Categories
Zenith Replica

BASELWORLD 2013 : Replcia Zenith’s Christoph ColombHurricane

ZenithColombHurricane1

Baselworld releases often have the cheap replica watch industry equivalent of a restaurant’s ‘soft opening’ up to months before the actual fair, and so it was at the end of January 2013 in Geneva when I visited Zenith’s temporary digs and saw one of this year’s official Basel releases, the Christoph Colomb Hurricane.

The very distinctive Christoph Colomb complications fall under Zenith’s ‘Acaemy’ collection, and have the large fishbowl like sapphire crystal protrusion at 6 o’clock which worries anyone who sees the replica watch (potential ding magnet). Its purpose, however, is not just to be quirky – Zenith have suspended the escapement and balance in a cage so that it looks like a floating mechanical ball, to try and increase the preciseness of time measurement – no matter how the wearer moves his or her wrist, you will see that the balance will always move back to a horizontal position – it is called a ‘cardanic suspension’, or ‘gimbal’.

As well as the gimbal, the Hurricane also utilises a chain-and-fusée, visible underneath the main hour and minutes subdial, to control variations and stabilise force as the mainspring unwinds. Although it seems to be popping up here and there of late, a chain-and-fusée is a rare beast and technical feat; and it took Zenith some two years to get it right for the Hurricane. The chain is made of 585 components and is 18cm long. The movement inside it is the manual wind El Primero 8805, with a fifty hour power reserve.

The hours and minutes are at 12 o’clock, small seconds at 9 o’clock, and power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock. The hour markers are black lacquer and the hands blued steel. The 45 mm rose gold case has an open case back for the owner’s viewing pleasure.

Categories
Swiss Replica

HANDS-ON with Badollet’s Ivresse at the Geneva Time Exhibition 2013 Replica

Ivresse2

A while ago I wrote about the Badollet Ivresse, a fascinating curved cheap replica watch (with a more gentle curve than Eva Leube’s Ari) with such a pared back sense of elegant simplicity that not only is the tourbillon not visible from the front, but the brand is not even mentioned on the dial, but the caseback.

You can read details about it on the link above, but there’s nothing like handling a replica watch ‘in the metal’, so it was with great interest that I went to visit Badollet at the Geneva Time Exhibition 2013, to see the Ivresse and to take some live photos.

As I wrote before, this is a big replica watch – 53.80mm in length, 30mm wide and 12.30mm thick in its platinum case. What I did not realise, was that 53.80mm is not as it seems.

The curvature of the replica watch, which fitted comfortably over my wrist, takes away a lot of the size factor. It simply does not appear to be that big, nor does it seem too big to wear. After all, replica watches are for wearing, and reading about large dimensions can scare people off considering a replica watch. Having now tried this on, I can tell you that it is in fact very wearable both length and height wise.

Philippe Dubois – CEO of Badollet

This may be a simple discreet looking replica watch from a design perspective, but in many ways it is a very bold one because of this. The case design stands out, but so does the purity of the dial. So in the end, did the reality match my expectations? Yes.