In the navy

Some specs:Case: in steel with fluted caseband. Rounded horns welded to the case, with screw-pins to secure the strap. Engine-turned caseback with sapphire crystal. Screwlocked crown. Water-resistant to 100m.Dial: in engine -turned and silvered 18K gold,individually numbered and signed BREGUET. Chapter – ring with Roman hours and luminous points. Centreseconds. Large date at 6 clock. Facetted, open -tipped BREGUET hands in 18K gold, with applied luminous material.Movement: automatic, 111?2-ligne, 35-jewel, Cal. 517GG, numbered and signed Breguet. 65 -hour power reserve. Engine-turned 18K gold rotor. Straight -line lever escapement. Monometallic, 4Hz balance -wheel. Adjusted in five positions.Also available in 18K yellow gold.Source: Europastar.Facetted, open -tipped Breguet hands with luminous coating point to a chapter -ring of Roman numerals punctuated with luminous dots. Concern for clarity is also apparent in the centre-seconds and the large date with separate numbers at 6 o‚Äôclock.The sapphire-crystal display-back reveals the superb finish of the automatic movement with its chamfered edges, blued-steel screws and its winding-rotor decorate d in the trademark wave pattern of the Marinemodels.Both the steel bracelet and the rubber strap highlight the uncompromising character of this watch on your wrist ‚ bred from ancient traditions and executed with modern flair.

In the navy

Designed for reliability, they achieve their elegance through the modern application ofBreguet traditional aesthetic values.The tough steel case has protected crown and increased water – resistance. It holds a gold dial that is silvered or blued, and engine – turned in the centre with a fine wave pattern.Although I have lots of respect for Brequet (here is a boring story about the brand), I never put one on my long-term “want” list, where the Royal Oak Jumbo and Rolex Day-Date (ref.18239) still fight for a first place. Brequet is too classic, and the XX-models are also not what I am looking for in a watch. Anyway, I just read at Europastar that Brequet introduces their new Marine watch, the “Marine 5817″.Here is what’s up:The latest MARINE 5817 automatic introduces a new movement, a bigger case, a rubber strap and a redesigned dial to Breguet popularsports model.The Marine watches trace their ancestry to the chronometers A. -L. Breguet made for the French royal navy from 1815.

Eat your heart out Sky Moon Tourbillon

It is the Tour de l’Ile, the world’s most complicated wristwatch by Vacheron et Constantin. It has:hours and minutesseconds at 6 clockrepetition of the quarters and minutes on request Tourbillon devicepower reservesecond time zonephases of the moonage of the moontorque of the striking mechanismperpetual calendar- day- date- month- leap yearsperpetual equation of timesunrisesunsetsky chartClick here for a Purists introduction on this watch.

Time for Oneself, a free book!

Assiociation Interprofessionnelle De La Haute Horlogerie, a platform that is initiated by several watchbrands (like Audemars Piguet, Brequet, JLC, IWC, Panerai, Roger Dubuis etc) to form some kind of ‘quality seal’ for customers who buy at jewelers who are connected to the AIHH, offer a nice watchrelated book for people who answer 10 questions on their website. So d click (left-below) the “Time for Oneself&#8221.

Kill Bill Vol.2

Yesterday, I finally watched volume 2 of Kill Bill. The first part was great in my opinion, and the second part is nice, but not great. In fact, the only reason to see it is to finally witness how Bill is being Killed.Anyway (to keep it on-topic), in part two I noticed this Rolex Daytona she (Uma Thurman) uses to check her predictor-stick. At first I thought it was cool that she has such a nice masculine watch. Later on, when I examined the still images on my PC, it was clearly a fake Daytona. What a bummer.

BaselWorld 2009 Glash?ɬºtte Original news

As my interest is growing in this brand from Glashte, I am looking forward to meet the guys behind the brand tomorrow in Basel. Finally able to hold some of their watches in my hands and have a look at them in detail. The Senator Meissen Tourbillon and Senator Chronometer are very interesting timepieces, being classic and still suitable for the young(er) wrist.Back in february, you could read about the new Glash?ɬºtte Original Senator Navigator Perpetual Calendar. And as of today, the firm from Glash?ɬºtte introduced a whole serie of new watches during BaselWorld 2009.All the news from Glash?ɬºtte Original is summarized in the two photos below, send to me by RenMarx of Glashte Original.Monochrome covered some of the new models already in detail, and I suggest you visit the BaselWorld 2009 forum over at Perpetuelle.com for all the latest news, pictures and details.

