Functions and Care of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chrono Replica Watches
Breitling Replica Watches Sold To CVC Capital Partners For Over $870 Million
Even in the exceedingly turbulent times that the watch industry has been enduring for nearly two years, it is rare news to see major brands exchange hands – and that is why today is a notable day, as it has just been announced that Breitling has been sold to CVC Capital Partners for more than 800 million euros – that is about 873 million US dollars or 866 million Swiss francs.
Until this moment, Breitling had been one of only a handful of properly independent major brands out there – Chopard and Patek Philippe remain two other family-owned big players in the industry, with every other mammoth brand either owned by one of the big four groups (Swatch Group, LVMH, Richemont, and Kering) or some other major entity, like Rolex and Tudor with the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation. The last big news of this nature was when family-owned Frederique Constant, Alpina, and Atelier de Monaco were purchased by Citizen Watch Co. last year.
Nevertheless, previous majority owner Theodore Schneider will remain with Breitling because, as part of the CVC Capital Partners deal, he agreed to re-invest for a 20% stake in Breitling. Ironically, it was as recently as May last year that Breitling vice-president Jean-Paul Girardin told Reuters he was confident in Breitling retaining its independence despite speculation about its future following the 2015 passing of Ernest Schneider who bought the brand in 1979.
Still, soon after that interview, Bloomberg (the breaker of today’s news) had reported in late November last year that Breitling was “on the block” for sale, after having been in the hands of the Schneider family since 1979. Breitling has very much been a family-run company in the sense that Ernest Schneider had been running it from the late ’70s until the early ’90s when his son, Théodore Schneider took over. While Théodore is the (exceedingly rarer) type of the quiet watch CEO who stays out of the limelight, he’s said to be very much taking part in running the business.
Late last year, when the speculation regarding Breitling’s sale sprung, analysts expected the manufacture that employs some 900 people and produces around 150,000 watches annually to fetch between 600 and 900 million Swiss francs (CHF). As of today, we know that Breitling has been acquired for over CHF866 million – with Breitling’s annual sales of about CHF420 million, this might give the company the financial stability it needed to make it through these troubling times and, hopefully, come out stronger once it’s over.
As for CVC’s official plans with Breitling, Daniel Pindur, Senior Managing Director at CVC says: “Using our network and expertise, CVC will work to make this global, iconic brand even more renowned and help shape the future of one of Switzerland’s last independent watch manufacturers. Specifically, we see significant growth potential for Breitling in both existing and new geographies by driving the digitization of the marketing and distribution channels in the company, helping to enrich the product and customer experience.”
Breitling, who produces some of the quality movements, dials, cases, and bracelets for its watches has tremendous potential and, on a personal note, I am a bit worried to see them become part of a large financial group. Times do change from better to worse and back in the watch industry, there’s nothing new about that, but I do hope that Breitling will stay away from cheapening its brand and its products in chasing higher temporary profits. If you’ve handled a Chronomat or Navitimer lately, you’ll know that Breitling has a long way down the quality food chain, as its movements, cases, bracelets, and dials remain some of the truly solidly built ones at a time when we already see a lot of high-end brands go for cheaper designs and quality of execution.
Challenges ahead of Breitling include fixing the strong discounting and vast grey market as well as gaining more traction in established and new markets through streamlined and more powerful branding and marketing. They produce a huge variety of timepieces from the $2,000 Colt Skyracer with a COSC-certified quartz movement and carbon composite case (hands-on here) through the Bluetooth-connected black rubber straps Bentley Supersports B55 copy watches (explained here) and true Breitling classics like the Navitimer 01 (reviewed here), to the bonkers-expensive, $40,000 Superocean Heritage Chronoworks (hands-on here). All this is to say that Breitling stands on a solid foundation of versatile collections, but their awareness and global presence has to be improved – something both parties expect “the network and expertise of CVC” to assist with.
More recent news from Arabic numerials Breitling copy watches included their producing of chronograph movements for the Tudor Heritage Black Bay Chrono (hands-on here) and them sourcing a base three-hand movement from Tudor in return. This, though not confirmed, implied unused manufacturing capacities at Breitling and a break from industry-wide principle in that they chose not to invest in developing their own base manufacture caliber but rather source one with similar credentials.
