For anyone looking into sporty ceramic watches, here are a few pics from our shopping trip for a ceramic chrono diver yesterday. Basically, this was the short list after a load of research, The Omega's fell by the wayside fairly early on unfortunately. I'm sufficiently stocked with Speedmasters, so they were ruled out from the beginning.

Originally I was thinking of getting the Planet Ocean 600m Master Chronometer GMT to replace my 50th Anniversary GMT, despite my dislike of helium valves. It was heavy and too tall though.
https://www.omegawatches.com/watche...al-master-chronometer-gmt-435/21533442201001/

The Globemaster was very tempting for a while, especially with the blue dial. But I reluctantly ruled it out because if there's one thing I already have enough of it's blue dialled dress watches .

With a vain hope that my wrists had changed shape and size I again tried the Seamaster 300m: https://www.omegawatches.com/watches/seamaster/seamaster-300/seamaster-300/product/.
It still didn't suit my wrists though...

So, I narrowed the choice down to notable sport watches. As I wanted it to mark a significant birthday, this evolved into a requirement that there be something special about the watch as well, which ruled out most routine stainless steel watches. Then off we went to the London boutiques to make a final decision & purchase.

I should mention that we also went in the Patek boutique to try the Aquanaut and Nautilus lines. The Nautilus Moonphase 5726 has been calling to me like a siren for a few years, so I wanted to at least check it out properly. Unfortunately, the London boutique has no Nautilus or Aquanaut's to show, not even display models.

They said they waiting list for a Nautilus is now 5 years . That explains why I haven't seen any Nautilus or Aquanaut models in any of the jewellers and watch stores I've been to this year .

On the positive side, at least I was free of the temptation to blow a couple of years of pension payments on a watch . And so we went off to the other boutiques and narrowed it down to:

1. The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chrono. I was aiming for one of the JLC's (see below) but wanted to check these out first. What I didn't expect was to be so impressed by this model that I'd have a really difficult choice to make - which of course is what happened

There are steel and ceramic versions, but I was interested in the ceramic. The dials are all gorgeous. The blue dials are especially lovely. There is an all black version, with a black dial & deep black ceramic case that's really smart and striking. If I was looking for a smart business attire friendly sports watch, I'd have been all over it. But that wasn't my brief...

The one I liked most, however, was the LE Ocean Commitment. The finish on the blue ceramic case is beautiful & I was really tempted by it. It catches the light in so many different ways I could have sat there and watched it for several minutes. In fact, I did - but had to rein it in a bit so my wife didn't think I was drifting off into a coma . The flyback chrono works well & with the date function as well I was sorely tempted to get this a daily wearer. There are only 250 pieces in this LE though & to my eyes it's the most attractive one in the line. It has a grey dial, which takes the light really well, like all the dials in this line. The lume works pretty well too, better than the JLC I think.

Unfortunately, my phone couldn't get a shot that does justice to the dial or case:



There wasn't a lot to choose between this & the JLC Deep Sea. Both are automatic. The FF power reserve is 50 hours & the JLC has 65 hours. The Fifty Fathoms dial was 0.5mm smaller and the watch was 0.4mm taller than the JLC. But it had a date function and was certified at 30 bar, whereas the JLC has no date & is 10 bar. The date was more of a consideration, as I almost never go more than 5 or 6 ft underwater

The lug size and spacing was more of a consideration. The FF takes a 23mm strap, compared to 20mm on the JLC. In the end one of the decisive factors on fit was that the lugs on the JLC extended further and curved to my wrist more naturally than the FF did. The FF was really comfy, but the JLC hit a perfect fit for my slightly flat wrist.

2. JLC Deep Sea Chrono in Cermet

This was what I mainly had my eye on. I really wanted to try the Vintage version with the aged lume effect, but there are none in Europe to try. JLC customer service helpfully tracked one down somewhere else, but it would have taken 4-5 months for them to get it to me. Apparently they'd have had to have bought it back from an non-Richemont owned boutique on another continent, sent it back to the factory, done another 1000 hours test on it, re-certify it & then send it to London.

Thankfully, once I tried the non-vintage one I decided that it suited me better. I went back & forth between this and the Fifty Fathoms a couple of times, but in the end this felt so at home on my wrist that it was the winner.



3. JLC Master Compressor Chrono Ceramic

A late entrant into the running. These came out in Sept 2016. There's a blue/grey reverse panda version and a black dial with rose gold hands and pushers version. I've seen the blue one in other shops, but not the black one. It turned out that the black one isn't going to be available for another few months. The boutique had one which they described as a "not for sale prototype" to show and take orders. Apparently they are the only European boutique to have one. I'm totally kicking myself for not taking a photo of it on my wrist .

Here's the blue/gray dialled version. It doesn't look that exciting, until you put it on :



As a daily wearer sports watch, it was really tempting. All the functions I'd go for: chrono, second time zone, 24 hr indicator and date .

At 14.6 mm tall it was slightly thinner than the Deep Sea and the FF too. However, the 46mm dial proved to be a bit too much for me on a watch I want to wear for most of the week. The deciding factor was that it was a fabulous and functional watch, but it just wasn't "me".

All of these are great watches & ultimately the choice was determined by what instinctively felt most "me" and subtle differences in feel on the wrist. YMMV as the saying goes - they're all well worth checking out

 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It's coming up during this week, so I wanted to have it before the day

 

No chance. It's been on my wrist since I paid for it !