Dubey & Schaldenbrand Aerodyn Duo
Review by Ludwig
I first encountered this watch last year at Paris1925, while picking up another two-timezone watch, the JLC Master Geo. I really liked the retro Art Deco look of the Dubey, but was convinced that the Master Geo was the One True Travel Watch, and so I passed on the Dubey, not really giving it much serious consideration.
Over time, I came to the regretful conclusion that the JLC Master Geo was really The Ultimate Telephone Watch, best suited wearing while calling folks in other timezones without waking them, but that it suffered from a variety of deficiencies that made it unsuitable as my travel watch.
I looked at several other solutions to my problem - the Tutima Flieger GMT, the Muller Master Banker, the Ikepod Seaslug, the Ulysse Nardin GMT+, and a few others. None of them quite met my needs for a multi-timezone travel watch (though I eventually ended up getting both the Tutima GMT and the Seaslug for other seemingly-valid reasons).
A few months ago, I decided that the new larger-size UN GMT+, or the Daniel Roth GMT, might work for me. I dropped by Chatel to have a look. The GMT+ had a really, really nice user interface, and seemed almost perfect, but I really didn't like the matte black dial. I would have preferred one of UN's excellent enamel dials. The Roth on close inspection did not appeal to me at all, and I quickly ruled it out.
The Panerai GMT that I snuck a glance at I rejected as being too likely to set off the metal detectors at airports :-) It looked like I was out of luck again.
However, right next to the Panerais was a display case with all of these nice-looking Dubey's in it. Not wanting to have wasted an hour-long drive to Carmel, I picked up one of the Aerodyn Duo's to have a closer look. After fiddling with the crown to see how the watch functioned, and inspecting the dial carefully, I decided that the Dubey was actually really, really cool, and met most of my functional requirements to boot.
I then spent about 1/2 an hour trying to decide which dial color to get. They are all very nice, and each choice makes the watch look completely different. I finally went with the "black" dial, with white numbers.
After 2+ months, I still like this watch tremendously, and use it most of the time at work and for business travel as my preferred two-timezone watch. The more I wear this watch, the more I come to think that it is incredible value for the money. (Insofar as you can speak of "value" and "Swiss mechanical watch" in the same sentence...)
Yes. In fact, I'm seriously considering buying another one, this time the blue dial. I'm also going to have a look at the upcoming Ulysse Nardin Big Date GMT+.
The Aerodyn's movement is based on the ubiquitous ETA 2892-A2. Dubey really spices it up, though, adding a second independent time zone, a 24-hour indicator, and a calendar dial. It is a 28,800 bph, hacking, autowinding movement, 25.6mm in diameter, XXmm high, with 23 jewels. Glucydur balance, incabloc shock protection, Nivarox spring.
The movement is quite easy to operate. The second timezone operates independently of the first, and so can be adjusted for those bothersome timezones that are 1/2 hour off from the reast of the world. Or, you can use the second timezone as an impromptu 24-hour chronograph. The second time is adjusted in the first position of the crown by rotating the crown "forwards", towards the 12 o'clock position.
The date is also set in the first crown position, in this case by rotating the crown "backwards", towards 6 o'clock.
The time is set in the second crown position, which also hacks.
The dial has white Art Deco Arabic numerals, chased thinly in gold. Minute marks all around the dial. Tritium dots at the 5-minute chapters. Overall, the dial has a nicely-balanced look to it.
The main hour and minute hands are tritium-filled skeleton-style hands, which look awesome on this watch (I confess to some bias here - I love this style of hands, and am a sucker for almost any watch with them). The second hand is a long, thin, gold pointer, with a red arrow at the tip. The date, second timezone, and 24-hour indicator hands are gold-colored, and look very subtle.
