The Breitling Watch Blog

After the initial release of 88 Limited edition pieces of the XXL Aqua Terra Small Seconds in June, Omega Terra has released a similar regular edition of this 49.2mm beast. This is the second watch from Omega to features this 2211 movement, which appears to be the replacement for their 2201 movement that is used in the 49mm Aqua Terra Railmaster. That movement is a Unitas 6498 base, but this one is an automatic as far as I can tell, and some sources quote it as being an in-house caliber. I am interested to see what it is.

Really like this one as it has similar styling on the dial as the regular 8500 movements Aqua Terra line. I have one of the full-sized ones and very much enjoy the watch.

Not all of us have the fortune of being blessed with enough money to afford one of those beautifully crafted Grand Sonneries, so sometimes we have to live vicariously through youtube videos and the mouth-watering photographs in the magazines and watch blogs like these:

For me, I own several mantle and shelf clocks designed by Hermle that do a wonderful sounding westminster chime that can satisfy my appetite enough. Usually they can be had for $100-200 as opposed to the $100,000-$1,000,000!

Ever wonder what the difference in sound is between a Minute Repeater, Westminster Chime, Carillon and Grand Sonnerie is? They all have distinctly different chime sounds.

Watchtime Magazine has them here for you to hear:
http://www.watchtime.com/chimes/

Here is a video showing some of the processes and work that goes into creating a Sonnerie:

One of the more later Eterna pieces I picked up is this beautiful Eterna Soleure Moonphase Monopusher Chrono. Its probably my favourite Eterna watch that they have made, and has such a unique way of presenting the subdials. The movement runs on the rock solid Valjoux 7751 with the 12hr Chrono counter removed.

As you can see, the dial has a very clean appearance especially without the 12hour subdial. The 7751 positions the date on the outer ring via a pointer-date hand. Day and Month are both indicated at the 12 o’clock subdial. Month and date are both adjusted via the first crown position, with the month changing when the date does a full rotation. Day of the week is changed via a recessed pusher at the 10 o’clock position.

The brushed sunburst style dial looks amazing in my opinion. Quite often, brushed sunburst patterns can look cheap or unfinished, like Doxa’s sometimes do (no offense Doxa, I do love your watches). Eterna does a great job with this one, and it looks all class, and the applied dots on Eterna’s logo look fantastic. No lume whatsoever on this dial, it is a dress watch. Great blued Chronograph hands complete the package and the patterned subdials offer nice contrast against the dial.

The stainless steel watch case measures a healthy 42mm, but wears very large in my opinion. It seems to wear more like 43-44mm, possibly due to the thin bezel and large face. I just can’t get enough of the dial on this watch, they did such a fantastic job!

As you can see, this is a monopusher chronograph which means the same Pusher starts, stops and resets the chronograph mechanism. This is a very neat and nice complication/feature, but it does have one limitation: You can’t stop the chronograph and then start it again, your only option would be to reset it.

The crown has the notched edges with the 5 round notches representing the Eterna Ball Bearing logo.. I’ve always liked the way they designed the crown on these models.

Beautiful understated back. Not too much going on, but a beautiful fully polished back with plenty of room for engraving if you so wish. Caseback is held on by only 4 screws on this model, which is good for 50m of water resistance. Not too shabby.

The single-fold deployant is very nicely crafted on the Soleure Moonphase Monopusher, featuring double push-button release and a very large clasp. The Crocodile flank strap is also very well made and nice and wide, suiting the extra thickness of the watch head nicely. The lugs on this one are also slightly curved, a nice extra touch of class.

There it is, sitting happily on my wrist. Currently my favourite Eterna, though it probably still doesn’t get as much wrist time as it should. Time to get it out!

Johan Gustafsson and watchmaker Patrik Sjögren continue their innovation with their GoS watches by introducing Damascus Steel movement bridges and balance cock. While i’ve talked about their Damascus Watches in the past, I’ve never seen anything like this before, and am quite sure it will be the first production watches at least with Damascus movement bridge and balance cock. As you can see, the movement bridge has been changed in shape from the original Unitas 6498 watch movement, and uses the base Soprod Enhanced Unitas 6498 for the movement. I’ve just received these Photos from GoS as they just got them in a few days ago and do not have the damascus Balance Cocks yet. When these ship, they will have them.

Very cool enhancements to an excellent movement. I am an avid knife collector and have always appreciated the sophistication of Damascus steel. I personally would not mind seeing these done with a powdered steel or exotic steel damascus like Devin Thomas. While I like old-fashioned ladder pattern Damascus, some variation is always nice.

More info on their watches here:
http://www.goswatches.com/

I know I mentioned the Sellita SW500 when it was released in an earlier article, but it would probably be pertinent to give a brief once over of all three of Sellita’s movements and which of ETA’s movements they are copies of. This is interesting to many people since ETA is no longer selling movements to just anybody, and this leaves a big gap in the industry that Sellita seems content to fill.

Sellita SW200

The Sellita SW200 is a clone of ETA’s 2824 movement, but has 26 Jewels, as opposed to the ETA 2824’s 25 Jewels. Aside from this, the movement is nearly identical. The Selitta SW200 comes in two additional variations, the SW220, which has a side-by-side Day Date, usually displayed in the 3 o’clock position, and the SW240, which has the Day-Date with the Day appearing at the 12 o’clock position, like the Rolex President.

Diameter: 25.60 mm
Thickness: 4.60 mm
Vph: 28,800

Sellita SW300

Currently, the SW300 is only available in one variation and is a copy of the ETA 2892 movement, with 25 Jewels instead of 21 Jewels. Everything else is virtually identical.

Diameter: 25.60 mm
Thickness: 3.60 mm
Vph: 28,800

Sellita SW500

The Sellita SW500, which I talked about previously, is the copy of the Valjoux 7750. The Sellita SW500 features 25 Jewels, the exact same number as current or late Valjoux 7750 movements. Curious why they didn’t add an extra jewel or two to this one as well.

Diameter: 30.00 mm
Thickness: 7.90 mm
Vph: 28,800

There’s the basics. There are a few other sites that give some information on these movements, but I wanted to keep a record of them here as well as I think we will see a lot of these in the days to come.