The Breitling Watch Blog

Another Limited Edition U-Boat is going to hit the streets soon, featuring a limited production of 999 pieces and a 53mm Titanium Case. This one harks back to the classic Italian Navy style watches, and one can’t help but compare it to the Panerai Egiziano in terms of looks.

The crown device is interesting on this one, and I’m not quite sure how it works from the description, but as I understand it, the crown flips out and can be turned when it is released by the lever on the bottom.

There is lever on the case at around 4 o’clock that when engaged, prevents the crown from turning, which is a pretty cool feature, especially if you’re going to use it for diving. The watch is good to 300m. The watch features a caliber U-BOAT U-28 automatic movement, which I assume is probably based on a [EDIT]ETA 2824, though I can’t be certain.

Dial is available in black or beige, and caseback is a signed solid back with some cool inscriptions. I kind of hate to admit it, but I like this watch!

Dubey & Schaldenbrand is quite unique from most other Swiss brands out there, and in my opinion, seems to derive much of it’s inspiration from Chronoswiss (or is it vice versa?). According to the website, D & S is also the only Swiss Watchmaking house to have a woman in charge, Cinette Robert.

I’ve always loved Dubey & Schaldenbrand with their tonneau shaped cases and hidden lugs. They are reminiscent of Franck Muller’s cintree curvex, but still able to create their own identity. I purchased the Aerodyn Date, as the roman numeral dial really called to me. I wish I had bought this watch on a bracelet, as I grew tired of the strap.

The dial is beautifully guilloche finished, which is typical of many of D&S designs. The dials are almost always beautifully textured, and this one is no exception. The deep blue dial is easy to match up, and is a nice relief from the usual white and black dials. This one has no lume, but the Romain numerals are painted on, as are the logo and other markings.

The big date movement in the Aerodyn Big Date is the ETA 2892-A2 with Big Date module. This is a great choice for the watch as it places the big date at the 12 o’clock position instead of the 3 o’clock position that is had with the ETA 2826-2.

One thing I did not like about the Aerodyn Date, and is likely the case with many D&S models is the laser-etched logo on the crown. I would think for this price range a machined logo in the crown is minimum. Ther laser-etched logo is more in-line with watches in the $500 range found in lower-end department stores such as Guess and Fossil.

The back, unlike the crown, is nicely and deeply machined with the logo, model and the serial number. The back is screwed in with 7 screws, and flat satin finished, just like Franck Muller watches. The watch is mounted on a Blue, Crocodile-embossed leather strap with an aftermarket deployant. The Original band is a blue genuine alligator strap, on a D&S Deployany, but I found the original deployant uncomfortable for my smaller wrists. The deployant is positioned slightly too far over on smaller wrists.

Here is a shot of the 33 x 44 mm case on my 6 3/4″ wrist. As you can see, its a beautiful watch and wears wonderfully. You can see the Double-AR coated and curved Sapphire crystal shows the dial beautifully, as does the organically curved stainless steel case. Hope you guys enjoyed the review!

It wasn’t that long ago that when you purchased a New Swiss Made automatic Watch, you were guaranteed at least an ETA 2824 movement in it. While the ETA 2824 movement is by no means a rare or exciting automatic movement, it is reliable and can be very accurate in it’s highest level of finish. The ETA 2824 is used by a very large number of companies including Breitling, Hamilton, Oris, Omega, Tudor, Eterna, Tag Heuer and many many others including most of the German Brands.

ETA 2824-2 from a Limes Watch

After that came the Sellita SW200 movement, a direct copy of the ETA 2824 that is mostly made in Switzerland. While it is unknown how much of the parts are made in China, they at least come close to ETA in their quality. They are cheaper movements, and many brands including Invicta, Oris, Enzo and Eterna have begun to use the Selitta SW200 in their watches. I don’t mind the Selitta too much, at least it is somewhat comparable to the ETA-2824. The next step is a bit more disturbing.

While its not a new thing, many people many not be aware that an Invicta brand named Technica Swiss Ebauches purchases chinese made Sea-Gull movements and final finishes them in Switzerland and badges them as Swiss Made. Swiss Made regulations only provide that at least 50% of the value of the movement must be from Switzerland. With the price of the Chinese Ebauches being so low, its not difficult to refinish the movements in Switzerland in order to meet the criteria.

