Lume shot

This time it is the Maratac Pilot Automatic watch. The watch utilise the SuperLuminova C3 luminous material and it is bright and long lasting. Just awesome. Even the small seconds hand is bright and last a long time. I like it when the Arabic hour markers are also luminous.

Panerai Book On-line

Well, not the complete book but an extract from the book by Mario Paci. To those who do not know, Mario Paci was a Quality Assurance Manager with Officine Panerai (up to 1997). He currently collects Pre-V Panerai. 

The book, is part of a limited edition (1,500 copies) 2 volume set Panerai books written in English and Italian. The set consist of 'Panerai Watches from 1936 to 1997' by Mario Paci and 'Panerai in Florence: 150 Years of history' by Dino Zei. 

Anyway, here is an opportunity to view about 30 pages from the book. There are some interesting models shown in the extract. 

Photograph: Amazon

Panerai watches from 1936 to 1997

Christopher Ward C70 DBR1 COSC

Good news from Christopher Ward. They have upgraded the very popular C70 DBR1 with an upgraded ETA movement in the ETA 251.232. The ‘new’ watch will be known as the C70 DBR1 COSC. You can read about the original C70 DBR1 here:

C70 DBR 1

The C70 DBR1 COSC, with its new movement is accurate to within one second a month and has been certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC). It is available in a limited edition run of only 200 pieces.

A bit about the new upgraded ETA 251.232 quartz movement. The new movement spots an additional 4th chronograph hand that is centrally mounted and it measures minutes. This configuration then allows the chronograph eyes to measure hours, minutes and tenths of seconds.

This watch will launch in October 2011 at a price of just £575 replacing the original C70 DBR1, which sold out in record time. I suspect this version will also be a run away success.

The watch.

Photograph: Christopher Ward

Mute Watch

This is an interesting concept. A watch called Mute Watch. First a bit about the company behind Mute Watch.

Mutewatch is a Swedish company based in Stockholm. Their goal is to develop products that give people the tools they need to manage their time in a sustainable way. 

So what is so interesting about the watch? Well for a start, the watch looks like a gray (or red or white) rubber strap. But tap it and the strap illuminates to display the time. It is a touch screen watch. How cool is that?

Everything you need to do is done by tapping, gesturing or flicking, much like that popular phone from the fruit company. Have a look at the video (on the website link below) to see how the watch works.

So all these do not answer the question, why call it Mute Watch. Well, the watch has a built in vibrator, which allows you to set the alarm to vibrate at a preset time. But the wow factor doesn’t stop there. It sports a motion sensor, and when coupled with the silent alarm, increases the level of vibration in accordance with your movement. The more you move, the more the watch will vibrate.

The Mute watch is available in red, white and gray for USD375.

Read about the watch here:

Mute Watch

The watch.

Photographs: Mute Watch

Selamat Hari Raya

Wishing all friends and family a 'Selamat Hari Raya'. Have a safe trip back home.

Tag Heuer Popular Diving Spot Limited Edition 2011 Watch

Tag Heuer in Japan has released the 2011 Limited Edition watch in their Diving Spot Collection. As usual, there will be a Gent and Ladies model. As with last year, the Aquaracer has been selected for the series. This time, the popular diving spot chosen is the Hayman Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

The Gents model: WAP201Y.BA0830

Basic specifications:

Functions: hours, minutes, seconds and date

Case: stainless steel, 41 mm diameter, 11 mm thick

Movement: Caliber 5 automatic movement

Crystal: sapphire

Water resistant: 30 ATM

Limited Edition: 800 pieces

Price: USD 3,150

The Ladies Model: WAF141Y.BA0823

Basic specifications:

Functions: hours, minutes, seconds and date

Case: stainless steel, 27 mm diameter, 9 mm thick

Movement: quartz movement

Crystal: sapphire

Water resistant: 30 ATM

Limited Edition: 400 pieces

Price: USD 2,500

Both watches will feature a blue dial (with horizontal lines) and graced by a silhouette of heart shape Hayman Island at the 6 o'clock position, the legend ‘Hayman, Great Barrier Reef’ and as with the rest of the collection, the case back will be engraved with a map of the Hayman Island and serialized with the limited edition run.

