New Trident GMT

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treetops
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New Trident GMT

Post by treetops »

As a current wearer of an existing Trident GMT I read with anticipation regarding the new GMT... I thought, finally a GMT watch that could match the hype of the advertising and be a true alternative to a Rolex GMT Master II. A watch that would have a bi-directional bevel with 48 clicks, and an simple to adjust local time hour hand... Has that happened? Can anybody confirm... what I can see is a uni-directional diving bezel that doesn't have the morning hours on, and a new (and improved) face, a very nice sweep second hand, and an okay'ish GMT hand.
I am aware that aesthetics is a personal preference but unless the functionality matches that of a true GMT watch then I'm going to stick with the GMT watch I have, and strap on my ORIS world-timer whenever I have to travel.

Your thoughts?

Regards, Ben
C50 COSC, Trident GMT, ORIS Worldtimer, Breitling SuperAvenger
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by downer »

The movement in the new version is the same as the original Trident GMT - ETA 2893-2. Therefore, the operation of the hands etc will be the same...

So, for travelling you will have to stick to the Oris Worldtimer.
Richard
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by Proco2020 »

I'm still a little confused about this "true GMT" statement?

I have two GMT's, one a CW and they both tell me the time in two time zones. What is it you're looking for that is more than this?

Sadly the Bezel is the killer for me on this new watch, and not in a good way.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by smegwina »

Proco2020 wrote:I'm still a little confused about this "true GMT" statement?

I have two GMT's, one a CW and they both tell me the time in two time zones. What is it you're looking for that is more than this?

Sadly the Bezel is the killer for me on this new watch, and not in a good way.
A true gmt will allow you to change then 2nd time zone completely independently of any other functions on the watch, and without stopping the main timekeeping.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by downer »

Here's an explanation I came up with a few years ago...
downer wrote:The Monitoring GMT is very useful for monitoring another time zone whilst leaving the main watch hands on your home zone. On these watches, the GMT hand is set by using the crown in position 1. The hand moves in 1 hour increments when it is being set. In position 2, the main hours/minutes are set as normal and the relationship between the main hour and the GMT hand is maintained. So, if you set the GMT hand as -5 hours from the main hour hand in position 1, this difference is maintained when you set the main hands in position 2.

The majority of mechanical GMT watches seem to work in this way, and the two CW examples (C60GMT and C9GMT) are like this. This is determined by the movement, and of course, the ETA 2893-2 is a common example.

For travellers, this type of GMT is not ideal, although it can still be useful.

The Travelling GMT works in the opposite way. The GMT hand is set with the normal setting mechanism and is linked to the minutes and seconds. The main hour hand is separate and can be moved in one hour increments (forwards or backwards) with the crown in position 1. For a traveller crossing time zones, this is great as it means the main watch hands can quickly be altered to local time, whilst the GMT hand is maintained at 'home' time, and the watch does not have to be stopped to alter it to the local time.

This functionality does not seem to be available below the several £'000 level. Rolex, Omega, Grand Seiko and a few others offer this functionality in mechanical watches. There are also offerings from Alpina and Oris that are more affordable.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by Proco2020 »

OK, so I use mine to monitor, but how important is it to not "stop" the watch in a different time zone?

To adjust the time you're looking at less than a minute and if accuracy is that important you'll be using a digital watch set from an atomic clock.

Serious question as interested.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by cds72911 »

I don't like the "true GMT" language, but monitoring/traveling seem reasonable. I only travel overseas a few times a year but need to know time in another continent every day, so the Monitoring GMT works fine for me.

I like the C60 Mkii so bought one - it is on it's way now. I'd change a few things if I was given a chance, but for the price point, the tradeoffs are fine. If I was really that concerned, I'd buy an Omega SMPO GMT or a Rolex GMT - the few things I'd like changed aren't worth that many thousands to me.

I do not expect any different functionality from the Mkii watch since as noted above it shares the same movement as the Mk1 (2893-2).

I'll report back on whether the bezel is bidirectional when I get it. Perhaps just me being cynical, but my guess is no. I also suspect it is 120 click, since it shares casing parts with the three hand version, but I'd like to be proved wrong.

The GMT hand on the Mki is just too darn small. This Mkii hand is an improvement. The GMT hand would benefit from a simple Rolex Explorer style hand (actually I'd love the one from the Muhle Glashutte Seabatallion GMT), but the new one is better than old and I suspect will be tolerable.

I agree that the Bezel is the achilles heel of this watch. I've shared my bezel layout feedback with Mr. Ward directly via email, and never heard back, so I don't know whether it fell on deaf ears.

An excerpt here:

One area where the new GMT is not comparable to either your former C60 GMT and the SMPO/Explorer II offerings is the bezel markings.

From reading the forum and the transcript of your one on one session, I read that bezel options are not high on your list of new projects. I get it - you have much "bigger fish to fry". However, I'd ask that you consider exploring a different bezel layout for your C60 GMT watch.

