Another Bernhardt Watch Review!

The Globe Master

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bernhardt (Instruments) Watch Globe Master, the first thing I noticed wearing it was that it was heavy enough to not feel the oscillator weight, a big plus in my book and a real feel of quality. It seems to be made in the USA, which is quite important to me and has a modified version of the legendary ETA 2836-2 movement! The GMT hand of the watch comes from a gear train developed and made (according to Bernhardt) in NC!! The ingenious design employs the would be day wheel to act as a settable 24 hour hand. Check out the �Watch Page� on www.brainlubeonline.com for more on the base movement, very neat. The Globe Master has a great band, great finish, and great packaging. The dial markings and alignment are perfect, the hands aligned perfectly also. The crystal is hard and flawless sapphire, the center of the hands has only a small hole of no color (maybe I�ll fix that with nail polish in the future), not a big deal, and far better than any watch in this price range that I�ve seen. After about three or four days of wearing I could see wear marks on the band, the slight brush finish is easy to mar, but easy to refinish as well. The beautifully done back sits high enough that the crown doesn�t bug you, and shows off it�s extremely high-tolerance milling, EDM, whatever. �My watch is #211 out of 500 made, which I think is quite nice. There was some confusion as to the availability of these watches however. My fianc� purchased this watch for my birthday, and the email dialog between them indicated that she must act now as this was the last watch in stock. I was so amazed that I email Bernhard trying to purchase another one just to hear him say no, he said YES!!! One left, again, that was a real let down, and the # was lower than mine, and I don�t believe he takes watches back, but it could be any number of things. The engraved crown is a nice touch, and the Solid End Links are just a thing of beauty. You WILL need to take the screws out of the band and Loc-Tite them, The entire watch is milled from 316l stainless, same as an omega, etc. It�s a great steel and I have no complaints. The Bezel is 120 clicks, I love that, there is, however a little bit of slop maybe about a second�s graduation�s worth, don�t think Rolex here. I think I�ll just pop off the bezel and tune a wire to take care of that, easily fixed and then will be a no slop, perfect bezel. The illumination is very well done and the face is just a breath taking metallic blue. I�m sort of a science guy, and I wish they would make a tritium vile prettier, but the super luminova is as good as you can hope for now since the government has decided you can�t have radium dials because you�re too stupid to exist on your own. The last thing I would like to mention is this watches STEEL movement holder, I love this watch! This has got to be the best deal in the world right now for a fine watch!

Me diving on my honeymoon with my Bernhardt

This is a new watch mechanism from a company that used to modify ETA movements, I believe this will be just as good for less.. Check out the Bi-directional winding mechanism, look familiar? A New Watch Movement (Clone)!

Update 2016

So after about 7 years (I think I got it around 2009), of very hard use, the GMT hand stopped being able to be set by the crown. The GMT hand still worked, it just couldn't be set by the stem (crown) directly. You could still set it, by turning the hour wheel over twice (24 hours divided my 12) and the hand would still work with the watch, it just could not be set directly anymore.

The standard modes of operation are as follows: unscrew the crown and turn the crow clock-wise to manually wind the watch, pull out to the first notch and turn clock-wise to set the date, turn counter-clock-wise to set the GMT hand, pull to the second notch to hack (stop the seconds hand) and to set the hours/minutes. Though the GMT hand would progress with the hours, the setting feature would not work. This watch has had a hard life, diving, absorbing many rounds of rifle and pistol fire on the primary hand, and has been in planes and racing karts getting the hell vibrated out of it. Still keeps great time too.

- The Fix - I had never been this far into this watch and I was curious to see how Bernhardt had modified the ETA 2836-2 movement to create this novel GMT complication. First I removed the band, then the case back with an opener (get an opener, save on the scratches).

After which, I took the bi-directional winding assembly off (two blued screws). When you're working with these very small parts, use a loupe, even when you don't have to. It really makes your movements more acute.

Next I released the barrel tension by keeping my finger and thumb on the crown and lifting the catch (one-way clutch) on the winding wheel out of the way to slowly release the tension in the winding mechanism. (Do not just let it spin free to unwind!)

Then I removed the hands. Put a piece of paper down to protect the face, Then just carefully use your watchmakers (Bergeon) screwdrivers to take the hands up, being careful not to bend them.

After removing the hands, I flipped a lever on the movement pallet and carefully removed the face.
The trick is gearing the would-be day wheel to click every hour (because it is already geared to 1 revolution every 24 hours). The wheel that was added had a pressed-in collet, that had separated from the wheel (gear). I pressed it back in and fluxed the assembly with electronic flux, then I used a paper napkin to soak up the excess flux, and I used regular old 60/40 solder, to solder the two pieces together. I then soaked some solder-wick in liquid flux and removed the excess solder. I assembled the wheel using a small amount of Loc-tite as the regular, righ-hand threads needed to be left-hand threads because the only direction this gear turns is counter-clock-wise. Thus every time the GMT hand turns, it is trying to loosen the screw back out. Oh well not a fault of ETA, I'm sure the Bernhardt engineers will catch it next time.


To assemble the hands, you need to get a hand-pusher tool. I set until the day wheel flips to a new day, then I post everything in the 12 o-clock position (except the GMT hand and the second hand because they don't matter).

Now it's back to running like a champ! I'm ashamed to say this watch hasn't even been cleaned yet!