Been waiting a long time for this one.. a Manual Winding IN-HOUSE Limited Edition Breitling Cosmonaute! This is one SWEET watch… limited to 1962 pieces, it is going to be tough to get and will be very collectible. I might have to shell out for this one, depending on the price and availability.
BREITLING CELEBRATES THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST SPACEGOING WRIST CHRONOGRAPH.
On May 24th 1962, a Breitling Navitimer chronograph became the first wrist instrument to share in the conquest of space by accompanying the Aurora 7 flight. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this historical feat, the brand is launching into orbit a new Navitimer Cosmonaute equipped with a highperformance Manufacture Breitling movement, entirely developed and produced in the company workshops. This 1,962-piece limited edition is distinguished by its 24-hour display, its manualwinding mode – two nods to the original 1962 chronograph – as well as the Aurora 7 mission insignia engraved on the caseback. Navitimer Cosmonaute. The legend continues.
MAIDEN SPACE FLIGHT.
The early 1960s were all about the space race. The Americans launched the Mercury program intended to develop manned flights. They were looking for a high-performance, accurate and reliable chronograph capable of withstanding exceptional conditions. With this in mind, they naturally turned to Breitling, the “official supplier to world aviation” and a privileged partner of the finest hours in aeronautical history. The Navitimer, the cult pilot’s watch created in 1952, with its famous circular slide rule serving to perform all operations relating to airborne navigation, naturally asserted itself as the ideal instrument in taking up this challenge. It successfully passed all the required tests, and on May 24th 1962, Lt Commander Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times aboard the Aurora 7 capsule. On his wrist was a Navitimer equipped with a 24-hour graduated scale serving to distinguish day from night – an absolute necessity in space. Mission accomplished. This was a major new token of recognition for Breitling, and this space conquest pioneer soon entered the brand’s collections under the name of Cosmonaute.
THE ENGINE DRIVING THE ACCOMPLISHMENT.
The new Manufacture Breitling Caliber 02 powering the Navitimer Cosmonaute stands out by its 24-hour display and its manual-winding system – two distinctive features echoing the model that accompanied Scott Carpenter in orbiting the Earth. It was developed by the Breitling engineers and watchmakers based on Caliber 01, the world’s best chronograph movement, and is endowed with all the assets of this exceptional “engine” – including an original column-wheel structure, maximum reliability, security and functionality, unfaltering sturdiness and exceptional precision confirmed by a chronometer certificate granted by the COSC (Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute). Issued in a 1,962-piece limited edition, the 50th anniversary Navitimer Cosmonaute features a black dial with silver counters. The dial motif is created using the refined “par épargne” process on a sterling silver base, thereby guaranteeing the peerless radiance and readability of the indications. In addition to the Aurora 7 mission insignia, the engraved caseback also carries a Celsius/Fahrenheit conversion scale – another detail faithful to the design of the vintage Navitimer models.
I’m a fan of Tourby watches, even though I’ve never owned one. They are well made watches and I think the understated designs are very sensible and well thought out. They use a lot of classic style in their designes especially with their pilot watches. This new model is the Lawless diver, designed in collaboration with Brendan Lawless, an Australian Dive Watch enthusiast.
This new Lawless Diver is pretty incredible looking. I’d be quite interested in one myself, but the €925 price is scaring me a bit (This is international price, with VAT is €1099). Given that this is a very boutique watch company, you can be sure that the watch will plummet in value once its on your wrist. While that’s not a problem if you love your watches and never sell them necessarily, its can still be a deterrent to purchase.
At 45.5mm, its a beast of a watch, and has gigantic fat lugs to boot. The stainless steel case features 500m water resistance and a beautiful engraved caseback. The movement is the robust ETA 2824-2 Swiss movement. Real nice looking diver here. The Lawless is also available in a PVD case version.
Beautiful Perrelet Turbine model, to commemorate this year of the dragon. Perrelet has been doing well with their Turbine line of watches, and has released a very cool Limited edition featuring a Dragon carved from hand-colored Polynesian Mother-of-Pearl and then encrusted onto a solid white mother-of-pearl dial. The images of the dragon is obscured by the turbine, but when the turbine is spinning, the dragon is visible in its entirity.
The watch measures 44mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness. And features a black DLC coated steel case with sapphire crystals. Movement is the Perrelet exclusive P-331 Double Rotor movement. An incredible watch. I would love to see the dragon without the rotor obscuring, but could not find any photos!
Just posted a new video review of my Panerai 183 Black Seal Radiomir Black Seal. This is a great watch and I wanted to add a Radiomir to my collection for a while. I really enjoy this watch and its a great companion to my Luminor. There are times when I like having the Rad instead since it brings something different to the table.
I have always liked having cool clocks on the wall at home, and having a home with lots of rooms, I require a plentiful amount of clocks to place in different rooms. Now, if I put Instrument clocks up on every wall, my wife would probably not appreciate it, but what I do in my office and den she really doesn’t care. I have several clocks in my den, one of which is one of these Trintec Industries Aviation Instrument clocks, and it is pretty cool.
Shown here are two of the coasters that came in the 6-coaster set as well as the 6″ clock, which is actually 6.5″. The Clock case that Trintec uses looks EXACTLY like those fake Bell & Ross dealer clocks I see on eBay. I bet those guys are using trintec Clocks to make them. Trintec makes a bunch of cool little aviation and marine instruments, as well as watches, which are less interesting to me. I am more interested in their accessories and clocks.
Here’s a close up of the 6″ clock, which retails for $29.95 on the Trinec website. The clock has no second hand, and thus no ticking sound.. which is nice. The watch also features a real glass lens, which is a nice feature. There are several different dial styles available that you can see on the website.
Here are the coasters, which come in a set of 6, with each one having a different pattern on it. Most of the coaster styles are available as clock dials as well. Trintec has some cool gadgets too.. but I only wanted the coasters are the larger 6″ wall clock. The 6″ refers to the lens size.. the actual clock is slightly bigger at 6.5″ as I had mentioned earler. All the clocks are made in Canada too, which is a plus.
Very cool stuff that would make a great inexpensive gift for that clock/watch/aviation enthusiast in your life.
