The Great watch Race..is OVER..Official Results are;

But First, The Race Track

4 gruelling days in Australia’s Gold Coast have seen the inaugural Great Watch Race answer two questions;

1.       Which is the most accurate...straight from the factory...straight out of the box...high end Swiss Mechanical watch......and

2.       How accurate is that watch.

The answer, without doubt is the Breguet Marine 5817 with an error factor of around half a second per day.

STOP...Wait ...I can hear the protests from all around the world....Your voices are deafening....”How can you do an accuracy test of a watch over only 4 days?’............”What about controlled conditions”.........”Who was monitoring the test?”....”How come there were only three manufacturers represented in the race?”

Well before everyone gets too excited, let me answer those questions;

·         4 days is 345,600 seconds and if a watch is going to have an error factor it will show up in that time. Breguet 5817 had an error factor of less that 4 out of 345,600...good gambling odds....better than flying odds which are, you will die in your 287,000^th flight...(on average).

·         There were no controlled conditions..Because a watch should work as a watch and not need to be in a glass bubble.

·         The test was monitored by one of the most important people in the world...that is I... me.. ...and why am I one of the most important people in the world when it comes to testing a watch?....Because I am the owner....I am the consumer....I am the user...

·         Everyone was invited to race...but nobody else entered....I am sure that there were several contestants intending to enter, but when they saw the field they got frightened by the quality and decided to become too busyJ  ...You gota love those smiley’s.

I hear some are still winding up their watches and their belated results will be welcomed.

Now back to the results;

Seriously...This was a test, just to see which watch is the most accurate and through this elimination test I found that;

·         There is no doubt that the Breguet 5817 Marine was the best watch out of the box with an error factor of far less than 1 second per day.

·         The Brietling Seawolf Avenger was very close at less than 2 seconds per day.

·         The Rolex Daytona and Breguet 5207 Retrograde were neck and neck at 3 seconds per day.

·         The Breguet 5707 with medium complications ran at 5 seconds error per day.

·         The Rolex Day Date..... now this is a 20 year old watch and it has worked hard....like thousands of hours of tractor driving, dozer driving, diving on the reef, partying, flying, pick and shovel work and even jackhammer work until I remembered that I better take it off and put it in my pocket...this old timer is a little tricky. The first day was plus 6 sec. The second was plus 6 sec. The third day was minus 6 sec, and the fourth day was minus 2 sec......overall it came around the same as the Brietling Seawolf Avenger. But I think this is the kind of watch that some talk about performing differently in different conditions....another way of saying that it is not consistent....and in this case probably due to age and wear and tear. But a great performance and effort for an oldie.

·         Finally the poor new Breitling Chronomat  Evolution....This one had the biggest average error of 8 plus seconds per day.....This watch is almost unused....if it were not billed as a pilots watch it might not be so bad, but reality is 8 secs per day is a minute a week and I don’t class that as an accurate watch, certainly not for aviation work.

So bottom line is that I think all three brands did well with some obviously outshining others....and one purpose built watch failing miserably.

Now following all this, to me, when talking expensive Swiss watches...an   accurate watch should be under 2 seconds per day...An acceptable watch should be 3 seconds per day and for a complication I can accept 5 seconds per day.....but anything else, if costing in the thousands is really stretching the friendship.

So it is now time to let the great unused slowly wind down and sit in their respective places ...and let the victors enjoy ticking away and seeing the sunshine and night lights on a daily basis.

Interestingly....the two winners are my favourite watches. The Brietling is my daily tractor driving farm work fishing, hunting  watch...and the Breguet 5817 is my after showering dress and dining watch.....But...both will be welcome in the cockpit.

How lucky am I?

Finally....Thank you all sincerely for reading my ramblings.

Kindest regards to all,

Jack

P.S. Anybody want to buy a Brietling Chrono Evolution with rose gold buttons and bezel plus 1.4 carats of factory fitted diamonds and crock strap?.....Guaranteed 60% off retail....Packaging, freight and a good luck card included....and if you push me hard I will throw in a Sundial so you can tell the time.