Breitling looks to be emphasizing its history in 2015, with a number of watches that highlight the brand’s heritage in tool watches and precision timing devices. Sometimes that means revamping or reissuing classic models – one of which we’ve recently discussedhere. But it can also mean introducing a new line that harks back to vintage design elements and a classic functionality. In that vein, Breitling gives us a new collection: the Breitling Chronoliner.
The Breitling Chronoliner is intended as a pilots’ watch, but maybe not how you’d think of that category most often. Whereas pilots’ watches today are usually designed to emphasize the more technical aspects of aviation, Breitling links the Chronoliner to the golden age of flight and the expansion of commercial air travel in the middle of the 20th century. In a statement, the brand dubs it “the authentic flight captain’s watch.” Breitling also says the watch was inspired by models of the 1950s and ’60s: although its dial is somewhat quieter, it does bear a resemblance to certain Navitimer Cosmonaute models.
The Chronoliner is a GMT chronograph. It has a center-mounted 24-hour hand that tapers very subtly towards its red arrow-shaped tip. A third time zone can be read off the 24-hour bezel in black ceramic, which is resistant to scratching. The bezel rotates in two directions and is easy to grip. A 30-minute totalizer is at 12 o’clock and a 12-hour totalizer sits at 6 o’clock; running seconds are at 9 o’clock. All three of these subdials have an off-white backing (making them stand out from the white, luminous hands and hour indexes) and bank slightly at the flange. The date, in white-on-black, is at 3 o’clock.
At the heart of the Chronoliner is Breitling’s Caliber 24. As you might guess from the subdial layout, Caliber 24 uses the ETA Valjoux 7750 as its base movement. It beats at 28,800 vph and has 25 jewels. Like all Breitling movements, it is COSC-certified. Caliber 24 may already be familiar to Breitling regulars: it also crops up in the Navitimer World.
You won’t get a look at the movement through the case, though. The Chronoliner has a solid caseback, bearing a stylized image of two airplanes. The case is made of stainless steel with a diameter of 46 mm. The curved sapphire crystal glass has nonreflective coating on both sides. The watch is water-resistant to 100 meters.
The watch comes on one of two different Breitling bracelets: either the seven-link Navitimer bracelet or the steel mesh Ocean Classic, as seen here. Look for the Chronoliner later this year. Pricing is available upon request.
A. Lange & Söhne Allemagne marque le 200e anniversaire de la naissance de son fondateur, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, en grand style avec le récemment annoncé 1815 Tourbillon Handwerkskunst, une édition limitée qui dispose d'une première technologique pour la marque et de sport cadran à couper le souffle et les décorations de mouvement .Voici ce que vous devez savoir.
Le A. Lange & Söhne 1815 enjeux Tourbillon Handwerkskunst sa prétention à l'histoire horlogère comme la première montre Lange qui combine deux des mécanismes brevetés de la marque: une fonction de remise à zéro (introduite dans une montre en 1997) et un dispositif stop seconde pour la tourbillon (qui a fait ses débuts dans un modèle 2008).Cette combinaison de fonctions, Lange dit, permet à l'utilisateur d'arrêter et régler la montre avec une précision à la seconde près.
Tout aussi impressionnant que l'exploit technique réalisé par ce garde -temps - limitée à seulement 30 pièces, chacune dans un 39,5 mm en or rose - est le tableau de finitions utilisées sur lesdeux éléments intérieurs et extérieurs.(Handwerkskunstcadran est allemand pour "artisanship.") Le black-rhodié rose-or est décorée avectremblagegravure, dans laquelle le graveur sculpte la matière avec un burin de revêtement spécialement conçu pour créer son look accrocheur àgrain fin.Les éléments en relief de la ligne, y compris le logo A. Lange & Söhne et les chiffres des heures arabes, sont ensuite polies à un brillant miroir desorte queleur couleur dorée naturelle se distingue en contraste avec le gris foncé du cadran.La grande ouverture ronde à 6 heures montre le tourbillon d'une minute, dont lepont et lesparties de lacage supérieure se vanter, un finissage noir poli temps complexe.L'heure et desminutes sont en or rose, tandis que la petite aiguille dessecondes, qui plane sur l'ouverture de tourbillon, est en acier bleui.
Comme ilest typique de Lange, lafabricationmouvement à remontage manuel Calibre L102.1, est ornée de nombreuses finitions, et leséléments de l'horlogerie traditionnelle saxonne décoratifs appliqués à lamain.La platine trois-quarts est élégamment incurvée et doté de découpes généreuses qui permettent le tourbillon d'être vu des deux côtés du mouvement et permet également desvues sur le canon de ressort et leséléments du train de roue.Fait de l'argent allemand, cette platine a une surface grainée rappelle celle sur le cadran.
TAG Heuer is one of the world’s leading luxury watch brands, offering a strong history of innovation, deep connections with sports timing and automobile racing, and more recently, a series of groundbreaking developments in the field of ultra-fast mechanical chronographs, an innovativetourbillon watchpriced under $20,000, and the launch of aluxury smartwatch. Here are 10 things you should know about TAG Heuer.