Swiss Mechanical Invictas

This is an unfortunate situation, and devalues the Swiss Made brand. Invicta has done well by selling a large number of watches, purchasing higher end brands like S. Coifman and devaluing them as well. While I think that Invicta has some good value in their lines, the majority of their designs are either very ugly, or hommages. The Invictas above sell for $119, and claim to have Swiss Made movements inside them.

I guess the point I am trying to make here is that the Swiss Made brand is being devalued and I think its a shame – hopefully its prestige can be maintained rather than be tainted by the likes of Invicta.

To supplement the Breitling The Book post I had earlier.. I have added a Breitling The Book video review for those that are interested in purchasing the book, but aren’t really sure what it is like given Breitlings some what limited information on it and highly stylized photographs that don’t really illustrate what it looks like.

I’ve reprinted some of the articles that Roffensian posted on the forums for those of you that do not frequent them. They are very informative and the three that I have posted cover the General Mechanical watch, The Perpetual Calendar and the Minute Repeater. They are beginner articles on how these movements work and what they do.

Very cool stuff… I’ve linked each one individually:

How a Mechanical Watch Works
Minute Repeater
Perpetual Calendar

A little video I shot on Aftermarket Panerai Straps. I do a quick review of several of these straps, and talk about the different kinds available on the market. Aftermarket Panerai straps are a world of fun, and can be purchased second-hand or new. They are easy to sell and a great way to get some variety without breaking the bank, especially in these times.

I figured this deserves a post, as I’ve been watching some of those Ukraine and Argentine sellers make thousands of dollars off deliberately forged frankenwatches from unsuspecting eBay buyers.

BUYERS BEWARE! When you buy a vintage watch from the Ukraine, Russia or Argentina, you may not be getting what you are paying for!

I’d been searching for a pocket watch conversion style of watch, like many on ebay are. My concern of course was the authenticity of a peice if I were to buy something that was a bit more pricey than your usual $150-200 fare. Like one of those Hy Moser or Longines WWII watches that seem to be so abundant in the Ukraine.

Seeing watch after watch listed every week in the dozens, I started to question whether or not these watches were in fact real.. especially since most of the movements had what looked to be to be incorrect markings or in many cases missing markings for the dial that was attached. I did a bit of research and looked on several boards all over, and there definately seems to be a consensus. Most of these watches are forgeries or frankenwatches with parts procured from many different places. That is the problem with buying vintage stuff. You never know when it’s real.

Below I’ve linked one of many posts on the subject. If you google around, you will find a handful of other discussions in the matter as well:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=215080

This is a companion article to my other polishing article that gives you a little bit of insight into restoring your brushed finish watches.

Finally, I’ve gotten around to taking pictures of some of my tools that I use to restore the final finish on my watches when they need some taking care of. It can be a bit of work getting a polish going nicely, and in addition to these tools, its nice to have a rubber vise, or a standard vise and some cloth to protect your watches and bracelets from getting damaged by the vise. Also always remember to wear eye protecting when you are working with power tools like a dremel.

The five different methods I’m going to discuss here are Fabulustre Cloth, Sunshine Cloth, Cape Cod Cloth, Metal Polish, the Dremel Polishing method. Each one varies in intensity, and you’ll want to pick the one that is most appropriate for your situation.

The Fabulustre Cloth

The Fabulustre cloth is without a doubt the most useful cloth that I have, and is fantastic for that final cleaning finish, and removes all the ‘residue’ from other polishing methods. I would say that this is a great cloth to have around even just to put your watch on when you are cleaning it with a different type of cloth. They are large and last a long time.

The Fabulustre cloth is really two clothes that are sewn together on one end. The red side is impregated with very very fine and weak abrasives that polish your watch or jewelry, and the yellow side is for buffing it afterwards. You simply rub anywhere where the watch is polished with the red side and then buff with the yellow. Very simple to use. Its great for weekly cleaning of your watch, but really doesn’t polish out any visible scratches.

Sunshine Cloths

The first time I ever heard of these clothes, they were hailed as the successor of the Cape Cod cloth, and that they were just as good but less messy. I was excited, and a very gracious member of the forum, Ianmedium, met with me at a local coffee shop and gave me two of them to try out. They are definately not a replacement for the cape cod, but they are defiantely a great way to maintain your watch in-between cape cod applications.

