I've visited my Breitling/Omega/Tag AD today, and got back with the following news:
1) Galactic: They already received a Galactic 41 on bracelet. Quite an early arrival, I didn't expect them to hit ADs before late May / early June. I must say, the Galactic 41 doesn't look all that bad in the flesh, but since it was placed in the drawer right next to 3 good-old Cockpits, the Cockpits still easily outshined it IMHO. And I'm not talking about the bezel, but the overall look and appeal.
2) B01: They already received an updated B01 with the brushed bezel. My biggest problem with the B01 was the over-the-top shininess. I much prefer watches with brushed bezels, and it seems my whining reached up to Breitling HQ
IMHO with the brushed bezel the B01 looks miles better, it really tones down the ugly fonts and also tones down the glitter of the watch a bit. However, since it was placed next to a couple of Chronomat Evos in the case, I must say I'd still buy a Chronomat or a Blackbird before I'd even consider getting a B01. Surely the movement is nice, and the looks are great (with the brushed bezel), but I'm not sure if the additional costs are justified. It seems buyers somehow agree with me, since as the sales lady revealed, so far they only managed to sell 2 (two) B01's. She said the Chronomat Evo is a much more popular model, easily outselling any other Breitlings, incl. the B01.3) SuperOcean: I'm still toying with the idea of picking up a 2008/2009 SO with a bracelet, and also getting an Ocean Racer strap for it. They only have a blue dial SO on stock, so I've asked the lady to call Breitling and ask whether they still have a black dial SO on stock. I assumed with the introduction of the SO II, the old SO would be phased out and no more could be ordered for manufacturing. But to my surprise Breitling told my AD that the SO can still be ordered, any dial, any strap/bracelet combo. The sales lady assumed that means the SO and the SO II will both be manufactured, at least this year along. This is a very good news IMO, since the new SO II lacks quite a few things for potential customers looking for a nice diver's watch, incl. the choice of dial colours.
4) Navitimer World: This is not really exciting news for you guys, but to me this was the first "encounter" with a Navi World (black dial, leather strap). I never considered such a big watch (46mm) for my skinny wrist (cca. 6.6 inches), but then as we chatted along with the sales lady, I said what the heck, it wouldn't hurt to try it on. And to my big surprise, it felt very good on me, and it seemed a lot smaller than what 46mm would lead me to believe. It was heavy though, so a bracelet is not an option for me for sure. And since I'm not a leather guy, and the Ocean Racer may seem weird on a Navi (?), I guess I'm back to the SO camp
5) [[Off-topic]] I also asked my AD what about the new Omega models rolled out in Basel, and it seems those new models could also come very early. The sales lady said they're about to receive a new shipment from Omega this week, and she suspects the Apollo-Soyuz anniversary model (meteorite dial) could well be included. Maybe the LiquidMetal Planet Ocean as well. We'll see...