The Breitling Watch Source Forums

At 48 mm, is the Super Avenger still the best selling Breitling? I'm 6'4" and have 2 S.A., 2 46mm Navitimers, and 2 44mm Headwinds.... I can't see ever going back to the 40mm Rolexes, which my wife has enjoyed wearing after resizing the bands! Seems like diameters are trending back down....

Any 'experts' wanna weigh in.... Thanks


Jpbunk.

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Jpbunk
Navi 18K Chronomatic 24 hr LE(250)
Navi 18K&SS Monbrillant Legende
Navi World SS black 46mm
Headwind 18K black
Headwind SS blue
SuperOcean black 46mm
SuperAvengers white & blue
Bell@Ross 18k br-03 LE(250) 46mm
Rolex, IWC, Patek Philippe

Personally, I don't like that trend.
Looks like it will stop when 50mm will be a girl's watch.
Can understand that someone likes to wear a bigger watch or have gorilla wrists, but all this hype about dinner plates looks to me like showing off.
Other thing is that bigger watch is more difficult to wear.

Well personally I'm very glad to have larger options compared to the more traditional 39 to 40mm watches, as watches in the 44mm to 46mm range just fit my wrist size better. I also own a couple of 48mm Bentleys and an SA, and while they fit me just fine, I wear them far less these days as I like things to be a bit more understated.

I think there is a place for watches of all sizes as people's wrists come in all sizes as well. For me it's all about proportion : if a massive watch is in proportion to a massive wrist then there's no problem at all. The only thing that I think looks daft is when you get guys with really small wrists wearing massive watches where the lugs overhang the sides of their wrists. That can look ridiculous IMO.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

There has been a lot of industry talk about trends returning to the low 40s, in large part because of the increased demand from the Asian market, but I don't think that large watches are going away any time soon, I think that there will simply be a wider spread of sizes across different models.

I've said before that the size thing makes no difference to me with a 20+mm difference between my largest and my smallest.

I think a distinction may lie in expansion of the market, not necessarily leaving it. From what I see, men in their 20s-30s have a different idea of the ideal proportion of watch to wrist than "slightly older" I do. I see a lot of 46mm and above watches on them. I think big watches will remain, and I completely agree with Driver's comment that larger wrists should and will keep larger watches in the market. The question to me is how much that market will expand. I suspect it will though not to the degree it has in the last ten years. Everything I read suggests new offerings are downsizing a bit, in part due to the Asian market and in part due to a backlash of sorts for guys like me who tried a larger watch and then decided smaller was better on a day-to-day basis. I mean this in the context of nicer, say over $1000 watches.

I do think, if there is such a thing as mainstream, that what I conceive it to be has grown from 38-42mm to 40-44mm over the last ten years. That, I think, is where new offerings will be, though there is a question whether the Asian market, which loves 36mm SMP's, 35mm Constellations and 36 mm Datejusts, will be coaxed up there.

Anyway, my two cents.

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Scott

AP Royal Oak 15400, silver
Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Classic Cars
Vintage gold Corum
Rolex DJ 36 TT, oyster dial, oyster/smooth
Baume & Mercier Riviera 200m, silver dial/aquamarine bezel
Breitling Superocean 57, rose/stainless

Without doubt, the ongoing growth if the younger generations means that watch sizes have had to keep pace such that they continue to be in proportion with the wrists on which that are worn.

However the trend towards larger watches is more likely driven by the continuing fascination with American gang or gangster culture, characterised by a demonstration of personal wealth or status by conspicuous consumption including, but not limited to, wearing of oversized watches and jewellery.

At least that's what my bitches tell me

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Watch case diameters are getting a trifle big, but people wear what they like.

http://oceanictime.blogspot.com/2012/03 ... rnold.html

(65 mm resembles a pie plate, even on the "Governator")

I like 40-44 mm, larger wrists can pull off 46-48+.

I think Breitling has done an exceptional job keeping the trend in sight without going overboard.

Link was regarding A.S. sporting a 65 mm U-Boat.

You mean sort of like this

Good lord. I've got wall clocks smaller than that pictured on Arnie's wrist.

You see, that thing on Arnie's wrist is a case in point about proportion. No no no.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Well I have been wearing my CA and Citizen Grand Complication regularly since my CSO went in for a service. Both watches are around 44mm which is as big as my wrist will allow............without looking like Arnie. Now the CSO is back on my wrist its 42mm feels a more comfortable size despite it weighing 17 grms more than the CA. I also think the actual size of the watch face plays a big part in how big a watch wears, I think 44mm with a thin bezel looks monstrous!

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Breitling B-1 1999
Breitling Chrono Superocean 2004
Casio G Shock
Citizen Eco Drive AT4000-02E (for gardening)
Seiko 5 SNZG15J1
Hamilton X Wind LE

if your more comfortable wearing a larger size and thats what you like who cares what happens in the industry. i wish that i could pull off larger sizes but sadly for me most 44mm pieces are really pushing it. personally i feel its more a situation of lug to lug length as oppose to actual case diameter.

Thickness of the watch is important as well. One of the things that I really like about my AP, which also has me attracted to pre-owned 44mm Chronomatics, is that while it has a fair amount of surface area on the wrist, it is thin enought to slide effortlessly under a long-sleeved shirt. My Navi and my Headwind fit, but depending on the shirt they can poke though or rub against the shirt cuff. I can wear them long-sleeved but they are becoming my 'short sleeve' watches. The 'next' watch, probably my recurrent 'blue watch', I want to be thinner than my present Breitlings.

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Scott

AP Royal Oak 15400, silver
Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Classic Cars
Vintage gold Corum
Rolex DJ 36 TT, oyster dial, oyster/smooth
Baume & Mercier Riviera 200m, silver dial/aquamarine bezel
Breitling Superocean 57, rose/stainless