The Breitling Watch Blog

With Baselworld 2010 just over a month away (Mar 18-25), watch fever has hit a lot of the forums with hot discussion on what the new models will be, spurred by the pre-release materials that various watch companys have released to the public.

Watch brands that will be featured at Baselword include Rolex, Breitling, Longines, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Epos, Ulysse Nardin and Omega among many others.

As some of you may know, the Breitling Colt GMT+, while released quite a while ago, is now being shipped on an Integrated Rubber strap. With the growing trend of Rubber straps, its not surprising to see more and more watches available with the options. Check out the pics:

Panerai released an amazing clock at SIHH 2010 named the Jupiterium. The Clock is based on Galileo’s interpretation of the Solar System, and was unveiled at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm. The Clock shows the position of the Moon, Sun, Jupiter and the Stars as viewed from Earth. There are Three of these clocks in existence.

The clock has a 40 day power reserve, and has the time mounted on the wooden base. The ironic thing about it I suppose is that the Earth appears in the centre of the clock, when Galileo was in fact the first person to suggest that the Earth was NOT the center of the solar system. This clock conveys their relationship rather than the position of the different celestial bodies.

In Case anyone was wondering about the various Gucci Straps that have shown up on eBay in the last year or so, I have posted a Gucci strap Review on Strapaholics.

There have been many styles of straps with exotic hides such as Ostrich and Crocodile and many basic Leather straps, most made by famous French strap maker Camille Fournet. I have purchased several of these straps and all have been incredible buys for the money. Not many places offer top quality French-made calf straps for $15 and Ostrich and Crocodile for $30-40!

Pic from Strapaholics Review:

Woo! I love this new Portuguese from IWC.

Beautiful thicker 45.5mm Case, with 14.5mm Thickness. Sapphire Crystals front and back, with a 60m Water Resistance. The sapphire back gives a beautiful view of the IWC Caliber 89360 with pellaton winding system, and finally a Date on the Portuguese! Only thing I’m not sure about is the Rubber strap, red second hand and Yacht Club written on the dial.

The IWC caliber 89360 is designed completely in-house with 40 jewels and a 68 hour power reserve. The Caliber 89360 puts the hours and seconds counters for the chronograph on a single subdial at 12 o’clock for easier reading. Date is at 3 o’clock

With SIHH starting, there are tons of new models introduced. Some of the most notable in my opinion are the offerings from Cartier’s new Manufacture In-House movement department. They have some new models out including the Cartier Caliber and The Cartier Rontondo Astro.

The Cartier Caliber Collection. Beautiful watches from Cartier with does a fine job of combining the signature Cartier look with new and modern looking cases and dials. 42mm and available in steel and gold.

The Cartier Caliber 1904PSMC. Cartier’s first completely in-house designed Automatic Movement.
27 Jewels
28,800bph
48 hours power reserve

Cartier Rotonde Astro Tourbillon. In-house caliber 9451MC manual winding movement with Tourbillon complication.

Some very nice pieces from Cartier for sure. Also a really neat looking piece that will obviously cost two arms and six legs from Panerai..

Panerai Radiomir Tourbillon GMT Ceramique PAM348 with the in-house Panerai P.2005/S movement.

Another Panerai is the Mare Nostrum Re-Issue in a HUGE 52mm Size. Very cool looking:

Keep your eyes peeled for more new models from SIHH 2010!

MB&F Watches are absolutely amazing horological machines… they are so uniquely designed, and an absolute joy to look at. The amount of care and creativity that goes into each of these is unbelievable, especially when you know that only 25 of them will ever be made.

The Horological Machine No.2 Sapphire Vision measures 59mm x 38mm and is 13mm thick. Water resistance is 30m. Movement is a Jean-Marc Wiederrecht/Agenhor designed automatic, 44 jewels, beating at 28,800 bph and with a 22kt blued gold winding rotor. It contains 349 parts.

Complications include:
Retrograde date
Bi-hemispherical moonphase
Jump hours
Retrograde minutes

Being a Canadian watch collector and blogger, I feel something of a responsibility to mention the watches that Canadian watchmakers produce and sell such as Halios. Today I’m going to talk a little about Archer Watches, who have become quite popular with the online watch crowd. The company is a one-man watch operation run by a guy named Al, who is quite the watchmaker. I haven’t found any info on his credentials, but he certainly knows his way around a watch movement as can be seen in his blog.

Al’s latest creation is the Archer Aero CS. The Aero CS is a 42mm 316L Stainless Steel cased Pilot watch. Double Sapphire Crystals, and some interesting movement upgrades: A Central Seconds hand modification, and a feature where the second hand will stop at 12 when the crown is pulled out allowing easy synchronisation. It comes available on a Jurgen’s 22mm strap, which is a very nice strap, or optional stainless steel bracelet. Price for the Archer Aero CS is $1,900 US on strap, and $2,150 US on Bracelet.