A watch amateur meets the Blue Widow, the beautiful Avenger ;)
The truth is I did have a Breitling before, a Colt 44 Automatic with metal bracelet. A handsome watch hewn out of dwarf star material, good for sport and smart as well. I originally wanted to buy it with a white face and brown leather strap but was seduced by the metal bracelet and black face. Why did I sell it ? because it was slightly over the heavy threshold for my poor small wrist. When I realised I was taking it off everytime I sat down at my desk it was time for it to go. A lovely watch though and not bad value in today’s often ridiculous Swiss watch pricing.
The Blue Widow, aka Avenger II GMT with a blue face :), is part of that unique Breitling club of smaller/medium sized watches. The very reasonable 43mm face is combined with a pretty thin lightweight case. Quite an achievement considering it has a 300m depth rating. Even on the metal strap its quite wearable and much lighter then other dive/sports watches I have used recently, e.g.the Omega Seamasters. In fact its has the same slender/beautiful feeling that many of the Rolex’s do, combined with a fit and finish easily in the same league.
This is an interesting point as I used to feel that the Colt, even thought the best value of the Breitling range, was pretty much all the Breitling DNA, and couldn't understand the extra cost of the Avenger II range. Not so. The Avenger II GMT has noticebly higher quality and more refined finish.
The watch bezel is simply the nicest pure steel one I have seen. The “galactic” font is striking and legible at the same time. The three prominent corner pips with the proper font number, and the fourth with a large lume pip, really set off the watch beautifully. The bezel turns in both directions as its primary purpose is as a third time zone. The bezel is brushed steel, the only brushed surface on the watch, the rest being all glossy. This is not a watch for shrinking violets, but conversely it doesn’t shout too hard either.
The smooth and faintly textured blue face is clear with oblong lume number pips flanked by steel lines on either side. I love the way it can it can look black or blue depending on the light, and can flash “fire” combined with the bezel given the right angle of light.
The watch has small 24 hour numerals on the edge of the face allowing three time zones in total (1 for the main hands, 1 for the GMT hand with the small 24 hour face numbers and 1 for the Bezel alighed to the GMT hand).
The date window is unusually surrounded by a steel square, improving its visibility and setting it off nicely. The date itself a black font on a white background.
Black light:
Blue light:
The crown is screw-down with very useful regular ridges giving it a rough and super grippy feel but a jewel like look. It is protected on both sides by crown guards going up to 50% of the depth.
The crown control is excellent: position 1 - screwed in; 2 - winding; 3 - anti-clockwise date set, clockwise GMT hand set; 4 - time change
The case is very thin for this type of watch and has curved down lugs to make it comfortable for all types of wrists. The back is closed steel with an engraved conversion scale for many measuring and speed types.
The strap is glossy with the classic Breitling slanted links and I love the buckle. It has a catch guard, but more importantly for me, has four levels of mini-adjustment. This is excellent, allowing fine tuning of the size and also quick adjustment of the size if your wrist expands or contracts, e.g. dependent on the weather or your level of activity. This offsets the rather involved link changing system. Note that the buckle doesn’t have a diving extension.
This watch really has to be seen and tried on in real life to appreciate how successfully it merges a sporting/all weather watch with a smart dress watch in an eminently wearable form.
Although its not quite as sexy as Scarlett for me, it's the sexiest sports watch in the Breitling range and is gorgeous for my taste. There are certainly more purposeful watches, more “presence” watches and more classic watches in the range, but for me this is one of the finest midrange sport and travel everyday watches made - period.
The Blue Widow, aka Avenger II GMT with a blue face :), is part of that unique Breitling club of smaller/medium sized watches. The very reasonable 43mm face is combined with a pretty thin lightweight case. Quite an achievement considering it has a 300m depth rating. Even on the metal strap its quite wearable and much lighter then other dive/sports watches I have used recently, e.g.the Omega Seamasters. In fact its has the same slender/beautiful feeling that many of the Rolex’s do, combined with a fit and finish easily in the same league.
This is an interesting point as I used to feel that the Colt, even thought the best value of the Breitling range, was pretty much all the Breitling DNA, and couldn't understand the extra cost of the Avenger II range. Not so. The Avenger II GMT has noticebly higher quality and more refined finish.
The smooth and faintly textured blue face is clear with oblong lume number pips flanked by steel lines on either side. I love the way it can it can look black or blue depending on the light, and can flash “fire” combined with the bezel given the right angle of light.
The watch has small 24 hour numerals on the edge of the face allowing three time zones in total (1 for the main hands, 1 for the GMT hand with the small 24 hour face numbers and 1 for the Bezel alighed to the GMT hand).
The date window is unusually surrounded by a steel square, improving its visibility and setting it off nicely. The date itself a black font on a white background.
Black light:
Blue light:
The crown is screw-down with very useful regular ridges giving it a rough and super grippy feel but a jewel like look. It is protected on both sides by crown guards going up to 50% of the depth.
The crown control is excellent: position 1 - screwed in; 2 - winding; 3 - anti-clockwise date set, clockwise GMT hand set; 4 - time change
The case is very thin for this type of watch and has curved down lugs to make it comfortable for all types of wrists. The back is closed steel with an engraved conversion scale for many measuring and speed types.
The strap is glossy with the classic Breitling slanted links and I love the buckle. It has a catch guard, but more importantly for me, has four levels of mini-adjustment. This is excellent, allowing fine tuning of the size and also quick adjustment of the size if your wrist expands or contracts, e.g. dependent on the weather or your level of activity. This offsets the rather involved link changing system. Note that the buckle doesn’t have a diving extension.
This watch really has to be seen and tried on in real life to appreciate how successfully it merges a sporting/all weather watch with a smart dress watch in an eminently wearable form.
Although its not quite as sexy as Scarlett for me, it's the sexiest sports watch in the Breitling range and is gorgeous for my taste. There are certainly more purposeful watches, more “presence” watches and more classic watches in the range, but for me this is one of the finest midrange sport and travel everyday watches made - period.
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