The Breitling Watch Blog

The Breitling civilian jet team has had their Jet’s redesigned for a spiffy new black look. Check out the new colors!

Here’s a cool video showing the team in action. They still have their old colors here.

Nicolas G. Hayek (1928-2010), the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Swatch Group Ltd., passed away today at work due to heart failure. Mr. Hayek was an icon in the world of Horology and one of the most enthusiastic characters and supporters of the mechanical watch movement. He will be missed, but his work will live on.

Who says Doxa’s are unique? Well, Irreantum Watch, a new watch company based in Maine, USA, has put out their first watch: The Magellan. The watch is due to hit the streets summer of 2010, and is available for pre-order at $150. The full price of the watch is $545.

The 316L Stainless Steel case features a massive 45mm diameter and 13.6mm thickness. The crystal is sapphire and the movement is an ETA 2824-2, presumably unmodified. Throw in a C3 SuperLuminova and 500m Water Resistance and you have quite the package at $545 retail.

While I’m sure many Doxa fans are screaming “Copycat!”, the Magellan isn’t really a copy of Doxa’s watches but more a copy of the style of watches from the 60’s that Doxa has continued to produce to this day. Magellan’s watches are offered at a much lower pricepoint, and probably uses cases constructed more affordably. The dials are quite nice, and they are available in a few different colors, all of which you can check out on their website: http://www.irreantumwatch.com/, and more on their blog: http://ordinaryhappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/2010/01/irreantum-magellan.html

While I love the aesthetics of Tag Heuer’s new Automatic Chronograph, I still wonder why they have not spent more effort on creating a new in-house movement (UPDATE: Turns out the Caliber 1887 is indeed partially in-house, but whether it is 100% in-house is debatable). The new Aquaracer 500 line is fantastic in looks, but I am hoping that with all these new in-house designed calibers such as the Caliber S, the Caliber 360 and other experimental stuff that they do, why is there no true 100% in-house Chronograph or even a base movement for a brand that so closely associates themselves with timing and chronographs?

While Breitling was slow to the game, Tag is even slower. At any rate, they still design some very nice looking watches, and are still desired by the many out there as the gateway watch to the eventual Rolex.

I blogged about Orbita’s Customer Service before and how great it was, and one again, they are still coming through. Cheryl, who was the nice lady I dealt with before from Orbita, was the same one I dealt with last time when I emailed them about one of my motors failing. I emailed her again when my Uncle was interested in purchasing one of the Red Sparta Executive Winders on their website for $400, which is $600 off their MSRP price of $1000. It is a beautiful winder, with the same attention to detail as all Orbita products.

Unfortunately, since my uncle resides in Canada, the system would not let me check out. I emailed Cheryl, whom I had not spoken to in nearly 2 years, and she responded immediately with some questions, and then eventually finding a solution for us that worked, and they shipped it out here to Canada for us!

Again I have to thank Orbita for their hospitality in dealing with me and keeping me happy as a customer. It seems these days less and less companies manage to do this – Orbita is truly a gem to deal with.