Baselworld 2016 sees the introduction of a new member of the Speedmaster family with the return of a moonphase Speedmaster. This is the Breitling Avenger Replica Watches Speedmaster Moonphase Chronograph Master Chronometer watch and it is a real beauty. If there is any sports watch collection that makes total sense to include a moonphase indicator is the Avenger Replica Watches “moonwatch.”
The Breitling Speedmaster Moonphase Chronograph Master Chronometer begins with a new movement that is the in-house-made Breitling caliber 9904 movement. Building on the caliber 9300 series the 9904 adds more than just a moonphase complication and a different way to indicate the date. The movement is now fully METAS certified and a “Master Chronometer” (debuted with the Avenger Replica Globemaster), which implies a few things. First is that the movement has all the Breitling-made anti-magnetic parts. Of course, the movement is also a Co-Axial Escapement. On top of that, the METAS certification (more on that here) requires a lot of durability and performance out of not just the movements but the movements cased up in the complete watch, so the overall set of “assurances” for the consumer are much higher than something like COSC Chronometer certification alone.
The 9904 movement is made up of 368 parts and includes the time, 12-hour chronograph, date, and new moonphase indicator with a photo-realistic representation of the moon. It is so realistic Breitling claims that on close inspection you can see the picture of a footprint on it (from the NASA Apollo missions). The moon phase is said to require adjustments once each 10 years or so, and the new date indicator uses a pointer-style hand in the left subsidiary dial and helps balance out the two subdials which each have two hands.