December, 2016 | AAA Best Replica Watches

A Comparative Test of the IWC Aquatimer and Tudor Pelagos

Swimming with sea turtles, eagle rays and barracudas can be so fascinating that a diver might forget about time, so it’s a good idea to take a watch with you as well as a dive computer. We took two divers’ watches with us when we went diving off Tenerife, in the Canary Islands: the new IWC Aquatimer Automatic, the basic model in the Aquatimer family that IWC Replica Watches updated in 2014, and the Tudor Pelagos, the professional divers’ watch introduced in 2012 by Rolex’s sister brand. We tested the watches on several dives and also examined them on land. Our first dive wasn’t very deep: we simply wanted to do a little fish watching. We checked and donned our equipment, rechecked the pressure in our air tanks, and fell backwards into the water. To monitor our dive time, we turned the index on each watch’s dive-time scale until it was tangent to the tip of the minutes hand.

The IWC Aquatimer has a newly developed SafeDive bezel system that we found very user-friendly. The outer rotatable bezel turns another ring, safely positioned under the crystal and surrounding the dial, on which the dive time is shown. The bezel can be rotated in both directions, but for safety, the inner scale moves only when the bezel is turned counterclockwise. The scale remains motionless when the bezel is turned the other way. This ensures that a diver won’t shorten the indicated dive time if he happens to snag his wrist on a submerged rock, which could cause him to skip a crucial decompression stop. The system also has another advantage: the crystal protects the scale and its luminous coating against scratches and saltwater. And we found this system easier to use than a IWC Replica with an inner scale that’s operated with a second crown. Tudor’s unidirectional rotating diving bezel also works impeccably. Narrow fluting makes this component even easier to grasp than IWC’s. As on the Aquatimer, the Tudor’s rotatable bezel clicks into place in single-minute increments. The matte scale is crafted from a ceramic material that doesn’t give scratches a chance. But the luminous coating on the scale is rather soft and could become scratched over the long term.

We began our descent and encountered our first school of gilthead seabream. We continued down to the IWC Replica Review seafloor and found two rays, moray eels and a seahorse. It would be easy to lose track of time, but our underwater regimen includes regularly glancing at our pressure gauge, which shows how much pressurized air remains in our tanks, and at our watch, where we can check the dive time. After 40 minutes, the pressure gauge reminded us to begin our ascent to the surface. A problem cropped up during our first dive: both Replica IWC straps were too short to fit comfortably over the sleeves of our 7-mm-thick diving suits. The Tudor’s rubber strap has a divers’ extension built into the clasp that looks like a little belt, but this didn’t work for us: the extended strap fit too loosely, even on its smallest setting. We had no choice but to partially unzip the zippers on the sleeves of our diving suits and wear both watches around our bare wrists.

In all other aspects, the rubber straps and pin buckles worked well on both watches. They have different decorative patterns but are equally well crafted. Both manufacturers have added some texture to the inner surface of each strap to reduce perspiration in hot weather. Both clasps are neatly crafted and each has a milled pin, although IWC Replica Watches polished edges show a bit more time spent on fabrication.

IWC Portuguese Yacht Club

In 1967, IWC launched one of its biggest success stories: a sporty, three-handed automatic watch called the Yacht Club. Though little remembered today, it was IWC Watches Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph most popular model of the late 1960s and 1970s. IWC resurrected the Yacht Club in 2010, in a new chronograph version, and incorporated it into its Portuguese collection.

Like other Portuguese models, the Yacht Club has a big case, Arabic numerals and a railroad-track-style minutes ring. Unlike other IWC Replica Portuguese watches, it has a gaggle of sailing-themed features: push-pieces shaped like bollards, a seafaring red-and-white color scheme and luminous hands and markers that can be read even in a thick, offshore fog. It immediately became the sportiest Portuguese model. The case deserves much praise for its fine craftsmanship; its unusual bezel, which widens in a smooth slope from bottom to top; and its beautifully contrasting, polished and satin-finished surfaces.

The dial is very large, more than 40 millimeters wide, and is quite attractive and easy to read. Because it is black, it provides a high-contrast background for the silver-colored hour and minute hands. For greater legibility in the dark, 12 o’clock is marked with double markers. The only fly in the ointment, a tiny one, is the date display, which sits in an awkward position abutting the numeral “3.” Furthermore, it switches from one day to the next very sluggishly, beginning the shift an hour before midnight. The IWC Replica Watches is the first Portuguese model to be fitted with Caliber 89360, which IWC developed in-house and launched in 2007. This caliber offers one very appealing benefit: its elapsed-hours and elapsed-minutes counters are combined in a single subdial in the upper half of the dial. They can be read easily at a glance, as if you’re reading the time in a second time zone. This feature is especially helpful in measuring long periods of time.

IWC Big Ingenieur Chrono Replica

A watch with an in-house chronograph movement is something quite special. Even many well-established brands do not offer their own factory-built movement with a stopwatch function. One notable exception is Patek Philippe, which developed one for its collection only recently. It’s no wonder such movements are so rare: a chronograph is a huge complication whose implementation requires enormous care and attention. The existence of cheaper chronographs is explained by the wide distribution of simpler movements that have been built for decades, like the Valjoux 7750 from ETA.

For the longest time sports-watch brands like Replica Watches and Breitling didn’t produce their own chronograph movements, either. But things have recently changed at these two companies: at the 2009 Baselworld watch fair, Breitling introduced its long anticipated in-house movement, the B01, and the first and only watch model to contain this movement, fittingly named the Chronomat B01. IWC Replica Watches presented its Big Ingenieur Chronograph at Geneva’s SIHH watch fair in early 2009, with an in-house movement that debuted in 2007 in the company’s Da Vinci chronograph.

The IWC watch makes an even sturdier overall impression due to its larger diameter. All the numerals are executed in the same type found on other Ingenieur models. The standout features of the IWC Fake Watches Big Ingenieur Chronograph’s dial are the subdials located at the top and bottom, with a silver ridged structure that sets them off from the rest of the black main dial. A geometric pattern fills the inner section of the dial. Luminous coating is applied deep within the grooves of the silver-colored markers, whose shape reflects the elongated hour and minute hands. The Ingenieur case has rectangular pushers that are neatly integrated with the crown guard and bezel.

For the 89360 caliber, IWC developed a new double-pawl winding system based on its standard Pellaton winding system. With two double-pawl winders, it doubles the number of pawls that push and pull to wind the mainspring. They are no longer controlled with a cam but by a crank similar to the type used in automobiles. The pawls are arranged to apply winding torque even at the slightest motion of the rotor. This winding system is said to be 30 percent more efficient than its predecessor, making it possible to reduce the weight of the rotor and thereby reduce wear. The movement features a free-sprung oscillating system, a sign of high quality. Plus, the flyback function in the Cheap IWC Replica Big Ingenieur Chronograph (not featured in the name of the model, as is usually the case) requires a great deal of time and effort in the design stage. The minute counter does not jump, but advances slowly. Unfortunately, the date disk moves slowly, too, and begins visibly advancing at 11 o’clock.

Even though the watches run neck and neck in nearly all respects, there is a huge disparity in their prices: The price of the Chronomat B01 is less than half that of the Big Ingenieur Chronograph. Even when both watches are equipped with a similar strap or bracelet, the IWC Replica still costs more than twice as much as the Breitling. Prospective buyers for whom price is not an issue can decide solely in favor of the design that best suits their personal style.