The Breitling Watch Blog

I’ve launched my new Omega and Rolex watch information site. It’s pretty sparse right now, but I think its time to announce the site on here. It will focus mainly on more recent models of the watches, but will have some vintage stuff, similar to the Breitling Source site. At the moment, I don’t plan to have forums attached to the website, however this may change in the future. In the works is also a Panerai information site that will attempt to provide Panerai watch models and information in a easy-to-use format as well.

The Omega Rolex site may have some errors but hopefully they will be fixed. Check out the site here: http://www.omegarolex.com

Faced with the decision of whether to purchase the Omega Seamaster Chrono Diver or the standard Omega Seamaster Chronometer, I ended up with both of these models. They are both wonderful watches, with an understated look compared to that of the Breitlings that I am used to wearing. Most of my friends that see the Omegas think they look bland and not worth their money. I say they are classic icons that stands the test of time.

I’ve taken several pictures of them together for comparitve reasons. The Seamaster Chrono I have is the Bond version, while the standard model is the Black dial/bezel with sword hands.

I like the more dramatic contrast of the black dialed Seamasters, but the Bond seamasters seem to be more popular. The bracelet on the Bond model is also a bit more busy, and the watch overall has a busier look, partly due to the subdials.

As you can see from the above pic, the Seamaster Chrono (right) is MUCH thicker than the regular one. The bezel is thicker, the back is thicker, and the case is thicker. The feeling on the wrist is quite different between the two.

The Seamaster Chrono, which is the one in the front, has a newer style back with the Omega monster logo in super-size. The standard model has the older style back, and I’m not sure if it is because it is an older model or because they just have not changed the back on those yet. I haven’t seen any of the new style backs on the standard Seamaster 300m yet.

Now, a couple of wrist shots so you guys can see the two on my small 6.75″ wrists. First the Seamaster Chronograph:

Now, the Seamaster Chronometer:

So, as you can see they are acutally quite different watches, more than simply the same watch but one with the chronograph. Both are certified COSC Chronometers, and use modified ETA movements.

I’ve owned a few Orbita Sparta deluxe winders, and the older ones that I own, though still only 10 months old, the motors they shipped with were quite noisy. Not a huge problem for a winder that only winds for 5-10 seconds every 10 or 15 minutes depending on the cycle. I ended up selling one of them, but still have two of the deluxe models, one with a noisy motor, and one with a nice quiet one. The noisy one bugged me, so I emailed Orbita.

My Sparta Deluxe Winder looks like this:

A nice lady named Cheryl emailed me back quite promptly, and we conversed via email and she said that it would be replaced under warranty if I could provide the serial number to her as proof. WOW! That made me a happy guy. I was perfectly willing to pay money for the new quieter motor, but she said that it would be replaced free of charge, which really made my day.

I sent her the serial number and she sent me an email a few days later indicating it would be shipped out. I received it a couple weeks after our emails via Fedex, installed it in my winder, and it is now dead silent! I love it.

I really have to say that my experience with Orbita Watchwinder’s customer service was among the best I have ever experienced, and that all my further winder purchases will be made through them, not just due to the customer service (other winder companies have also been good) but because of the excellent product as well.

With the explosive growth of the luxury watch in the last 5-10 years, its suprising to hear one name not commonly associated with high-end watches come up over and over again: Timex. Yes, that Timex. The same Timex that makes drugstore watches and supplies the bulk of the inventory for Wal-Mart and makes the tried and true Ironman Watches with their familiar Velcro Nylon straps.

Here are a couple of watches from the TX (Techno Luxury) Line of watches from TX’s 700 series. They come in very large sizes, and look quite nice.. some as large as 46mm.

However, there is more to the new Timex than just the new TX Watches (www.txwatches.com). The Timex Group consists of several brands and licenses which now include: Vincent Berard, Versace, Versus, Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Guess, Helix, Nautica, Mark Ecko, Avirex, Timex, TX, Acqua, and Carriage. They are spread among 5 divisions based in Switzerland and the USA.

I was quite surprised to find out that the Versace watches were owned by the Timex Group. I had been considering the purchase of one of them for my girlfriend for a while, and have actually owned a couple as you might have known from reading my previous articles. These automatics had nice decorated swiss ETA movements in them, hardly something I would have associated with the Timex brand.

Some of the offerings from the Timex Group include the Versace DV One, in black ceramic – a very beautiful jewelry watch:

But the real suprise is the company that sits at the top of Timex Group, in the same way Breguet sits at the top of the Swatch Group, but with much less esteemed company so-to-speak. The company is Vincent Berard. The company makes less than 100 watches a year, priced at around $70,000 a pop, and is a premier small manufacture brand.

Here is an example of his work, the esteemed Luvorene 1. Read more about it here.

Will the Timex Group soon join the ranks of the Swatch Group, Richemont and LVMH? It will be interesting to see what happens..

That’s a good question. In my mind, if the crown falls off the watch, it should be fixed by Breitling under warranty… that’s assuming it unscrewed from the stem. However, if it snaps off the stem, then that’s a bit more difficult. Was it abused? Was it a fault stem? These are things that Breitling must consider when looking at the problem.

I received an email from someone and the email says this:

“Hello there! Thank you for your website, it was really helpful, I have fews questions that I hope will get an answers.
My father bought almost 10k for breitling watch. Last time, he lightly pull out a dial(knob) to change the time, and that little knob fall off. I sent it to Breitling to fix it, they charge me $984 to fix it. My father just bought a watch last year, warranty is 3 years. Should they fix this with no charge. Becuase it is such an expensive watch, and you lightly pull out a dial to turn the time, it fall out and they considered this not cover in the warranty. You know a lot about watch. What should I do? Can you please advice.
It is so unreasonable that I bought a watch, and something wrong with the dial installment, I have to pay to get it fix? So, they meant that Breitling is made out of cheap materials and cheap equipment? For example, if something wrong with the chain then it is our responsibility to fix it, but there should not be any wrong with the watch right? The dial is 18kt gold, and the watch is expensive, my father treat it very nice and genlte.
SO, what shoud I do now??
thank you for your time reading this, I really appreciated it.”

Now, warranty is usually 2 years, so I’m not sure where they got 3 years. I am waiting on a reply from her since $984 is an incredibly large amount of money to fix a broken crown stem. If its costing that much to fix whatever it is sounds like it should be under warranty, unless they smashed the watch against some pavement or something.

But it made me think. What if your crown does fall off? Is that covered? What if you take your watch swimming, is that covered? The Breitling warranty manual is somewhat ambiguous when it comes to what it covers. I personally have had no experience with Breitling Warranty as I have had no problems with my watches. I took them in for servicing and that was that. I had to pay.

I’m hoping some of you guys might be able to chip in or shoot me an email with some info!