The Breitling Watch Blog

Ever wonder what those Guilloche Patterns were called on the dials of many of the swiss watches you own? I did.. and looks like Breguet, of the Swatch Group decided to give us a little guide as to what they are called.

1. Clous de Paris on the main dial
2. Satine Circulaire on the hour circle
3. Saute Pique (or Pique releve) on the minute circle
4. Vieux Panier on the upper half of the subdial at “9”
5. Decor Flamme on the lower half of the subdial at “9”
6. Pointes de diamant (or Pave de Paris) on the subdial at “3”
7. Grain d’orge circulaire on the small seconds subdial at the “6” (and on the rotor)

These refer to the types of Guilloche on the Breguet Dial only, but similar patterning is seen on other types of watches. Here is a very short video that shows a guilloche machine working on a dial.

Have you ever looked at your watch collection and thought to yourself.. what would happen if it were stolen? What would happen if your house burned down and thousands of dollars worth of timepeices were destroyed? Well then you may want to consider a few ways of safeguarding your collection.

There are a few ways you can protect your investment, either with insurance (you’ll need specific insurance as most basic ones won’t cover the high value associated with watches). I’ll talk about a few of them here.. and their pros and cons. Obviously having a home security system such as an Anti-Burglar Alarm is a benefit to not only your watches, but everything else. Additionally, these can help:

1. Third-Party Insurance.

Remember with third-party insurance you need to make sure they will cover the entire value of your watch collection. Most will only cover a few thousand worth of jewellry, and if you’re like me, that’s only one watch, if that! You can look at insurance through a bank such as TD Canadatrust or RBC, or a non-bank affiliated insurance company such as Cooperators if you are in Canada. In the US there are many private insurance companies such as Jewelers Mutual and in the UK there is a huge abundance… T H March has been recommended by some people I’ve talked to.

Third-party insurance is a great way to protect your investment and give you peace of mind, however it is still a passive method of protection.

2. Home Safe.

A home safe is a better active method of protecting your investment, but is difficult to implement sometimes and requires some planning. Bolting the safe to the ground is important, especially with larger valued watch collections. There are even some high-end safes that have winders built in such as the Scatola Del Tempo Time Safe. Of course these things will cost you more than your average watch.

3. Safety Deposit Box

Doesn’t get much safer than this. My father used to store his watches this way, but that means wearing the same watch for a week or two and then going to the safety deposit box to swap them. Perhaps a combination of methods rather than just a safety deposit box.

4. Get a Dog.

The right dog can be great for protection your wristwatches and jewelry! Just make sure it’s a vicious one. Always on the lookout when your valuable watches are sitting at home in the watchwinder/safe/what-have-you.

At any rate, I hope this article gives you a bit of insight into the situation and helps you decide what you want to do.

Baume et Mercier is making a stab at the higher end market with a new addition to the lineup – The Classima 8690 in a limited edition of 176 peices.

This watch is cased in rose gold with an exhibition caseback showing the modified dubois-depraz movement. It is an ETA base, and looks to be similar to the Breitling for Bentley Flying B. I wonder if its the same modified base movement? This is a nice upscale jump for B&M and is the right direction for the company.

Buckle and Case are all 18kt Rose Gold, Strap is Crocodile. Sunray black dial with Superluminova Hands. Water Resistant to 30M. Case Diameter is 39mm.

This might be old news to most of you, but Newly added to Breitling’s site are the new models of the Skyland Avenger and the rather controversial SuperOcean Heritage 46 and 38 models. This model is based on the old SuperOcean of yore, which was available in a few different configurations, one with a small seconds at 9, one with a 2-dial chronograph complication, and a standard model.

The new SuperOcean Heritage is a tribute to these old SuperOceans, and stays quite true to the original style, though a major departure from current Breitling Rider-Tab styling. Only time will tell if these models become popular as they tend to be more popular among the non-Breitling crowd with terms like “It’s the first Breitling I’ve ever liked!” coming out.

Here are a few pics of the Original SuperOcean:

One of the things that often determines the price of a watch is the Movement, usually it’s whether or not the watch has an In-house movement, or some sort of stock or modified movement such as one from ETA or someone else. With the large amount of companies now moving to manufacture movements, it is making them much more affordable. Here are some examples:

Omega now almost exlusively their own in-house Co-Axial base movement in all their watches.

Ebel has developed their own manufacture movement but has yet to use it throughout their whole line, I believe.

Nomos, a small horology house from Germany creates in-house movements at a fraction of the cost of most of the big players out there.

Chopard released their L.U.C. movement a few years back now, with beautifully crafted microrotor designs, not typical of a primarily Jewelry design house.

Tag Heuer has started with some in-house movements, the Tag Heuer Caliber 360 which does have a ETA 2893 base movement, but the 1/100th second chronograph module that has been added to it is completely original and has been patented. This still does not include the new prototype movement for the Monaco V4.

There are a ton more, but in addition to the major Manufactures out there such as Franck Muller, Patek Phillipe, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, A Lange & Sohne, Glashutte Original, Breguet, etc, there are new players now, providing arguably the same quality unique in-house movements maybe without some of the nicer aesthetic features of the movements and how they are put together. Seeing an A Lange & Sohne movement in action is truly an experience like no other.

But is it worth the money? A swiss-made watch using an off-the-shelf ETA 2824-2 movement will cost you about $200. A Breitling using the same movement in a kit form with several modified and replaced parts will run you about $2000. A Patek with the same type of basic movement will cost you upwards of $15,000. A Nomos with an automatic manufacture movement will cost you no more than the Breitling, with the added “benefit” of a manufacture movement. Now, is that really a benefit? Sometimes that is a detriment as some watchmakers may have a harder time working with an unfamiliar movement, in which case you may have to send it back to Germany for servicing or repair, while just about any watchmaker can fix or clean an ETA 2824-2.

Now, which one is better? Certainly the COSC Breitling will be very close to the Patek in accuracy, but tests usually show that Pateks and other high-end horology houses have better accuracy, perhaps due to regulation after the watch is assembled… which ensures consistancy across the board. Mass-produced products like Breitlings will likely not be tested after assembly.

The Nomos is also extremely accurate, and tho not COSC claim to be within COSC specifications. The standard drop-in ETA movements are not as accurate as the COSC movements, and cannot be unless they are modified and tweaked. They also dont have the level of decoration that the Breitling movements will, which is not really an issue for many people especially since you can’t see most Breitlings movements from the outside anyway!

So in the end, its ultimately a personal choice as to which watch and movement you choose, and likely will have a lot to do with your budget as to which watch you choose. Happy shopping!