The Breitling Watch Blog

Panerai finally updated their website, and boy does it look great! And this isn’t a superficial update to the front where they just make the first few pages the same and keep the rest, this is a complete ground-up modernization of the site.. looks fantastic. I have to say they definately put a lot of work into it. Even has a cool little video to introduce you to the site:

http://www.panerai.com/en/teaser

Check out my video review of the Baume and Mercier Hampton Magnum XXL – in awesome black PVD and solid 18K Rose Gold bezel and inserts. Sorry for the crappy audio… you’ll have to turn the volume down a bit. This is a solid watch from B&M, though strays quite a bit from their traditional style. On its own, this is a great looking watch with a solid movement and great lines. One of my favourite square watches I’ve ever owned.

Beautiful piece of horology here with A. Lange’s Grand Lange 1 “Lumen”, featuring a killer sapphire dial with a semi-transparent coating. This watch, while not being anything incredibly new, is a great host of features and has all the great stuff that A. Lange is known for all in one platinum-cased timepiece.

GRAND LANGE 1 “Lumen” Ref. 117.035
Movement: Lange manufacture calibre L095.2, manually wound, crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; plates and bridges made of untreated German silver; balance cock engraved by hand
Movement parts: 400
Jewels: 42
Screwed gold chatons: 7
Escapement: Lever escapement
Oscillator: Shock-resistant screw balance; superior-quality balance spring manufactured in-house, frequency 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour, precision beat adjustment system with lateral setscrew and whiplash spring
Power reserve: 72 hours when fully wound
Functions: Time indicated in hours, minutes, and subsidiary seconds with stop seconds; power-reserve indicator; outsize date
Operating elements: Crown for winding the watch and setting the time; push piece for rapid correction of the outsize date
Case dimensions: Diameter: 40.9 millimetres; height: 9.8 millimetres
Movement: dimensions Diameter: 34.1 millimetres; height: 4.7 millimetres
Crystal and back Sapphire crystal (hardness 9)
Case: Platinum
Dial: Basic dial (outer ring, hour, minutes, small seconds) of solid silver (black), recessed parts of sapphire crystal with semitransparent coating; luminous outsize date and indications for hours and power-reserve
Hands: Rhodiumed gold; hours, minutes, power-reserve indicator luminous
Strap: Hand-stitched crocodile strap, black
Buckle: Lange prong buckle in platinum

Posted this video not too long ago, pretty cool comparison of two types of Wyler Geneve Code-R Chronos. These are neat watches from a now defunct company.. priced at a ridiculous $14,000+ for one of these chronos, its no wonder they went out of business. They can now be had for around $2000 a pop, but may be slightly more difficult to service depending on the problem. Hope you enjoy the video.

Union Glashutte – one of the better German watchmakers along with its sister company, Glashute Original. While not in the same league as A. Lange, Union Glasshute used to do some good stuff, before the company was recently repositioned to have all ETA-based movements, dropping the in-house Glashutte Original movements. This Tradition Automatic Chronograph here is one of the older breed of Union Glashutte watch, and is a great, all-German, no-frills chronograph.

Here’s a beautiful head-shot of this rare breed of German Chronograph, with its tritium coated hands and indexes, all on a equisitely understated matte black dial. The subdial layout is a tri-compax, with the running seconds at 3 o’clock hour totalizer at 6 and minutes at 9 o’clock.

You can just catch the edge of the bezel which is knurled, just like the surrounds for the pushers. The crystal is sapphire, which is always great, especially on older watches like this one – probably from the late 90’s. The case shape is a good usable 39mm, which is more than enough for many, but far too little for some of the trendier folk. I personally find it just big enough, but I could do with 2-3 extra millimeters.

The bracelet is superb, and screwed together, which was also a rarity back in the 90’s. This is a really well made timepiece! Clasp is a non-locking double butterfly style, with friction locks and a deep engraved Union Glashutte logo.

Last but not least, the movement. This Tradition Chrono features the 48 Jewel, Union caliber 26-31. This is a less decorated version of the Glasshute Original Caliber 39, and lacks many of the refinements such as the extensive decoration and swan neck regulator. The rotor has some nice Geneva striping, but the bridges are quite bare. However, its still a very unique and reliable movement that gives it that extra bit of personality over many other Valjoux pieces these days.

Sorry for the lack of a wrist shot, but I forgot to take one and I ended up selling this watch already! I really enjoyed my time with it and I urge anyone that is interested in this kind of timepiece to get one because its a very cool watch, and with all the current Union watches going to ETA-only, these will be rare.