The Breitling Watch Blog

Here is a video review that I just posted of the Breitling SuperOcean Heritage 46. I bought one of these and a Heritage 38 for my wife and myself as wedding gifts… we had them engraved and you can see that in an earlier post. This is the first of the reviews, looking at the 46mm Heritage on the Mesh Ocean Classic bracelet.

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:

My first Solid Rose Gold watch, a 18K Rose Gold Louis Erard 1931 manual winding watch. I really like this one, and its about 40mm in diameter, with a Peseaux/ETA 7001 movement, a manual winding workhorse like the Unitas 6497, albeit quite a bit smaller. This movement is used by many brands out there and some that modify movements such as Nomos, Blancpain and Chronoswiss.

Louis Erard is a more affordable brand out there, that still makes some beautiful watches more in the dressy/classy line-up. The 1931 series is a very sensibly sized line with refined dials and solid build quality, especially the precious metal versions.

The 18k Rose Gold case is beautifully crafted, but simple. The lettering on the back is laser etched presumably to save money, and has a sapphire crystal display back. The gold markings are stamped, not etched.

The dial is an interesting matte/bead blasted black, with Rose Gold indices. The subdial uses a large chapter ring in order to give the dial balance due to the small size of the movement. The 12 o’clock index is the only one in arabics.

As you can see, the small seconds subdial is sunken with light guioche pattern. I put the watch on an aftermarket Gucci strap made by Camille Fournet in France. It is one of the many that are available on Ebay at discount prices. I feel the Gucci straps are the best bang for buck straps available if you have the right size with Crocodile and Ostrich straps made by Camille Fournet in France for around $30 a peice.

There is the Peseaux movement with geneva striping. It is niceley finished, and shows well. The movement is signed as well, and as you can see, is quite small compared with the size of the watch.

The requisite wrist shot. The 40mm size actually measures closer to 41mm, and works great for my wrist size (6 3/4″). I love this watch for wearing with suits or any other dress-up occasion. The standard Louis Erard watches are very nice looking watches for the money, and these Gold models can be found for a song on the secondary Market, making them a great choice for an affordable modern gold watch.

Don’t really want to get into an extensive review of this Omega Seamaster GMT, as there are plenty out there. Just wanted to make a few notes regarding the watch, as I have reviewed the other Seamasters in the past, both in videos and in writing.

The Omega Seamaster GMT is a very nice watch, which uses the same 41.5mm case design as all the other Seamaster 300m Divers. The GMT hand is unique compared with most other GMT watches in that when you adjust the hour the main hour hand moves, not the GMT hand. This makes the watch much easier to adjust for Local Time than other GMT watches. You simply keep your GMT hand on Home Time permanently, and adjust the main hour hand in the 1-hour increments to adjust for local time.

The watch has a day/night two-tone bezel which many peopel don’t like, including myself. It can be relatively easily changed to a standard black or silver bezel if you wish however.

Basic Specs:
Diameter: 41.5mm
Movement: Omega 1128 (Base ETA2892)
Water Resistance: 300m
Crystal: Sapphire

I had been drooling over the Graham Chronofighter watches ever since the first time I saw them… even with their ridiculous espresso machine levers mounted on the side, and fairly standard Valjoux 7750 movements, the design of the watches really enticed me. For the retails prices of near $10,000 a pop, these are pricey watches given their modest innards.

This model is the Chronofighter classic model in the 42mm case size. It actually measures closer to 43mm but with the lever on the size the watch wears like a 44-45mm watch easily. The bezels on all the Graham watches are an concave shape and are one of the defining features of the brand.

I’ve mounted this Graham on a Nubo Straps ammo leather strap, 22mm lug width, and it looks amazing. Much better than the boring black leather strap that it came with. Unfortunately I can’t wear the 20mm buckle with this strap. I picked up a Di-Modell Bali that works very well with the stock buckle since it has slotted holes which are important since the OEM Tang is very big.

As you can see from the dial the Valjoux 7750 inside is COSC certified. A nice feature. It has been modified to remove the date and use only two registers. The Chronograph is operated using the espresso lever, and has some mechanics inside to move the start/stop pusher to the crown position.

The machining and craftsmanship of the espresso lever is very well done, and completely flawless. Everything about the casework and dial are extremely well made. The case back is deeply engraved with the serial number of the watch deeply engraved as well. Lume is very good also.

The proverbial wrist shot – As you can see, quite large on the wrist. The large crown device is noticeable with a short sleeved shirt, but under the cuff of a dress shirt it looks like any other watch, allowing this watch to pass for dress or casual. From a style standpoint, this is one of the most satisfying watches I’ve owned.