx

PIAGET - Altiplano Chinese New Year Tiger

Piaget joins hands once again with master enameller, Anita Porchet, to create a timepiece in its Altiplano line, that features a fearless tiger in cloisonné Grand Feu enamel. This limited edition of 38 timepieces, housed in a 38 mm white gold case, allows the tiger to roar majestically across the dial. Set with 78 brilliant-cut diamonds, it is powered by the in-house ultra-thin, manual-winding 430P movement. Cloisonné, a 4000-year-old decorative art, starts with a transfer of the design onto the surface of the dial using gold ribbons to create miniature partitions, or cavities, in which enamel pigments are placed. The dial is then fired in the kiln multiple times and varnished later to add life to the image. Price: $71,500 approx

JAQUET DROZ - Large Petite Heure Minute Tiger Automaton

Jaquet Droz has issued more than one model to celebrate the ‘Year of the Tiger’ but it is the one with the black onyx and opal dial, with the tiger appliqué in red gold that stands out. The brand has dipped into its legacy of making automaton movements with a hand-wound mechanical automaton movement with push-button triggering mechanism. It comes with animation featuring a pond and carp. The 3D tiger takes 10 days to create by skilled craftsmen. The technique used in this engraving, La Ronde Bosse, allows a stunning full view of the tiger. The watch, with its 43mm red gold case, comes with self-winding mechanical hours and minutes movement and an impressive power reserve of 68 hours. Price: CHF 339,000 approx (automaton box included)

VACHERON CONSTANTIN - Métiers d’Art Legend of the Chinese Zodiac ‘Year of the Tiger’

When it comes to using the dial to express one’s creativity, no one makes a statement better than the grand Maison of Geneva. Vacheron Constantin had first used the Calibre 2460 G4 with four apertures on the dial — for jumping hour, minute, day and date — in 2007 with the first of its mask collections. The latest in its “Métiers d’Art legend of the Chinese zodiac” collection, comes in two versions, limited to 12 pieces each. One is in platinum with a blue dial and the other in 18k 5N pink gold with a bronze-toned dial. The 18k gold dials are hand-engraved and decorated with Grand Feu enamel in a traditional Chinese paper-cutting style called jianzhi, before the hand-engraved tiger is fixed in place. Price: $140,000 approx for the 18k pink gold version

The writer is the founder and president of The Horologists.