The sunshine cloth is kind of like a more effective fabulustre without the buffing cloth. It is a small single abrasive dry polishing cloth. It does leave a bit of residue on your hands when you are using it, but not nearly as much as a cape cod, which is moist. The Sunshine is a great way to maintain your watch if your feel like the fabulustre isn’t cutting it anymore. The Sunshine is also very easy to use. Just rub all over your polished watch with the sunshine cloth.

Cape Cod Cloths

The next step up from the Sunshine Cloth is the venerable Cape Cod cloth. It also is a polishing compound impregnated cloth, however the cape cod has a moist compound impregnanted which is more aggressive than that found in both the Fabulustre and the Sunshine cloths, with the added bonus (or not) of vanilla scent. The Cape Cods are a little bit more difficult to use because they are not dry, and require a buffing cloth to clean the vanilla scented polish off afterwards.

I have found the most effective way of using the cape cods is to rub with a cape cod in a circular motion for a fairly long time, say 20 seconds on each side of the bracelet. After the watch is lathered in the polish, take a clean dry microfiber cloth, and buff the bracelet until it is mostly clean, then rinse off the remaining polish in water.

Cape Cods leave your watch looking very shiny, with most of the minor swirlies gone. The biggest change is your watch will be totally shiny looking again. If you are not getting the results you want, the scratches may be too deep, or you might need to use more. If the scratches are any deeper, or you need to get into some areas where you need more precision, its probably better to use a metal polishing paste or use the polishing compound bars instead.

Metal Polishing Paste

Polishing Pastes are a great way to maintain a polish on your watches when you need something a bit more agressive than a cape cod, but you do not have access to a dremel or aren’t really the handy type. Caution: Some polishes are not fine enough for a mirror polish and I have heard that they can leave fine scratches in your finish, which means you could use them as a secondary to a final polish with a stainless steel compound with dremel. One of the better polishing pastes I have found is Flitz. I could not find my flitz so I just have a photo of Metal Glo, which works well, but not quite as good.

Using a metal polishing paste is pretty easy. Just apply to a cottom or microfiber cloth and start polishing your watch in a circular motion. When you are satisfied, you can buff it off with a clean cotton or microfiber cloth. When you are done, just rinse in water to get the remaining polish out.

Dremel with Polishing Compound

I find that any time I want a good final polish on a watch that need to be restored, there is no substitude for sticking the watch in a vise, and givin ‘er with the dremel. There’s my rotary tool with a standard buffing wheel and some felt pointed wheels and smaller wheels which are good for parts of the case that can be hard to get at. Its very important to use eye protection when using a dremel because it can launch things into your eye like metal particles and compound.

Its pretty easy to do if you have the right tools and a steady hand. Look the watch securly in your vise, and then turn your dremel on low speed, and load it up by placing it on the compound until the wheel is sufficiently loaded with compound. Once you’ve got it loaded you can start polishing your watch! When you switch from one compound to the next, be sure to use a different buffing wheel. Next I’ll explain which compounds I use for which tasks.

There’s a shot of four types of compound bars I have. You won’t be using the Brown Tripoli for stainless steel, but the Black Emery, White Rouge and Green Stainless compounds are all useful depending on the task at hand. I’m not going to talk about how to polish precious metal watches with your rotary tool because I’ve never done it before and I’m not familiar with the compounds. Precious metals like gold are much softer and you have to be extra careful when using power tools to polish them.

Black Emery is the most abrasive of the three and will usually only be used if there is a really deep scratch or pitting and you need to cut away a lot of material. It will leave the steel kind of shiny, but not quite factory shiny.

White Rouge cuts away a decent amount of material, but is less abrassive than the Black Emery. Good for light scratches that you can just feel with your fingernail.

Green Stainless is a final polish for stainless steel and is good for achieving that final brilliant glossy shine that Stainless has when it comes from the factory.

Remember to keep your buffing wheels loaded with compound, and remember not to overheat the metal. Metal gets hot when you polish it with power tools so be careful. Let it cool down after working at it for a while. Polishing watches is a simple thing to do when you have the right tools for the job. Hope you enjoyed the article, and happy polishing!