For me, the loss of interim hour hash marks and the addition of the diver style hashes between 12 and 3 is a big step backward. The bezel markings on the new GMT reduce the day-to-day functionality for people that really need a proper GMT function (pilots, international travelers, business people that work in dual time zones).

It is a nice compromise between a diver and a dual time bezel, but I/we don't need that compromise - a rotating bezel GMT with a luminous 12 o'clock marker can already double as a diver style timer. I need a true GMT/dual time bezel on my GMT watch.

The reason this is important to me personally is that I have a team in Bangalore India that I work with every day. I started wearing a dual time watch so I could know what time of their day it is (who wants to be disturbed in the middle of the night for a non-emergency).

As you may know, India is somewhat of an oddball time zone and is off by an extra half hour - which makes fixed dual time bezels, 24 hour dials and fixed 24 hour marked rehauts useless when dealing with India (they are off by 30 min). This also means a rotating bezel without good hour markers can't simply reuse the hour markers on the dial (they are misaligned by 30 min, unlike people that need it for "normal" time zones where the hours markers line up nicely with the bezel).

A rotating bezel with good hour resolution makes it possible to know what time of day they are in. The every other hour resolution of the new C60 GMT bezel makes it a whole lot less useful. Interim hash marks (dots) on your "old" GMT increase the resolution so it is usable for my purposes.

Is there any chance you would create an offering for a bezel upgrade back to a GMT bezel layout more like the old C60 GMT and allow us to retrofit? Or even better, a Planet Ocean style bezel with interim line markers instead of dots for the in between hours (it would fit nicely with your new applied indices).

If I could just swap the bezel with one that has interim has marks the new watch would be a perfect fit for all I need. This would return the utility for those of us that really need GMT functionality in a reasonably priced high quality mechanical watch.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by Proco2020 »

My thoughts also on the bezel and probably a show stopper for me on not "upgrading" to the schizo GMT.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by treetops »

by "true GMT" I meant that the hour and minute hand tell the local time, and the 24hour hand is the reference (GMT, home, wherever) time. Now I *know* you can do this, it's just not intuitive or simple, and with the bezel not clicking on the hour, the marketing message (now changed) of "And because the Trident has a uni-directional bezel it is possible to know the time in three time-zones simultaneously. Eat your heart out, Rolex!" grated somewhat!

--Ben
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by downer »

Proco2020 wrote:OK, so I use mine to monitor, but how important is it to not "stop" the watch in a different time zone?

To adjust the time you're looking at less than a minute and if accuracy is that important you'll be using a digital watch set from an atomic clock.

Serious question as interested.
Of course, it's not really that important at all. :)

However, for me, if I buy a mechanical watch that has decent accuracy, I want it to remain accurate. My personal affliction is that I have "need" to set the watch precisely to the second when I start wearing it, and therefore, when I change time zones, I don't want to compromise that accuracy.

To be honest, I don't need a GMT watch for most of my travel needs - because I only move one or two time zones. The real benefit of a true GMT watch is the ability to advance the main hour hand by one hour without stopping the watch and I can do that equally easily with an Omega 8500 three-hand movement.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by Dancematt »

Forgive me but using a gmt for the half hour conundrum is massively impractical, given all the movements out there to combat this like ani/digis, dual timers and some world timers (though the last option is still not great) why use a GMT with a bezel slightly out of line? The only other option for a gmt is to move both the main hour and minute hands to that 'other' timezone leaving current time with the gmt hand which still sucks as you'll need to look at it more and you won't have minutes for your own country so why not just use a dual timer?
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by Dancematt »

treetops wrote:"And because the Trident has a uni-directional bezel it is possible to know the time in three time-zones simultaneously. Eat your heart out, Rolex!" grated somewhat!

--Ben
This statement is massively grating and smarmy. Such bad advertising. Really gets under the skin in the wrong way.
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by cds72911 »

Perhaps, but that is my use case, and it works for me. I'd rather have a dual time mechanical than any quartz or digital watch, so this is my compromise. It works for me.

PS. This is a dual timer - the dial says so :)

PPS. I carry an iPhone everywhere and I have the exact time in several time zones on there. My wristwatch is a quick reference at a glance.
Dancematt wrote:Forgive me but using a gmt for the half hour conundrum is massively impractical, given all the movements out there to combat this like ani/digis, dual timers and some world timers (though the last option is still not great) why use a GMT with a bezel slightly out of line? The only other option for a gmt is to move both the main hour and minute hands to that 'other' timezone leaving current time with the gmt hand which still sucks as you'll need to look at it more and you won't have minutes for your own country so why not just use a dual timer?
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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by robinbarke »

Proco2020 wrote:My thoughts also on the bezel and probably a show stopper for me on not "upgrading" to the schizo GMT.
A member has reported that the new C60 has a bi-directional bezel on 120 clicks and the CW website states bi-directional too.

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Re: New Trident GMT

Post by cds72911 »

Not the one on the site that I ordered from, it says:

Uni-directional ceramic bezel

http://www.christopherward.com/watches/ ... -sksi.html
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