The Breitling Watch Blog

Ball Watches have always caught my fancy, especially since they combine the coolness of Tritium tubes with fine Swiss horology. While they have not yet created their own in-house caliber, they have made some contributions such as the Amortiser anti-shock system for watches. Currently all their watches use modified ETA movements.

This is the Engineer Master II Diver, which seems to be one of the more popular Ball Watches that I’ve seen around. They are available in a few different colors besides green, such as Orange and White. The inner dive bezel is operated by the crown at 2 o’clock. The watch features 53 Tritium tubes on it’s dial, which has a wave sunburst pattern.

Clasp is a semi-hidden button lock variety, which is odd for a diver. I’ve seen this watch offered with a flip-lock style bracelet as well. I’m not sure which is correct, or if it was changed partway through production or if it was possibly an option.

The watch case measures 42mm, but due to the rounded edges of the case sides, wears a bit smaller than most watches of a similar size. For those of you that have not owned a Tritium tube lume watch, the Tritium tubes tend to be slightly duller than SuperLuminova after its been charged, but while SuperLuminova needs charging, Tritium tubes do not. They simply glow and glow for their entire lifespan, which is rated from 20-30 years, depending on the make. They glow at a similar rate as SuperLume once its settled down after about 15-20 minutes in the dark.

The caseback features an engraving of a submarine, with Webb C. Ball etched on it, representing Webster Clay Ball, The company’s namesake and also the company’s founder. The screwdown caseback offers 300m of water resistance.

There’s the watch shown on my 6 3/4″ wrist. As you can see, its a decent size. The bracelet is fairly narrow, at approximately 21mm, and has no taper. The inner bezel freely spins, so its hard to make it line up perfectly because when the crown is screwed in it sometimes moves slightly. Overall its a nice watch, and I really did like it, but I found that it sat funny on my wrist, making the watch overall have an odd appearance. Ultimately I liked it better in the pictures than I did on my wrist, so I won’t be keeping this one. Hope you guys enjoyed the review.

Specs:
Movement: ETA 2836-2
Functions: Illuminated rotating inner bezel
3 hands and day, date
53 micro gas tubes
Shock resistance: 5,000Gs
Water resistance: 300m
Antimagnetic: 4,800A/m
Case: 42mm made with stainless steel, height 14.9mm
Anti-reflective sapphire crystal
Screwed-in crowns

“You actually own a Ril Watch. You do not need to wait for the next generation.”

That’s their slogan. Obviously this is a reverse take on Patek’s slogan which is, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” Now, while they use a spin-off of Patek’s slogan, their watches have absolutely no relationship in look or pedigree to Patek Philippe. They’re more of a Rolex Sub “homage” to be diplomatic.. others would call it a copy.

Ril Concept states that their watches are designed in London and use precision automatic Japanese movements, selling for $999US. They feature a 38mm case, sort of like a mini-submariner. To me they look more like they were designed in Switzerland (by Rolex) and then copied by someone in London. Also, the 30m water resistance doesn’t really seem like its up to the task of being a scuba watch, which is what it’s marketed as.

Features:
-Scratchproof sapphire glass
-Stainless Steel
-Rotating Scuba bezel
-High precision Japanese automatic movement 21 jewels
-48 hours power reserve
-Screwed winding crown
-Water resistant (30m)

Take a look and decide for yourself!
http://rilconcept.com/

Like many watch companies now, Nomos has also started opening watch boutiques and their new Flagship store is located in Zurich, Switzerland. They’ve also released a limited editon watch to commemorate the event, the Zürich watch. It will be colored RAL 7032, or Pebble Gray, one of the major accent colors used in the boutique.

If you’re interested in visiting:
Spiegelgasse 13 (Niederdorf)
8001 Zürich
Telephone: +011-410-44-400-1417
Email: spiegelgasse@nomos-glashuette.ch
Opening times: Tuesdays to Fridays 12 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday Closed and by appointment.

Finally got the Breitling Dynamic Pricelist Updated to include the new 2010 Models such as the B01 and Galactic series. I haven’t had a chance to format it into the PDF one yet, but I will when I get the chance. Its a very time consuming process!

Its interesting to note than in this May 2010 pricelist (Yah, I know I’m late!), that the prices for ALL models that have not changed have remained the same. Breitling used the new model introductions to justify price increases and have discontinued nearly the entire Windrider line to be replaced with the new Galactic watches. Enjoy!

Now, I guess it depends on whether you think Badass CEO Erik Prince of Blackwater, now Xe Services, is a cool guy or just a power hungry ex-Marine, ex-CIA turned Private Security Expert who’s a dangerous man with a license to kill. Since I’m not American I don’t really follow the politics behind it and likely don’t really have an opinion either way. I just love cool military gear, and Blackwater used to make some cool stuff before they renamed themselves and changed up.

Erik Prince wears a Breitling Emergency, and has now fled to the UAE and is working in the Energy Sector. Here are a couple shots of Erik Prince with the side of his Emergency showing and a funny Blackwater Inspiration image! Actually not entirely sure if Erik Prince is a celebrity, but his exposure in the news has definately gained him some notoriety.