At the moment, there are 809 815 movements in our database. Many high-end with spectacular functions. But have you ever heard of the ETA 2825-2?

This caliber first appeared in 2013. Taking the popular 2824-2 as a base, this movement uses a clever module which allows for the seconds hands to be fitted at 12 different locations. The hour and minute hand can also be fitted at the center, giving 13 different options for these two hands. This allows the brands using this caliber (Hamilton, Tissot, & Certina are the ones listed for now) to create some cool off-center and regulator style displays at an affordable price. Which is rather cool I think.

While BaselWorld is already a good number of months behind us, there’s still information trickling in that previously either was not available or just plain escaped my attention. While today I’d like to focus on these four new additions to our Omega Watch Database, you might notice that I’ve uploaded quite a few more..

First up: the Omega Seamaster Bullhead Rio 2016 reference 522.12.43.50.04.001. This limited edition of 316 pieces is created in honour of the 2016 Rio Olympics and features the colours of the Brazilian flag, but blue taking a lead. It is said to be sold out already though.

Then there’s this: the Seamaster 300 in yellow gold reference 233.60.41.21.01.002. You might’ve not been aware, but previously ‘Sedna’ was the only option if you were looking for a gold faux-vintage diver. I actually like this classic yellow gold version more though. It’s also available with a leather strap – as are all other Seamaster 300’s.

This one I LOVE, saw, noted, but had no decent picture of: the Omega Speedmaster First Omega in Space Sedna Gold reference 311.63.40.30.02.001. It’s so stunning! This watch uses the same case as the regular FOiS, with the signature straight lugs and lack of crownguards. It’s now done in ‘Sedna’ gold though. Just like its stainless steel brother, this one is said to be numbered though not limited.

Last up – the Speedmaster Mark II reference 327.20.43.50.01.001 in stainless steel / Sedna. I vaguely remember seeing this one at BaselWorld but it seem to have forgotten about it. Two-tone is an acquired taste but this one actually looks quite restrained. Probably a fun watch for the summer.

BOOM! You’re looking at the first full overview of the 2015 ceramic Speedmaster collection – at the time of this post, it is not even available at OmegaWatches.com…

While most of them were uploaded to our Omega watch database around Basel, the two diamond versions were not as we we’re waiting on the final reference numbers and ‘soldier shots’.  The first (and most surprising) one, reference 311.98.44.51.55.001, features a white ceramic case, a mother-of-pearl dial with diamond-set markers and a diamond-set bezel and its fitted with a white alligator strap. Controversial? Sure. I’m pretty sure it would look very cool on the wrist of the right lady, while it would take quite a confident man to pull this one off…

Another one that’s new to our database is of course the reference 311.98.44.51.51.001, a Speedmaster with a black ceramic case with diamond-set bezel and a deep black dial with diamond-set markers. It’s wrong. It’s weird. But somehow, I kinda dig it. Don’t judge!

Smaller news comes in the form of the Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon reference 311.93.44.51.99.002 and Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon reference 311.92.44.51.01.003, both of which are identical to their earlier counterparts in all but the buckles; the new ones are fitted with a folding buckle in a mix of titanium and ceramic.

The four other additions we’ve covered before, but here are the links for the sake of completeness: Sedna Black, Pitch Black, Black Black and Vintage Black. That’s all folks!

Earlier I wrote a bit on the 5270 and its various faces – in particular, about the infamous ‘double chin’ that was introduced with the 2013 KunstWerkUhr 5270G-015 and would also be used in the subsequent regular production  5270G-013 with silver dial and the 5270g-014 with blue dial.

The remarkable and polarizing ‘double chin’ design was done away with when the diamond-set 5271P-001 was introduced at BaselWorld 2014. In my earlier post we already mentioned the 2015 PP 5270R-001, but what I missed was the quiet release of the 5270G-018 and 5270G-019: the white gold models with silver dial and blue dial, tachymeter, but no double chin.

The total of 5270 variations is now at 8 – a surprisingly large number taking into consideration that the original 5270G-001 was released just four years ago..

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve been busy with our Panerai section. Alwin and his team set up a perfect framework for me to fill in the final details. As such, we’ve been able to make some giant leaps – although there is still much work to be done.

One project we’ve completed for now is a complete list of the Panerai Boutique Editions. Above you’ve seen an overview of the casebacks of the Panerai Luminor Marina models and I’ve split them down in groups of six below. The order is more or less alphabetical. All of them feature a sibling in either Luminor 1950 or Radiomir form – some of them even both.

