This review is dedicated to my friend By-Tor who has long been a fan of Ebel watches, 1911 BTR Chrono in particular. A special thanks to SD4K who has helped me a lot with providing me reading materials.
About the Brand
Quoted from Watchtime, April 2007:
Founded in 1911, and family-owned for many years, Ebel made its name as a manufacturer of elegant wristwatches. When Pierre-Alain Blum, the grandson of the firm’s founder, launched the Sport Classic line in 1977, a new era began. The watches in the line featured unconventional, hexagonal, rounded, satin-finished cases and polished bezels held in place by five screws. In ensuing years, the Sport Classic acquired the status of a design icon. It became so important for Ebel that it was later renamed “1911†in tribute to the year of the brand’s founding. Ebel introduced the first chronographs with this now-familiar
case in 1982, initially powered by Zenith’s El Primero caliber. In 1994, one year prior to the introduction of the exclusive
Caliber 137 in the Modulor 1911 watch, Blum was forced to sell the business to the Investcorp holding company. Ebel came
under the aegis of the luxury group LVMH (Moët-Hennessy-Louis Vuitton) in 1999 and was prohibited from competing directly with the concern’s other brands, namely, TAG Heuer and Zenith. This meant that Ebel could neither make sporty watches nor
emphasize exclusive movements. After the Movado Group took control of the brand in 2004, CEO Efraim Grinberg announced that he planned to allow Ebel to focus again on its core values. With the 1911 BTR line (the acronym stands for both “back to the roots†and “beyond the rootsâ€), Ebel has indeed returned to its basics – and ventured radically beyond them.
About the Watch
The genuine:
Long before Hublot came out with "fusion" concept, Ebel has started to use different materials on its 1911 BTR watches. This
particular 1911 BTR Chrono model fuses the usage of rubber and stainless steel in a watch. That's not all, apart from its distinctive design, the main attraction of the genuine watch is the movement. The genuine watch is powered by an exclusive Caliber 137.
More about Caliber 137 (Quoted from Watchtime, December 2006):
For years, Nouvelle Lemania, which assisted in the development of Caliber 137 in the first half of the 1990s, supplied Ebel with 40-something parts out of the 322 in the movement. The tale of those 40 parts, and why Nouvelle Lemania no longer
supplies them, provides a glimpse into the sometimes complicated politics involved in the Swiss watch components industry.
Between 1995 and 1999, according to sources in Ebel, Caliber 137 was an Ebel exclusive. In that period, Ebel, Nouvelle Lemania and its sister firm, Breguet, were owned by Investcorp, the Bahrain-based investment company. Nouvelle Lemania was happy to supply the parts Ebel needed. The situation changed in 1999, when Investcorp sold its watch holdings. It sold Ebel and Chaumet to LVMH; it sold Nouvelle Lemania and Breguet to the Swatch Group. In 2000, Breguet’s new CEO, Swatch Group chairman Nicolas G. Hayek, decided that he wanted to use a Nouvelle Lemania caliber that is a variation of Caliber 137 (Nouvelle Lemania uses another caliber designation) in Breguet watches. Ebel, realizing it might lose Nouvelle Lemania as a supplier, bought a five-year supply of the 40-something components in 2000. That supply is now exhausted and Nouvelle Lemania (now called Manufacture Breguet) no longer supplies them to Ebel. Instead, Ebel now buys those components from Dubois-Dépraz. After the Movado Group acquired Ebel in 2004, it negotiated an agreement with Nouvelle Lemania whereby both Ebel and Breguet can use and develop independently the movement that Ebel calls Caliber 137. Today, both Breguet and Ebel use the movement.
The replica:
The genuine specs and history seem to put this replica to shame but that's certainly not the case. This replica is certainly built with high quality in mind and to be as close to the genuine article as possible. More technical details about the watch:
Watch name: Ebel 1911 BTR Chronograph
Diameter: ~44mm excluding crown
Movement: Asian 7750 28,800 bph 3-6-9 Tricompax layout, working chronograph
Case: Stainless Steel brushed, polished bezel, polished screws, see thru caseback.
Dial: Black matte, hobnail parts on chrono hand counters, polished markers.
Hands: Polished stainless steel, luminous hour, minute and second hands, yellow chronograph counter hands
Crown: Stainless Steel polished and rubber, screw down.
Crystal: Sapphire with double sided AR coating. It has strong double sided coating similar to Hublot Big Bang v1 Factory AR.
Bezel: Polished Stainless Steel
Bracelet: Stainless, polished and brushed parts (5 parts on each link, like genuine Omega Seamaster Pro) with screws.
Clasp: Double deployant buckle
The watch case seems to be really well made on this piece. It has similar nicely curved case just like the genuine article. A trip to an AD window suggest that the case is indeed very very close to the genuine article. Looking into more details, the finishing is excellent on the case. There are no sharp parts or unfinished parts even on hidden area such as near the bracelet end links. They are evenly and nicely brushed. This is the area where I think this watch excels the most and where many reps have failed to pay attention to such details. The bracelet end links join the case very nicely too, showing that the case was indeed made with very good tolerance.
