The Breitling Watch Blog

Video review of the sweet 857 UTC Tool Watch from Sinn. Sinn is a German company that makes some killer watches ranging from Tool watches to dress watches, and crafts them from Swiss ETA movements and Germany-made cases with some unique high-tech features.

Been really busy with work in the last few months and haven’t been able to post as much as I would like, but had a few moments and figured I should squeeze out a quite mini-review of my Hamilton Below Zero that I got not too long ago. The model I picked up is the 42mm model, silver dial on tan leather strap. I personally think this is the nicest of the models as the applied arabics really set off the light silver face.

The dial is characterized by the “0” at the 12 o’clock position, likely inspired by the name “BelowZero”. The watch comes in two sizes, 42mm and 46mm mirroring the Bell & Ross instrument watches from the BR03 and BR01 lines respectively. Its no secret that these watches are inspired by B&R, as they bare much resemblance, but they still maintain some identity and manage to look different enough.

As you might notice above, I mounted it briefly on a black sueded Steinhart pilot strap, but decided that I prefer it on the tan. The casework on the BelowZero is a notch above previous Hamiltons that I have owned, which is a welcome treat. I’ve always liked the Hamilton Designs, but felt that they fell a bit short on the craftsmanship of the cases. They could have been done much better for a prominent Swiss Watch company. I feel the BelowZero is slightly above expectations which is what every good watch company should deliver.

As seen above, the back features an exhibition crystal showing off the fairly stock looking ETA 2824 movement. The case is water resistant to 200m, and featured two-toned brushed and polished stainless steel. The bezel is uni-directional, and also features luminova dots so it can be read in the dark. Overall the most satisfying Hamilton I have owned. This is the complete package finally from a company who has some very cool designs but has always dropped the ball a bit when it came to that last few bits of fit and finish. Good Job, Hamilton.

Movement: Automatic ETA 2824 Movement
Case: Polished with Brushed Steel Case, Exhibition CaseBack
Crystal: Scratch Resistant Sapphire
Water Resistance: 200 Meters / 660 Feet Water Resistant
Diameter: 42mm = 1 5/8″ Case

The Marathon CSAR is a pretty awesome Automatic Chronograph designed with Military inspired lines and practical sense. The watch is very large, which can be challenging for some, but very wearable if you can handle the size. Marathon designs a lot of products for military and government use in the US and Canada and the Marathon CSAR is the first Automatic Chronograph issued by the US Government.

The Watch is a large 46.6mm in diameter and 17mm thick with a 3mm thick sapphire crystal. The watch is a chunky affair with a 300m water resistance. The dial features H3 tritium gas tubes that glow continuously rather than require re-charging with light as traditional SuperLuminova does.

As you can see, the Tritium tubes are used for the indices and the hour and minute hands also feature the tubes. The remainder of the hands and subdial indices use traditional SuperLuminova. The dial lacks much decoration and is a flat black with painted arabics. Even though it is quite busy due to teh Chronograph subdials, the watch is easy to read.

As you can see, the bezel is very chunky and actually protrudes out from the case, making the watch wear even larger than its 46.6mm diameter would suggest. Of all the watches I’ve owned, this has one of the largest wrist presence. Even with the 17mm thickness, the watch is very wearable, in my opinion. Both case and bracelet are fully brushed.

The movement is an ETA/Valjoux 7750, with all features present including both the day and date. Works great and keeps time within COSC specifications. Given that this is a military inspired timepiece, the movement is a great choice because it is so robust and easily serviceable.

There’s the backside of the bracelet. You can just catch a glimpse of the solid caseback behind it. There are a few different bracelet versions, but the one I have here is the Canadian Maple Leaf one, which is the most appropriate for me since I am in Canada. The bracelet isn’t anything special, but its quite comfortable and has a neat pattern to it with the middle link as it is angled on the top side.

I really like the CSAR and think that its one of favourite tool watches out there. They are quite pricey at almost $3000US with the bracelet, but a very cool watch that really stands out from many of the other tool watch brands out there.

Shortly after I posted the announcement of the inaugural watch from Egard Watches, Ilan contacted me asking if I was interested in reviewing the Shade when it was ready. I was excited at taking a look at the shade, and so I agreed. Ilan got the watch to me a week or two ago and I have been enjoying it for the past week or two at home, careful not to scratch the sample up. There will be an upcoming video review as well.

