The Breitling Watch Source Forums

OK, so with breanach78's Greatest Ever Breitling thread going, I thought I'd ask a slightly different question -

What's the greatest watch ever made, for you? And why?

The "for you" part is all important here, because I'm sure it'd be very easy for us all to come up with all-singing, all-dancing, platinum, dual tourbillon, quantieme perpetual, equation of time, one-off masterpieces, but that's not really what I'm getting at. What I'm getting at is a watch that speaks to you in a way that no other watch does. I'm not saying you necessarily have to have owned it, but I'm looking for reasons more than "I like it because it's the most expensive watch in the world".

I guess you could call it Personal Watch Perfection (in your eyes of course!). For some it may well be a super complication, precious metal rarity, and that's fine if you can explain why - whereas for others it could conceivably be a $100 G-Shock that's been through thick and thin with you. This isn't about trying to outdo each other with the most drool-worthy creations ever made : it's more of a personal thing than that.

So, if anyone wants to play, I'll set the ball rolling.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

For me personally, the greatest watch ever made is.........

The Omega Ploprof 1200! (See, I said it's a personal thing! )

Now I know that this is one of the most polarising watch designs ever made, but for me it's absolute perfection. I've never done a full review of the Ploprof which I've had for quite a while now, and I will at some point, but for now these are my reasons for choosing it. (Apologies for not having my own pictures available - my iPhone camera is rubbish, but I will take a few snaps at some point. This one was borrowed off the net, so thanks to the owner).



Firstly I love it's looks. Everything about it is function over form, and that gives it a beauty of it's own IMO. If we look back at the original Ploprof 600 from the 1970's it was designed to help keep professional divers alive, not to be the finest haute horology on the planet. It answered and solved fundamental dangers for professional/commercial divers in the pre-dive computer era. What two things don't you want to happen to your watch when you're using it underwater? You don't want the countdown bezel to give you an incorrect remaining time reading, and you don't want it to stop working. The possibility of the bezel moving by accident was effectively removed by making it locked unless the push-button is depressed, and this makes it infinitely better than even a uni-directional bezel - hence the big red/orange push-button on the case. Done, problem solved! And on the second point - the single greatest weak-spot on a dive watch is the crown, and if you're a professional/commercial diver you'll be sticking your hands into all manner of spaces, which means that you'll be risking hitting and damaging the crown (and thereby risking water getting into the watch) on most conventional watches if your right-handed - i.e. wearing a right-hand crown watch on your left wrist. Omega solved this problem not once, but twice! First of all they moved the crown to left side of the case, meaning it's on the opposite side from any potential knocks. And secondly they encased the whole crown in an enormous crown-guard arrangement that out-does even Panerai's. You'd have to work pretty hard to damage the crown on a Ploprof!

So all these functional requirements resulted in a look that was, and still is, totally unique (Ocean7's cheap copy aside of course!). Fast forward 40 years and the Ploprof 1200 is here, and IMO it's the absolute epitome of how to perfectly evolve a watch. All changes that have been made are a massive improvement on the original - the plastic push-button on the 600 has been replaced with an orange metal one ; the orange painted minute hand on the original has been upgraded to an orange anodised one ; the size has been increased slightly and the finishing improved ten fold ; the crown-guard has been improved ; the original front loading monocoque case is now a more traditional back-loading one but the WR has been doubled from 600m to 1200m : the crystal and fully-lumed bezel are now both sapphire, etc. While some may say the 1200 is more dressy than the 600 (and they'd be right), the new model actually out performs the original in every way. This is not some neutered pastiche - it's a true evolution is every sense of the word.

So as I say, I love its looks - the "modern-retro" style is exactly what I like in a watch - but for me it's also about how it makes you feel. Strap this thing on and you feel like James Bond (Sean Connery era) mixed with Jacques Cousteau ; you're Enzo Maiorca mixed with Umberto Pelizzari ; you're Chuck Yeager mixed with Buzz Aldrin! It's just simply the most manly, hairy-chested watch you'll ever wear in your life! Nothing remotely comes close. The size is absolutely perfect for me on my 7.75" wrist, and the balance is also perfect on both rubber and the superb brushed mesh (which incidentally is the only mesh I like). The fit and finish is superb, even the date window at 4.30 (which is generally my least favourite position for a date window) just works on this watch. Plus the black date wheel means it's completely unobtrusive and yet easy to see when you need it. The clasp and it's hidden micro-adjustment (something sadly lacking on other Seamasters) is a work of genius, the dial is immaculate, the lume is amazing, all the bracelet/strap options are all superb, the list goes on and on for me.

