The Breitling Watch Blog

To some this might seem obvious, but I’ve been asked by several people how this is done, and this is how I change a strap on my Breitlings. This would apply to many if not most watches actually… at least any watch that uses spring bars. Panerai’s and some other watches may have different access to the spring bars or use screws.

Its just a video giving a quick explanation on how to change your straps out for a bracelet and vice versa. Enjoy!

There are two different SuperOcean Steelfishes out there, and many people are often confused as to which one they are buying, the X-Plus or the original. Especially since Breitling has dropped X-Plus from the name.

Like many watch companies, when new models are released, sometimes they change or have a transition model initially. The SuperOcean steelfish was one of these models. Initially when the Steelfish was a variant of the SuperOcean with two-tone brushed and polished case and bracelet on a professional I bracelet. 1500m water resistance and a helium escape valve at 10 o’clock. This model was only produced for a year. The above picture shows the two. The watch on the right is the X-Plus… notice the Profesional II bracelet.

As you can see both models are very similar, but a couple things to note. The SuperOcean X-Plus, now on the left in the above picture, is all brushed. The watch is less blingy than the original brushed/polished two-tone. The original was also only available with a professional I bracelet, however you could buy a bracelet for the regular SuperOcean and use it.

The pic above gives you an idea of their size difference, even tho only 2mm, is quite substantial on the wrist. Also the all brushed look of the X-Plus makes a difference. Both models shown are in the blue dial, which is my favourite of all the dials. Same movement in both watches, the Breitling Caliber 17.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post. It would be especially useful for those of you looking to purchase a Steelfish online so you don’t accidently buy the wrong one! Here are links to both on the BreitlingSource site:

SuperOcean Steelfish
SuperOcean Steelfish X-Plus

Hey All!

I came across WELDER Watches a while back and was intrigued by their version of an Instrument Watch. Ever since I seen the BR instrument watch I wanted one. I had an Invicta Corduba for a short time but when I saw it was missing a screw in the back case and customer service did nothing to send me the missing screw.  I got it repaired at a jeweler and then sold it off. I will NEVER get an Invicta based on their !@#$ customer service.

Anyhoooooo, back to WELDER. Ya’ll heard of U-Boat, right? The Designer Italo Fontana is the designer and he recently put together a ‘K’ series for a new line called WELDER. As you’ll see there are lots of similarity to the original U-Boat design. Niiiiiiiiice………..

Opening the shipping box I pulled out a hard carrying case. A nice compact case with the Welder Logo embossed right on it. The locks looked nice and sturdy and there’s a relieve knob for atmospheric pressure.

Pop Pop! I unclip the locks and and slowly opened the cover. There it was. A massive square Intrument watch in shiny brushed steel with black face and white luminous numerals. I faintly heard a choir of angels singing softly in the background as I gazed in awe at the K23.

Measuring at 45mm squared (55mm including the crown) the brushed finished case and bezel really caught the light. Three chrono subdials at the 6-9-12 position. Date window at 3.

Dial styling is reminiscent of U-Boat, big and bold.

If your into the hunky chunky industrial look, the K23 fits the bill to the ‘T’. It’s sorta like the Shwarzeneggar of the instrument watch styling. Some initial impressions of the watch is that the edges and corners may be a bit sharp and uncomfortable for the wrist. Far from it. It is one of the more comfortable watches for my 7.25″ wrist. A closer look will reveal the soft curvature of the case to conform to your wrist. AND that the corners
are neither sharp and pointy to cause any intrusion. All along the case is a beveled edge. However it does appear to make for a formidable weapon if need be, me thinks.

On all four corners is a big Hex Head Cap Bolt. Dunno if this actually keeps the watch together but they sure look industrial. Heavy Duty!!

There’s the Logo on the side of the case, opposite of the crown and speaking of the crown there is the logo on there too.

There are two leather bands that come with this watch. As seen is the tan strap and then there’s the wide black strap.

