To quote Don (Michael) Corleone in Godfather Part III, “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in!”. Just when I thought that this Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo would keep me quiet for some time, my watch friend Michael (not Corleone) mailed me a few days ago, that he pulled the trigger on this fabulous blue dial Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph ref.25860. This predecessor of the current AP ref.26300 chronograph, is mighty interesting. Priced a bit more friendly than its successor, it doesn’t differ that much watch wise.  Although I can’t get it confirmed, the bezel of the newer 26300 is a bit wider than the 25860′s bezel. Not in terms of diameter, but the bezel itself, making the dial of the 25860 chronograph looking a bit larger then the one on it’s successor.

Here is some eye candy of the ref.25860 (pictures taken by Michael):

The movement in this baby isn’t a module as with the Off-Shore models, but a true chronograph movement based on F.Piguet’s caliber 1185. Another example of a time piece using this movement is the Vacheron Constantin Overseas chronograph I recently covered here (click here for the article). Although I wouldn’t mind owning an Off-Shore Chronograph, this movement makes this watch more interesting technically speaking. There is nothing wrong with an add-on chronograph module, but the fact that the date needs a cyclops on the Off-Shore models because the chronograph module has been fitted between the base movement and the dial would annoy me too much I guess.

If you haven’t tried a Royal Oak yet, please do. The bracelets are so comfortable and the polished and brushed parts of the case and bracelet are truly delightful to look at, especially when you let the (sun)light play with them.

Did you notice what’s wrong with Michael’s chronograph though? If you want to get an Audemars Piguet catalogue from 2000 (the Audemars Piguet #1 book) for free  – including shipping – leave a comment with what you think is not correct on this watch. I will randomly select a winner at the end of this week.

Something less serious today, the Parrera Ceramic Day-Date Chrono in white (also available in black). I actually don’t think this is a men’s watch, but hey, who am I to judge of course. I never heard of the company, but Ace Jewelers – one of the sponsors here – has these watches up for sale in their e-boutique. I got the white one for Mrs Fratellowatches, who seems to love white ceramic watches. Ever since the Chanel J12, a lot of other brands (low-end to high-end) are willing to ride this wave.

This fairly large watch of 42mm in diameter makes it suitable for a lot of wrists, even the smaller ones, like my wife’s. She normally wears a 36mm watch that covers up all of her upper wrist, but she finds this oversized watch to be quite comfortable. The white ceramic case and bracelet makes it a very heavy watch, probably as heavy as my Sea-Dweller. The quartz movement is Swiss made and features a 60 minute chronograph, a day (subdial at 6 o’clock), a date and hours, minutes and seconds of course. The bezel is also from white ceramic and looks very sporty on this watch. Although I don’t think you should go diving with it (50 meters water resistancy).

The white dial is stunning, the pattern on it makes it look like a cream coloured dial from some angles. Crown, hour markers and hands also feature white details to match with the case and bracelet. I didn’t expect a sapphire crystal on a watch with this price tag (see below), but it really has one and is probably one of the aspects that gives this watch such a solid feel.

The watch comes in a very nice square shaped presentation box, but if you want to have it gift wrapped, you can tick this check box over at AceJeweler’s e-boutique. The watch comes with a lot of links, so you will probably have to remove them (or have them removed). It is quite easy if you have the right tools to do that. You should at least have some experience with ‘driving out’ pins before you start.

For 250 EU, I think you can buy the Parrera (also available in black) with confidence for you girlfriend of wife. She will like it for sure. You can also – of course – buy one for yourself.

The full review of this watch is available over at WatchUseek where you can read mine and Ernie’s review.

Visit the AceJewelers e-boutique to order your own Parrera.

Personally, I don’t have much going on for snakes. Luckily, Franc Vila’s Cobra time piece doesn’t bite. Although a Cobra isn’t the first thing come to mind when looking at these time pieces, with some imagination I can see the resemblance of a Cobra’s head in the watch case. However, with the same kind of imagination, I can see a skull in the shape of the dial, the sub dials being eyes and mouth.

The version pictured above has been created to celebrate Spain’s World Cup victory in July 2010 against the Orange team from The Netherlands. It is another edition of the ‘Cobra’-line of watches that Franc Vila introduced during BaselWorld 2010. Limited to 88 pieces, as all Franc Vila watches are.

The Cobra line has been introduced as a sports watch pur sang, explaining the use of hardened and blackened steel (DieHard Extreme), carbon and titanium. Besides the special Spain-strap, the Cobra time piece comes also with a rubber strap (as usual on the Cobra models). List price of the Cobra models is around $28,000, except for the tourbillon version.

The version above is being called the ‘Yellow’-edition, due to its yellow hour markers and brand’s logo on the dial. As you can see, with a rubber strap and fancy looking clasp. The in-house chronograph movement is caliber FV8Ch, with a power reserve up to 42 hours.

Franc Vila’s Cobra watches are water resistant to 300 meters.

