Shown here are two of the coasters that came in the 6-coaster set as well as the 6″ clock, which is actually 6.5″. The Clock case that Trintec uses looks EXACTLY like those fake Bell & Ross dealer clocks I see on eBay. I bet those guys are using trintec Clocks to make them. Trintec makes a bunch of cool little aviation and marine instruments, as well as watches, which are less interesting to me. I am more interested in their accessories and clocks.

Here’s a close up of the 6″ clock, which retails for $29.95 on the Trinec website. The clock has no second hand, and thus no ticking sound.. which is nice. The watch also features a real glass lens, which is a nice feature. There are several different dial styles available that you can see on the website.

Here are the coasters, which come in a set of 6, with each one having a different pattern on it. Most of the coaster styles are available as clock dials as well. Trintec has some cool gadgets too.. but I only wanted the coasters are the larger 6″ wall clock. The 6″ refers to the lens size.. the actual clock is slightly bigger at 6.5″ as I had mentioned earler. All the clocks are made in Canada too, which is a plus.

Very cool stuff that would make a great inexpensive gift for that clock/watch/aviation enthusiast in your life.

This airborne pioneer, who is the only man to fly with a rigid wing equipped with four jet engines, jumped out of a helicopter above the Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, before stabilizing the wing and heading full throttle north to fly around Corcovado Hill. He then tracked south of the city to fly alongside Ipanema Beach, Copacabana and the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain, before pulling his parachute and landing safely on the beach in front of the Copacabana Palace hotel.

The carbon-kevlar jetwing is equipped with four jet engines, each with a 22 kg thrust, thus propelling the Swiss aviator at a speed of 200-300 km/h which he controls via a simple hand-held throttle in his hand. To adjust his trajectory and his altitude, he relied exclusively on maneuvering his body, shoulders and legs.

The entire feat lasted 11 minutes 35 seconds in all, at an average altitude of 1200 meters, and no problems were reported before, during or after the flight. A former fighter pilot and current Swiss International Air Lines captain, Yves Rossy naturally ensured that all necessary safety measures were in place.

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.

This is a very impressive move by Breitling to provide such a long warranty. Given that they are in fact only providing it on their own manufacture movements says a lot about their confidence and pride in their own work. I’m curious when this new warranty will kick in and whether or not it will be retroactive to B01′s purchased before the announcement. At any rate, a nice move from Breitling.

See a complete list of written reviews on Paneraisource here:
http://www.paneraisource.com/aftermarket_straps.shtml

I realized I forgot to upload Straps video #2 to Youtube, so I just did that too! You get a two for one today:

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

The Pacific series comprises the Pacific, Grand Pacific and Pacific Chronograph watches. The Pacific is a 40mm watch, while the latter two are larger 43mm affairs. All feature ETA 2892-A2 movements or Valjoux 7750′s in the Chronographs. I’m quite taken by the dials on these retro-inspired Chronoswiss watches as the markers remind of the ones used by Zenith in their latest watches.

Superb. I can’t wait to own one!

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