Quick personal opinion – winners for me based on imagery are the Saudi Arabia, the Las Vegas, the Muscat and the New York editions. The Middle Eastern ones remind me of the vintage Rolex models created by special order for these countries, their military branches and their dignitaries and to me, some of the Rolex cool rubs off on these Panerai’s. The Las Vegas and New York editions are just plain cool.

The list is complete for now – but please mind that it does not feature boutique specials like the Hong Kong PAM 606 or models like the Firenze Daylight, GMT and Automatic – the latter three are listed as Special Editions rather than Boutique Editions. But whatever. I have split down the full list of ‘Pig Dial’ Luminor Marina Boutique Editions line by line below. For more info, just click the links and you’ll be directed to their respective pages.

Oh, and if you come across any info that is not correct, please use the contact form – corrections are very much appreciated. And yes, they all look the same from the front – here’s a pic just so you know 😉

So, the list and the links to the full details:

More details: Abu Dhabi – Saudi Arabia – Aspen – Bangkok –Beijing – Beirut

More details: Beverly Hills – Chengdu – Dubai – Firenze – Geneva – Hong Kong

More details: Istanbul – Kuwait – La Jolla – Las Vegas – Lisbon – Lucerne

More details: Macau – Madrid – Manama – Manila – Miami – Milano

More details: Moscow – Mumbai – Munich – Muscat – Nagoya – Nanjing

More details: New York – Osaka – Palm Beach – Paris – Portofino – Sao Paulo

More details: Shanghai – Singapore – Taipei – Tianjin – Tokyo – Venezia

Have you seen our work on the Panerai section yet? We’re busy uploading ALL references ever made, which should be done in a few weeks if all goes well.

Pictured above is a compilation of the models with protective cover over the sapphire – at least, the ones we’ve uploaded thus far. Most notably missing are the ‘Chinese’ models like the PAM 840 and 842, but otherwise, its fairly complete. Somewhat unusual, I quite like them – weird but wonderful.

The first one was the 2002 Luminor Blackseal PAM 76, a limited edition of 300 pieces. The same year the first Luminor Sealand for Purdey were released (100 pieces), with the PAM 152 Lion, the PAM 153 Bird, the PAM 154 Four Birds and the PAM 155 Flowers.

In 2004, a second series of Panerai for Purdey models was introduced. These included the PAM 813 Tiger, the PAM 814 Elephant and the PAM 815 Lion. In 2005 the PAM 216 Jules Verne was introduced, with a dial resembling the Submersible models hidden under a lid with Jules Verne engraving. The same year a third series of Purdey models was created, including the PAM 816 Lion, the PAM 817 Eagle and the PAM 818 Hawk.

In 2007 a final series of Purdey models was made. The PAM 831 featured a lion engraved to its cover, the PAM 832 had featured an elephant and the 833 last but not least found itself with a buffalo on the lid.

Take a look at their pages to see the dials – most of them feature a picture of the watches with the lid open.

There it is – the 2015 Patek Philippe Perpetual Chronograph ref. 5270R. The first 5270 in a metal other than white gold (apart from the 5971P) and the third attempt at a lay-out for the much-discussed dial.

I must admit I am somewhat lost for words. I don’t think there has been any Patek Philippe before that has had such major and fundamental changes to its dial design.

First there was the version sans tachymeter: the original 2011 5270G-001. It was the first perpetual calendar chronograph to be powered by an in-house movement: the newly conceived CH 29-535 PS Q.

Than in October 2013, the KunstWerkUhr 5270G-015 was introduced. This model featured a silver dial with blue accents and marked the return of the tachymeter. It was introduced to commemorate the Munich KunstWerkUhr exhibition, celebrating the history of Patek Philippe. On this limited edition of 50 pieces, the seconds track was designed to fold around the date scale at six, resulting in a design feature that would become known as the ‘double chin’.

The limited edition KunstWerkUhr was accompanied by the regular collection 5270G-013 with silver dial and the 5270g-014 with blue dial some two months later – both of them featuring said ‘double chin’.

At BaselWorld 2014 however, the diamond-studded 5971P was added to the collection. The date scale now overlapped the seconds track, doing away with the unusual design feature that caused so much debate. And now for 2015, there is the 5270R-001: a regular collection 5270 with tachymeter, though sans ‘double chin’.

So now what? It seems that Patek Philippe listened to the comments posed by its collectors and gave way to a more traditional design for the 5270. Filling the shoes left by the much-coveted 5970 seems to have been a task slightly underestimated..

With day 1 of BaselWorld 2015 coming to an end, I think its time for a first recap. Below I’ll be posting some (perhaps random) thoughts on a few of the watches uploaded to the WatchBase database and I’ll try to do this more often – if I can find the time.

