Milestone Breitling Replica Watches, from 1915 to Today

Launched in 1941, the Breitling Chronomat was based on a patent document that Breitling submitted in 1940: patent number 217012 granted protection for an instrument-style wristwatch with a circular slide rule. This clever system made it quick and relatively easy to perform various measurements and mathematical operations, e.g., the conversion of speeds or distances from one unit of measurement to another, multiplication, division, and cross-multiplication. This new timepiece attracted many aficionados in sports and industry, and technicians appreciated its special features, which made their work easier. Later versions of the Breitling Replica Chronomat with different cases and dials were the earliest ancestors of Breitling’s legendary Navitimer. The watch shown here contains Venus Caliber 175. A special feature of this watch is a counter for 45 elapsed minutes – a detail welcomed by soccer fans.

Don’t be misled: this watch’s name, which was trademarked in 1955, has nothing to do with the navy. The Breitling Navitimer, which debuted in 1952, was designed to help pilots coordinate time and navigation: it was equipped with calculating functions. Advertisements described this multifunctional device, which contained the hand-wound Breitling Swiss Replica Caliber Venus 178, as a “personal onboard instrument.” The built-in slide rule enabled aviators to multiply and divide, convert nautical miles to land miles, and calculate averages, fuel consumption, average gain of altitude, and distances during ascent and landing. Fumbling with paper and pencil while in flight could be at least partially eliminated. Since it was introduced, the Navitimer has undergone various changes, mainly to its case and the calibers it housed, i.e., hand-wound, hand-wound with date, or self-winding, but no one has ever tampered with its most distinctive feature: its circular slide rule.

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Sales of chronographs declined markedly during the second half of the 1960s. Cheap Breitling Replica and its competitor Heuer formed a partnership to develop the first automatic chronograph and hoped that its launch would help counteract the downturn. The adventure began in 1965, when the two firms, along with Büren Watch and Dubois Dépraz, signed a contract to develop the watch; they called the venture Project 99. Büren was taken on as movement supplier because of its experience with micro-rotors. No other type of self-winding caliber could permit the rearward and thus service-friendly installation of the specially developed chronograph module because the small oscillating weight didn’t interfere with the two arbors of the elapsed-time counters. Furthermore, the date ring was positioned directly under the dial. Modular architecture also made it possible to install the crown on the left side, where it clearly showed that this was a self-winding watch. Breitling and Heuer (now TAG Heuer) were responsible for the design, the dials, the cases and the other components. The first prototypes of Caliber 11, which ran at 19,800 vph, were available in the spring of 1968. The official launch of the Best Replica Breitling, the world’s first automatic chronograph with micro-rotor, took place simultaneously in Geneva and New York on March 3, 1969. When the curtains rose, the project had already consumed about half a million Swiss francs.

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Vintage Eye for the Modern Guy: IWC Big Pilot Replica Watches

There are some watches that have so much history and so many variations in their collections that it would be a horological disservice to attempt to cover every facet of them within one article. The Omega Speedmaster, Cartier Tank, and TAG Heuer Carrera are three such collections that come to mind, but another prime example is the IWC Pilot’s Watch. A few weeks ago, we compared vintage and modern variations of the iconic Mark XVII, but this week we come to an equally popular and integral part of the larger Pilot’s Watch collection: the IWC Big Pilot.

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The famous Pilot’s watch traces its origins back to the 1930s and ’40s and the military air campaigns of World War II. IWC, in conjunction with a number of other Swiss and German manufacturers, began producing the signature Beobachtungs-Uhren, or observation watch, for the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe. This B-Uhr style was characterized by a big steel case and crown, a large triangle at the 12 o’clock mark, and a highly legible black-and-white-accented dial. After the war, interest in this style of pilot’s watch was sparked, and it has remained a popular aesthetic many years after the fall of the Axis powers. Today, of the five original manufacturers of the B-Uhr, Replica Watches, Stowa, and Laco continue to produce popular contemporary iterations of the original piece, and one of the most enduring is the cult-classic piece from IWC that is now known as the Big Pilot.

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IWC’s modern Big Pilot is available as six different watches, and three different references, each with their own respective color combinations and features.The watch features a 46-mm steel case with a noticeably enlarged diamond-shaped crown; inside resides IWC’s in-house Caliber 51111, an automatic movement equipped with IWC Replica Watches, a system that supposedly allows the watch to build up its relatively large seven-day power reserve in little time. On its black dial with white accents, a triangle with two dots appears at the 12 o’clock position, a power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock, and a date indicator at 6 o’clock. The hour markers are indicated by Arabic numerals with an outer minute ring. The IWC Fake Watches uses the recognizable sword-shaped hands for the hours and minutes, and the whole thing is strapped up on a rugged-looking, black, alligator leather strap.

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Comparing this Cheap IWC Big Pilot Replica to past models of the modern Big Pilot, it is clearly recognizable as part of the lineage. When comparing it to vintage examples of the piece — specifically the B-Uhr of the ‘30s and ‘40s — the lineage becomes less obvious, but nonetheless apparent. If you take away the power reserve, date indicator, and modern finishing practices, you have, more or less, the original military watch. Some aesthetic differences would still be evident — in the outer minute ring of the dial, the pronunciation of the diamond-shaped crown, and the presence of the previously less common two dots over the triangle at the 12 o’clock position — but overall the modern Cheap Omega Replica would look rather similar to the vintage piece.

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I find the IWC Big Pilot to be an interesting watch. It is first and foremost a good-looking piece, but with models measuring 46 mm or more in diameter, comfortably wearing and fully enjoying it requires relatively gargantuan wrists (which mine are not). While I do wish the watch had more historical flair, or perhaps less modern flair, I also understand that it is to some extent a “niche” timepiece simply due to its size and price. And perhaps this means it requires the extra features to separate itself from other series and to appeal to a luxury market. Would I like to see a new, more vintage re-interpretation in the future? Yes, but the IWC Big Pilot of today has far outgrown its roots, so I’m not holding my breath.

IWC Replica Celebrate The Portugieser Hand-Wound


Last week IWC unveiled it’s latest creation, IWC Replica Watches This watch pays tribute to IWC’s founder and his benefactor, combining a tradition flying tourbillon movement with a bold Portugieser case and dial. We thought it was worth a little fanfare, so we gathered almost 100 guests at IWC’s flagship boutique on Madison Avenue to see the watch in the metal and to toast with the IWC Replica Watches team. Guests were welcomed by Edouard d’Arbaumont, president of IWC North America, and own editor-in-chief Jack Forster offered a bit of a history lesson as well. There was even an original D.H. Craig movement from the Cheap IWC Replica nineteenth century on display, thanks to the generosity of a collector who loaned it for the event.

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