The Breitling Watch Blog

Rolex has been using green for years, and Breitling has over the years as well. So it should not come as a surprise that their new Limited Edition Breitling for Bentley GMT is accented with a Green chapter ring and a green rubber strap, should it? The watch commemorates the new Bentley Continental GT. The watch is basically identical to the regular GMT offering aside from the green accents: 49mm case, 100m water resistance and Caliber 47B Movement.

If you ask me, the color is not too attractive. But I’m not a fan of the green rolex submariner either and that seems to sell just fine. So what do I know right??

We asked for it, and Breitling Delivered!!!

Its called the Navitimer Caliber 01. Finally, an in-house B01 movement, housed in a versatile 43mm case with a EXHIBITION BACK! That’s right folks, finally the B01 is available with an exhibition back, albeit in a limited edition of 2200 (2000 in steel, 200 in 18K RG) of these Navitimers. Breitling has announced that the regular B01 equipped Navitimers will hit start hitting the streets next spring, but until then real aficionados can get their hands on one of these bad boys.

I’m not sure what one of these guys are gonna cost, but you can bet that I will be interested in grabbing one when they do come out. Beautiful Navitimer dial, with Swiss Made returning to the 6 o’clock position. Cool new date wheel font in red. The 43mm case is perfect size to me, but I can think of at least one of our forum members who will complain that its too small!

Cool deep subdials and curved, double AR-coated sapphire glass.

Great view of Breitlings relatively newly developed in-house B01 movement.

For once, an watch company that embraces their Asian movements! Usually we find watch companies try and hide the pedigree of their movements when the origin is not Swiss, but Sean Wai of moVas Watches is here to change that. He spent over two years tweaking the design for his first watch, and each watch will only be produced in a limited number of 100 peices.

The first series of watches based on the first case design are simply called the GMT, Regulateur and Chronograph. This first watches have been released and are priced between $430-$670US, but many eagerly await the release of the divers that will be out soon. The price point feels a bit high to me, but for a in-house designed original watch with a quality finish on the case the price is reasonable enough. From the few reviews I’ve seen, the watches seem to be well made.

From the renderings, the new divers look like they will have sandwich dials and a horizontal power reserve… a little bit of Panerai influence in those designs it appears! But many of the watches and straps appear to have Panerai influences here.

Another one of my guilty pleasure watch brands is ECW, short for European Company Watch. The name is kind of corny (and also happens to be the same as a second tier wrestling company), and doesn’t exude class like brands that are named after an obscure European horological figure. But if IWC can do it, why not ECW?

With the problems with the name and logo aside, the watches they craft are pretty snazzy. The company is owned by Franck Muller Watchland who also owned Pierre Kunz and Martin Braun among others. The ECW website was taken offline in 2008, but I could not find any information on the company and whether it is still around.

I picked up an ECW Panhard F10 a while back, which I have been sneaking pics of on my twitter. Its what I’m wearing today, and I have to say that while the movement is a base Tri-Compax Valjoux 7753, its eminently satisfying to wear. The solid machined front-loading cases are beautifully crafted. I will be reviewing the watch soon, but for now, I may have to try and get another ECW into my collection!

Breitling continues the stream of Limited Edition watches with the Blackbird Red Strike. I suppose this watch is made to compliment the Code Yellow Avenger that was released earlier this year.

The Blackbird Red Strike is limited to 2000 pieces and has all the same dimensions and features that the standard Blackbird does, including the faceted bracelet. The Red Strike, however, is available fully polished from head to toe as well as brushed and will feature very cool Red highlighting on the matte black dial.

Finally, the long awaited (well at least it seemed that way from the comments I was getting) video review of my Graham Chronofighter watch. This is a cool watch with a neat Chronograph start/stop button that is operated from the large lever. No date, with a movement based on the Valjoux 7750. Many have criticized Graham for their excessive prices given the modified ETA movements, but they do make an interesting time piece. Enjoy the review!

I’ve always liked the UN Freak, and now the Ulysse Nardin Freak Diavolo Rolf 75 introduces more advancements in materials and technology of Haute Horology. The Freak Diavolo increases the amount of silicium used in the escapement from previous versions, and has an amazing power reserve of over 8 days. The biggest visual change of course is the flying tourbillon integrated with a seconds indicator with a bright yellow semi-circle scale.

Absolutely amazing and a worthy improvement to the Freak line of watches from Ulysse Nardin.

I recently purchased a Panerai Luminor GMT PAM 320, with the 12hr GMT hand, Seconds Reset and 3 Days in-house Caliber P.9001 movement. This watch is pretty much exactly what I was looking for, so my PAM 90 is now on the block. I realized I never really reviewed my PAM90, or talked about it on here. Now that its going to be sold, I should probably snap some photos and put them up here before its gone.

The PAM 90 has the standard modern 44mm Luminor case, with the straight sides, a bit less complicated than the 1950′s style cases that most of Panerai’s newer models have. I was really wanting one of the 1950′s cases, so I picked up the PAM320. The PAM90 is still a fantastic watch, and one of my favourite PAMs.

Most of these photos are taken with the watch in the box, since I took these photos to sell the watch! While I want to sell it, I don’t think I’d be heartbroken if I ended up keeping it either! The watch comes with the usual Screwdriver and Strap change tool. This one is a J series, from 2008. It does have the quick change strap bars, not the screw-in kind, which are much less desireable in my opinion. These spring loaded lugs are the best.

As with most polished PAM’s, the crown protector is polished, but the lever is brushed. I’m not sure why they do it this way, but that’s the way they do it. As this is a newer model, the lever has the little wheel on it as well. All nice little refinements that Panerai has worked into the models.

Funny that I’ve had this watch for two years and still never got around to writing up about it. I really enjoyed my two years with the PAM90, but I am even more happy with my 320, and expect to enjoy the 320 for another couple of years when I’m sure another Panerai will probably draw my attention. If you are not hung up about getting an in-house caliber from Panerai, the PAM90 is a fantastic choice with the offset power reserve indicator and sub-seconds.