SIHH Basel 2008 Rolex Impressions

It moved in the same direction as the lovely new GMT II: maxi case, maxi hands and a new bezel. Although the color of blue of this first white gold model has been a turn off for many and the watch has been renamed The Smurf already, color is a matter of taste and the new Sub is a thing of beauty in the best Rolex tradition.So, where does this leave the Rolex line up right now? With the new Day Dates and Datejusts Rolex covers the dress and jewelry watches segment just perfectly, both for women as well as for men again, there is space for innovations that go extreme and beyond with the DeepSea, and the main lines of Submariner and GMT II had their subtle but very strong updates. It is a job well done and worthy of the companies legendary name. Actually… I’m looking forward to Basel 2009 rumours already. – Evert ’That is what we all want and why we spend ridiculous amounts on luxury watches, right? On the other hand, in moving in this direction Rolex accepts that their wrist watches have nothing extra to add to modern day life anymore. Back in the ’50′s they did add usefull functionalities to watches when they invented Submariners for real divers and GMT Masters for real pilots. Without going into any suggestions for other concepts, this does feel like a missed opportunity to me.In all the noise of the new innovations one should not forget to mention the gradual and flawless update of the Submariner.

SIHH Basel 2008 Rolex Impressions

Thirdly it is noticable that with the introduction of the DeepSea, Rolex continues their beautiful high end tool watch tradition. The fears of every model being turned into a polished dress watch did not become reality after all. But as pointed out in the text of their own press kitt: The deep seas are part of peoples dreams. And the depth rating of 3900 meters it will also stay there and will not come to life: there is not much use even for divers to have a watch with this qualities. Does that make this a silly invention? Bottom line: Yes. Does that make it a silly watch? No, not at all. The DeepSea is an impressive piece of innovation and an absolutely  gorgeous tool watch I’d love to own. It is Non Plus Ultra, nothing superior seems to exist. A range of solutions has been chosen, from a wild carnival of colors for markers, hands and glass on last years Milgauss, to dials with more and more expressive writings and numerals even on this years new 36 mm watches. The new Day Dates got a more busy dial and the bigger Sea-Dweller Deep Sea gained an extra Power Ring under the glass and a lot more writing as well. Not to start again about last years new Yacht Master II that is filled with funny primary colors and complications. Somehow the designers seem to be afraid of simplicity or empty spaces. Although the new Day Date is a wonderfull new piece, in all the new dial layouts are far from perfect in my opinion.

SIHH Basel 2008 Rolex Impressions

So, what does the horological land scape look like after Basel? For the broad trends in the whole industry I’m not informed well enough yet, but for the Rolex brand some initial conclusions can be drawn. The first and most significant one is that Rolex follows the big watch trend after all with a bonanza of 40 and 41 mm dress watches and a Sea-Dweller of 43 mm. An interpretation of this fact could be that their attempts to revive the 36 mm size for men were to no avail: the Turn-O-Graph, the new Datejusts and Day Dates just don’t work for todays men anymore  in terms of sales. 40 mm is the new standard and even the stable and cautious design school of Rolex has to follow the market.My second observation is that the design job of filling this bigger dials in some way seems to puzzle the Rolex company. The 2008 Basel show is lovingly called ?¢‚Ǩ?ìthis time of year?¢‚Ǩ¬ù around the Rolex boards. The rules of the game are that Rolex S.A. does it’s best to guard their news untill the start of the show, and the rest of the world seems to be hunting down every particle of information available. It starts in January with a wide variaty of wild rumours, and it always narrows down in March to some mixture of truth and nonsense. This years truths were a new and bigger Sea-Dweller and a red gold Daytona, secrets not really well kept. The nonsense turned out to be a Daytona with a date window and the rumours about anything on a rubber bracelet.