The 2015 Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon collection

Pictured above and consisting of the Black Black, the Pitch Black, the Sedna Black and the Vintage Black, I think it’s a bold and interesting move for Omega to release all four in one single take. Why?

If released four consecutive years, Omega would seem to be taking the easy way with changing minor details on a winning model. People, customers, WE, would probably tire of it rather quickly. With his new play however, Omega changes the game to an exercise in details, offering us an instant look into the mind of the manufacturer and the infinite possibilities that a canvas like the original Dark Side of the Moon can offer. It’s as if bloggers Photoshop dreams were made reality.

The Oris Divers Sixty-Five

This one I love. It’s a true product of passion. I first heard of this project back at BaselWorld 2014 when the Oris brand manager for the Netherlands -an avid collector himself- told me he was trying to convince his superiors to build a watch based on a vintage model in his collection. One year later, the outcome couldn’t have been better. It’s charming, it’s affordable, it’s cool.

The Breitling SuperOcean II

With the 2014 return of the Colt with the signature Breitling bezel and the recent release of the Colt Chronograph automatic, one could easily see Breitling returning the SuperOcean back to its roots as well. However, the brand seems to be determined to give this line its own look, sticking to the bezel with rubber inlay as introduced back in 2010. However, for the dial, they now did look back at their heritage. And it looks good! While the B01 is a stunning movement, for the bigger part it’s this kind of reasonable priced watches that made Breitling for the last decade or two. I like ‘m. They’re now available in either 36, 42 or 44mm – and as is customary with Breitling, the options when it comes to case/dial/strap combinations are sheer endless.

The Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time

This one we admittedly scooped earlier just like the Oris Divers Sixty-Five, but who can resist commenting on THE Patek that is bound to stir some controversy in the coming weeks/months/years? I will stay to a macro level with my comments for the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G. Look at it this way – when a brand puts out to many models based on previous stuff, they’re often branded to conservative, lacking imagination, drawing to heavily on their heritage – this is mostly the case with Patek and Rolex. However, when and if introducing something DIFFERENT, it’s as if the world is set on fire – THIS? They can not possibly be serious! I applaud Patek for branching out and trying something different – although I’m not quite sure why they’d put in the Calatrava name. Yes, it’s something else. No, it’s not Patek Philippe as you know it. But it’s CASUAL CHIC in capitals. Sprezzatura in the Agnelli type of way.

The Patek 5270R

Skip it. This is too good. I’m writing a separate post on this one.

The Rolex Day-Date 40

This is just stellar. Those of you that know me know that the Day-Date is one of my favorite watches EVER. The Day-Date II in my opinion was perhaps not the best of Rolex’ releases. The proportions just do not seem right. With the new Day-Date 40 however, they seem to have found a way to fit the DD with a larger case without ruining its classics looks. I think its a stunner. Should I end here, or should we talk about the new movement, caliber 3255, that features no less than 14 new and patented technological solutions? View the collection here.

Breitling just released the B55 Connected, an updated version of the Cockpit B50. The watch can now be connected via Bluetooth Low Energy to an app.

BaselWorld 2015 is promising to be an exciting one – it will be sans doubt the year of the smartwatch. Of course the Apple Watch bomb dropped a few weeks back and now it’s up to the Swiss manufacturers to respond. We’ve already seen Frederique Constant’s idea of a Swiss smart watch a few weeks back and TAG Heuer is expected to release something similar. At the Swatch Group’s Annual Results Press Conference, CEO Hayek hinted that tech now only offered in Swatch watches could soon also be used by more high-end brands.. In short: next few years will undoubtedly be very exciting for the watch industry as a whole.

And now there’s Breitling – with a rather unique approach. Instead of using the watch as an extension of the phone, the route taken by Breitling is perfectly opposite: the phone is in service of the watch.

What does this mean? While the watch per sé offers little to no new functions, it can be connected to a smartphone app, which in turn can be used for things like setting the alarm, changing timezones,  storing timed events et cetera. A novel idea as far as I know, and one that looks quite promising in their video – truly simplifying the operation of the watch:

We’ll be updating our database with the Breitling B55 Connected as soon as more information is available. Stay tuned!

As you might have noted, Breguet is one of the bigger names that is not yet listed in our WatchBase database and I briefly pointed out why over here. However, the crown-jewel of the Swatch Group has a long and interesting history that could easily make for a book or two – after all, the Breguet name has been gracing watches since 1775. And while it would make much more sense to post this after adding a big load of Breguet watches to our database, my fingers are itching to write about a part of their history that is arguably put under the rug and not often talked about: the Chaumet and Investcorp years, finally resulting in the sale to the Swatch Group in 1999. So rather than the stories often found featuring kings, queens and emperors, we’ll take a look at the history of Breguet as it unfolded in the last 40 years.

