The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Spent a few days in LV over the past week and had the opportunity to hit a few watch sources - some comments:
IWC at Encore - nice new boutique, friendly, helpful staff. Sent me away with their "book" which is pretty interesting reading and has, of course, all their offerings. Favorite was the Spitfire chrono:
http://www.iwc.com/en/collection/pilots/IW3878/
the grey face and the detail are really nice. What do others think? Next door is JLC (and next door to that, Piaget, all Richemont brands)
The JLC people were also proud to show off their new boutique and let me try on anything I was interested in; I declined to try on the $250K (something like that) toubillion, etc., trying to stay within my means. I am really interested in either the Navy Seals:
http://www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/US/en/luxury-watches/product/master-compressor-diving-automatic-navy-seals/ref/2018470.html. The Navy Seals is deceptively light - it is Ti. I liked the fit and finish and surprisingly the coated bracelet.
or the Extreme:
http://www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/US/en/luxury-watches/product/master-compressor-extreme-world-chronograph/ref/1768470.html Beautiful piece, I don't know how I will not make this my next one, although a little pricey for me.
Finishing on the JLCs is beautiful, they are all in-house, and produced in relatively small quantities.
One thing noted at the JLC and IWC boutiques - every watch had the correct time and date. Not so in the others.
I also ventured to the Breitling boutique at Caesar's: My only interest was with the Navi's, and i tried on a couple. Helpful people, the boutique was not to the level of the JLC or IWC environments. Didn't see anything new that I was enthused enough to try on, just the Navis, which I wanted to try to see how they wore relative to my Evo - much smaller and lighter, and i may need one of them.
Took a walk through Tourneau just to see all the other brands - with their rep I have never considered buying anything from them! There is a lot to look at; had a chat with the VC salesperson- asked how the biz was, he said pretty good, mostly due to Chinese buyers, who pay full price. Americans were looking for discounts, not the Chinese. Interesting.
I also made a trek through the big watch store at Palazzo, looked at Brueget, VC, Cartier, Blancpain, etc. Nice place.
LV is a great place to look at watches, and it cost far less than my table time.

Hi sracer,

Nice comments on the LV week. Well thought out analysis of the scene there for us readers out here.

The Spitfire is a wonderful looking piece of kit. I have a friend who has one. I am always astounded by the quality of IWC products. I am sure in the flesh you would have been very tempted.

The Seals are very PloPRof and I am not sure if I would give them a second look. Sorry, but thats my personal taste kicking in. They are only centre second. Nice as they seem, I would opt for an Omega Sea Master (any model in the Divers series). Well, that is if I could afford one……….. If you were looking at these did you do a comparison with the Breitling SuperOcean? Perhaps you did. If you were looking at Navi’s on your tour, then could I ask you this; Were you really tempted by the Diver style watches? As a lover of Navi’s myself I have a hard time getting close up to Divers watches, but maybe that’s just me.

The Le Coutre is OK. It’s like so many brands in this area of watch design IMHO. Although I have not seen one in the flesh, so really my comments are kind of premature/immature. Perpahs the Tech Spec would blow some away into the must have category. The crown detail is different though, but I wonder how many will complain of digging into the wrists!

On the Navi side, I hope you saw the entire range and by the sounds of it, some temptation is about to occur in your watch collection. Give in to the urge, get the Navitimer.

Regards

Jim

_________________
Jim

"You have Control".

Jim:
This was a shopping trip; buying comes in a couple months as that is when funding will be available! Yes, the Spitfire was probably the most tempting in the flesh, the dial detail is gorgeous.
JLCs are more than OK, to me. I got interested in them when I decided next purchase would be a "dress" watch, and JLC has great ones, then considered how infrequently I really wear a suit, and others wearing all types of watches with anything, and thought that I could wear a diver or whatever anytime. (see Bill Clinton wearing a Navy Seals with a suit, for instance) The size of the seals works for me, not sure that the 46mm Extreme isn't "extreme" on my puny wrist; my Evo at 43.7 is fine.
Then there are the Navis which work fine with a suit.
Maybe there is only one solution: buy all three - JLC, IWC, Navi!
thanks for the comments

If you need anyone to help you on that shopping trip, keep me in mind. LOL

Three watches in one go, brilliant solution. I woudld love to be there to see that, and the friendly staff having heart pulpitations. Imagine the discounts you could get for buying three.

Jim

_________________
Jim

"You have Control".