“This is not an elegant dress chronograph, this is a bruiser of a tool watch and likely will not fit under anyone’s shirt cuff unless you have a wrist the size of Michael Jackson’s and are wearing Arnold Schwartzenegger’s shirt.” – Chuck Maddox (27th of May, 2003)

Photograph by Chuck Maddox

A few weeks ago I was in New York City and met with Bill Sohne (collector of fine time pieces and moderator of the Omega forum of PuristsPro) for a coffee and a small chat about watches. We discussed a lot of watches, including this Omega Seamaster Professional Chronograph in titanium (ref.2298.80) he bought, also known as the SeMPC Ti. Bill told me that during his long friendship with the legendary Chuck Maddox, he had to hear about this SeMPC Ti every once in a while, as it was one of Chuck’s favourite watches to wear or at least to have in his ‘rotation programme’. Also, Bill told me that he did a write-up on this watch just recently for his forum, on the 2nd anniversary of Chuck Maddox passing (click here to read it) on the 12th of May.

As Chuck once wrote for a mailing list regarding Omega watches: “……there are some that are kept close at hand because they are favorites.  I have a couple of 3-position cases that I have “go-to” watches,  I have three Omega Go-To’s: My SeMPC (my all weather watch of choice if the forecast is for heavy weather), my 145.012-67 c.321 Pre-Moon, and my 1950′s no-Model Omega square pusher (mainly because it’s bracelet is of a length I can wear it on either wrist). “Listening to Bill, I realized that I recognized his story pretty well. From 1999 till 2008, I had a lot of contact with Chuck Maddox. Mostly by e-mail and AIM and not always with the same frequency, unfortunately. He had mentioned his SeMPC Ti to me, but as it was made out of titanium and has this ETA/Valjoux 7750 movement, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Both are not my style, at least I thought so. In 2000, I tried the stainless steel version of this watch, but besides being beyond my budget, it was too thick to fit under my cuff. I went for the ‘James Bond’ ref.2531.80 (which I reviewed here, in 2000) instead.

When I got back home from New York, I immediately started looking around for a SeMPC Ti diver watch. I also visited the ChronoMaddox website and read this article Chuck wrote in 1999, about this exact same watch. His enthusiasm about this watch works very catching, at least to me. In the following quoted paragraph, Chuck sums up the ref.2298.80 SeMPC Ti:

“The Seamaster Pro Chronograph is attractive because it is the watch that “has it all”… Chronometer rating, Automatic Winding mechanical movement with excellent durability and parts availability, Chronograph, Calendar, Helium Release Valve, Sapphire Crystal, an absolutely incredible bracelet w/divers extension & twin push button safety release, non-slip caseback, available in a variety of material’s: dial/bezel colors, great water resistance rating, and the show stopper: the unmatched ability to operate the chronograph underwater without compromising the Water Resistance of the watch. No other mechanical watch boasts that feature. Jeff Huber and I (among many many others) say it’s the best sports chronograph on the market, and you know what… People don’t argue that point with us.”

After a day of strawling the auction sites, Chrono24 and a list of on-line dealers, I actually found one on an on-line Dutch marketplace. Located at a jeweller store nearby my home town, I immediately made an appointment to go there and check-out this SeMPC Ti.

To make a long story short, I bought it for a fair price, including the box and booklets. No warranty card unfortunately, but the 6,00,xxxx number tells me it is dated 1996 (correct me if I’m wrong). Although I thought that this watch would be a nice homage to Chuck Maddox, I actually find myself wearing it quite a lot.

The bracelet looks a bit out dated (introduced in 1993), it wears comfortable. Same goes for the titanium, although I don’t like watches that are too light for their size, this one is actually still a heavy weight at 142.7 grams. At least compared to my other time pieces. The Valjoux 7750 movement was probably the biggest hiccup, but the wobble is not as annoying as I thought it would be. For the readers unfamiliar with this movement, it only winds in one direction and the rotor spinning in the other (free) direction results in a wobble on the wrist you might feel and could consider it annoying.

It seems that I can live with all these facts after all Chuck was right in his summary quoted above, it is a chronograph that has it all.

Photograph of my own SeMPC Ti Diver, on top of Kreuzer’s ‘Omega Designs’ book.

Although the late Chuck Maddox will forever be linked to Speedmasters and vintage Heuers, together with Bill Sohne I consider this ref.2298.80 SeMPC to be the Chuck Maddox Homage Watch.

Watch journalist and friend of the show, Kristian Haagen, made a few great photographs of one of my favourite watches, the Patek Philippe Nautilus. His version, the chronograph, is the 40.5mm ref.5980/1A and uses an in-house caliber CH 28-520 C movement. I mention in-house, because for a long time, Patek Philippe was relying on chronograph calibers built by Lemania. This particular chronograph has a mono counter for both the hours and minutes totalizer.

As you can see below, Kristian took pictures of his Patek in its natural (and nautical) environment. As the 5711/1A remains my favourite version of the Nautilus, this chronograph is surely more up to date in terms of design (thicker case and bracelet). I tried both versions (5711/1A and 5980/1A) the day before yesterday, at the Tourneau TimeMachine boutique on 57th street in New York and was amazed how comfortable the chronograph version sits on the wrist in comparison to the more basic 5711/1A. Something to think about when the time is there to purchase one.

Kristian demonstrates his photographing skills and his wonderful Nautilus Chronograph over at the Public Forum on TimeZone. Click here to see his other pictures as well.

For the love of mechanical wonders, below is an image of the caliber CH 28-520C, from the official Patek Philippe website:

The finish of both the mechanical automatic chronograph movement, case and bracelet are just top notch. Expect to pay around 27.500 Euro / 34.000 USD for this piece of haute horlogerie.