Well, as some of you may remember, I acquired my first Cartier in August, 2011. A beautiful Calibre de Cartier, with the silver dial and steel bracelet.
I have rarely seen a more beautiful mens watch, especially the steel bracelet which was specially designed for it. Having said that, after I had the watch for a while, there were a couple of things that began to bother me, and I found the watch was spending all its time in the box, while I wore my Rolex Explorer.
A couple of weeks ago, I sold the Calibre to a good friend of mine. He loved the watch always, and when I got it he told me to let him know if I ever wanted to sell it.
I ended up falling in love with the Omega Speedmaster Professional. Not only for aesthetics, but the fact that is has a manually wound movement and a hesalite crystal. For a long time those were two features that I have wanted on a watch.
I must say that I find this a more appropriate watch than the Calibre. It actually wears a bit smaller on my wrist, although it is the same size at 42mm, and even a bit thicker at 13mm where the Calibre is only 10mm. I think that is because the case on the Speedy is tapered, and that of the Calibre is straight edged.
The hands of the Calibre always bothered me. I somehow didn't find the white lume appropriate with the vintage looking silver dial. I had always wished that the hands were either blued or plain black.
I thought also that if Cartier is going to do lume on the watch, then do it right. It was very faint at best and only 4 small markers on the dial apart from the hands. I wish they had left the lume out entirely. The reason behind the lume was obviously to placate the guys who want lume on the watch.
I don't want to turn this into a bashing of the Calibre de Cartier, a very fine timepiece with a wonderful inhouse movement. Just presenting my thoughts as to why I find the Speedy more appropriate for me.
Here is a link to my post on the Prime Time Forum, about my Speedmaster:
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revo-online.com]
Thank You for reading. I did enjoy the experience of owning my first beautiful Cartier, and I hope that experience will be repeated in the future with another new Cartier.
Cheers,
Carl
