The Breitling Watch Source Forums

anyone familiar with this brand? saw a new watch they released. here is the write up i pulled from fhs.ch:

After Geneva, Tokyo and Kiev, Antoine Preziuso is now firmly established in the Middle East following the opening of a store in the Wafi City Mall in Dubai.

The Wafi City Mall is without a doubt the most chic of Dubai’s shopping centres in terms of the concentration of prestigious brands, with more than 350 stores in total. The architecture, inspired by ancient Egypt, is not the least of its attractions. The construction is shaped like a pyramid, its entrance guarded by giant sphinxes. Inside, there are statues of pharaohs, columns like those at Karnak, walls sculpted with hieroglyphs and arrays of multi-coloured stained-glass windows.

Against this impressive backdrop, Antoine Preziuso has created not just a simple point of sale, but a veritable showcase for his prestige horological designs. With a floor space of 250 m2, the store is bathed in light thanks to a subtle interplay of glass and mirrors. The choice of materials and decorations, such as the black marble floor contrasting with bare white walls, crystal chandeliers, elegant furnishings and deep red carpets, reflects the determination of the Geneva watchmaker to align the store’s architecture and décor with the local culture. This world of discreet luxury mirrors the products on display, while the meticulous finishes and attention to detail illustrate the brand’s tradition of savoir-faire and excellence.

Four shop windows highlight the watch collections of Antoine Preziuso – limited-edition creations combining traditional watchmaking expertise with abundant creativity - as well as jewellery collections organised by his daughter Laura, while the wide expanses of glass attract the eye of passers-by. The entrance gives visitors an instant, panoramic view of the store and invites them to share a special moment in the world of haute horlogerie. A private lounge offering comfort and confidentiality is available to collectors.

To coincide with the opening, Antoine Preziuso presented his Tourbillon monumental, a model developed from the movement of a pocket watch dating from 1928 and housed in the largest wristwatch case ever produced: 65 mm in diameter! A subtle reference to the tallest tower ever built, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, reaching to a height of 828 metres. Meanwhile the official inauguration, attended by hand-picked personalities, is expected to take place in September.

Just listed his 3volution as my dream 'one watch' in another thread.

I've been a fan for a very long time, although until recently he has only been producing a very small number of extremely high end watches, some erotic automaton pieces and a couple of limited ranges for his handful of dealers. He's started to expand the range now but because the company is so small he's having to use heavily modified ETA movements to do it which I think is the wrong move - these still aren't cheap pieces.

The Monumental got a fair amount of coverage because of it's size - obviously intended to be a headliner to get the name out there than a practical watch.

yeah some of their stuff is beautiful. i can understand that since their production is so low having a fully in house movement would be expensive. but then again i only assume that a watch of this calibre would not be cheap. so having the full movement made in house would make it that much more exclusive?

Roff in your opinion since the movement is heavily modified ETA will this help or hinder in the long run??

The collectors market strongly prefers the completely in house pieces rather than the modified ETAs - if you can find a 3volution it will probably cost you close to $2 million these days. I can't criticise him for using modified ETAs to bring the prices down (but we are still talking about $50,000 or so for complicated pieces) if it's part of a strategy to expand the brand, but that doesn't seem to be what he is doing - the production volumes don't seem to be increasing significantly so I'm not sure what the purpose is.

He's one of the top 10 living watchmakers, so why use someone else's movement?

good question. 2 mill for a watch is way too much to spend even if i had the money.

Pfffft, I was going to do a Google search, but..............Shazam $2mil.

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UN Maxi Marine Ti
B01, BEB
SOH
Aerospace Ti
Chrono SO
Omega 300 Master Co-Axial Chro
Omega PO Chrono.
AP ROO Diver
Titan Black Rolex DSOD Honeycomb Dial

What makes someone one of the best Roff when you're talking about watchmaking? Is it purely skill and technique; the ability to create watches and complications. Is it due to creating either a new complication or a new, perhaps more efficient way of making the same complication? Vision? A combination of everything?

What do you consider to be the criteria?

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To me it has to be more than just technical ability - that's nothing if it isn't combined with imagination - you can be the best technically but if all you can apply that too is producing parts for already established calibres then the contribution is restrained.

To my mind what make Preziuso so special is his ability to combine technical excellence with visionary designs. The triple tourbillon in the 3volution is revolutionary (pardon the pun) and not only did he come up with the concept, he solved the technical challenges required to produce it and then put it in a watch that is a design classic (although that's personal and harder to be objective about). His collection also shows tremendous diversity and breadth of ability, he's not a one trick pony.

For me therefore it's that combination, although I would use other criteria for other watchmakers that I consider to be in equally high esteem. George Daniels is special because of his major invention - the co-axial escapement and his background (effectively self taught).