: For most intents and purposes, the helium valve
: is obsolete. What is critical is the quality
: of the case and seals.
: Most would be in favor of simpler, tougher and
: less expensive tool
: watches-incidentally,what do you say about
: Breitling SuperOcean?
I owned one and sold it. It didn't keep very good time compared to my Omega Seamasters, and it was grossly overpriced for the poor quality movement inside it. I hated the bracelet as well (very cheap-feeling compared to the Omegas). The only thing it had that the Omega didn't was greater water resistance and the built-in, automatic helium relief valve. Since I am not a diver and both of these features were of no use to me, they didn't keep me from selling it to buy another Omega. I'll take my less expensive and better quality Bond and 2254.50 black Seamasters any day over a SuperOcean. Of all the watches I have ever owned and sold, that one was by far my LEAST favorite.
As Georges has pointed out time and again, Breitling does very little to modify their ETA based movements compared to Omega. The Omega 1120, which is a heavily modified ETA 2892-A2, is light years ahead of the lightly modified ETA 2824 movement in the SuperOcean (some sources say Breitling now uses the better 2892-A2 in the SuperOcean, but I haven't been able to confirm this one way or the other). Either way, Omega's movement is better, its bracelets are better, and a Seamaster actually costs several hundred dollars less. I can see no reason to buy a SuperOcean unless you dive at great depths and need that extra water resistance (500m vs. 300m).