In 1973, the Brown family -who acquired the Breguet watchmaking business from his direct descendants a hundred years earlier- sold of the company to the Chaumet brothers, Jacques and Pierre, stemming from a family of Parisian jewelers.  While their name was highly respected for their jewelry creations, the brothers were inexperienced when it came to watches. They nonetheless had great plans for Breguet, for which they needed only two things: a talented watchmaker and for the brand to move to Switzerland.

The watchmaker that came to the rescue was a young guy by the name of Daniel Roth. After graduating from a watchmaking school in Nice, Mr. Roth had worked for some seven years at the prestigious Audemars Piguet where he learned the ropes of high-end watchmaking. However, after seeing the job offering by the Chaumet brothers and being intrigued by the Breguet name, he agreed to join them as master watchmaker – but not after he’d polish his skills at complicated watchmaking in school in Le Sentier. After this one year study, he started making watches for Breguet, based in Le Brassus.

At this time, Daniel Roth focused on two things: aesthetics and complications. Out of a number of styles that A.-L. Breguet employed during his days, it is often said that Roth picked the one that is emblematic for Breguet as it is known today, with its signature guilloche dials and pomme hands. Complication-wise, Roth introduced the perpetual calendar and the tourbillon to the collection – the first of the former being in fact based on a pocket watch that he had made during his time at the Le Sentier watchmaking course. For simpler models, movements were acquired from third parties such as Jaeger-LeCoultre, Nouvelle Lemania and Frederic Piguet.

Despite their good intentions, the plans didn’t work out quite that well for the Chaumet brothers. With severe tax issues they went bankrupt in 1987 and the Breguet company was sold to Investcorp. For Daniel Roth, this was a sign to leave the company and go on his own adventure – he’d  start his own Daniel Roth brand (now incorporated to Bulgari) two years later.

Under the reign of Investcorp, the Breguet name would go through what many consider to be not the best of its years. While the investment company acquired both a movement maker (Nouvelle Lemania) and a supplier of micromechanics (Valdar) to its portfolio in 1991, Breguet struggled to uphold the great name that many felt it was owed due to its long and impressive history. High-end movements now came from an in-house supplier, yet they were equally supplied to other brands. At the same time, more pedestrian (in terms of complications) movements were obtained from third parties. With its clientele becoming increasingly knowledgeable, many of Breguets offerings seemed like poor choices compared to its competitors- mainly Patek and later on also Lange & Söhne. Little, if not none, of its movements were exclusive to the brand and they could be had from other manufacturers at substantially lower prices, not helping the prestige and perceived value of Breguet. In turn, a substantial part of Breguet’s production was dumped and sold grey market.

Then there was the Type XX. Based on a model that Breguet had made for the French airforce, it was powered by a movement by Nouvelle Lemania that was deemed by many to be sub-par for the Breguet name. It was housed in stainless steel and destined to become the entry-level watch for the brand, yet its early days were clouded by movement issues and a skeptical reception by cognoscenti. How things can change: the Type XX is still part of the Breguet collection today and earlier perceptions do not seem to have any effect on its status as a luxury sports watch today.

Enter the Swatch Group. With Blancpain, SG had already tried to climb to the top of the watchmaking hill – with disputable success. While the watches boasted impressive (and sometimes unseen) complications, the brand lacked a certain cachet. Blancpain was founded in 1735, yet there were major gaps in its history that did not give it the credibility of Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. Do you know of a vintage Blancpain that sold for crazy money? Breguet was seen as the gateway to haute horlogerie fame and succes when it was acquired (together with Nouvelle Lemania and Valdar) in 1999.

With the financial backing of the Swatch Group and the personal interest of the late Nicolas Hayek, Breguet set out on a new path: a restoration of the Breguet philosophy, much inline with the watches manufactured by the master himself. Nouvelle Lemania ebauches would no longer be delivered to third parties, creating an air of a true manufacture as had become de rigueur in the post 1990’s era. Original Breguet watches were scooped up to be on display in the Breguet Museum. At the same time, many of the Chaumet and Investcorp models slowly seemed to disappear from the market as if the brand itself was erasing part of its history.

And today? For many collectors, the Breguet name still lacks a certain charm that is very much present in the family-owned Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet companies. Lange & Söhne has proved to be a serious contender on this stage in recent years, while high-end independent watchmaking has also taken a huge flight. Recent introductions such as the Tradition collection however seem to be received quite well among collectors and past mistakes are quickly forgotten (and erased?). I for one applaud the modern Breguet for its distinct, recognizable and unique style.