The Breitling Watch Blog

I met up with a buddy the other night, and he picked up a new watch the day before and brought it over to show me. What a treat! I got to handle, admire and try on a beautiful H. Moser & Cie Perpetual 1 with Fume dial in Palladium! The Moser Perpetual 1 is the ultimate clean and understated dress watch that has just the right touch of modern styling combined with classic lines. This is beautiful timepiece.

The beautifully crafted 40.8mm Palladium case is 11.05mm thick and is paired with a unique Sunburst patterned Fume dial which changes color from the middle to the edges and at different angles as well. It wears on the large size for a 40.8mm case size, which is fine by me as I think the size is perfect. The front features a power reserve indicator at 9 o’clock and a large aperture perpetual flash date display at 3 o’clock. This means the date knows which month it is (even though it doesn’t display it) and changes the date accordingly. Additionally, at the end of a short month, the date changes instantaneously to the 1st without slowly cycling through the remaining “extra” dates. The leap year indicator is present on the back through the exhibition caseback.

Here is the left side of the case, which has a single pusher at 9 o’clock. The sides of this palladium case also feature some polished, scalloped areas that really bring the case to another level. VERY nice touch and sets off the impeccable casework. The flats on the sides of the watch are brushed as you can see giving the watch a nice two-toned finish.

The crown side of the watch is equally stunning, with a nice large slightly oversized crown which compliments the case very nicely. The crown is signed with a large M, presumably for “Moser”. The Palladium case reminds me a bit of Platinum in its color, but is less dense and weighs less. This also means the raw material will end up costing less since it is cheaper to begin with and also will weigh less for a given amount. Oddly, this doesn’t always translate to a lower price for a watch – we’ve seen many a Panerai in Palladium value quite high. I don’t have the MSRP prices for these watches so I can’t say for sure whether this palladium is more or less than the platinum and gold versions.

Now there’s the shot many of you were waiting for – the exhibition back. The hand-wound movement in the Moser Perpetual 1 is the Calibre HMC 341.101. The movement is Swiss crafted, with a 7 day power reserve, features some serious stuff like a perpetual flash calendar and an interchangeable escapement with straumann double hairspring among other noteable features which are listed below. Overall, its a beautiful movement, beautiful watch, and just kicks serious ass. I love it.

One final shot to show off the beautiful sunburst Fume dial. The photos on the website show a bit too much color range as its mostly greyish with inflections of brown. It looks more brown on the website than in person. I am really happy for my buddy with his recent acquisition of this watch, but it has me really pining for one of my own now! Can’t have the same one, but I have my eye on a Moser now!

Moser movement cal. hmc 341.101
Hand-wound with true bevel wheels
Double barrel, min. 7-day power reserve
Moser tooth system in wheel train and pinions
Power reserve display
Perpetual flash calendar display
Calendar adjustable forwards and backwards at any time via the crown independently of the movement
Double pull crown mechanism
Hacking second
Screwed gold mounts
Moser interchangeable escapement with straumann double hairspring
Pallet fork and escapement wheel made of solid white gold
Fumé dial with sun pattern ground finish
Three-part, round case in palladium
Discreetly convex sapphire glass
See-through sapphire glass back
Alligator leather strap with solid white gold folding clasp

Graham released a new Chronofighter GMT Steel style, this one with a Pepsi style bezel a la Rolex GMT of the 90’s. I do like the somewhat more subtle sensibilities of this new Chronofighter and the oeverall direction the company has taken with its design.

Functions: Chronograph (seconds, 30 minutes counter). GMT / second time zone. Big date with double discs at 12 o’clock Hours, minutes, seconds
Calibre: Calibre G1733, automatic bi-compax chronograph, 28’800 A/h (4 Hz), Incabloc shock absorber, 28 jewels
Power reserve: 48 hours
Case: 47 mm steel case with fine-brushed horns Steel with black PVD left hand fast-action start/stop trigger and reset pusher Aluminium bezel – Blue and red with GMT scale. Domed sapphire crystal, anti-reflective coating on both faces. Smoked sapphire case back
Water resistance: 330 feet / 100 m
Dial: Black dial with silver counters. White Super-LumiNova central, seconds counter hands and numerals, white skeleton GMT hand with white Super-LumiNova head and red contour, red chrono and minutes counter hands
Strap: Integrated black croco
Price: 10,400 CHF

What is your favourite Breitling of all time? We have selected 64 candidates, and now there is a battle down to the bitter end. See this post for more details and to vote on BreitlingSource.com forums. You will need join the forum account to vote if you aren’t already registered. Its free!

http://breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42096

Here is a list of the match-ups for the first round:

Top Time 2002 vs. SuperOcean Heritage Chronograph
Chrono Avenger M1 vs. Skyracer
Colt Automatic 17380 vs. Top Time 810
Avenger Seawolf Ti vs. Avenger Code Yellow LE
Chronospace 56012 vs. SuperOcean Steelfish X-Large / SuperOcean Steelfish (all 44mm versions)
Premier vs. Emergency SuperQuartz
Bentley Le Mans vs. Twin Sixty
Bentley Mulliner Tourbillon vs. Chrono SuperOcean 13340
Blackbird Blacksteel vs. Navitimer Fighters
Crosswind Special LE vs. Bentley GT Ice
Chronomat 769 vs. Datora 784 / 785
Hercules vs. SuperOcean 2105
Chronomat Evolution vs. Chronomat Calibre 13
Crosswind vs. Blackbird 13050 / 13050.1
Spatiographe vs. Long Playing 7104
Montbrillant Olympus vs. TransOcean Chronograph b0152
B-1 SuperQuartz vs. Chrono Avenger
Emergency Mission vs. Blackbird 13353
Old Navitimer Mecanique vs. Navitimer 1461 LE (2011) 19370
Pluton 57038 vs. Navitimer Olympus
Chrono-matic 2114 vs. SuperOcean Heritage 46
Old Navitimer II vs. Aerospace 80360 (Navitimer)
TransOcean Chronograph Unitime vs. 765CP (Co-Pilot)
Navitimer 806 vs. Chronomat B01
Blackbird 44359 vs. Mark VI Complications 19
Chronomat 13352 vs. Crosswind Racing
Chrono Avenger Rattrapante LE vs. Chrono-matic 24
Serie Speciale Lemania Cosmonaute DB vs. SuperOcean 17360
Headwind vs. Navitimer World
Cockpit vs. SuperOcean Heritage Chronograph 125th Anniversary
Montbrillant 1461 Jours vs. Montbrillant Datora
Unitime 260 vs. Navitimer 01

Associated with Breitling for the eighth consecutive year, the “star pilot” appears in a new advertising campaign in the company of the famous Navitimer.

From his earliest childhood, John Travolta has always had two dreams: to fly every day and to wear a Navitimer – the cult model among aviation enthusiasts and professionals. An experienced pilot with over 6,000 flight hours to his credit and certified on eight types of aircraft, he remains more loyal than ever to the “official supplier to world aviation”, with which he shares the same spirit and the same constant quest for performance. In 2012, he stars in the brand-new advert dedicated to the brand with the winged B. The extremely evocative visual shows Travolta standing next to a Mustang P-51; a shot taken by French photographer Frédéric Imbert, on the runway of the Air & Space Port in Mojave, California. The pilot appears wearing the Navitimer with its famous aviation slide rule and its Manufacture Breitling Caliber 01, the world’s best selfwinding chronograph movement. For John Travolta, it is quite simply the most legendary chronograph of them all.

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!