Sporting Roots
Heuer Watch Company was founded in 1860 by Edouard Heuer. His first watchmaking workshop was located in St-Imier, in the Swiss Jura region. The company soon built a reputation for quality workmanship and precision timekeeping. That, coupled with a series of technical innovations dating to the 1880s, led the company to become a specialist in the field of timing sporting events. During the 1920s, Heuer watches were used at the Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam Olympics. In 1933, the brand launched the Autavia, the first dashboard stopwatch for race cars. Other more famous developments receive individual attention below. The affinity with precision timekeeping in sports, and with automobile racing in particular, continues to this day.
In 1985, Heuer was acquired by TAG Group (Holdings) S.A. TAG is an abbreviation for Techniques d’Avant Garde. TAG Group combined the TAG and Heuer brands to create the TAG Heuer company we know today. LVMH purchased the TAG Heuer subsidiary in 1999.
Left, founder Edouard Heuer. Right, the Autavia dashboard stopwatch for race cars.
Simplifying the Chronograph
Back in the days when good engineering trumped marketing concerns, movement designers sought to develop calibers with fewer moving parts, to make them more reliable and easier to service. In 1887, Edouard Heuer developed and patented the oscillating pinion, which simplified the chronograph. This construction is still used by major movement manufacturers today.
In a nutshell, the pinion couples and decouples the chronograph, or stopwatch, mechanism and the regular timekeeping gear train that powers it. The pinion replaced a more complex system, simplifying manufacturing, assembly, adjustment, and service, all while delivering excellent timekeeping and reliability. This development allowed more mechanical chronographs to be produced at a lower cost, which sounds like a win all the way around.
Left, a drawing from the oscillating pinion patent, and an actual pinion pictured in front of a movement in a holder.
Faster and Faster
Another major technical achievement came in 1916, when Charles-Auguste Heuer launched the original Mikrograph. It was the first mechanical stopwatch able to measure 1/100th of a second. To accomplish this, the movement’s rate was 360,000 vph – ten times faster than the 36,000 vph chronographs that we usually think of as “fast.” The original Mikrograph revolutionized sports timekeeping and served as the official stopwatch for the 1920 Olympics.
The original Heuer Mikrograph stopwatch, which went into production in 1916.
First Swiss Watch in Space
When you think of mechanical watches in space, you think of, well, not TAG Heuer. But you should, because as it turns out, Heuer was the first Swiss watch in space.
In May, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the decade. The first step toward that goal was to put a man into orbit. That man was John Glenn, flying the Mercury “Friendship 7” mission on February 20, 1962. Glenn orbited the Earth three times wearing a Heuer 2915A stopwatch on his wrist, on top of his spacesuit, held in place by a custom-made elastic strap. The watch served as the mission back-up timer, and it was used in space. Today, the watch is kept at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Astronaut John Glenn enters the Friendship 7 capsule wearing a Heuer stopwatch on his wrist.
A closer look at the Heuer 2915A, the first Swiss watch in space.
The Carrera
TAG Heuer’s most iconic models are associated with automobile racing, and one of the most famous is the Carrera. Jack Heuer suggested the name shortly after taking control of the company from his uncle (more on this below). The name comes from the Carrera Panamericana, a dangerous race run on public roads in Mexico from 1950 to 1954.
Jack Heuer wanted to create a watch for race car drivers. It had to be perfectly legible and tough enough to withstand the vibrations drivers experience during a race. The result is a watch that has achieved cult status.
An original Heuer Carrera, named after the Carrera Panamericana automobile race in Mexico.
There was a time when I didn’t own even a single timepiece. Then came the time when, looking from the middle-age plane, I didn’t own a watch that’s worth mentioning. I’m thankful those phases are over; yet, without those phases, I wouldn’t have become the WG as you know me today. I learnt from my past mistakes and unlike the former times, even if I have the budget, those realisations do not allow me to invest my money into something that would hold no true meaning to me in the days ahead. I guess it applies to all who have wasted their resources in the past upon things of little to no value and turned them into discerning buyers. It takes something pretty spectacular to make us buy something.
I can already hear the question coming – “What do you consider as spectacular?” But instead of defining that very word, let me explain with examples. Let’s take the Seiko Premier. The series starts with the plain Kinetic and ends with the Kinetic Spring Direct Drive. It’s a vast arena where your selection can go horribly misguided, especially if you haven’t stepped out of the battery-powered quartz domain yet. Fear not, for picking out something that’s charmingly appropriate is easier than you think. You can get some pretty amazing stuff from the Premier range without diving for the Grand Seiko and Ananta. The Premier, with all the hyperbole removed, brings some of the best watches for which, you don’t need to break the bank (or rob your boss); attracts a lot of wowsand people who really know how to spot a good timepiece shall definitely give you an affirming nod, if not the really loud applauses. The reason behind? Firstly, it’s a Seiko; next, they invented the mecha-quartz concept. Is that spectacular enough? You bet it is. Whether you were entirely into the usual quartz watches or mechanicals, the Kinetic makes you step into the right direction to start your new journey into the horological domain.
However, things start to get tough defining the term to them who are averse to quartz in its every form. Here, mechanical stays the only choice – but wait – what do we call spectacular in the mechanical domain – a manually-winded watch or an automatic?
IMHO, the beauty of manually-winding watches is perceived only by the blessed lot who doesn’t flee when it comes to face commitments. It becomes a fitting metaphor; whereas for an automatic, the first criterion of being spectacular is an in-house movement. In the affordable domain, nothing – and just nothing – beats Orient in this regard and though both the types (manual and automatic) have their own merits, a manual winding watch actually makes you take the interaction higher. That’s how I would like to define ‘Spectacular’!