The transaction between Breitling and CVC Capital Partners is expected to complete by around June 2017, subject to approval by competition authorities. How long and in what role Théodore Schneider will stay around at Breitling, we are yet to learn. The charming replica watches are worthy to try.
Delicate UK Patek Philippe Nautilus 40th Anniversary 5711/1P Platinum Replica Watches Hands-On
The Patek Philippe 5711 Nautilus in steel is one of the hottest luxury sports watches around. It is hard to get and typically goes for over retail price unless you want to spend several years (depending on where you are in the world) on a waiting list. Part of this is because Patek Philippe claims that only about 20% of their total watch production overall is in steel, and among the steel models the 5711 Nautilus is just one of those which Patek Philippe produces. It also happens to dole them out in small, balanced amounts to keep the market from being saturated. The watch pictured here, however, is not a steel Nautilus but rather the all-platinum reference 5711/1P that was produced as a limited edition at the end of 2016 for the 40th anniversary of the Nautilus watch collection overall.
While the steel Nautilus has a retail price around $25,000, this 5711/1P costs more than four times that price. In addition to it being a limited edition (which of course ups the desirability level a bit), the case and bracelet are in full 950 platinum, and the watch also features diamonds. Using baguette-cut diamonds as the hour markers is a technique I think is both classy and masculine for when you clearly want to convey wealth, but also remain a bit more under-the-radar. As I said, if you saw this watch on someone’s wrist at a glance, given the look of the metal and the blue dial, it would easily be confused for the normal steel model.
I want to address something very important that marred the launch of the limited-edition 5711/1P steel case Patek Philippe Nautilus replica wacthes. Images that Patek Philippe shared of the watch made it look as though the “40 1976-2016” text on the dial was large and obtrusive. In fact, it looks downright ugly in those images. In reality, however, this text is very subtle and much more difficult to see in most lighting conditions. 
For the most part, while wearing the Patek Philippe Nautilus Platinum 40th Anniversary watch, you can’t really see the 40th-anniversary text. This was really important to mention since I think a lot of people felt that this was a really big design mistake – as it appeared in Patek Philippe’s own marketing images. The lesson – once again – is that we should always hold final reservations about a watch until after we get to see it in person. (The watch hands cover some of the text in our images – apologies for this, but you get the idea.)
The Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1P is also larger than most Nautilus watches at 44.05mm wide. It doesn’t wear too large given that a good amount of that size is thanks to large side flanks – which are a hallmark of the original Gerald Genta design. The tapering platinum bracelet is both thin against the wrist and very comfortable. With this size and overall lovely aesthetic, this is probably my favorite Nautilus that I’ve ever worn – but of course, you need to stomach the price of platinum. Water resistance remains unchanged from other Nautilus models at 120 meters.
The addition of baguette diamonds as hour markers seems appropriate for this type of watch. Purists will claim that they needlessly add bling and take away from the mostly simple dial that Genta intended for the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Perhaps that is true on the steel models, but for this limited edition $100,000-plus platinum model, you might as well add diamond hour markers into the mix. It just makes the wearer feel better overall with the emotional delivery the watch appears to be aiming for. One more diamond is placed on the lower part of the case side under 6 o’clock facing the user.
Inside the blue dial 5711 Patek Philippe Nautilus copy watches is the attractive, in-house-made caliber 324 S C automatic movement. With a lot of Patek’s in-house technology, it’s a very capable and reliable daily wear. The movement is comprised of 213 parts, operating at 4Hz (28,800bph) with Patek’s Spiromax balance wheel and about 40 hours of power reserve. It also happens to be a rather svelte movement at just 3.3mm thick. Functions include the time with seconds and, of course, the date.
With its larger size, limited-edition exclusivity, and very straightforward sense of precious-material luxury, the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1P is a winner in my book – though it is clearly not designed for the masses. You can see that an owner of the watch (who so nicely let me once again take a Patek Philippe off his wrist to ogle at – a regular ritual of ours) has been wearing and enjoying this platinum Nautilus, wear and tear included. That is a good thing, because I really dislike the idea of people buying watches and just storing them away, which is particularly common with rare Patek Philippe models. These are items meant to be worn and appreciated on the wrist.
Patek Philippe built 700 pieces of the limited-edition platinum fake watches 40th Anniversary Nautilus 5711/1P. At the same time, they also released a limited-edition Nautilus Chronograph 5976/1G, but in my opinion, the real winner is the (more expensive) 5711/1P.