Photographs: Tag Heuer

Lume Shot 2254

This is the lume shot of the Omega 2254. I like this watch as it is as close as I can get to the vintage SM300 with the huge triangle at the 12 o'clock position. The photographs were shot with the X-100 (hand held). I have to say that Macro might not be one of the X-100 strong point. 

Anyway, the Omega 2254 lume shot. The watch is slim and very comfortable to wear. 

Not total darkness. 

In total darkness. The lume is just awesome and it last a long time. 

Casio USA Sweepstake

Once again Casio USA is a having a sweepstakes. This time, you stand a chance to win a watch from Casio's Edifice collection. Once again the sweepstakes is open to US citizen and the sweepstakes will start at 0000 hours EST 23 August 2011 and ends at 2359 hours EST 30 August 2011. All you have to do is to sign up on Casio Facebook page.

Photograph: Casio

Panerai Exhibition (US Specific)

Panerai will be exhibiting for the first time ever the 2011 Collection in the US. The exhibition will be held in the NY and Beverly Hills Boutique. The exhibition will be open to the public.

Time and date as follows: 

Officine Panerai New York City

545 Madison Avenue (at 55th Street), New York City

6 – 8 September

1000 – 1800 hours daily

Officine Panerai Beverly Hills

9490A Brighton Way, Beverly Hills

14 and 15 September

1000 – 1730 hours daily 

Tutima Field Chronograph

I thought I post some pictures of my (ex) Tutima Field Chronograph, reference 768-01. Like I said in an earlier post, I am not sure if the model name is correct for the watch. 

Anyway here are some pictures (for reference).

The watch is powered by an ETA 251.262 quartz movement.

The reference 768-01.

The chronograph buttons and the screw down crown.

The case has a brushed finish. The bezel has a polished finish.

The case back. minimal markings. Brushed finish in the center but polished around it (look at the other photograph).

No, those are not fixed bars but screw bars.

The other side.

A closer view of the crown. The finishing of the bezel is not that great.

The dial with the orange chronograph hands. The sub-dial at the 6 o'clock shows the seconds.

It has a central minute chronograph hand. 

The movement, signed Tutima.

It is a 27 jewel movement.

The ETA signature and movement reference.

Inside the case back. Unsigned.

The lume shot (apologies for the poor quality).

And there you have, the Tutima Field Chronograph. 

Swiss Ammo Strap

This is my first Swiss Ammo strap and I am sure it won't be my last. I got it from my usual place, yes, WotanCraft. I like their products and the people there are just great. 

The strap has a vintage dirty look but I like it. It is very soft and I think it matches the watch well. I will write more about the strap in a review later. 

I have to say that going to WotanCraft is indeed an experience. The bad thing is that the guys there are not just into watches but into photography as well. Photography has been one of my interest but have never really developed it. After going there (WotanCraft) an number of times, and each time I get to play with the Leica M9, I guess I want to develop and perhaps pursue and develop photography as another hobby. 

The guys there are very into 'street photography' and I am learning much from them. So bad was the 'poison' that I picked up a camera that is 'suited' for street photography. No, I did not get a Leica, but got something a lot cheaper. You see in the photograph above. Yes, I got the Fuji X-100. 

The same watch taken with the X-100.

Alex by Christopher Ward

Congratulations to Christopher Ward on the launch of their new collection. The new collection, called Alex is designed for women. It is indeed unique in design and is very British.

The watches in the collection have the pyramid stud motif, iconic to the punk era. The model reference N22 is also the postcode for Alexandra Palace in London where bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees played.

The watches are rendered in anthracite, black, gold and even polished (hand polished at that) steel complimenting the myriad collection of bracelets.

