Fascination with watches -- Breitling

The first "nice watch" I ever bought on my own was a Breitling Navitimer Montbrillant Datora.

I have always wanted a nice watch before but I never knew very much about watches.  Like most other Chinese individuals, the only brands I knew were Rolex and Omega.  The Breitling has been on my cross hairs at by then for quite some time. In fact, I was interested in the Breitling Bentley series -- which I first saw during one of my trips to Las Vegas at Tourneau.

When I sold my Honda S2000, I told myself that I would treat myself to a nice watch instead of buying another car (boy was I wrong, cause I ended up with a Porsche Carrera 911).  I still remember going to Gleim Jewelers at Stanford Shopping Center and looking at their selection.  Unfortunately, the Bentley series was both too expensive as well as too big for my wrist.  I still wanted something with a brown/Havana dial, which was both very unique to the watch as well as very classy.

The salesperson introduced me to the Montbrillant Datora.  It was love at first sight.  Although I couldn't even tell the time of day when I first saw the watch (it took complication to another level), I loved the elegant and intricate design.  The watch incorporates both the time of day, a 24 hour time with second hand, as well as the month, day of week, and date of month.  It even had a 12 hour stop watch.  I never until then had a watch that had that many functionalities.

The watch looks gorgeous with a brown crocodile leather strap, but I eventually ended up spending another $1,000 for the stainless steel band.  The crocodile leather band did not stand up to normal wear and tear and quickly deteriorated during the first 6-months of ownership.  I would recommend buying this watch with the stainless steel band as it's cheaper when you buy it with the original watch vs. separately later on.

You can buy future leather bands more cheaply from an after market leather smith.  Many of these bands are a fraction of the OEM cost at the same or better quality.