And then there's the fact that it houses the 8500 in-house co-axial movement, so even movement snobs (like me! ) are kept happy!

So what we have here is a perfectly evolved version of one of the most iconic dive watches ever made : a combination of function over form (which I personally find amazingly beautiful) but with a level of fit and finish, and quality of movement that you would never usually find in a watch of this type.

This is the only watch I've ever owned that I simply cannot fault in any way. It's my perfect watch.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Interesting topic.

I've always said in similar threads that the Antoine Preziuso 3volution just amazes me - it just does something to me:



However, that's a fantasy watch in many ways.

Of the pieces that I own my greatest watch is absolutely nothing to do with fine watchmaking and I think I probably gushed enough about it when I showed it a few years ago - viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9789. A very 'ordinary' watch, but a truly incredible package.

Hublot's Antikythera...I'll try and add more later but a little difficult whilst at work

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For me, I'd have to say the AP Royal Oak. This watch is the ultimate in class. I can't think of another watch I would rather own than the Royal Oak.

Easy question for me, that is the black 6.75. The reason it's easy is because I see no point in dreaming about what I'll never have, and the Bentley was what I wanted in the top end of my price range, so I got it. I love the size, great bracelet, very comfortable, bit blingy but no diamonds, and I have this weird thing about liking a dial that's symmetrical so the big date and three subdials work well for me. If it was in-house it might very well be a cure for me for this, but then again given how things are going I most likely would have been priced out.


PS: If I ever take a huge step up it would probably be to AP.

That would also have been my choice. I'll let Gre3nday develop his thread since he posted first. Info available on request based on an older post by Roff.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

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- This is Ghost Rider requesting a fly-by. - Negative Ghost Rider. The pattern is full.

I can hear the groaning already, but someone has to say it:

The greatest watch ever made has to be a Sub. (Not the best, but the greatest.)

Yeah, I know, there are a gazillion of them out there, but there are reasons for that: iconic design, built like a tank, lasts forever, and it's a luxury watch that's affordable. The vast majority of the human race simply can't or won't afford a PP, AP, Lange, etc., but if one wants it bad enough, a Sub is within reach.

By golly, there's one on my wrist right this moment!

I have to second the sentiment for the updated royal oak with the new date wheel. What a great history and awesome design

I am going to agree based upon the criteria you expressed. Certainly on a pure amazing factor, the Sub does not compare to a VC Patrimony Chrono Perpetual, but that is a 6 figure watch and who do you know who will ever own one?

Yep, all things considered, I'll take the Sub, hands down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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SHARKMAN

Wow I think I'll sit on the fence for a while on this one.
I really am not knowledgable enough to comment outside the few Brands I know but I would be edging towards Sooner and SharkMans choice.

The sub.

Neary every one knows it, watch fan or not, but definitely every one knows Rolex. 60 year history, first watch to be 100m wr. The original true diver watch that has become the true luxery watch.

I have reached a point in my life that I have bough two new Subs and if I had any sence that would do me for the rest of my days but wheres the fun it that!

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Breanach78

A Few Breitlings.

This is a tough one. I can think of four ways to go off the top of my head, and I'm sticking with what I know.

My AP Royal Oak Jumbo is truly something special, and it had better be as I am really grumpy about how its chunk of the watch budget limits my ability to own much else. I like variety. But the AP is unique in that I appreciate it more over my short ownership than when I bought it. Instead of buyer remorse or familiarity, there is buyer discovery. It's an amazing piece.

My first nice watch was a Rolex GMT, which I would rank instantly over a Sub. I don't dive, but I do travel, and the GMT has that covered. For just over $100, you can change the bezel, and the look of your watch within minutes. Yes, the hollow links sucked, the solid ends weren't that much better, but I only understood the difference after wearing a lot of higher-end pieces. If you're coming up from, say, a Seiko, you don't notice. My GMT was also the product of a final conversation with my mother before she passed, and on the personal side of things that takes it. But I'm looking a little larger in criteria here.

