Reply With QuoteReally like the Tudor. Prefer the strap to the bracelet. Breitling looks a little busy for my tastes.
What are your thoughts?
I may not be using the correct terminology (PVD) but I like the look of these two watches and I would welcome some advice/ comments...
Last edited by MFB Scotland; 12th December 2016 at 22:50.
Really like the Tudor. Prefer the strap to the bracelet. Breitling looks a little busy for my tastes.
What are your thoughts?
Both lovely in their own right but i'd pick the Tudor; simple, classical and uncluttered .
The Breitling is my favourite but too expensive at over £4K and 44mm.
The Tudor is circa £3K. I have seen both in the windows of ADs.
Just bought the BBD, superb watch, stunning looks and can go all weekend without needing to be wound, so Tudor gets the vote from me.
You have to keep in mind that Breitling won't refinish Blacksteel models, so if anything happens to it, you'll need to buy an entire new case. Don't know the price, but, just to give you an example, the RRP for a Blacksteel folding clasp is £580. I imagine a new watch case would be £1k+Originally Posted by MFB Scotland
I was having a friendly chat with breitling tunbridge and you're almost spot on, they told me the dlc (pvd if you like) case on the B50 was c.£940. I didn't think was too bad really considering I had a quote for a single laser weld and refinish and that was best part of £400 on a stainless rolex. If you've dinged or scraped a case bad enough to need a new one then perhaps your insurance will cover it and it's academic what it costs in those circumstances.
Both models are ok, but neither would be my first choice of dive watch for the money.
Have you considered the Breitling Avenger Blackbird 44?
I tried one on the other day, titanium case, hardly knew I was wearing it. Bit less cluttered dial than the one above.
Thanks for the replies. The cost of a case replacement is a concern. My wrist is only 6.75" or so and as such many Breitlings are too big
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Have you looked at a black Damasko? I've currently got a black cased DC67 on order from Jura - should have come today - and the toughness of their finish appears very well regarded?
The point is, no matter how careful you are, sooner or later your watch will pick up scratches and, while a stainless steel one can just be polished at service time, with Blacksteel you'll have to replace the entire case to get it back to 'like new' condition. I imagine that, for most Blacksteel owners, the scratches are there to stay as replacing the case every couple of years would just be ridiculously expensive
And no, Blacksteel is not that strong. Mine has some very faint marks (only visible under close inspection under strong light) on the edge of the lugs where the pin was pressing while I was trying to fit the strap back on. If that can go through the coating, I'm not keen to find out what catching it in a door handle or something can do to it
Last edited by asteclaru; 13th December 2016 at 01:01.
Unless I am mistaken, "PVD" refers to "Physical Vapour Deposition" which is simply a method of coating.
There are a number of coating types including sputter and evaporative methods and the HVOF/plasma-based methods. The range of coatings is extremely varied from ultra-thin to the tens of micrometres of hard thermal barrier coatings used on turbine blades and includes, dlc, diamond-like carbon and its derivatives which is quite common on watches.
The bottom line though is that these are mainly optimised for aesthetics and hardness or toughness but all will scratch under certain conditions and are extremely difficult to repair in-situ.
Thanks for all the replies. Based on the responses I will avoid. Maybe look to try the standard Tudor
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The tudor is much nicer
I've always had concerns about the Breitling blacksteel admittedly I've never owned one but I've seen a fair few a couple of years into ownership not holding up well and I would say these watches looked abused just worn!
Again never handled the Tudor but did read somewhere the coating is meant to be very hard wearing obviously I know there are limitations to the PVD/DLC but would be interested to see if it's fairs better then what I've seen of the Blacksteel.
Did look into these quite a bit when contemplating having my Sub coated and in the end decided against it feeling they only true way would be a ceramic watch case or the DLC offerings on tegimented/case harden steels.
Totally agree with this.
Just to add one thing I did notice again I haven't tried it on but saw it in an AD window the Tudor did appear quite glossy which I prefer the mat look with DLC watches
As a long term proposition these black watches make little sense. They're bound to pick up marks and scratches, which will show up far worse than on a normal watch. Add this to the fact that they can`t be refinished and they don`t seem such a good idea. If you really like the black look (I don`t) then buy a cheap watch and bin it when it gets scruffy.
Paul
Which do you like best?
It comes down to that really.
Not sure which I'd take of the two, but if I was looking for a PVD watch at a similar price (maybe a little more) I'd probably be looking at IWC or a Sinn at a lower price point (their Tegimented black finish is nigh on indestructible!).
M.
Has to be the Tudor but I'm not sure about the PVD coated watches in general. Think they look a little cheap. Bamfords do bespoke PVD Rolexs / Pateks / APs etc which look fab when all the case, hands and dial are one matt colour such as grey or black, but they are £££££££!
I noticed that - too in the window of WoS by Bond Street Tube - it did look very shiny and personally I prefer the Breitling dark colours.
Review of a PVD Breitling and BBD in case anyone has a spare 5 minutes
http://wristreview.com/?p=22403
So is the Breitling DLC or not the article suggests it's had a different form of treatment?
Apologies, you are probably correct, it is described as "Carbon Treatment", looks like the Breitling in the article is described on the Breiltling web site as Black Titanium, I think it's this model http://www.breitling.com/en/models/a...ger-blackbird/
I think the original model referenced is this one http://www.breitling.com/en/models/s...ean-44-special ? Which is described as Black Steel!
As you may be aware it is extremely easy to create black titanium from the anodising route whilst this cannot be carried out on steel hence the preferred method for DLC or other coatings. I am looking at my bottle of Sudam Black B dye for doing just this, as I type.
Regards
Gary
Alternatively if you're open for a Chronograph have you looked at the Tudor Fastrider Black Shield? The case is matt black ceramic so you would have no problem with obvious scratching. The RRP is £3370 so still a very good price for a very good watch.
Not normally a fan of blacked-out watches but the Tudor definitely has a WOW ! factor.
Alternatively if you're open for a Chronograph have you looked at the Tudor Fastrider Black Shield? The case is matt black ceramic so you would have no problem with obvious scratching. The RRP is £3370 so still a very good price for a very good watch.
I am not a big fan of chronos.
To be honest I'd never considered this but I bought the Tudor BBD from a grey dealer/reseller and went to get the bracelet re-sized ... so far nobody wants to touch it in case the links get scratched, the chap at Goldsmiths reckons its £135 per link!
The Tudor is really nice but the Breitling is too fussy. But I can't quite bring myself to buying a Tudor for whatever reasons.
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