The Breitling Watch Blog

Stone Cold Steve Austin saw my write-up earlier this week about his watches and sent me an email! So cool. He also emailed me a pic of his latest acquisition, a Breitling SuperOcean Heritage Chronograph 46 Limited Edition with the white dial and black dual registers.

He indicated that he picked it up in Vegas when he was there watching the UFC Fight recently. I can’t help but notice that he has great taste in watches – very similar to my own. Pic below sent from Steve Austin himself:

On a side note, I can’t wait to see the Expendables movie that he’s in with Sly Stalone, Jet Li and Jason Statham coming out in August!!!

Another Limited Edition U-Boat is going to hit the streets soon, featuring a limited production of 999 pieces and a 53mm Titanium Case. This one harks back to the classic Italian Navy style watches, and one can’t help but compare it to the Panerai Egiziano in terms of looks.

The crown device is interesting on this one, and I’m not quite sure how it works from the description, but as I understand it, the crown flips out and can be turned when it is released by the lever on the bottom.

There is lever on the case at around 4 o’clock that when engaged, prevents the crown from turning, which is a pretty cool feature, especially if you’re going to use it for diving. The watch is good to 300m. The watch features a caliber U-BOAT U-28 automatic movement, which I assume is probably based on a [EDIT]ETA 2824, though I can’t be certain.

Dial is available in black or beige, and caseback is a signed solid back with some cool inscriptions. I kind of hate to admit it, but I like this watch!

I’ve owned a U-Boat before, but to be quite honest, the ridiculous case size and somewhat un-matching straps were just not working for me in the end. The case quality in my opinion was decent, which many people in my forums did not agree with. They have improved their straps in the last year or so, as the ones I have seen are nicer now.

This new U-51 Rattrapante from U-Boat is quite interesting.. mixing in design cues from the Anonimo Professionale series of watches with the screwed-in bezel look. This bad boy is limited to 100 pieces and measures 51mm in diameter and a whopping 19mm thick. The movement is a base 7750 Valjoux modifed by Alfred Rochat. Decent enough, but has the typical lack of detail and finish ont he movement that cheapes U-Boat’s watches IMO.

First was the obscure and rare Panerai PAM195, which was made for Paneristi members in a limited edition of 200 pieces, each with the name of the member engraved on the back of the watch.

Now we have the new Panerai PAM360, produced in a limited edition of 300 pieces, sold at the discretion of the Paneristi Moderators. With such a limited production, these are sure to be gone in no time.

Interesting that this one ‘appears’ to have what looks like an aftermarket style strap on it, as opposed to the usual dressier Panerai straps. Not sure if its just the prototype photograph or if its the final production strap. They’ve also used a antiqued yellowish lume to give it that aged tritium look.

Here is a photo of the back. $6700 is the price, which is fairly steep for a basic PVD Base Logo.

Among many others.. including IWC, Kobold and Omega. Very cool.

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin has been lighting up the WWE stage for years before he retired in 2000, and began collecting watches after his wrestling career took off. His main article is featured in this month’s WatchTime Magazine. Some of the watches in his collection include: IWC Aquatimer, Zenith Defy, Rolex Yachtmaster, Omega Seamaster 300m Chronodiver, Kobold Arctic Diver, IWC Big Pilot and a Breitling Super Avenger Blacksteel. He’s planning to add a Panerai to the collection soon.

I highly recommend the article in WatchTime magazine as he seems like a very cool guy and the article is a good read. I was never a huge wrestling fan, but this is good stuff.