There is still not much information on the watches in terms of specifications, size etc, but I will bring updates as I receive them.

The watches will be available soon, so keep an eye open at:

Alex by Christopher Ward

The watches (a selection).

Photographs: Christopher Ward

Breitling Aerospace Lume shot

This time it is the Breitling Aerospace turn for lume shot. This is one watch I like. Here is the lume shot. I like the Italic font used on the Arabic hour markers. The hands may be thin but the lume is good. It is brighter than the dial. 

A small tribute to my Oris BC3

Well not really a tribute but more of some shots of the Oris BC3 movement before it went High Mech with the red rotor. The BC 3 is from the time Oris was reintroducing the brand into the market. 

The case back. It has a display back where you can admire the Oris 635 automatic movement. The inside of the case back looks like a compressor case back with the crinkle washer. 

A closer view of the crinkle washer. The function of the washer is to hold the metal movement holder/ spacer in place. 

The Oris 635 automatic movement. You can see the metal movement spacer around the movement. 

A closer view of the movement. The basic specifications:

Oris 635, base ETA 2836-2

Size: 11 1/2 ligne

Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, day and date, hacking, day and date quickset

Winding: automatic, bi-directional

Power reserve: 38 hours

Jewels: 25

Vibrations: 28,800 A/h

I have always like the Oris. It will be missed.

More lume shots

This time it is the turn of the IWC. 

This is the IWC Mk XV Spitfire Limited Edition from 2001/ 2002. I like the Cathedral hands and the fact that the sweep seconds hand has luminous material at the tip. Also like the luminous Arabic hour marker. It is very different from the standard Mk XV. 

The standard Mk XV. Only the hour and minute hands are luminous. As for the dial, only the 12, 3, 6 and 9 hour markers are luminous. The 12 o'clock position is marked by the luminous triangle, a standard feature in most pilot watches.

Stage 1 completed

Well I have 'completed' stage 1 in rationalising my collection. Basically 20 watches went out and 1 come in. Of the 20, 14 were Swiss, German or Japanese made watches while 6 were Casio G-Shocks. One additional G-Shock went out today to a good friend as a gift. So the total watches out is 21 pieces.

The decision on which watches were to be 'cut' was rather simple in some and not as simple in others. The simple ones were the Bell & Ross watches. I have 2, BR01-92 (which I traded earlier with a number of G-Shocks) and a BR03-92 Military (Limited Production watch). These were simple because of the terrible experience I had when I sent the watch (BR01-92) in for a service. Imagine I had to proof that I did not scratch the dial before I sent it in. Bell & Ross stand on this was it was not us, so you have to proof it was not you. As luck would have it, I had photographs of the watch before I sent it in. Best of all, it took them 4 months to resolve the issue as the representative here was busy with Basel 2011. Enough said, it left a bitter after taste. This from one of my favourite brands. 

The Casio G-Shocks went to a friend who is also a collector. Am I leaving Casio all together? No, not really. More of focusing on the DW-5600 range and more on the vintage G-Shocks, like the DW-5200 and DW-5600. So the rest will go as well in stage 2. 

The difficult one was the Stowa Airman No LOGO COSC, the LACO, the Glycine Black Jack and the Revue Thommen Airspeed Chronograph. More so the Revue Thommen as it has the Lemania 5100 chronograph movement, countdown bezel and is one of the smallest 5100 powered watch available. However, the adage 'What you don't wear, goes' comes into the picture. I have to be truthful and I have not used the Stowa since I got it, same with the LACO and even the Revue Thommen and even the Glycine. So I figure, I may not be bonding with the watches. Anyway I have the Tutima Chronograph with the Lemania 5100 movement. So the watches must go off to a better home. 

The rest of the watches consisted of Seiko, Citizen, Oris, Traser, Benrus and others. 

So what is next? Well stage 2, where I will start to rationalise my military collection. I may even sell all of them and leave the military collection completely. We will have to see how things goes from today till September 1st. 

Some of the watches sold.