2012 March | winderz

Archive for March, 2012:

Armin Strom Manual New Generation – Earth

Published by paul in Armin Strom on March 31st, 2012 | No Comments »

Tonight is ‘Earth Hour’.

An hour a year when we turn off all the lights, burn a shed-load of carbon producing candles and then turn all the lights back on again.

All for a good cause, naturally :-)

It seems fitting therefore, to show you the Armin Strom: Earth watch.

Part of a collection featuring all the elements (Earth, Water, Air and Fire of course), this is a 43.5mm piece in stainless steel with black PVD.

It has an AR-coated sapphire crystal, a sapphire display back and water resistance to 50 meters.

Movement is the hand-wind Armin Strom in-house AMW11. This has a meaty 112 parts and 20 jewels. It beats at 18,000 vph and holds a power reserve of 5 days.

You get 2 interchangeable straps: one in black Hornback alligator and one in black rubber.

Each element style is limited to 100 pieces.

Tags: Armin, Earth, Generation, Manual, New, Strom

Seculus Royal Marine

Published by paul in Seculus on March 29th, 2012 | No Comments »

You may have heard the expression ‘less is more’? Steve Jobs was probably the prototypical example of that.

Seculus must have missed that particular memo though – as evidenced here by their ‘Royal Marine’ model.

A 48mm piece, in stainless steel, it has a sapphire crystal and water resistance to 200 meters.

Movement is the automatic ETA caliber 2824-2. This has 25 jewels, beats at 28,800 vph and holds a power reserve of 38 hours.

Just my humble opinion, but I think they might have been better off ‘taking away’ here rather than adding and adding, which is what this design looks like they’ve ended up doing.

What do you think? Did we really need the license plate on this one? :-)

Tags: Marine, Royal, Seculus

Roamer Vanguard

Published by paul in Roamer on March 29th, 2012 | No Comments »

I think if I ever decide to change my name to something a bit cooler I might choose ‘Roamer Vanguard’.

‘Hello, what’s your name?’

‘ROAMER VANGUARD!’ :-)

Err, sorry, got a bit carried away there.

Roamer Vanguard, the watch, is a 42mm piece in either stainless steel or steel and rose gold PVD. It has a sapphire crystal and water resistance to 30 meters.

Movement is the quartz ISA caliber 8176.

ROAMER VANGUARD! Woot!

*off to lie down*

Tags: 2012, baselworld, Roamer, Vanguard

Breitling Transocean QP Perpetual Calendar

Published by paul in Breitling on March 28th, 2012 | No Comments »

I’m not suggesting this is a ‘sleeper’ piece, but it’s certainly true that it’s both reasonably sized – 43mm – and packed with clever complications.

Have a good look at the dial (or just the name of the watch ;-) ) and you’ll see evidence of such: date, day, week, month, season and moon phases. Oh, and it handles leap years happily too.

The movement behind this is the Breitling caliber 29. This has 38 jewels, 28,800 vph and a power reserve of 42 hours.

There’ll only be 50 of these made – 25 in a silver dial, 25 in black.

The case is in 18kt rose gold. There’s an AR-coated sapphire crystal and water resistance to 50 meters.

Very nice indeed :-)

Tags: breitling, calendar, perpetual, QP, Transocean

Revue Thommen Classical 82 Round

Published by paul in Revue Thommen on March 28th, 2012 | No Comments »

Is that a lucky horseshoe I can spy on the dial there?

A petite helping of luck perhaps, as this Revue Thommen piece certainly comes in a classical size – 36mm.

It’s available in stainless steel or 18kt rose gold and has double sapphire crystals.

Water resistance to 30 meters.

Inside is the manual-wind caliber GT82 movement, with 17 jewels and a power reserve of 40 hours.

Tags: 82, Classical, Revue, Round, Thommen

Manufacture Rodolphe Cattin (MRC) Witness One

Published by paul in Manufacture Rodolphe Cattin (MRC) on March 27th, 2012 | No Comments »

Apologies for the extreme close-up, but all the better to see this beauty in more detail :-)

Looks fantastic, don’t you think: check out the lugs and the crown. Luverly!

It’s a 45mm piece in stainless steel, 18kt white or rose gold.

There’s an AR-coated sapphire crystal, a sapphire display back and water resistance to 30 meters.

Inside you’ll find a hand-wound calibre MRC800 movement – replete with tourbillon. This has 19 jewels, beats at 21,600 vph and carries a 72 hour power reserve. The dial features polished and blued hands. There’s a seconds hand on the tourbillon at the 6 o’clock position.

The strap is black alligator with folding clasp in the same metal as the case.

Tags: Cattin, manufacture, MRC, One, Rodolphe, Witness

U-Boat U-42 GMT

Published by paul in U-Boat on March 26th, 2012 | No Comments »

Speaking of big watches, the Masters of Massive – U-Boat – have an updated U-42 GMT limited edition.

In 300 pieces, this 53mm model comes in titanium, which should at least keep the weight down.

It has a sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 300 meters.

The dial and hands are brass, which is interesting. I wonder if hidden away behind the glass they’ll still be affected by the usual pattination? Wouldn’t the inside have to be inert for them not to?

Might make for some unique personalisation of each piece over time.

The movement is based on an ETA unit and has been modified by U-BOAT. It features a GMT complication.

The strap is brown leather and fitted with a titanium tongue buckle.

Tags: GMT, U-Boat, U42