Movement is the Japanese Miyota OS10. I found that pulling the crown and setting the time to be very light. I own a couple of Formex Auto’s and they all seem very heavy and a wee bit stiff when setting times and date. Just a personal observation

As big as the watch may be I found it to be extremely comfortable. Every once in awhile your pleasantly surprised when you looked down at the “clock” strapped to your wrist. You forget you have such a monstrous time piece on.

Over all finish is clean and well executed. An excellent piece for the Hunky-Chunky Watch collectors.

Hope you enjoyed the review. Stay tune for another WELDER review in a bit.

Norman

So, I put up a new video Review! Of the Breitling for Bentley Motors. This one is on a Crocodile Deployant, but I have a Speed Bracelet on the way. I really love the way the watch looks on a speed bracelet and I’ve been trying to get one in for a little while here but I finally have one SHIPPED.

The watch is incredible, so please.. enjoy the video!

How many Chronometers were certified in 2006? According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, the COSC certifications added up to 1,300,140 Chronometers.

The leaders of the pack still remain the same with Rolex, Omega followed by Breitling. Here is a complete list of all the companies with more than 1000:

Rolex (710,752)
Omega (257,187)
Breitling (182,223)
Panerai (46,454)
Chopard (23,462)
Ulysse Nardin (10,111)
Corum (8,189)
TAG Heuer (7,450)
Chanel (6,980)
Mido (5,722)
Porsche Design (3,892)
Bulgari (3,698)
Ebel (3,516)
Montblanc (3,471),
Invicta (2,717)
Titoni (2,018)
Zenith (1,917)
Rado (1,805)
Eterna (1,706)
Enicar (1,672)
Paul Picot (1,638)
Sinn (1,596)
Christian Dior (1,100)

All others had less than 1000.

Increase of 10.7% overall which is fantastic. Breitling in particular issues by far more Quartz Chronometers than anyone else. Of 56,225 quartz certificates, 54,744 of them were for Breitling. That represents over 97% of total Quartz Chronometre output! Congrats to Breitling!

Another figure you can get out of these stats for Breitling is that just a hair over 30% of all Breitlings sent in for COSC certification were Quartz! That’s a very large percentage!

This is a continued addendum to the Breitling Dials post from here.

A user on the forums emailed Breitling, and the email back from Breitling shows these details:

“LOGO WATCH ORDER REQUIREMENTS

• Only 3 models are available for logo printing: Emergency, Airwolf and Aerospace – please see our website to view dial color options

• A minimum of 50 pieces is required of the same dial color and same logo design.

• Camera Ready artwork for logo sent by e-mail file, preferably jpeg. Logo artwork sent must be exactly how you want it to appear on the dial (images of patches or pins are not acceptable)

• Pantone color numbers (PMS) are required (A Pantone color is an international printing language providing an accurate method for the reproduction and control of color) – we cannot create an image or logo dial without these numbers

• Prepayment in the form of one bank check is required after the image of the watch has been approved

• Shipment of watches are made to one U.S. address – not to individual addresses

• Sales tax is charged only on orders shipping to CT, NY, FL & CA

• Approximately 6 month delivery term after payment has been received and image has been approved

• Prices available upon request”

This is the email from Breitling USA, not Breitling Grenchen in Switzerland, so likely orders outside of North America may not be subject to the same requirements.

For those of you well-versed in watch movements this may not be anything new for you, but to many of you guys who aren’t that familiar, this is a handy primer.

Most of us that buy and collect watches have heard of the ETA Valjoux 7750 Movement. The movement was designed in 1974 and in it’s present day format is a 25 Jewel, 28,800 vph chronograph. More info on the movement itself can be found on Timezone.

The Valjoux is seemingly everywhere. It seems like nearly every single Automatic Chronograph watch out there not using an in-house movement has a Valjoux 7750 in it. The Valjoux 7750 is by far the most common swiss made chronograph movement in production, with the ETA 2894-2 in second with a 37 Jewel movement. The ETA 2894-2 differs in that it uses a base 2892-2 with a chronograph module attached. The Valjoux 7750 is a purebred Chronograph.

