Messages: 854 Location: Toronto, Canada
Registered: December 2003
The versatile Steelfish 42
Sat, 12 January 2013 14:37
Here is the kind of obsessive, overwrought post, with pictures, that I used to enjoy seeing on TZ. I miss the days when arguments over arcane or minute details of certain watches would go on for days. So, in the spirit of giving back to my favourite watch site:
Last year I picked up a watch I had been thinking about for a long time - the Steelfish 44 black dial. It was meant to be a replacement for my SOP, foolishly sold earlier in the year. This could be blamed largely on heldeberg (Frank), whose pictures of same had an insidious effect on me.
I got a good local deal, the watch was in pretty decent shape, on bracelet, and I was chuffed.
It was the largest watch I had ever had, and with a 6.75" wrist, I felt it was at the larger end of suitable watches for me.
However, as time went by, I couldn't help but notice a few details on this newer design that seemed a little...regressive, in terms of tool watch ideology.
The black dial was much more reflective than either my SOP or my CSO, to the point where it really bothered me under inside lighting. The massive numerals at 12, 6, and 9 caused some sort of crazy effect on the dial and it was very distracting. This is really hard to show in pictures...
Compare the SOP (outside AR removed, as befits a tool watch) with indisputably the most legible hands I have ever had on a watch. I think it is due to them being brushed, which blends the lumed and surrounding steel areas, making the hands seem larger....
Then the new pointed second hand,, added to much of the Colt line a few years ago. Nice enough hand, but it makes the second hand very difficult to pick up at night, as the lumed part runs through the hour markers.....
The SOP, with the squared red lumed portion, and red tip, fits the mould of the typical diver second hand, where the lume is inset from the hour markers to make it easy to pick up in lower lighting conditions. Think the Rolex Sub, Omega Seamaster, and any number of others. Also, the square runs neatly between the hour markers and the 24 hour numbers, a small design feature easy to miss...
The crown was modern, much smoother than the previous SO and SOP crowns. In my opinion, much harder to use when your hands are wet or cold. Note the crown guards, that are thicker at the wrist than the top of the case. Seems backwards, somehow....
I like the ridged SOP version, myself...
The bracelet is lovely, of course. I have the Pro II on my CSO, so was used to it, although the 22mm width felt a lot larger than 20mm on me. Funny, though, no diver's extension on this one.....
Then the bezel. No paint in the numbers, per the newer style, which is certainly acceptable, and aesthetically perhaps neater, but not as quick to read as the SOP. Also, the sloped edge of the bezel, which is smaller than (inset on) the case, with flatter screw heads, is not as easy to turn. The SOP screws stuck out past the rounded shoulders of the case, making them almost as useful as the rider tabs for grip. Note the differences...
I acknowledge the newer style bracelet as being much closer to the pilot and Navitimer style, but there was something about the Pro 1 that just says "tool"...
Well, where is all this leading, you ask?
Missing my Seamaster GMT "Great White" which was stolen in a break-in last fall, I opted to sell the SF 44mm (yes, it hurt) and tried an almost new black SMPc, a beautiful watch that I thought might provide a slightly dressier daily wearer....
A stunner, with an excellent bracelet, tons of diver DNA, with only one fatal flaw - I couldn't read the time at night. Omega lengthened the skeleton minute hand a few years ago, and now the triangle lume hits the hour markers - very hard for my aging eyes. Other than that the watch would have been a keeper, maybe with the sword hands??? After three or four nights, I knew this was going to be a problem. Don't ask me why night readability is so important to me, I really don't know, but it is.
I was going to bed at midnight, around Christmas, when something made me check the Sales Corner on TZ one last time. Wait....what is that!....I don't believe it, now what do I do?
I knew my wife would kill me if I told her the new Omega SMPc was not cutting the mustard. But still, the watch on the SC hardly ever surfaced, and it seemed in decent shape, even though the seller was in Asia.
I struggled, emailed the seller with a couple of questions, and of course he said there were multiple contacts already. I took a deep breath, said a brief prayer, and sent the money.
A short wait of a few days almost killed me. Would this be the answer to some of the issues I raised in the post above. Time would tell. Monday it arrived, I could hardly wait to get home. And then.....
WOW!! Perfect!
It was in pretty fair shape, and a couple of hours of careful polishing and brushing...
Note the case shape - I don't know if this was used on any other Breitling. I like it much more than the newer style.
Bracelet is killer...
Verastile as heck.....
Even fits on the Pro II from the CSO...
Lume is great too...
It just feels right. Many of the advantages of the SO line, with some updates per the SF line, and I think this one is going to be around a long, long, time.
- jonnieb