A new Chronograph from Ocean7, Mitch Feig’s Dive Watch company – is in fact a Pilot Watch! I remember the first Ocean7 Chronograph I bought, Swiss Made using the Valjoux 7750 movement costed $1800. This new Pilot uses the same basic parts and even comes DLC coated and only runs $799! This certainly is a very attractive price point for buyers as it puts an automatic Swiss Made chronograph well below $1000. From what I’ve seen from Ocean7 in the past as far as quality is concerned, this should be a very solid buy.

From Ocean7: “The OCEAN7 Watch Company has released one of the most affordable handmade Swiss ever made available on the market: the Pilot Chronograph. The Pilot Chronograph features a Swiss ETA 7750 chronograph movement and many desirable features:

Sandblasted, DLC coated case
Swiss ETA 7750 Chronograph Movement
44 mm diameter
15 mm height
Swiss Orange Super Luminova
Domed Sapphire Crystal
PU Rubber Sport Strap with Black, PVD Coated Buckle
Water Resistance – 5atm
22mm Lug Spacing”

Pilot watch collectors can rejoice as another reputable Swiss manufacturer of watches creates a new Pilot watch for enthusiasts. The Alpina Startimer Pilot is a beautiful Pilot watch with a twist.

ALPINA – Startimer Pilot Collection

Alpina, former supplier of army pilot watches, has returned to its century-old heritage with the Startimer Pilot Collection. Comprising four models, two with three hands and a date, an in-house regulator and a chronograph, these re-interpretations meet the same requirements as in the past: precision, reliability, resistance and instant legibility. The 44 mm polished steel case, the matt black dial with its oversized white luminescent hourmarkers, and the red triangle at the base of the direct-drive seconds hand are hallmarks of every Alpina timepiece, now as in the past. For the launching of this latest model, limited to 8,888 watches, the brand has joined forces with two choice partners, Cessna Aviation and PrivatAir.

Movement
Automatic, AL-860 chronograph calibre

Functions
Hours, minutes, seconds and chronograph

Case
Polished stainless steel, 44 mm
Anti-reflective sapphire crystal and transparent back
Water-resistant to 100 m / 10 ATM

Dial
Matt black
Oversized white luminescent hourmarkers
Minute and seconds counters at 9 and 3 o’clock

Bracelet/Strap
Stainless steel or black leather with folding clasp

Other versions
AL-525 movement: 3 hands and date; in-house AL-710 movement and AL-950 regulator: 3 hands with date hand

Here’s the Laco Flieger Watch Video review that I posted to Youtube, as a follow up to my previous written review of the Laco watch here, around a year ago. Its taken me a long time to get some of these video reviews up, but I will – I promise! Enjoy the video.

Being a Canadian watch collector and blogger, I feel something of a responsibility to mention the watches that Canadian watchmakers produce and sell such as Halios. Today I’m going to talk a little about Archer Watches, who have become quite popular with the online watch crowd. The company is a one-man watch operation run by a guy named Al, who is quite the watchmaker. I haven’t found any info on his credentials, but he certainly knows his way around a watch movement as can be seen in his blog.

Al’s latest creation is the Archer Aero CS. The Aero CS is a 42mm 316L Stainless Steel cased Pilot watch. Double Sapphire Crystals, and some interesting movement upgrades: A Central Seconds hand modification, and a feature where the second hand will stop at 12 when the crown is pulled out allowing easy synchronisation. It comes available on a Jurgen’s 22mm strap, which is a very nice strap, or optional stainless steel bracelet. Price for the Archer Aero CS is $1,900 US on strap, and $2,150 US on Bracelet.

We finally got them in.. the limited edition BreitlingSource Forum watch, a Customized Steinhart Nav B-Uhr with a unique dial, and a special engraving on the back of the watch. Check it out!

The proverbial wristshot. The 47mm sized case might be a bit large for my 6.75″ wrist, but this is the first Limited Edition Forum watch, put together by Altair from our forum, and Gunter from Steinhart watches in Germany. It came to my door this morning, Christmas Eve! What a nice surprise.

Notice the dark grey Lumed Arabics, combined with a grey dial, and beautiful scripted Limited Edition lettering on the front. Combination brushed and polished case. These details are often much more appreciated when you are designing the watch yourself.

A photo from the other side. For good measure.

The black riveted pilot strap is a nubuck/sueded finish, and complements the watch REALLY well. I think aside from possibly a Dark grey/Black nubuck Crocodile rivet strap, there wouldn’t be anything I prefer more with the possible exception of a Bracelet maybe.

The Diamon crown isn’t machined as well as an IWC Big Pilot.. but its not bad. I wouldn’t mind an Onion crown as an option however.. I like the big round onions too.

