Baselworld 2015: Breitling Galactic Unitime (Updated with Live Photos and Prices)

Breitling refers to its new Galactic Unitime SleekT — one of the timepieces the Swiss brand unveiled this week at Baselworld 2015 — as a “double revolution.” So what are these two revolutions? Scroll down for details.

One of the factors that sets the Breitling Galactic Unitime SleekT apart is its spanking-new manufacturemovement — automatic Caliber B35, which is the first in-house Breitling movement since the debut of its base B01 caliber without an integrated chronograph function. Instead, Caliber B35’s technical focus is on its easy-to-use world-time feature, which enables the user to pull out the crown and simply turn it backward or forward in both directions for smooth and easy adjustments of both the local time and date. (Previous Breitling Unitime watches — including the original Transocean model and another in the Breitling for Bentley collection — have been equipped with Caliber B05, which incorporated both the innovative world-time function as well as a chronograph.)

Breitling Caliber B35 uses two patented technologies, for the differential system and for the connection between the movement and city disk (the rotatable ring around the dial’s periphery, printed with the names of 24 world cities, that enables the user to set the time to that of his current location), as well as two other patents for the winding and time-setting systems. Furthermore, accuracy as well as ease of use has been taken into account: like all Breitling movements, Caliber B35 has been officially certified as a chronometer by the Swiss testing agency COSC. The movement has a frequency of 28,800 vph and a power reserve of 70 hours.

The other “revolutionary” aspect of the Breitling Galactic Unitime SleekT is on the outside of the watch: a new, smooth-surface bezel made of tungsten carbide, a high-tech, uber-resistant material made by molding tungsten powder at extremely high heat and under extreme pressure. The resulting substance is almost five times harder than steel and highly resistant to scratches. The slightly darker shade of the Galactic’s tungsten carbide bezel provides a subtle contrast with the 44-mm steel case, which is water-resistant to 100 meters and features a screw-locked crown and domed sapphire crystal with double-sided glareproof coating.

The city ring and 24-hour disk surround a striking, filigree globe-pattern dial — in either “Trophy black” or “Antarctica white” — adorned with large hour markers and hands, all enhanced with luminescent coating. The first versions of the Breitling Galactic Unitime SleekT are both outfitted with Breitling’s familiar Pilot bracelet. Both will be priced at $9,000.

Curious what this new watch looks like on the wrist? Below you’ll find some snapshots from our meeting with Breitling at Baselworld.

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Hands-On Review: Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 Carbotech 3 Days Automatic – 47mm

The Luminor 1950 case was developed by Panerai in the late 1940s to be worn by commandos of the Italian Navy and is inspired by a model created in 1956 for the Egyptian Navy. From that came the Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 47 mm, a professional 300-meter divers watch, which until this year was only available in titanium. For 2015, Panerai introduced the same model in a new high-tech material called Carbotech. I recently had the chance to review this distinctive-looking watch. Read on for the results.

The new Carbotech material is designed to enhance both the aesthetics and performance of the case. According to Panerai, it is both lighter and stronger than ceramic or titanium, as well as being hypoallergenic. No two cases are the same due to each layer being compressed in a non-uniform pattern, so in addition to performance benefits, each piece is visually unique to its respective owner.

The dial:

A black dial with a matte finish perfectly harmonizes with the surfaces of the Carbotech case, which are also completely matte. Large, applied luminous dots mark the hours, with the exception of printed luminous Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock. Oversized, black, luminous, skeletonized hour and minute hands indicate the time, along with the subsidiary small seconds display at 9 o’clock. A blue hand with filled with luminous material continuously circles the small seconds subdial — with blue dots, and luminous indexes marking 15-second graduations — every 60 seconds. A rectangular aperture at 3 o’clock displays the date. Protecting the dial is a slightly convex sapphire crystal.

The dial is uncluttered and features big, bold markers and hands, so it is, of course, easy to read — even in low light, thanks to the generous application of luminous material. Any good watch should be easy to read, but when it is a professional dive watch, good legibility becomes a prerequisite. In fact, the ISO 6425 dive watch standard explicitly requires this, which is especially important underwater.

The case:

Carbotech is used on the case middle, bezel and the lever bridge that protects the winding crown. As I mentioned above, the unique structure is both lightweight and strong, even more so than titanium or ceramic. To make the material, thin sheets of carbon fibers are compressed at controlled temperatures under high pressure with a high-end polymer (Polyether Ether Ketone), which binds to the composite material, resulting in superior durability. Further, to ensure aesthetic uniformity, the carbon fibers used are very long, and the sheets are superimposed and pressed together in such a way that the fibers of each layer are set at a different angle from the ones above and below it. The result is a material that is actually lighter and stronger than titanium or ceramic, not to mention resistant to external forces. It is also hypoallergenic and anti-corrosive.

