Haven’t updated with my recent video reviews, so just in case you guys have not seen them. Here is the Tutima Di300 Video review uploaded a while back here. Fantastic Titanium watch with a blasted finish. Its a wonderful German-made diver with an Swiss ETA automatic movement. Superb craftsmanship and that great german tool-watch look make this a great watch.

Blacksand burst onto the watch scene last year at Baselworld 2011 creating some very impressive looking timepieces. Their new watch, the Stratographe, features their first completely in-house designed movement, the Calibre 2002. The watch features a monopusher chronograph, and some beautiful looking parts.

Specs:
Single-pusher chronograph with crown-activated start/stop/reset functions
Blacksand column wheel and index assembly Central 60-second chronograph hand – 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock Small seconds at 9 o’clock – hand-wound – 50-hour power reserve – 28,800 vph – Chamfered mainplate and bridges, black satin-brushed, sandblasted and circular-grained decoration Chamfered straight-grained steel parts. Polished screws.
Case 46mm in Titanium and Ceramic or Gold.

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.

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.

I’ve had this guy for a while, but never really wrote up a review on it. I did post a video review of is a ways back, but never got around to posting the real deal. I shot some photos of it with my dSLR and just ran into them while sorting my photographs this morning and figured this would make a nice Sunday Morning post.

The color is a bit off on these first two photos, and isn’t a correct representation of the true color like the last two photos are. I generally do prefer the Stainless models but the Titanium is quite slick with its darker color and its not every watch you see that’s available in both Titanium and Stainless so sometimes its good to get something different.

The case measures a healthy 42.5mm, and has non-standard lugs, so only bracelets and straps designed for the Ingenieur specificially will fit on it. The thickness is 14.5mm, so it does have good wrist presence. The watch wears quite large for its measurements in my opinion, and feels similar in size to a Breitling Chronomat 44.

Another shot of the pusher side of this watch shows the unique pushers which are hinged on one side so only push in near the middle. A nice subtle touch. The watch also features an IWC Calibre 79350 movement, which is a modified ETA (Valjoux) 7750 movement, with the seconds moved to the 6 o’clock subdial and the date removed. The Chronograph measures seconds and minutes only. This watch keeps excellent time, within 1 second per day and is anti-magnetic as well.

From the size you can see IWC’s bracelet removal system for the Ingenieur, which allows the bracelet to be removed with two toothpicks if you wanted to. Very nice system. The AR coated sapphire crystal is flat, and provides fantastic visibility in bright light. Lume, on the other hand, is nothing to write home about.

Clasp is a fold-over style with hidden button release on the side. A very nicely articulated titanium bracelet, very smooth and comfortable – so comfortable that I would say this is possibly the most comfortable bracelet I’ve ever worn and I’ve worn a lot. In general this watch is an absolute joy to wear and put on. While lighter because of the titanium, it is not as light as many titanium watches such as the Breitling Aerospace. This one is a keeper!