The Breitling Watch Blog

I decided to start a new site called Strapaholics, since I have found myself gravitating more and more towards watch straps in recent years. At first, every single watch in my collection was on a bracelet, but lately, that number has become more like 50/50. Half my collection is watch straps now, and I want to bring strapmakers and strap collectors together now. I don’t want to just focus on Panerai Straps.. I want to focus on all sorts of straps… Everyone is welcome, come to the site and join the forum!!

We finally got them in.. the limited edition BreitlingSource Forum watch, a Customized Steinhart Nav B-Uhr with a unique dial, and a special engraving on the back of the watch. Check it out!

The proverbial wristshot. The 47mm sized case might be a bit large for my 6.75″ wrist, but this is the first Limited Edition Forum watch, put together by Altair from our forum, and Gunter from Steinhart watches in Germany. It came to my door this morning, Christmas Eve! What a nice surprise.

Notice the dark grey Lumed Arabics, combined with a grey dial, and beautiful scripted Limited Edition lettering on the front. Combination brushed and polished case. These details are often much more appreciated when you are designing the watch yourself.

A photo from the other side. For good measure.

The black riveted pilot strap is a nubuck/sueded finish, and complements the watch REALLY well. I think aside from possibly a Dark grey/Black nubuck Crocodile rivet strap, there wouldn’t be anything I prefer more with the possible exception of a Bracelet maybe.

The Diamon crown isn’t machined as well as an IWC Big Pilot.. but its not bad. I wouldn’t mind an Onion crown as an option however.. I like the big round onions too.

A nice shot of the ETA/Unitas 6497 movement, with Cote de Geneves striping and beveled gears. Its a step up from the base level Unitas Movements that I have owned before. It also has my name, and the Limited Edition of 15 number engraved on the back as well. Very nice!

Thanks to Altair and Gunter for putting this one together!

Richemont has opened a second school of watchmaking, this one in Hong Kong. The art of watchmaking has become much more popular with as mechanical watches once again become status symbols and coveted objects of desire, even more so than they ever were before.

Visit the IOSW site here to see their info on the new school in Hong Kong. The first school that Richmont opened was in Texas, USA.

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 Blizzard and Aurora, two new designs based on an dramatic explosion Damascus steel pattern. Both dials are etched to enrich the contrasts but while the Blizzard is uncolored, the dial of Aurora has been given a lustrous green-orange color to resemble northern lights, Aurora Borealis. Traditional Lappish techniques has been used to make the reindeer strap of Aurora, which leather has been naturally tanned without any chemicals.

The watches are 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 Blizzard – GoS 010:
- 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 a hand shaped chapter ring in grade-5 titanium
- Crown: Oversize in Damascus stainless steel with large gold fitted diamond
- Hands: polished steel finish
- Polished stainless steel mesh strap

Specifications Aurora – GoS 009:
- 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 grade-5 titanium index markers.
- Crown: Oversize in Damascus stainless steel with large gold fitted diamond
- Hands: Polished and blued
- Handcrafted and naturally tanned reindeer strap with traditional Lappish tin ornamentation

Find out more about these watches here:
http://www.urmakare.eu/pressrelease/GoS-watches-Blizzard-Aurora.pdf

I love Zenith watches. The Defy watches, the Chronomasters, everything. The Academy watch is Zenith’s premier line, and the Academy Zero-G Tourbillion is the lastest addition. Using the Caliber 8801 El Primero Tourbillon movement, this watch beats at 36,000vph, and offers a 3-Dimensional Tourbillon cage. Platinum rotor and 160-part gyroscopic carriage are just some of the features.

With this model Zenith rotated the movement 45-degrees to to place the Tourbillon Cage at 4:30 and the Time at 10:30. This gives the watch a very nice offset look.

As some of you might have already known, I had purchased a U-Boat Flightdeck CAS 50mm watch, which many on the forum kept saying was “Cheaply made” and they felt that the metal was cheap and that the crystal was cheap. I had a totally different experience and felt that the case machining was on par with anything in the price range, and that the only part that was neglected was the finish of the movement. I’ll elaborate a bit more here.

