Well now! I currently have in my possession (courtesy of FEAR) a brand new Chronomat B01!
Now before I go on, I need to stress (in very LARGE letters) that it's not mine. I purchased it on behalf of a good mate of mine who freely admits to knowing next to nothing about watches (but he has cash and loves the look at the B01), and he travels quite a lot with work meaning that taking delivery was always going to be a problem for him. Hence he gave me the cash and left it to me to do the deal with FEAR.Anyway, the guy's away in Europe for a couple more weeks, which means that this Chronomat B01 will be sitting in my safe for a little while yet.......... so while I obviously would never wear it, it doesn't mean I can't look at it a bit (
), and so I thought this would be a good opportunity to see whether having one closely to hand for a period of time may have any impact on my own impressions of it (especially given that I'm quite a vocal opponent of the styling). Prior to this, my contact with the B01 has been limited to handling a number of different versions at my AD for no more than about 15 mins or so at a time, so this is quite a novelty.So.... how does it stack up? Well, I must be honest here, but it is beautifully finished. I had a good look at the dial through my x5 loupe and it's absolutely flawless. The patterning on the dial where the square overlaps the subdials is a real work of art. It's difficult to say if it's any better than any other Breitling in that respect (as all Breitlings are beautifully put together), but there is definitely more in terms of subtle textures going on, so in that regard the beautiful execution is all the more impressive.
The case is also (IMO) a step up from the Aeromarine models in terms of subtle changes of angle on the case profile. The slight curvature top to bottom on the side of the case (that I noted in my initial "first encounter" review last year) really does give it a little more visual interest compared to the more slab-sided look of the Aeromarines. (Don't get me wrong here - the Aeromarine models are superb in their own right and are priced differently, so this isn't a "knock the cheaper models" exercise - more just an observation of design and finishing).
I guess what I'm saying in terms of the dial and case is that there is a lot more subtlety to the design that initially meets the eye.
Size wise, well I have to make a confession here. Recently I've been finding my SA han't been getting so much wrist time due to it's size/thickness.
The Bentleys are fine as they are thinner, but more and more recently I've been finding that my sweet-spot as far as size goes is 44 to 46mm. My Navi World and IWC BP at 46mm are both perfect. 44mm Panerai's look spot on as well, and my 44.7mm Doxa is a great size despite wearing slightly smaller that it's size would suggest on account of the shortened lug design. On any other watch forum, that would still be seen as massive, but here it's very much middle of the road. So while I'd rather the Chonomat B01 was a fraction bigger, it's longer lugs seem to make up for the diameter a little, and as a result the size is not quite the killer blow that it was when I first saw the specs and picked one up.Now......THAT bezel. Yes it's still an odd choice of font. Still no doubt in my mind about that at all - but in it's defence, it's no where near as intrusive when it's away from the bright lights of an AD, and a million miles away from the "in your face" appearance in the publicity pictures. It's kind of like the "Original Gas Escape Valve" wording on the SDDS. That said, if they'd just stuck to a more traditional font, I'm pretty sure more people would've warmed to it from the outset.
The final point on the bezel (and this is the real shock for me), is that I think I'm actually warming a little to the reduced profile rider tabs! After spending a decent amount of time handling this Chronomat B01, looking at the dial under a loupe, etc, etc, I must confess that when I picked up my SA immediately afterwards, the riders actually looked a little dated. OK, so it took me all of about 10 seconds to get back into the traditional riders again, but there's no denying that the reduced riders do look quite modern and sleek. This was a complete shock to me as I've said numerous times that for me the riders are an integral part of the Breitling DNA, so maybe, just maybe I'm a little more prepared to accept the new look than I once was. (It's taken over a year and temporary ownership of one for a few days for me to even start to accept it, but hey, a start's a start! 
)I can't comment on the movement as the watch is not mine, so I'm not prepared to mess around with it like that.
So there we are. Would I now buy one myself? In a word - No. It's still not traditional enough for me, but I think my opinions on it have moderated a little after being in the presence of one for 3 or 4 days now. However, that said, I'm not feeling that it's the bastard creation that I once did. Maybe there is a place for both the old and the new bezels, although I have a sneeking suspicion that Breitling will ditch the old riders altogether before long. A quick look at the Windrider range in the "Pure Breitling" catalogue shows that only the old Chronomat and the BB retain the old bezel - the other 5 all sport the new bezel.....
My mate isn't back from Germany for another couple of weeks or so, so this B01 is going to be living with me for a little bit longer yet. Who knows how I might feel about it by then!
