The Breitling Watch Blog

As many of you know, SIHH 2012 official opened today and there’s always tons of beautiful new timepieces to drool over at this time of year. With Basel just around the corner as well, its probably the most exciting time to be a WIS!

This year IWC brings some new Pilot watches to the table. Its been a while since IWC has done something creative with their Pilot’s watches, with the last big introduction being the Big Pilot a couple years back. A few of this years offerings are the IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Miramar 7 Day and Chronograph, and the Pilot Worldtimer.

The Top Gun Miramar watches are very cool. Both measure an imposing 48mm in diameter!! In beautiful Ceramic cases with Titanium case backs. Both feature in-house movements, with the Chronograph model showcasing the new Calibre 89365 Flyback Chronograph, and the 7 Day movement using the 51111 movement with Pelaton winding system.

The Pilot Worldtimer features a large 45mm steel case, and a new 24 hour timing system that allows you to see the time in 24 different timezones at the same time! Reminds me of my Seiko World Time clock in my office, but in Watch form. Very cool, and very useful for those that travel everywhere.

Overall a nice few offerings that caught my eye from SIHH 2012.

Just posted a video review of my Marathon CSAR watch, Swiss Made, by a Canadian Company. Awesome big daddy of a watch clocking in at 46mm, and seriously thick. Features an automatic Valjoux 7750 movement, screwdown pushers and sapphire crystal. This is on an aftermarket rubber, but I picked it up on the regular rubber as well as the bracelet.

I’ve been eyeing Lum-Tec for a while, ever since they started releasing the Combat Models and they started showing up on eBay a few years back. Some great designs combined with quality German-made cases really caught my attention. But then they started releasing a bunch of PAM-looking stuff without trying to look too much like a Panerai, which kind of turned me off. I do note that they have become immensely popular with the general buyers, however.

The new Lum-Tec 300M-2XL is another story, however. It features relatively traditional diver styling, but adds a few Lum-Tech features such as the Super Luminous Bezel, which is covered in Sapphire Crystal – Nice. It also has the Trademarked (Not Patented) MDV Technology, which stands for “Maximum Darkness Visibility”. See the writeup below for a little more detail on the MDV Lume application:

Overall, a nicely styled diver with some trademark Lum-Tec features and good quality parts inside and out. While the Sii NH35 movement is not quite as desireable as an ETA 2824-2 in my opinion, its still a good movement with hacking and handwinding – unfortunate that it beats at 21,600, which will have a choppier second sweep. Price direct is $925, discounted to $786.25 currecntly, so it is not a cheap watch!

Specs:
45mm width excluding crown.
24mm lug width.
316L Stainless steel.
Titanium Carbide PVD hard coating.
Uni-directional 60-click rotating luminous bezel with sapphire insert.
Alternating brushed and high polished finish.
21,600 BPH Sii NH35 Japan automatic movement with hacking and handwinding features.
Sapphire crystal with clear double side Anti-reflective coating.
Threaded solid stainless steel caseback.
LUM-TEC MDV technology®. (2-tone)
Screw lock crown with double diamond sealing system.
300 Meters / 990 ft. water resistance.
2 straps included. Stainless steel bracelet with diver’s extension and molded rubber.
One year limited warranty.
Free lifetime timing adjustments.

This limited edition timepiece from Glashutte commemortates Julius Assmann, one of the fathers of watchmaking in Glashutte. The piece is clad in a 44mm 18K White Gold case, and is limited to only 25 pieces – the age at which Julius Assmann founded his watch manufacture. The watch features the Calibre 100-14, which has two barrels and bi-directional 21k gold rotor. The watch also features a big date complication, small seconds complication, and power reserve indicator.

I’ve been pining for another Glashutte in my collection since I sold off my Senator Sixties. While I know this won’t be the pieces due to my inability to afford it, perhaps I will refresh my search for another Glashutte!

In a follow-up to the original Chronoswiss Kairos review, this is the video review. This is still one of my favourite understated and affordable gent’s watches out there. On the secondary market, the price can’t be beat.

I love making Youtube Watch review videos.. I think one of the best things about it is getting thank yous and other such positive comments and also some of the good questions that people ask me that require me to think. But I think my favourite thing about Youtube is people that ask me things like “What do you do for a living?” and other such questions. Not sure what the relevence is to the watches, because that’s what I’m here for. Not to discuss my day job.

Anyway.. today I just got the best comment, and this is why I love Youtube so much:
“Hi can you purchase more Rolex’s for review. Would love to watch you do one on the new Explorer II.”

Oh yes, right away. I will go buy a couple dozen more tomorrow so I can film some more reviews just for you!

I get that the guy likes my reviews and I appreciate that he wants to see more, but I’m not made of money. I can’t just go buy a watch that I don’t even want just so that he can decide if he wants to buy one. But I’d like to. If I were made of money I would! That’s how nice a guy I am

Video review of the Tag Heuer Aquaracer Caliber S, Tag Heuer’s unqiue mechanical quartz Chronograph movement that reads timing to 1/100th of a second. Unique semi-circular subdials creatively show timing as well as the date.

A video review of a rare Dunhill Sportscape Alarm Automatic watch features the A.Schild AS 5000 movement. This watch has some JLC design cues it looks like, but is a great value for an Automatic Alarm on the secondary market. I picked it up at a good price and think it was the best bang for buck Alarm Automatic that I’ve found.