I am privileged to say that I have owned a Breguet. As much as I enjoy my AP, Breguet is different to me. It is a testament to history, innovation and craftsmanship that dates back to its namesake, considered probably the most important of all the watchmakers. My XXI was an inexpensive model for Breguet, which makes it special in and of itself. A rather pedestrian piece for them, it still provided joy of the tactile feel of winding a watch that I have never experienced anywhere else. Not AP, not JLC, not Rolex, not VC, I think the Blancpain I tried on was pretty good, but simply winding the thing was a guilty pleasure and an ode to those who truly care. While apropos of nothing, I know of no rap song singing the praises of a Breguet and I doubt I will. Even AP is subject to that now. Breguet is in a different place. I was never more self-conscious about what I wore, protecting it like it was a museum piece. And mine cost more than a Rolex but not much more, and much less than my AP. If that dial wasn't brown and I wasn't so self-conscious about it I'd have never let it go.

I just celebrated my 24th wedding anniversary. In year two, we had bought our first home and were pinching pennies like crazy. I had a dying quartz Casio watch and saw in the window a nice Seiko quartz with a Rolex Thunderbird-type bezel. I wanted it, but it cost $125. For all that we had put into the house it was a lot of money. My wife found a way to do it anyway, giving me the best Christmas gift she ever gave me. I don't wear it much now but I have it, and it runs as faultlessly as ever. Important personally but as a methaphor as well, because I was absolutely not alone. Talk about sacrilege with the Sub, but here we really go: The Seiko quartz brought accuracy in timekeeping to the masses, and has done so for decades. For watch lovers, the Sub/GMT may be the greatest watch but on a larger scale, probably the most important watch in modern times is the Seiko quartz. Nevermind that it also nearly killed most of the swiss watch industry.


So which one? Head says Breguet--I'm a watch nut, and it still holds a place in that part of my brain which it won't let go. My tastes are now clearly more for my AP, but again, to me any Breguet is more than the piece of metal. Heart says GMT with the Seiko not far behind. Funny, because by far the most comfortable watch I have owned, with perfect balance for me, was another Rolex, my Yachtmaster. Head and heart together actually lean to the Seiko. Nah, greatest one now is my AP but greatest one ever is the GMT.

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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

Correct. A Sub does not amaze. The emotion it elicits is more subtle than that.

Apologies for taking so long to add to my initial response (and preventing Tomcat from responding in the meantime also).

My choice stems from a keen interest in history and the actual Antikythera Mechanism. More information on this can be found on various websites but essentially a 2,000 year old mechanical device was found off the coast of a Greek Island (unsurprisingly the island is call Antikythera). From its discovery in 1900 it took more than 100 years to actually work out what this thing was and did. To do this required all sorts of advanced photography techniques and painstaking examination of each of the 82 pieces discovered.

The machine was actually used to predict the position of the sun, moon and 5 planets the Greeks had discovered with amazing accuracy (it also included adjustments for leap years!). It is the earliest know example of a machine that used clockwork gears (the front runner of all mechanical clocks!) and earliest analogue computer.

Now onto the watch…a couple of pictures can be found below

http://www.gizmag.com/hublot-antikyther ... re/147836/

http://www.gizmag.com/hublot-antikyther ... re/147844/

Hublot decided to recreate the mechanism in miniature (i.e watch size) and to include the time (and a tourbillion). It is amazingly complex (making the original even more impressive) containing the following features –

Time (hours, minutes, seconds)
Flying tourbillion
Manual winding
Egyptian calendar
Calendar for Panhellenic games
Zodiac
Aperture showing moon
Lunar phases
Aperture showing sun
Metonic cycle
Saros cycle
Callippic cycle
Exeligmos cycle

What more could you want?

The only problem for me I wish it was recreated in bronze like the original.

I believe only 4 were made so it’s unlikely you’ll ever get to have one but it is an awesome piece of horology linked to an amazing piece of history.

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One or two follow up points on Gre3nday's input:

Jean-Claude Biver gave these comments when asked on why Hublot made such a watch:

"We designed the Antikythera Calibre in Homage of the Ancient Greeks. The past must be respected. This is why we will only be manufacturing four watches using this mechanism".

The first was presented in Basel 2012 and it will be sold at an auction in support of the Archaeological Museum of Athens.

The second will be exhibited alongside the fragments of the original Antikythera Mechanism in the above mentioned museum.

The third will remain at Nyon HQ, paying tribute to the engineering of the watchmakers who developed it.

The fourth will be displayed at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.

The Hublot piece is far from being as complex as the original mechanism, of course, but it was meant only as a tribute to the original mechanism, of which more data with pics, videos, FAQ etc. can be found at: http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/.

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- This is Ghost Rider requesting a fly-by. - Negative Ghost Rider. The pattern is full.