Similar can be said for the polished bezel, screws near the bezels, screws on the caseback as well as the caseback. They are definitely of high quality parts available on the market.
The chronograph pushers are made of rubber and the tube holding it is made of polished stainless steel. The construction of the pusher tubes is also excellent. The shape is well defined and well finished (again, not many pay attention to this detail). The crown which has a rubber tip with stainless steel body is also well made. It screws down properly and the rubber seems to be pretty stiff and built to last. As a comparison to the genuine watch, it feels just like this.
The crystal seems to be evenly pressed to the case, double sided AR coating does really enhance the look of this watch. It's of excellent quality. The see thru crystal on the caseback is also made of sapphire crystal but it's not treated with AR coating.
The dial has a really nice "fusion" idea. It has a little bit of depth, shown by hobnail/waffle effects on the subdial as well as good combination of polished and brushed parts on the markers. It has a slightly larger running second hand subdial, contrasting it easily with chronograph function (yellow hands, smaller subdial). The best part that I love the most is the hands! They are not simply polished. You can refer to the pictures, there are straight lines in the middle of the hands, it is part of the design and definitely it's replicated perfectly on this model. There exists date function on this watch in between 4 and 5 o'clock. The date is slightly recessed due to the Tricompax movement. More into this later...
The hour, minute, second hands contain luminous materials of C1 colour. The markers are lumed too. It has pretty good performance. I would say it's pretty much like IWC Cousteau Diver's lume out of box. It has above average lume quality.
Now it comes the not-so-good news. Recessed date is one thing but a huge limitation on availability of movements in replica world. The genuine watch does NOT use ETA775x based movement. It has closer subdial spacing and non recessed datewheel. If you notice closely, on the genuine watch, there is a marker at 9 o'clock position and the bigger subdial is slightly cut in between 4-5 o'clock position. This is due to smaller subdial spacing on the genuine movement. Apart from that, the datefont is not 100% correct too. The genuine uses a bolder font than what you can see on the replica.
Looking from the see thru caseback, it shows an Asian 7750 hi beat movement, well decorated. Of course the genuine will not look like this but the rep doesn't disappoint. Machine polished (guilloché) on the base plate too.
Moving on, the bracelet doesn't disappoint me at all. It also has rounder design just like the genuine. It's actually pretty clean out of the box. The links are not stuck and feel pretty smooth. A small problem when resizing is the screw quality. It seems that the screw is the weak point here (i.e.: pretty hard to take out). There are no traces of Loctite/screws tightener applied but they do feel pretty rough. Nonetheless, none of them are broken. The clasp is very good. It's polished, locks properly and well finished. The lock is excellent! Fits tightly, doesn't open by accident but you can still open the bracelet pretty easily. You can see that there is a little bit of machine polishing near the clasp lock from the pictures, a bonus here
However, if you scrutinized the clasp more, there seems to be a pretty "unfinished/unpolished" part near the inner side of the central clasp look (did not have picture of it). It's barely noticeable (not noticeable at all when bracelet is closed).
Results:
Strap and clasp: (max. 10 points)
No sharp part on the bracelet, locks well and will not open by accident. Minor finishing issues exist on the screws and unpolished part but they are indeed really minor.
9
Operation: (10)
Butter smooth pusher for chronograph function, screw down crown, slip free rubber and stainless steel. In short as a sport watch, EXCELLENT.
9
Case: (10)
Very well made case, well defined just like the genuine article. No spelling mistakes on the engraving, properly polished and brushed parts even on the most subtle parts.
10
Design: (15)
Another watch with a very strong decades of root. It is attractively designed, unsymmetrical sometimes. Form follows functions.
13
Legibility: (10)
Large second subdial, different colour for chronograph counter hands plus above average replica lume. Combined all these and you will get a highly legible watch.
9
Wearing comfort: (15)
Not too heavy on Stainless Steel bracelet, even for smaller wrist, this watch sits nicely on the wrist. Half link provided.
13
Movement: (20)
As movement on the replica, it's very good. +10 secs a day out of box. Manual winding works like charm too. Good power reserve.
15
Overall value: (10)
Perhaps a big flaw on this watch (i.e.: the movement) will disappoint many but to me, the watch is well priced at barely above 300USD (forum price). Resale value may drop as in the case of not so popular watch.
8
Total:
86/100
Conclusion:
Without doubt that this is an excellent replica. A biggest challenge and stumbling block of this watch is the movement. Expecting a copy of Caliber 137 is like chasing a pipe dream. Simply to the repmakers, the demand doesn't warrant them to replicate the movement, just yet. In any case, this is a replica which I am truly happy out of box. Without much knowledge, this watch feels and looks just like the genuine article. It's definitely a keeper on my collection, I may even consider buying the genuine article of this watch.
