One of the classic looks of the watch world is a blue dial blue bezel diver watch with
some gold on it as a nice accent we're going to review three of them coming up
When I got my first job at a Rolex store back in 1987 the Bluesy wasn't really out yet it came out
in 1988 and it was such a big splash which is a good word for a dive watch but it was the 16613
and that's the classic reference of the steel and gold Rolex Submariner in a 40-millimeter that had
the blue dial and blue bezel and people were just crazy about it we even had a waiting list way back
in 1988 for that watch but the watch has evolved over the years it picked up a ceramic bezel and
the Maxi case and Maxi dial when the reference switched to 116613 and then it picked up a
little bit extra on the size when it went to the 41-millimeter for the 126613 but it really is the
classic reference of this look and they've changed the color of the blue a little bit over the years
they did add the bigger crown guards the bigger crown the Maxi dial the ceramic bezel, of course,
little touches like the gold through the clasp but the basic idea is still the same it's a steel
and gold dive watch with a blue dial and bezel the steel and gold makes it certainly a little
dressier than the all-steel version the center section of the bracelet is high polish instead
of all brushed like an all-steel Submariner and so it's a little dressier I see this a lot a lot with
guys who are wearing a Submariner with a suit and it looks great on them if you like that blue like
you know for me I blue is my favorite color so I like that it picks that up but they have changed
the the tone of the blue a little bit over the years you can see that on our website if you look
at those three different stock reference numbers 16613, 116613, and 126613 you'll be able to see
the slight variations especially if you open them in more than one tab and you can kind of flip back
and forth so this is the defining one this is a 40-millimeter case it has the machined clasp in
modern times super nice very heavy duty nice bracelet with the solid center links and it's
just a watch that you couldn't go wrong with it gets you a little bit of dressy with the gold but
also casual with the blue since they came out with this watch there have been lots of other choices
on the market though and I'll show you this one next now let's go with this one this is the
Cartier Calibre and they came out initially with the watch it was not a diver and so then they had
a variation that they call the Calibre Diver came out a couple of years later and it's a little bit
bigger you can see them side by side the Rolex here is 40-millimeter and the Calibre is 41.
Cartier does have a ceramic bezel and it comes on this really cool strap that is sort of
textured like fabric but it's rubber and so it'll live through any kind of maritime adventures you
might throw at it it has some nice blue stitching that picks up the blue of the bezel it is a
ceramic bezel one of the things I love about a lot of the Cartier watches they've kind of improved on
a lot of the the watches out there because the crystals are recessed below the level of the
bezel so if you were to drop the watch hopefully you won't we always recommend don't ever take a
watch off in a room with a tile floor don't take it off over a granite countertop you'll get some
damage if you do when you fumble it but they have recessed the level of the crystal below the level
of the bezel so that it's not the first thing that hits the crystal on this one's also interesting
because it's a little bit domed it's not completely flat the bezel is a true unidirectional
rotating bezel but it's just silky smooth the way it turns it's very very easy to operate I like the
big sub seconds hand sub-dial there at 6 o'clock the lume is super bright there's a lot of great
contrast on this watch it makes it a lot easier to read than a lot of other watches out there
and for a lot of Cartier watches they don't use white Roman numerals they'll be matched to the
color of the case or or some other design element but they made this watch really legible so I think
that's a great Improvement as far as something being a dive watch because you get that little bit
of Cartier class with the the Roman numerals but you also get phenomenal legibility you have the
big date window so that you can see a couple of days there in the aperture something that Cartier
is known for the lugs and everything are really well designed on this watch they slope downward
so it fits better on the wrist than if they came straight out they're a little bit stubby too so
this watch works even for a smaller wrist really nice I mean I really just can't say enough good
things about this watch then we have as far as the size comparison let's try to kind of get all three
of these side by side by side here for you so you can see the size difference that's 40-millimeter
and then we go to 42 and then this Omega is 44 and a quarter millimeters so you can see it really has
a progression of the sizes there the the Omega and the Cartier sort of dwarf the Rolex so keep that
in mind when you're ordering based on your wrist size and what size watch you like to wear but the
Omega really checks all the boxes for a lot of people as well because it does have the ceramic
bezel it's the 18-carat rose gold it has also a ceramic dial that is laser engraved with their
signature wave pattern you do have up here at 10 o'clock the helium escape valve don't worry about
it you'll never need it unless you're one of the roughly 150 people in the United States that do
saturation diving but it does have the exhibition caseback which I love we've talked before about
this movement that it is anti-magnetic it's two barrels it's the Master Chronometer that
as a huge primary reserve and the Co-Axial Escapement there's really not anything I can add
to this watch to improve it at all it also has the rubber strap and even though it's 44-millimeter
it's a size that really works for just about every wrist except the smallest ones I mean unless you
have an extraordinarily small wrist even this 44-millimeter is going to look great on you we're
happy to offer a FaceTime call or a Zoom call show it to you on the wrist and let you see how
it's going to look now if you're concerned at all about the 44-millimeter diameter but there's sort
of a progression and we're happy to compare any of these when you call in call us at the Atlanta
showroom here we're happy to go over all the details of the watch while we've got it in hand