Gorgeous multi-layered dial with a peekaboo view of the skeletonized Miyota 8N24 movement. The front crystal is a curved, AR-coated sapphire crystal.. which for me is a very important feature. The roman numerals on the top half combined with the stick indices on the bottom half give the watch a pleasing look without being overly roman.

The hands are a softer, medium blue which reminds me a bit of JLC’s blue used on the Master Compressor Diver watches. A very pleasing color to me. The blue is continued on the upper and lower tracks for the roman numbers at 1 to 3 o’clock which adds a bit of continuity and is a nice touch.

Signed screw-down crown, which was unexpected to me. I thought it would be a pushdown crown due to the style, but screwdown is always a plus to me unless its a handwinder. You can get a sense of the case shape from the side view here – the watch is quite cylindrical. The bezel is rounded and stepped slightly, with angular lugs that are quite tight in to the case. The shorter lugs allow the 43mm case to feel a bit smaller, which is good since this is more of a dress watch.

A shot of the other side, which features an engraved “EGARD” name, which I found quite attractive. The fully polished case is quite well done and I really applaud the attention to design details. They didn’t just take something someone else made and change it a bit – its very unique looking.

Here’s a close up of the textured dial with applied romans, and all the various layers and dial elements applied as well. Its quite an attractive dial, but the vertical lines have sort of a wavey gloss to them that I would have preferred if it was a bit less glossy. More of a matte line would be my preference but still quite nice.

There’s a shot of the whole dial, and as you can see, there isn’t any lume at all on the dial. The hands actually look like they could have been filled with lume but were intentionally left skeletonized. The open heart feature shows the escapement quite nicely.

The back gives you an exhibition view of the Miyota 8N24 movement, which while not especially attractive, isn’t any less attractive than a bone stock ETA 2824 really. The exhibition glass is also sapphire, and the etched writing around the caseback proclaims the 200m water resistance, as well as the sapphire crystal and automatic movement.

Overall a solid first effort from a new watch company which I will be paying close attention to as they release more models. There are other models in the works, which are supposed to be higher end. I am excited to see what they have in store.

Specs:
43MM Case
Aerospace-grade 316L stainless steel
8N24 Skeletonized Automatic
Water Resistant to 660 feet | 20 ATM
Screw Down Crown
Sapphire Crystal Top
Anti Reflective Coating
Sapphire Crystal Bottom
High quality thick leather strap with butterfly buckle
Extra brown tang leather strap

I’ve had this Tag for quite a while, as you can tell since I uploaded the video review quite a while back. I never did post a written review on it, so here it is. It features the high end quartz movement ETA E20.321, which is featured in watches from Invictas to Hamiltons and Accutrons. This instance it is found on a Tag Heuer Aquaracer.

Great black semigloss dial fitted in a robust Aquaracer case, milled from a solid block of 316L stainless steel. The movement is quartz with three LCD screens used to display a number of things including the mode/timezone, seconds as well as time and date. My favourite mode for this watch is to have the analog hands at current time, the lower LCD with the date, the upper LCD blank, and the small right LCD with the seconds. This is my usual setup. It can also be set to display one of two other timezones as well as a Chronograph, Alarm and a Timer.

This version is mounted on the stainless steel aquaracer bracelet. Its also available in rubber. Case diamater is 44.5mm, and case thickness is 14.5mm. Water resistance is 300m, with a unidirectional dive bezel. The crystal is Sapphire, which should be expected.

There’s the push-button clasp, showing the horizontal Tag Heuer branding. Links are pinned together, not screwed. The bracelet is quite nice, however, and wears very comfortably. At the pricepoint, I think its totally acceptable to have pinned links. The higher end Carrera links are screwed.

See above the shot of the solid, robust caseback featured on the Aquaracer Chronotimer. The caseback features a diver’s mask as well as several design features that could be used as notches to open the caseback.

And finally, the wristshot. The Tag Heuer Aquaracer Chronotimer is a great beater watch for those of us that need a high-end quartz for travelling or swimming that we just don’t have to worry about too much. The 300m water resistance combined with multiple timezones, alarm function and chronograph make it a fantastic travel watch. Overall, very pleased with this watch for the money. It is more affordable than comparable watches from Breitling and Omega, and sits right in the middle of the pack above the pricing of similar watches from Accutron and Hamilton.

Rating:
Movement: 6/10
Case/Crystal/Crown: 8/10
Dial/Hands: 6/10
Strap / Buckle / Bracelet: 7/10
Accuracy: 10/10
Comfort: 8/10
Packaging / Manual: 8/10
Overall Impression: 7/10