Monthly Archives: May 2015

Fratello Tuesday: 7 Iconic Chronograph Watches

From my blog, Fratellowatches.com, I offer up my personal list of Seven Iconic Chronograph Watches. If you don’t count the date feature, the chronograph is probably the most popular complication for wristwatches, as well as one of the most useful: one can find many uses for a chrono during his or her everyday life, such as timing diner preparation or in other work- or sports-related activities.

What makes a timepiece iconic? In most cases, it has something to do with age and heritage, but more importantly, in my opinion, its design should be truly timeless. If you can easily identify a watch as having been around since the 1950s or 1960s and that watch can still be worn today without looking old — well, that’s the definition of timeless. Another important aspect of an icon is that it should be easily recognizable as a specific model and brand. Think of the Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet, the Santos by Cartier, or the Datejust by Rolex.

Most of these best quality swiss replica watches do not need introduction, but I’ll introduce them anyway. You’ll notice that I’ve selected the most up-to-date versions of these chronograph watches, i.e., the models you can buy today.

1. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore

The original Royal Oak goes back to 1972 and was designed by the legendary Gérald Genta. The Royal Oak Offshore collection was introduced 21 years later in 1993 and was meant to be a more rugged and up-to-date version of the regular Royal Oak to attract a younger and perhaps a new target customer. The themed models from the Royal Oak Offshore collection bear interesting names as ‘Safari’, ‘Navy’, ‘Vulcano’ and so on. Watch aficionados even nicknamed them ‘Panda’ and ‘Elephant’.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore

2. Zenith El Primero

From all the chronograph watches listed in this article, Zenith is perhaps the only one where the movement is even more famous than the watch itself. The El Primero chronograph movement has a long (1969) and interesting history that I will save for a later article. This Zenith El Primero 36,000 VPH has the looks of those very first models from 1969 but crafted and designed to meet all current standards. This 42mm model however, will always remind you of those early automatic chronograph models due to its case shape and dial.

Zenith El Primero chronograph

3. IWC Portuguese Chronograph

The brand from Schaffhausen has a long and rich history, especially with its Portuguese family of watches, and yet the Portuguese Chronograph is the youngest watch in this Top 5. A clean and classically designed watch that you will recognize instantly as an IWC, the Portuguese Chronograph has an ETA/Valjoux 7750 movement and a case diameter of 40.9 mm. And its design should be as contemporary 50 years from now as it is today.

IWC Portuguese Chronograph

4. TAG Heuer Carrera

In 1963, Jack Heuer introduced the World to the Carrera, a chronograph watch clearly inspired by sports cars and the world of auto racing.  Now, 50 years later, the TAG Heuer Carrera is recognized as a legitimate icon. Last year’s 41-mm Carrera model was introduced to celebrate the 80th birthday of its founder, Jack Heuer. Collectors prefer the many vintage Carrera models that can be found at auctions and stores selling pre-owned watches.

TAG Heuer Carrera Jack Heuer 80th Edition

5. Breitling Navitimer

The oldest chronograph on this list is the Breitling Navitimer, introduced in 1952. The original watch was meant for pilots and featured a slide-rule bezel. With the slide rule, pilots were able to calculate ground speed, miles per minute, fuel consumption and other mathematical calculations. The Navitimer family came in a lot of shapes and sizes during the years, but we prefer the classical-looking Navitimer piece that comes closest to the original model from the early 1950s. Did you know that astronaut Scott Carpenter wore a Navitimer when he orbited the Earth in 1962?

Breitling Navitimer

6. Rolex Daytona

One of the most sought-after watches worldwide is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Rolex introduced an all-platinum version this year, with an ice blue dial and a chestnut-colored bezel. However, Rolex refuses to call this watch a special or anniversary edition, it is – like all Rolex models – part of its ‘regular’ collection. The cult of the Rolex Daytona started in Italy – so the story goes – with a magazine featuring Paul Newman wearing his Daytona on the cover of a magazine. The Rolex Daytona – especially the oldest models – fetches very high prices at auctions and has its own subculture among watch collectors.

Rolex Daytona

7. Omega Speedmaster Professional

The so-called “Moonwatch” has not changed much over the years. Introduced in 1957 as a watch for racecar drivers, it became the choice for NASA astronauts in 1965. In fact, it played an important role during the return of the damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft in 1970. Precise timing was necessary for a safe return into the atmosphere. Couldn’t any other watch have done the job? Probably, but fact is that the Speedmaster was the only luxury fake watch for sale able to pass NASA’s rigorous testing in its search for a space-worthy chronograph watch. The Moonwatch today has the same basic design as those used by NASA in those days; only minor details have changed. It is the pre-Moon models that are most sought after by collectors.

Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch

5 World-Time Replica Watches Under $5,000

It’s no secret that many watch aficionados are also avid travelers. And what could be more useful for globetrotters than a watch that lets them keep track of time everywhere in the world at once? Many world-time watches will cost you as much as several overseas vacations, but we found a handful, all with mechanical movements, that you can get for $5,000 or less.