The interesting thing about the Valjoux 7750 movement is that watches using the base movement can be found as low as $1000 to as high as $10,000, if not higher, depending on the level of modification and *cough* marketing. I’m going briefly go over and describe several of the watches on the market that use this movement, throughout the pricerange:

Eterna Airforce
MSRP: $1650 Online: $800 approx.
The Eterna’s represent some of the best deals in the Swiss watch industry, with their watches up there in quality with Tag Heuer. They used to be quite the force in the watch industry, pioneering many watchmaking firsts, but now have slowed down. They also produce watches exclusively for Porsche Design. Movements are largely stock with decorated rotors.

Hamilton X-Wind
MSRP: $1050 Online: $900 approx.
Hamilton is an American brand that produces swiss made watches, with a focus on value and nice looking peices quite often with exhibition backs. Movements are stock Valjoux 7750′s with little modification, mostly decoration. The X-Wind is one of their nicest designs in my opinion.

Oris TT1 Chronograph
MSRP: $2375 Online: $1200 approx.
I personally am not a fan of most Oris designs, but they make a nice watch. The TT1 is popular and a good performer, and Oris does some modifications to their movements to improve performance.

Tag Heuer Aquaracer Automatic Chronograph
MSRP: $2300 Online: $1800 approx.
That uses the Caliber 16 in this model, and for double the price of the Hamilton X-Wind you get a Certified Chronometre movement. The Aquaracer is a nice watch with a substantially upgraded movement.

Fortis B-42 Pilot Professional Chronograph
MSRP: $2995 Online: $1900 approx.
Fortis does minimal modifications to the movement, and it is not a certified chronometre. Their watches are nice and offer a good deal in the lower end of the spectrum but their higher end watches do not give much bang for buck. In this price range the watch should be a Chronometre.

Breitling Chrono SuperOcean
MSRP: $3500 Online: $2600 approx.
Breitling’s entry level Valjoux 7750 Chronometer Movement using the Breitling Caliber 13. This caliber is used in many of their watches including the Super Avenger and the next one in this list. This is a COSC certified Chronometre, with substantial modification, but too bad Breitling doesn’t do many exhibition backs to show it off!

Breitling Chronomat Evolution
MSRP: $5100 Online: $3600 approx.
This is one of the higher end models using the Caliber 13. There is also the Breitling for Bentley GT that uses a similar 7750 based movement (13B). As you can see the Online pricing is about $1000 more, but all the extra goes into the case and bracelet, not the movement!

IWC Portugese
MSRP: $6700 (up to $14,000 or so in gold) Online: $5100 approx.
This is one of the more expensive watches out there with the Valjoux 7750 based movement, especially in gold. With a highly modified Valjoux 7750 movement called the Calibre 79350, it is probably the highest quality movement of this lot, but without the COSC Certification. IWC rarely certifies their watches.

So that is a brief roundup of some of the watches available in the range with the Valjoux 7750 base movement. Hope this article was informative for you guys!

EDITED TO ADD (06/07/2008):
An email from a reader that is very interesting:
Hi,

Cheers
Julian

Had a visitor ask me about this watch and since I don’t know much about the vintage stuff, I turn to you guys His email states:

“I was wondering where I could get information on my Breitling Chrono-matic 2111 which I recently inherited from my father.

I have not been able to find a matching picture of the model I have.

It has a white face and blue “diamond” with soft edges around the two small dials which are symmetrically lined up. The hands are orange/red. The case is silver. As with the other versions I have seen, it has the crown on the right at “3 o’clock” and two push buttons at “8 and 10 o’clock”. On the back, there is a number, I don’t know if it’s a serial number (1325871). I haven’t dared to open it to look for other information.

I have seen versions with black face or asymmetrical arrangement of the small dials.

I’d like to know what year it is from. I don’t think it’s the classic 1969 I have seen in catalogs, probably early 70s. I’d also like to know what strap would be authentic for it. Mine doesn’t have the original one anymore. My father preferred nylon (!) straps … endearing but I’d like to know what strap was on it originally. Brown? Calf/Aligator?

In any case, if you could point me in the right direction where to get more information, I’d really appreciate it.”

Any help guys would be great!