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Vintage Eye for the Modern Guy: Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955

One of the best parts about big watch events — especially one like WatchTime New York 2016 last month — is how easily collectors, enthusiasts, and journalists can engage with many of the brands we’ve spent the year reading about. For me, one of those brands happened to be Vacheron Constantin; I often receive the brand’s press releases, and see plenty of articles on its newest watches, but it is not very often that am I able to directly connect with some of the people who run the show, in addition to connecting with some of the watches that have helped build its reputation as one of the top luxury brands today.

Of those watches was the Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955, or Cornes de Vache for short. I originally wrote a little bit about this piece while covering some of the most noteworthy vintage-inspired pieces I spotted at this year’s WatchTime New York, but I thought it would also be interesting to directly compare the watch to its historical counterpart.

The new series is based upon a small production of luxury chronographs from 1955, known as the Ref. 6087 (photo above, courtesy of Phillips Auction), but the reference quickly earned the nickname “Cornes de Vache” for the resemblance between its teardrop-shaped lugs and cow horns (which roughly translates to “cornes de vache” in French). From its first production in the mid-1950s to its eventual discontinuation in the early 1960s, only 28 of these watches were produced in yellow gold, and only handful or so more were produced in white gold. Because it is so rare, and because the 6087 was one of the few water-resistant luxury chronographs of its time (due to its screw-down caseback and round chronograph pushers), it has since become a grail in vintage collecting, often going at auction for over $40,000 when it makes an appearance.

The new watch, originally released in 2015 with a platinum case (below) and then in 2016 in rose gold (above), set out to honor its forebear with a historical homage. Available in a polished, 38.5-mm case, the watch of course features its namesake “Cornes de Vache” lugs, along with a sapphire caseback revealing the beautifully finished hand-wound Caliber 1142. On the white dial is an outer tachymetric scale detailed in blue, an inner minute ring indicating each consecutive five minutes up to 60, and two subdials for running seconds and a chronograph minutes counter. The hour markers are applied gold or platinum depending on the case material, with tick marks for each hour with the exception of Roman numerals for the 12 and 6 o’clock positions. The time is indicated by stick hands for the hours, minutes, and running seconds, while a vintage-inspired blued steel is used for the chronograph seconds and minute counter hands. The watch, like its historical counterpart, is available in extremely low quantities, and retails at $53,600 for its rose gold variation and $69,200 for the platinum.

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Ask Gonzo ’bout watches – XXX – Ripley creates ripples.

I don’t happen to realize something – have you ever felt bored blabbering about watches? How can a man be so relentlessly addicted to machine units and moving parts? Are you a nerd? Are you autistic? And do you have ADHD too?

If you tick all of them “Yes”, I feel it’s time for you to move on. To pure quartz; it is also what I would recommend. There are better things than your old styled watches in this world; do some of them. I bet you won’t like your springs and wheels again. I collect pure digital quartz, the rare of the rarest pieces. Yes, even the calibre 7A28 analog. I hope you know it’s the first quartz chronograph. I’d rather like to hear something about it to test your mettle.

And oh, designing a circuitry with wheels is tougher than putting wheels and springs together. Compre?

A.

A few things you got to quickly get into your head before we move to the main topic.

1. This is a watch related site, so if you are to treat your constipation with chalk-dust or an electric drill, go find them elsewhere.
2. For that, dear Watson, you need brains.
3. Yes; Never-Ending-Research-and-Development.
4. Yes, as much as it’s required to maintain consistency.
5. Yes again, only that much as required to fish out subjects of interests. Oh, that includes the watch.
6. Testing my mettle? Heck, I don’t even need to.
7. Lastly, this is where decent people mix. Please use decent language.

But I reward you with a small read. Despite your loutish letter, you brought up a good topic. I’m sure you found the recent supply of theSCED series we got; so your glee knows no bound. But you see, you must truly understand watches if you truly want to love these. It’s your ego talking, proud to acquire the first of its kind. As for these, they are how Seiko celebrates its 30th anniversary of the Giugiaro collaboration.

It’s not purely quartz. Neither are its reincarnations. It was truly alienfor its times; like some fabulous fictional technology coming alive! Pure quartz can’t have stepper motors and analog features; it must be fully digital and devoid of any moving part. This turns me skeptical towards your watch collecting basics.

There is quite a bit of Italian car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro behind the watch and also notable as Ripley‘s timepiece of choice. Don’t pigeonhole it. It was radical for its times for reasons you can’t probably even guess! One is its all-metal jewelled movement but that’s a no-brainer. Getting one (or all, if you got money; which seems to be) will be a truly valuable addition in a collection, which I think, might not be as bad. Your ego doesn’t seem to let you pick up just anything lying on the floor.

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