From Ball cheap repica Watches for sale, there’s the Ball Trainmaster Worldtime ($3,299 on both leather strap, pictured, or steel bracelet), which has a COSC-certified chronometer movement with automatic winding. Its stainless steel case is water-resistant to 50 meters and shock-resistant to 5,000 Gs. In addition to the primary world-timer functions (the city ring with 24 world cities and 24-hour ring), the watch’s dial has a day of-the-week display at 6 o’clock and 14 luminous micro-gas tubes — a Ball Watch hallmark — placed on the “12,” the hour indices, and the hour, minute and seconds hands, enabling easy reading of the current time in low lighting.

Ball Trainmaster World Time

 

Frédérique Constant is well-known to many watch aficionados as a purveyor of affordably priced Swiss mechanical discount fake watches online, many with in-house movements. Among them is the Frédérique Constant Manufacture Worldtimer ($4,095), which contains the brand’s in-house FC-718 automatic movement. The watch has an extra-large date counter subdial at 6 o’clock, along with its 24-hour ring with day-night indicator and 24-city time zone ring. All the functions can be set and operated through a single winding crown. The three-part steel case has a convex sapphire crystal and a sapphire exhibition caseback. Two dials are available, one with a guilloché pattern in the center and black oxidized hour and minute hands, and the other (pictured below) with a silvered world-map motif in the center and blued hands.

Frederique Constant Classics Manufacture Worldtimer

The Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Worldtimer ($4,900) is available with two different dials with world map motifs depicting two continents. The European dial features guilloché work with a Clous de Paris motif. The outlines of the silhouetted continent are in blue, matching the blued hands and hour-markers. The Asian version has a silvered dial, with a sun-brushed, satin finish on the engraved continent along with an opaline treatment on the oceans. Both versions have day/night indication on a subdial at 9 o’clock and the date on a subdial at 6 o’clock. The central 24-hour hand (rose gold on the European dial, black gold on the Asian) indicates the time in your home time zone using the 24-hour scale and city ring.  To change the current time on the main dial, simply press the push-button on the side of the case, which advances the 12-hour hand. For more on the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Worldtimer, click here.

Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Worldtimer - European with strap

Montblanc introduced a pair of new world-time watches in its TimeWalker collection, called Montblanc Timewalker World-Time Hemispheres, at SIHH 2013. Each of the watches has a dial with a world-map motif as seen from the poles — one for the northern hemisphere, one for the southern. The cool twist is that the Northern Hemisphere watch only has northern cities indicated on the world-time disk; the Southern Hemisphere only has southern cities (some of which, Montblanc admitted, were rather difficult to find, since much of the Southern Hemisphere is made up of ocean). The Montblanc Timewalker Northern Hemispheres watch (pictured) comes on a leather strap and costs $4,900; the Southern Hemisphere version, on a steel bracelet, comes in at an only slightly budget-busting $5,270.

Montblanc TimeWalker World Time Hemispheres - Northern Hemisphere

Even if your travel-watch budget is below $2,000, you can snare a very striking world-timer from Tissot. The Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th Anniversary ($1,650) — a modern re-issue of a watch originally created in the brand’s centennial year of 1953 — has a dial that indicates the time in each of the 24 major world time zones simultaneously, with each time zone represented by the capitol of a nation within that zone (i.e., “New York” for Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.). Once the watch is set for the time in the wearer’s chosen country, the times in the other 23 zones are easily readable as the world cities line up with the numerals on the 24-hour disk. The watch’s automatic movement is a Swiss-made chronometer certified by COSC. Click here for more details on the Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th anniversary.

Tissot Heritage Navigator 160th Anniversary - front-back

Patek Philippe Ref. 5980 Nautilus Chronograph

Recent years have seen one cheap replica watches aesthetic trend — blue dials — coming on strong in the watch world, and another — two-tone steel-and-gold looks — trickling back into vogue after a few years out of fashion. Both are in evidence in this week’s Watch to Watch, the new two-tone, chronograph version of Patek Philippe’s luxury sport watch, the Nautilus.

Patek Philippe introduced the first Nautilus, a recognized classic among sport watches along with the Rolex Daytona, Omega Seamaster, Heuer Carrera, and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, in 1976, and re-engineered it for modern tastes in 2007. Since then, Patek has released several versions of the Nautilus, with various complications (like last year’s version with an annual calendar) and in different materials.

Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph

This model, designated cheap watches replica uk Reference 5980/1AR-001, is the first in the revamped Nautilus family to combine stainless steel and rose gold, with gold used for the bezel, screw-down crown, and chronograph pushers. The bracelet has both steel and gold links and the fold-over clasp that is characteristic of the Nautilus. The case is 40.5 mm in diameter and water-resistant to 120 meters. Gold, treated with luminescent coating, is also used for the hour markers on the blue gradient dial. The dial has a date window at 3 o’clock and a chronograph subdial at 6 o’clock that tallies both minutes (up to 60) and hours (up to 12), while the central chronograph hand sweeps around the dial.

The movement, which can be seen through a sapphire window in the caseback, is Patek Philippe’s manufacture Caliber CH 28-520 C, an automatic movement powering a date indicator and chronograph function. It is 30 mm in diameter and 6.63 mm thick, with 327 parts total, including 35 jewels and 13 bridges. Its Gyromax balance oscillates at a frequency of 28,800 vph (4 Hz). Like all Patek Philippe watches since 2009, this one forgoes the famed Geneva Hallmark in favor of its own Patek Philippe Seal, which the company says has even more stringent standards of quality.

The Patek Philippe discount fake watches Ref. 5980 Nautilus Chronograph retails in the U.S. for $67,700.