Review

The B-1 is definately a tool watch. It the following digital functions which use the two digital displays on the watch face:

• Time of Day (Local Time)
• Alarm Local Time, alarm repeats twice at intervals if not cancelled
• Date with calender programmed to 2100 - displaying Day, Date, Month, Year which can be formated in US / UK formats
• Chronograph with Split Second display counting up to 99d23h59m59s in 100th second dispayed increments
• Count Down Timer is second intervals down from 99d23h59m59s down to --d--h--m01s with alarm that repeats twice at end
• Second Time Zone
• Second Time Zone Alarm, repeats if not cancelled
• UTC time - independant of Local or Second Time Zone, adjustable by 15m intervals sychronised with seconds
• Adjustable for ENG/ESP/FRA/DEU languages
• Hour mark / Count down Hour mark / Audible tone on|off for pushers
• End-of-life flashing display for battery
• 'Sleep' mode that reduces battery load when off-wrist for extended periods
• Backlit digital display (colour compatible with night vision googles)

In addition is the Navitimer style slide-rule with various additional conversion functions built on the scales

The styling is functional rather than easthetic - though personally I like the styling. The standard bracelet is the 'Fighter' bracelet with brushed central links

The Bezel is brushed steel, the case is shiny steel which makes for a pleasing contrast.

The second hand has a red tip and the applied breitling logo is gold. Apart from the red '60' and '10' markers on the slide rule the face is black and white.

The 12,3,6,9 glow in the dark quite nicely after switching off the light, though after 6 hours later the glow is fairly dim. Of course the back light can be activated by depressing the crown if you need to read the time in that case. The second hand pauses while the ligh shines, "to conserve battery power".

Items that drain the battery most are: Light and Sound in that order.

In terms of accuracy. I have been keeping a log of my SuperQuartz version since I purchased it at the beginning of December 2003. A graph shows the collected data of average variance by date. See Fig 5 on the left.

Data was taken from 3 reference sources. 1) Time signal by telephone; 2) Time given by atomic synchronised clock; 3) Time given by UTC timezone and the variance from these points is shown in the graph.

Notice that so far the variance in 7 months is +2sec between Dec and July so that works out at an average of gaining less than:

+4sec/year

I think I can live with that!! SQ is meant to be +-15sec/year by Breitling standards so this watch is well within specification.

Waterproof to 50m - so that makes it ok to shower with, maybe surface swimming depending on if you want to risk it. Personally I don't swim with it and I take off all my watches while showering anyway. I wash it with soap and water and an old tooth brush from time to time.

It is built very solidly. Quite a large watch being 42.20mm Diameter, 16.50mm thick and weighing in at 95.70gr, though it fits comfortably on my 6 3/4" wrist. Some people find it's thickness takes a little getting used to, I find it fine.

I'd like to try it with a croc strap for a change, though I'm quite happy with the OEM bracelet with it's double safety fastening clasp making it a safe option to keep it on ones wrist.

(end of review)