The Breitling Watch Blog

A. Lange & Sohn have a new watch, and it is a jaw-droppingly beautiful watch. A. Lange is consistently responding to buyers requests with larger watches and this one follows trends with a massive 46mm case, at a very thick 16mm. The caseback is incredible, with a beautiful engraved silver plates and bridges, hand-engraved balance cock, and an incredible 31 day power reserve!

The manufacture Lange L034.1 movement uses two mainspring barrels to keep the watch running, 62 Jewels and 406 parts. I have to say that this is possibly one of the most beautiful case backs I have ever seen. The watch has a power reserve indicator, big date and small seconds complications.

Breitling is jumping on the iPhone craze as well with the release of an iPhone app that helps located your nearest Breitling dealer, as well as providing tons of photos and specs of their newest Breitling Chronomat B01.

You can check it out on Breitling’s home page: http://www.breitling.com

Glashutte Original is a German watch manufacture along the lines of A Lange & Sohn. While not up to the technical prowess or level of finishing and handwork that A Lange is known for, Glashutte Original makes a very high quality watch, comparably to Swiss Brands such as Jaeger Le Coultre.

The watch that I purchased is the Glashutte Original Senator Sixties. This watch appealed to me because of the vintage/classic styling and pie pan shaped dial. The classic appearance is subtle, understated and extremely elegant.

The silver dial has the Glashutte Original logo on it, and GLASHUTTE I/SA written at the 6pm. The domed Sapphire Crystal is very curved, and shows very nicely, adding that classic old world charm with new world reliability and clean lines. The 39mm case wears a bit small, but when worn with a dress or casual shirt this watch looks amazing.

I have the strap on an aftermarket Brown Hirsch Classic Gator, but the watch came on a dark blue classic style belly gator strap of similar proportions and style. The strap in my opinion goes very well with it, but I think this is one of those styles that either you love or hate, as it is quite different from Breitling, Rolex and Omega.

The back of the watch is absolutely beautiful. The beveled sapphire crystal back allows you to see the side of the 21K Gold Rotor, as well as a very clear view of the in-house Caliber 39-52 movement, which is decorated very nicely. As you might notice, this movement differs from most swiss movements in that it uses a 3/4 plate, which is characteristic of German movements from Glashutte.

There it is on my wrist… before a day at the office. Works extremely well with the shirt and jacket, not quite as well with shorts and t-shirts.

I just received a press release from Gustafsson & Sjogren, or GoS, a watch company whom I’ve reveiwed before. They have released a new customized watch called “Ice”. If you recall, their watches were of interest to me because of their use of Damascus in the production.

The partnership between the bladesmith Johan Gustafsson and watchmaker Patrik Sjögren aims to provide truly unique watches with inspiration from the cold north of Scandinavia.

GoS proudly presents Ice – a customized watch designed in collaboration with the customer, who requested a clean Damascus steel look. The watch is based on a large round case with a combination of different finishing techniques with large diameter bezel and case back as unusual design elements. Etching gives additional contrasts to the wood grain pattern Damascus steel dial. All index positions have gold fitted diamonds and the Damascus stainless steel crown has a spectacular diamond inset.

The watch is equipped with a beautifully finished Unitas/ETA 6498 pocket watch movement. The finishing has been done by the swiss company Soprod, that also have further improved the movement to chronometre grade standard with a screwed balance.

Specifications:

• Case: 44mmx12mm
• Lug width: 22mm
• Glass: Flat sapphire glass (case back mineral)
• Movement: Swiss manual movement ETA 6498-1
• Modifications by Soprod
• Cote de Geneve finishing
• chronometre grade adaptations, screwed balance
• Dial: Hand forged Damascus steel with all indexes in gold fitted diamonds
• Crown: Oversize in Damascus stainless steel with large gold fitted diamond
• Polished stainless steel mesh strap

My second Glycine that I’ve owned is this outstanding and uniquely beautiful Glycine Airman SST D24 Limited Edition Watch. This watch has the iconic Glycine Airman SST case, in a large 44mm diameter, double sapphires, and bezel control crown at 2 o’clock (4 o’clock on the 24hr dial of the Glycine). This watch is a limited edition of 300 peices, so is rather rare. Other versions of ths Airman SST are readily available, while this version is a bit more rare.

As you can see, the SST D24 has a very shallow but wide dial, and a very visible 24hr dial and 24hr chapter ring that allows you to read three 24 hour time zones in one glance. The color combinations of using all yellow for one timezone and all orange for another makes it easy to distinguish all three timezones. The main hour hand on this model is also a 24 hour hand in addition to the double sided 24-hour GMT Hand. The D24 in the model name stands for “Double 24”.

How the watch works is you set the main 24hour hand to the current time, then follow by setting the yellow end of the GMT hand to the second time zone you wish to read. The third timezone is finally set buy turning the crown at 2 o’clock so that the desired time corresponds to the orange pointy end of the GMT hand. Do not mistakening think that the Orange and Yellow GMT hand is two independent hands.

The large 44mm case wears very large due to the shape of the case, and also sites very low and sleek on the wrist, giving the watch a very different feeling that most other watches would give. I recently traded this watch, but unfortunately in my haste, I forgot to make a video review of this watch so this static review is all you guys are going to get!

Nice shot of the exhibition back here. The Gold Gilted rotor has the SST 06 engraved on it, and looks quite nice. The movement is an ETA 2892-A2 with GMT module, and modifed to have dual 24hour hands. Not sure if Glycine does the modification in house or if it is received this way from ETA.

The requisite wrist shot. Very nicely sitting on my wrists, this one works well for both large and small wrists. I like this watch so much that now that it’s gone, I think I want to purchase another one! Hope you guys enjoyed the review.

Specs
Diameter: 44mm
Movement: ETA 2892-A2
Crystals: Sapphire
Case: Stainless Steel
Complications: GMT, 24 Hour Hands