In The Metal: Breitling SuperOcean

Very often our perceptions of a watch change from seeing either the renders or the photographs taken by the brands. We “feel” the Tudor Balck Bay Pro is too thick, only to be surprised by how well it was in person and is not too tall at all. My initial criticism of the new Breitling SuperOcean also softened somewhat after seeing it on my wrist in the boutique. Here are my observations after I tried it on.

Observations 

Dial size too small: The 36mm version carries this the best, not bad at all, looks quite good, and especially the turquoise version on the rubber straps is a lovely summer watch for smaller wrists. I still found it somewhat odd in 42mm but it’s not as bad as I thought.

Bezel: I had no expectations but having owned a SuperOcean Arrowhand before, I expected a quality bezel action. Nope, this was worse than expected, too much back play and a cheap sounding clicking sound, wasn’t impressed, especially considering the price. Breitling usually can and does better. However, it’s ceramic, a bit too thin for my taste should have slimmed down or removed the rehaut and given us more ceramic bezel goodness. 

Shovel minute hand: on first glance, the watch looks cool, but when you want to read the time, it is confusing. Less than I thought but still not a fan, at all, 

Bracelet and clasp: Better than expected, very well put together, and overall great with the adjustment capability 

Movement: no change, this is not adequate for a $5k watch – Breitling needs to do something. Rumor has it that they wanted to use a different movement, but it wasn’t ready in time. It would explain the disconnect I have with the Sellita inside.

Price: I was offered a discount – so maybe Breitling recognizes that it’s a bit overpriced.

Concluding Thoughts

So overall out of ten, this watch went from 02 of 10 to 4 of 10.

If you like this watch: Buy it (but ask for a discount) – it’s a fun watch, goes where not many watches have gone before and if you like it, then you certainly can enjoy this watch for a very long time. And while I bashed the movement for its power reserve, it’s still a fantastic workhorse movement that might actually outlast us, humans, it’s easy to service, and thanks to it being the highest grade possible, it will keep exceptionally good time, albeit for a quite short period. But if you wear your watch daily that doesn’t matter to you.Personally, I would have loved it if Breitling would have introduced this watch as a separate line and left the SuperOcean relatively unchanged to offer a watch that is recognizable and could turn into an icon over time. The SuperOcean line in general changes too drastically for me from generation to generation. But these are my thoughts only.

@koolpep

Ralf aka koolpep lives and works in Dubai, UAE.

If he is not travelling for work or on Safari in Africa, or on a race track, he loves to talk and collect watches and deep dives into the audiophile headphone abyss.