I must have owned over a dozen Pilot watches over the years, but this Glycine KMU 48 is only the second PVD pilot I’ve had. The first was a affordable Ticino Pilot watch which ultimately did not fit the bill for me. This Glycine comes closer, but in the end, I just don’t wear my pilot watches as much as I like to buy them.

The Glycine KMU 48 is a LARGE imposing, saucer-on-the-wrist kind of watch. The 48mm diameter and healthy lugs made it simply too big for my wrist, which is the real reason that I never really ended up wearing this watch. I picked it up in a multi-watch trade because it looked interesting to me, but ended up having to sell it. I think it would be better on a 7.5″+ wrist, and I generally wear large watches very comfortable like the Breitling for Bentley Motors watches.

The watch has a simplistic appeal to it, like many Glycines do. It is also one of those little know, but well know enough brands that many who do not like mainstream brands often gravitate to. And for those reasons, Glycine has become a popular cult brand for Swiss Watch afficionados. The watch wears quite thin, especially for its radial diameter, and features 24mm lugs, which allows it to wear Panerai straps of which I have many.

The lume is limited and is only present on the little dots around the dial and on the hands. The PVD coating is done pretty well, and the lugs have holes drilled on the outside.

The movement featured in this watch is the ETA Unitas 6497. It only has one decoration, which is a laser etched “GLYCINE” on the bridge, it is so light its hard to see it in the photograph, but appears on the bridge that has the 3 visible jewels. The finish is pretty much basic raw “hammer-peened” bridges. For the price I paid for it, its a pretty cool piece, but I recently let it go to a fellow who appreciated it more than me. Hope you guys enjoyed the write up!

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

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

Linde Linde Linde. I been wanting one of these suckers for a long time… and I finally made it happen with a Linde Werdelin The One 2.6. The heart and soul that goes into the engineering of Linde Werdelin’s designs is second to none. The watches are designed as pure sport timepieces that allow conversion to an instrument using the indentations on the side of the cases to hold the dive and ski instruments that Linde also makes.

The Linde Werdelin The One 2.6 has an imposing case size of 46 x 49mm, and it shows. The watch is a beat on the wrist, but due to the sleek case shape and angles, it doesn’t stick out from the wrist but instead molds to the curvature of the wrist very well. The unidirectional dive bezel has superluminova dots painted onto it, which gives it a neat look.

The strap is held on by two hex screws for each side of strap. They are easily removed with the hex tool that is provided with every Linde Werdelin watch. The strap removal screws are the ones that are located on the watch case, not the ones located on the bracelet. The screws on the bracelet are used to hold the strap retention bars on the strap itself.

The watch is meticulously crafted, with every faceted surface perfect and finished immaculately. Even the surface underneath where the straps mount is perfectly bead blasted with a finish that is the same as the caseback which gives it a sense of perfection. One thing is for certain: Linde Werdelin takes price in their cases.

The dial is a matte black, with large SuperLuminova indices that glow like a hot damn. They are fantastic. The 2.6 has a nice chapter ring also outfitted with some SuperLuminova and seconds markers. The bezel is very easy to turn and quite functional, with nice grippy indentations cut crisply into the edge – another hallmark of precision casemaking. The bezel is pressure fit, not screwed in.

The “armadillo” style bracelet is VERY nicely finished as well. At $750 it is not a cheap bracelet, but still about half the price of a Breitling Pilot or Navitimer bracelet. The links are pinned, not screwed, which I would have liked to see. Nice signed and hidden double butterfly clasp with pressure release buttons tucked away on the sides. The bracelet is semi-rigid and while comfortable, is not the most comfortable I have worn. I like to wear the Linde a bit looser than other bracelets because of this.

The One 2.6 is water resistant to 1000 ft, not too shabby. It also houses a ETA 2892-A2 movement, without too much extras. Linde will be making a switch to Concepto movements in the future I have read. The watch keeps spot on time, which is not surprising for the movement inside – fully capable of COSC spec timing.

Overall it is a fantastic watch. I have sent this one to a new home, since I ended up picking up a Linde Werdelin 3-Timer as well, both with a black dial so I only need one. I plan to keep my Linde for quite a while, and wouldn’t mind adding another to the collection as well, probably one with a white dial though. Overall a watch that I would encourage anyone to get if they are attracted to the sharp lines and overall look of the Linde Werdelin watches.