There is a general shot of the U-Boat, atop the U-Boat box. As you can see, the lines on the bezel are crisp and sharp, an indication of high-end finishing techniques, usually executed partially by hand. The strap on the other hand, while made in Italy by hand, is ugly. The preforated inserts on the strap serve to cheapen the overall look of the watch, and I immediately put it on a StrapLuxe grey leather strap with white stitching which matches the watch perfect in my opinion.

A close up of the dial, and you can see the crisp lines of the bezel in this photo as well. The dial lume is applied meticulously and precisely. While this watch is made in Italy, I have no doubt that the quality of the painting on the dial is up to the standards of similarly priced swiss watches. While the overall style of the watch probably does not ooze class, it is a well made watch in my opinion. The crystals are Sapphire, and the case steel is 316L, the same type as most high-quality Swiss watches.

It was told to me that the quality of this watch was no better than the Nixon watches out there. While I might agree with this statement if it were applied to Hamilton watches or Swiss Army Victorinox case finishing, I would not agree in repect to U-Boat. I would put U-Boat solidly along the lines of Tag Heuer’s Carrera line for quality of finish.

The movement finish on the other hand is sorely lacking, and not up to the quality standards of even Tag Heuer. The U-Boat movements are definately in the same quality range as Hamilton. The extra canteen hardware is very well machined and made as well, given a quality feel when unscrewing and using the canteen cover.

The Plain Jane Valjoux/ETA 7750 is visible on the caseback as can be seen, and is mounted reversed for a left-crown configuration, an obvious necessity given the size of crown and 50mm case diameter. The watch is quite heavy and does not feel light for its size in my opinion.

Not seen in the photos is the U-BOAT deeply engraved on the side of the case, which is deeply sunken and bead basted in the deep parts, given the case an extra level of finish. I purchased this watch from a friend, after I had handled it and felt that the quality of the finish was at an acceptable level. I have since sold this watch, mostly because I found the 50mm size a bit inconvenient. It makes the watch somewhat impractical for daily wear, and sometimes the size makes it look a bit tacky IMO. This is the “mid-sized” U-boat, with a larger 55mm size and smaller 43mm version available.

There’s the proverbial wrist shot, mounted on the stock strap and shown on my 6 3/4″ wrist. While it is large, and somewhat saucer-like in appearance, it is not entirely out of the question, and much more manageable than I would have thought 50mm would be. Now, the 55mm version would be totally out of the question for me, but I could see a guy with an 8″ wrist pull a 55mm U-Boat off no problem…

It wasn’t that long ago that when you purchased a New Swiss Made automatic Watch, you were guaranteed at least an ETA 2824 movement in it. While the ETA 2824 movement is by no means a rare or exciting automatic movement, it is reliable and can be very accurate in it’s highest level of finish. The ETA 2824 is used by a very large number of companies including Breitling, Hamilton, Oris, Omega, Tudor, Eterna, Tag Heuer and many many others including most of the German Brands.

ETA 2824-2 from a Limes Watch

After that came the Sellita SW200 movement, a direct copy of the ETA 2824 that is mostly made in Switzerland. While it is unknown how much of the parts are made in China, they at least come close to ETA in their quality. They are cheaper movements, and many brands including Invicta, Oris, Enzo and Eterna have begun to use the Selitta SW200 in their watches. I don’t mind the Selitta too much, at least it is somewhat comparable to the ETA-2824. The next step is a bit more disturbing.

While its not a new thing, many people many not be aware that an Invicta brand named Technica Swiss Ebauches purchases chinese made Sea-Gull movements and final finishes them in Switzerland and badges them as Swiss Made. Swiss Made regulations only provide that at least 50% of the value of the movement must be from Switzerland. With the price of the Chinese Ebauches being so low, its not difficult to refinish the movements in Switzerland in order to meet the criteria.

Swiss Mechanical Invictas

This is an unfortunate situation, and devalues the Swiss Made brand. Invicta has done well by selling a large number of watches, purchasing higher end brands like S. Coifman and devaluing them as well. While I think that Invicta has some good value in their lines, the majority of their designs are either very ugly, or hommages. The Invictas above sell for $119, and claim to have Swiss Made movements inside them.

I guess the point I am trying to make here is that the Swiss Made brand is being devalued and I think its a shame – hopefully its prestige can be maintained rather than be tainted by the likes of Invicta.