Compared to last year, this year’s Baselworld watch fair brought an abundance of interesting new dive watches from many kinds of brands, several offering chronograph functions,new in-house movements, and new case materials such as bronze. Here are seven that caught our eye.
Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 45.5mm Chronograph
The Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 45.5mm Chronograph has a large case made of 18K Sedna gold and stainless steel and a bicolor bracelet combining the same materials. Both the dial and the unidirectional rotating bezel are in polished, deep blue ceramic; the numerals and diving scale notations on the bezel are in Omega’s own Ceragold material. The screw-down caseback, as on all the new Planet Ocean watches, is enhanced with an alveol wave pattern design. The movement in the watch is Omega’s Master Chronometer Caliber 9900, an automatic with a column-wheel chronograph function and a power reserve of 60 hours. Like all Master Chronometer calibers, it features a silicon balance spring and a co-axial escapement and is antimagnetic to 15,000 Gauss. The case is water-resistant to 600 meters. The hands and applied indices are in Sedna gold and enhanced with Super-LumiNova.
Breitling Superocean Heritage Chronoworks
Breitling has re-engineered its automatic chronograph Caliber 01, launched in 2009, and incorporated the improved version in a limited-edition (100 pieces) watch called the Breitling Superocean Heritage Chronoworks. (Chronoworks is the R & D department at Breitling that made the improvements.) The new movement, Caliber 01 Chronoworks, has a power reserve of 100 hours, compared to 70 hours for the original movement. Breitling achieved this increase by making a bevy of changes aimed at reducing friction and eliminating unnecessary weight in the movement components. Like the original 01, the new version is certified by COSC. The changes included incorporating a baseplate and gear-train bridges made of high-tech ceramic. The gear arbors can pivot directly in the baseplate and arbor holes without any loss of energy and without lubrication, Breitling says. The company also makes the center wheel, third wheel and fourth wheel out of silicon so that they will be lighter and therefore easier to set in motion. The escape wheel and lever are also made of silicon. The watch is 46 mm in diameter. It has a matte ceramic case with a transparent caseback and is water resistant to 100 meters.
Zodiac Super Sea Wolf 68 Bronze
Zodiac continued the bronze theme, introducing a bronze-cased version of its hefty Super Sea Wolf 68, the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf 68 Bronze. (The “68” in the name refers to the year 1968, when the original Super Sea Wolf was launched.) The watch measures 50 mm by 44 mm and is water resistant to 1,000 meters. The movement is a COSC-certified automatic STP 1-11 16, which has a 48-hour power reserve. (STP stands for Swiss Technology Production, a movement producer located in the Swiss canton of Ticino and owned, like the Zodiac brand, by the Fossil Group.) Zodiac is making the watch in a limited edition of 82 pieces; the number is a reference to 1882, when Zodiac was founded. The watch comes with two straps, in brown leather and olive green fabric. The bezel rotates in one direction only; as a safety feature, the wearer must push the bezel down slightly before turning it.
Eterna Super KonTiki Chronograph
The Eterna Super KonTiki Chronograph, a larger version of the re-engineered KonTiki from last year, has a case in polished and brushed stainless steel, measuring 45 mm in diameter, with a screw-locked crown and rotating bezel. It has a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal and is water-resistant to 200 meters.These new models in the Eterna KonTiki collection, which is famously named after the wooden raft used in Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 ocean expedition, features a new flyback chronograph movement, Caliber 3916A, designed and manufactured in-house by Eterna. More info and photos can be found here.
Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze
The new Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze is the first bronze-case model in the Black Bay collection and the first Black Bay with a 43-mm case (other models have 41-mm cases). The aluminum bronze alloy, for which Tudor has exclusive use, will develop a patina over time and give the watch its own individual look. The caseback is steel with a bronze-colored PVD coating. The watch is water resistant to 200 meters. The watch contains Caliber MT 5601, designed and manufactured in-house. It is a slightly larger variation of the MT 5602, Tudor’s first in-house movement ever, which was launched last year. The movement has a silicon balance spring and a power reserve of 70 hours. It is certified by COSC. Each watch comes with two straps: a woven jacquard one (shown here) and an aged-leather one.
Tutima M2 Seven Seas
The Tutima M2 Seven Seas is a response to what the German brand says were frequent requests for a three-handed, self-winding model in the M2 chronograph family. The M2 chronograph is the updated version of Tutima’s NATO Chronograph, made for pilots. Tutima has created the M2 Seven Seas for sailors and divers. Its case is made of solid pearl-blasted titanium and has a diameter of 44 mm and a height of 13 mm. It features a screw-down crown, a screw-in back, and a 3-mm-thick sapphire crystal, which is nonreflective on both sides. The watch’s 500-meter water resistance is indicated on the dial. Its calibrated bezel rotates in one direction only. The watch is powered by Tutima’s automatic Caliber T 330, which has a power reserve of 38 hours. The Seven Seas comes with either a black or deep blue dial, with either a Kevlar strap ($2,100) or titanium bracelet.
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe
The three-hand version of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe appears for the first time in a plasma gray ceramic case. It has a unidirectional plasma gray ceramic bezel with a blue ceramic insert that has hour markers made of LiquidMetal, an amorphous alloy that resists deformation and bonds tightly with the ceramic. The 43-mm case is water resistant to 300 meters. The deep blue dial has central hours and minutes hands that echo the look of their prede- cessors. During dives, the large, red-tipped central seconds hand with luminous dot serves as an indicator that the watch is running. The watch is equipped with Blancpain’s self-winding Caliber 1315, which is fitted with a robust Glucydur balance wheel, with square-head gold micro-metric regulating screws to improve pre- cision and allow efficient adjustment.