The Breitling Watch Blog

This year, I don’t think I’m getting any watches for Christmas from my family. I don’t usually, but its always nice to hope! I know my wife was planning to buy me a Rolex, until she realized how much the one I wanted would cost, so she decided to pass on that. Gotta watch the budget! So I’m wondering what everyone else out there bought for Christmas as far as watches? Did you guys buy one for yourself? Or one for a wife or girlfriend?

I decided I would get myself a watch! I sold a watch, and ended up trading for a watch I’ve been on the lookout for. Its not exactly what I wanted, since I wanted the Exploding numbers, but this is a nice conservative version in White Gold. Its a Franck Muller Casablanca 2852 in White Gold! This one features the vintage looking Havana dial, and an interesting manual winding movement.. so no Platinum Rotor here unfortunately. I don’t mind either way too much, since there is no date anyway. The watch likely uses a Pesseaux movement as a base. I guess I’ll find out soon enough!

So there she is, in all her glory. Hope its as nice as I think!

With SIHH 2011 coming, new Panerai models are starting to poke their heads out of the woodwork. While we can expect a few new watches to use the new P.3000 Caliber Movement from Panerai, the latest to be announced do not use the new series of movements from Panerai. There is speculation that the new P.3000 movements are designed to replace their unitas powered watches.

Panerai PAM 386
New Composite case Panerai 386, looks outstanding. This one is a Luminor Marina 1950 3 Days Automatic Composite, which means it is a 3 Day Automatic caliber P.9000, featuring date and small seconds. The Composite case is a synthetic ceramic that is created using an electro-chemical process that transforms aluminum into this material. Very Cool stuff.

There are also a huge multitude of individual boutique editions being released in various numbers of anywhere from 100 to 200 pieces from Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei and some others I believe, with Reference numbers in the 400’s. Here are some photos:

Jet Li has helped Hublot launch their new 100 square metre Beijing Boutique, which is their third in China. Jet Li joins the Hublot brand as their first Asian Ambassador and should help boost their popularity in China because of Jet Li’s international star power. I remember when Jet Li was promoting the Piaget Polo watch… the Hublot brand seems much better of a fit for Jet Li.

Ball Watches have always caught my fancy, especially since they combine the coolness of Tritium tubes with fine Swiss horology. While they have not yet created their own in-house caliber, they have made some contributions such as the Amortiser anti-shock system for watches. Currently all their watches use modified ETA movements.

This is the Engineer Master II Diver, which seems to be one of the more popular Ball Watches that I’ve seen around. They are available in a few different colors besides green, such as Orange and White. The inner dive bezel is operated by the crown at 2 o’clock. The watch features 53 Tritium tubes on it’s dial, which has a wave sunburst pattern.

Clasp is a semi-hidden button lock variety, which is odd for a diver. I’ve seen this watch offered with a flip-lock style bracelet as well. I’m not sure which is correct, or if it was changed partway through production or if it was possibly an option.

The watch case measures 42mm, but due to the rounded edges of the case sides, wears a bit smaller than most watches of a similar size. For those of you that have not owned a Tritium tube lume watch, the Tritium tubes tend to be slightly duller than SuperLuminova after its been charged, but while SuperLuminova needs charging, Tritium tubes do not. They simply glow and glow for their entire lifespan, which is rated from 20-30 years, depending on the make. They glow at a similar rate as SuperLume once its settled down after about 15-20 minutes in the dark.

The caseback features an engraving of a submarine, with Webb C. Ball etched on it, representing Webster Clay Ball, The company’s namesake and also the company’s founder. The screwdown caseback offers 300m of water resistance.

There’s the watch shown on my 6 3/4″ wrist. As you can see, its a decent size. The bracelet is fairly narrow, at approximately 21mm, and has no taper. The inner bezel freely spins, so its hard to make it line up perfectly because when the crown is screwed in it sometimes moves slightly. Overall its a nice watch, and I really did like it, but I found that it sat funny on my wrist, making the watch overall have an odd appearance. Ultimately I liked it better in the pictures than I did on my wrist, so I won’t be keeping this one. Hope you guys enjoyed the review.

Specs:
Movement: ETA 2836-2
Functions: Illuminated rotating inner bezel
3 hands and day, date
53 micro gas tubes
Shock resistance: 5,000Gs
Water resistance: 300m
Antimagnetic: 4,800A/m
Case: 42mm made with stainless steel, height 14.9mm
Anti-reflective sapphire crystal
Screwed-in crowns

“You actually own a Ril Watch. You do not need to wait for the next generation.”

That’s their slogan. Obviously this is a reverse take on Patek’s slogan which is, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” Now, while they use a spin-off of Patek’s slogan, their watches have absolutely no relationship in look or pedigree to Patek Philippe. They’re more of a Rolex Sub “homage” to be diplomatic.. others would call it a copy.

Ril Concept states that their watches are designed in London and use precision automatic Japanese movements, selling for $999US. They feature a 38mm case, sort of like a mini-submariner. To me they look more like they were designed in Switzerland (by Rolex) and then copied by someone in London. Also, the 30m water resistance doesn’t really seem like its up to the task of being a scuba watch, which is what it’s marketed as.

Features:
-Scratchproof sapphire glass
-Stainless Steel
-Rotating Scuba bezel
-High precision Japanese automatic movement 21 jewels
-48 hours power reserve
-Screwed winding crown
-Water resistant (30m)

Take a look and decide for yourself!
http://rilconcept.com/