The Breitling Watch Blog

Two new Eterna’s to hit the street… which are interesting since these seem to harken back to their glory days rather than the newer direction that brand had been taking. Those guys over at Eterna can’t seem to make up their mind, similar to Zenith. But maybe its just because these are “Heritage” models.

I was digging the new Eterna In-House movements, and now we’re back to ETA. I understand that Eterna created ETA, but still.

Eterna Heritage Pulsometer Automatic Chronograph
Limited Edition of 1,942

Diameter: 42mm
Thickness: 13mm
Sapphire Crystal
50m Water Resistance
Movement: ETA 2894-2
MSRP: 3,950 CHF

Eterna Heritage Super Kon Tiki Diver
Limited Edition of 1,973
Diameter: 44mm
Thickness: 14mm
Sapphire Crystal
200m Water Resistance
Movements: ETA 2824-2
MSRP: 2,950 CHF

In January, Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth, two luxury watch brands under the Bulgari Umbrella were consolidated into the main Bulgari brand and now all watches will feature the Bulgari namesake and branding. The newest watches from this integration were unvieled at Baselworld.

The “merger” was meant to help strengthen the Bulgari brand, allowing it to benefit from the horological expertise of the Genta/Roth brands. The dials of the new watches will still bare their original Roth or Genta logos in addition to the Bulgari branding.

See some of the new pieces:

Stone Cold Steve Austin saw my write-up earlier this week about his watches and sent me an email! So cool. He also emailed me a pic of his latest acquisition, a Breitling SuperOcean Heritage Chronograph 46 Limited Edition with the white dial and black dual registers.

He indicated that he picked it up in Vegas when he was there watching the UFC Fight recently. I can’t help but notice that he has great taste in watches – very similar to my own. Pic below sent from Steve Austin himself:

On a side note, I can’t wait to see the Expendables movie that he’s in with Sly Stalone, Jet Li and Jason Statham coming out in August!!!

Another Limited Edition U-Boat is going to hit the streets soon, featuring a limited production of 999 pieces and a 53mm Titanium Case. This one harks back to the classic Italian Navy style watches, and one can’t help but compare it to the Panerai Egiziano in terms of looks.

The crown device is interesting on this one, and I’m not quite sure how it works from the description, but as I understand it, the crown flips out and can be turned when it is released by the lever on the bottom.

There is lever on the case at around 4 o’clock that when engaged, prevents the crown from turning, which is a pretty cool feature, especially if you’re going to use it for diving. The watch is good to 300m. The watch features a caliber U-BOAT U-28 automatic movement, which I assume is probably based on a [EDIT]ETA 2824, though I can’t be certain.

Dial is available in black or beige, and caseback is a signed solid back with some cool inscriptions. I kind of hate to admit it, but I like this watch!

I’ve owned a U-Boat before, but to be quite honest, the ridiculous case size and somewhat un-matching straps were just not working for me in the end. The case quality in my opinion was decent, which many people in my forums did not agree with. They have improved their straps in the last year or so, as the ones I have seen are nicer now.

This new U-51 Rattrapante from U-Boat is quite interesting.. mixing in design cues from the Anonimo Professionale series of watches with the screwed-in bezel look. This bad boy is limited to 100 pieces and measures 51mm in diameter and a whopping 19mm thick. The movement is a base 7750 Valjoux modifed by Alfred Rochat. Decent enough, but has the typical lack of detail and finish ont he movement that cheapes U-Boat’s watches IMO.