A nice shot of the ETA/Unitas 6497 movement, with Cote de Geneves striping and beveled gears. Its a step up from the base level Unitas Movements that I have owned before. It also has my name, and the Limited Edition of 15 number engraved on the back as well. Very nice!

Thanks to Altair and Gunter for putting this one together!

As some of you might have already known, I had purchased a U-Boat Flightdeck CAS 50mm watch, which many on the forum kept saying was “Cheaply made” and they felt that the metal was cheap and that the crystal was cheap. I had a totally different experience and felt that the case machining was on par with anything in the price range, and that the only part that was neglected was the finish of the movement. I’ll elaborate a bit more here.

There is a general shot of the U-Boat, atop the U-Boat box. As you can see, the lines on the bezel are crisp and sharp, an indication of high-end finishing techniques, usually executed partially by hand. The strap on the other hand, while made in Italy by hand, is ugly. The preforated inserts on the strap serve to cheapen the overall look of the watch, and I immediately put it on a StrapLuxe grey leather strap with white stitching which matches the watch perfect in my opinion.

A close up of the dial, and you can see the crisp lines of the bezel in this photo as well. The dial lume is applied meticulously and precisely. While this watch is made in Italy, I have no doubt that the quality of the painting on the dial is up to the standards of similarly priced swiss watches. While the overall style of the watch probably does not ooze class, it is a well made watch in my opinion. The crystals are Sapphire, and the case steel is 316L, the same type as most high-quality Swiss watches.

It was told to me that the quality of this watch was no better than the Nixon watches out there. While I might agree with this statement if it were applied to Hamilton watches or Swiss Army Victorinox case finishing, I would not agree in repect to U-Boat. I would put U-Boat solidly along the lines of Tag Heuer’s Carrera line for quality of finish.

The movement finish on the other hand is sorely lacking, and not up to the quality standards of even Tag Heuer. The U-Boat movements are definately in the same quality range as Hamilton. The extra canteen hardware is very well machined and made as well, given a quality feel when unscrewing and using the canteen cover.

The Plain Jane Valjoux/ETA 7750 is visible on the caseback as can be seen, and is mounted reversed for a left-crown configuration, an obvious necessity given the size of crown and 50mm case diameter. The watch is quite heavy and does not feel light for its size in my opinion.

Not seen in the photos is the U-BOAT deeply engraved on the side of the case, which is deeply sunken and bead basted in the deep parts, given the case an extra level of finish. I purchased this watch from a friend, after I had handled it and felt that the quality of the finish was at an acceptable level. I have since sold this watch, mostly because I found the 50mm size a bit inconvenient. It makes the watch somewhat impractical for daily wear, and sometimes the size makes it look a bit tacky IMO. This is the “mid-sized” U-boat, with a larger 55mm size and smaller 43mm version available.

There’s the proverbial wrist shot, mounted on the stock strap and shown on my 6 3/4″ wrist. While it is large, and somewhat saucer-like in appearance, it is not entirely out of the question, and much more manageable than I would have thought 50mm would be. Now, the 55mm version would be totally out of the question for me, but I could see a guy with an 8″ wrist pull a 55mm U-Boat off no problem…

I posted this video a couple weeks ago, but had forgotten to announce it here. So I’m linking it now. This is to supplement the Wilson Watch Works Navigator Watch Review that I wrote previously. I also believe that its called an Observer Dial not a Navigator dial, and since Wilson Watch Works doesn’t name their watches, I had to kind of make up a name. Nevertheless, it is a very solid, well-made watch using great materials.

I hope you enjoy the video if you haven’t already:

Archimede launches a new Big(gish) Pilot, the 45mm Automatic pilot, using a automatic swiss ETA 2824-2 Movement. Sort of an in-between size as it is smaller than most of the BP watches that are a 47mm diameter, and bigger than the 42mm varieties. I personally find the 42mm a good size, though a bit more diameter wouldn’t hurt. The 47mm I do find a bit big for my wrists and tastes, so this Archimede might be on my radar, even though I have quite enough pilot watches for now.

I’ve posted video reviews of both Ticino Big Pilots of Youtube, and here they are for you guys to check out if you haven’t seen them already. Both are 47mm reproductions of the Nav B-uhr Pilot watch from WWII. Manual winding Chinese unitas copy movements.

The video review for the budget-watch Ticino Big Pilot in the stealthy black case with sterile dial. A very cool watch for the money, and definately something that will keep your watch bug at bay if Pilot watches are your thing! Massive 47mm full sized big pilot case, with Chinese Manual winding Unitas movement.