It must be the pure ridiculousness of making a very specific watch for a very specific purpose that makes me love the types of weird, purpose-built vintage AAA replica watches you can often find. Yacht timers, golf watches, tennis watches: I love them all. Sometimes, the manufacturers of these best US fake watches didn’t even modify the inside mechanics of the watch; they just used some clever, often colorful designs to change what a watch could clearly communicate.
I know about as much about soccer (wait, fútbol) as I do about what to get my mom for Christmas (maybe a soccer timer?), but I’ve hitched myself firmly to the World Cup bandwagon this week, pulled by the capable thighs of that handsome, tattoo-sleeved Christian Pulisic fella, whose name I just recently learned to pronounce. It provides the perfect opportunity to write about a wondrous hat trick of vintage soccer timers from Omega and Breitling replica watches for sale. Over the years, a few brands tried their foot at soccer timers, but none did it with mechanical movements as capably as these three chronograph makers. Since each half of a soccer match is 45 minutes, the main problem these soccer timers tried to solve was providing an elegant way to indicate that 45 minutes had indeed elapsed. Sure, you could still use a standard chronograph for this, but what’s the fun in that?
Purpose-built cheap copy watches like these soccer timers are the mechanical apps of their day, developed for one oddly specific thing, and that thing only. It’s the kind of thing that’s fun to imagine why in the world a brand would take the time to make, and who would’ve bought it. Nowadays, I look at these old soccer timers the same way I look at Wrigley Field’s iconic human-operated outfield scoreboard, the same one that’s stood out there since 1937. Sure, it’s totally old-school and unnecessary and there’s probably a better way to keep track of such things nowadays — just ask every other team in baseball — but when a thing is all about tradition anyway (baseball or soccer or high quality replica watches), it’s the little anachronisms that do stick around that make the thing special.
Group A: Omega Seamaster Soccer Timers Replica Watches
Omega produced three Soccer Timer references under the Seamaster line from 1968 through the early ’80s. All used the Omega caliber 861 inside a cushion case, with luxury Omega fake watches bumping the case size from 38mm to 41mm for the last two references.
Really, the only functional difference between these soccer timers and other top replica Omega chronograph watches is the addition of a “45” under the 15-minute marker on the chronograph minute counter so that it’s clear to the referee (or whichever crazed fan finds the need to time a soccer match) that 45 minutes has elapsed. But hey, if you’re going to add that detail and market it specifically for soccer, you might as well make the colors stand out too, so that’s what Omega did.
The first iteration, reference 145.016, featured a white or black dial, often with an orange chronograph hand (nerdy detail alert! It’s similar to the chronograph hand you’ll also find on the collector-favorite “Ultraman” Speedmaster), and fun colors on the subdials. This first generation measures 38mm and isn’t a reference unique to the soccer timer – you’ll also see it on stock Omega Seamaster super clone watches wholesale. While this Omega Soccer Timer reference is the most affordable, for me it wears the best thanks to the slightly smaller, slimmer case.
The second generation of the China replica Omega Soccer Timer watches is the reference 145.019. I asked our friendly neighborhood vintage expert Rich Fordon, and he said this one is the most sought-after. It’s easy to see why: The dial is the most fun of Omega’s soccer timer trio. It features an outer rotating bezel (rotated with the additional crown at 10 o’clock) that’s sometimes seen in a particularly saucy “roulette” wheel variation, which allows for the tracking of a second time zone (just in case you’re curious about the time in Kennebunkport while timing that World Cup game in Qatar). Like the first-generation Soccer Timer, the ref. 145.019 fake watches shop comes with black or white dials that feature colorful accents and handsets. With the chunky case and bright colors, it’s a package that’s undeniably 1970s. Finally, Omega also offered a ref. 145.020, which uses essentially the same design and case as the ref. 145.019, but with a fixed, solid black bezel (boring! In comparison to that roulette wheel, at least).
Group B: Breitling Soccer Timers Fake Watches
Like Omega, 1:1 Breitling replica watches also made a simple design tweak to make itself a soccer timer. Breitling uses the quirky “slow chronograph” movement for its soccer timer. For what’s already a peculiar little niche – soccer timers, that is – this makes Breitling’s version even more fun. Unlike a normal chronograph, when you activate the chronograph pusher on the Swiss made fake Breitling Soccer Timer watches, the only thing that changes is a small window at 6 o’clock, flipping from blank to show a large lume dot to indicate that the chronograph is engaged (a small lume dot indicates the chronograph is paused). Then, instead of a running seconds, the large center chronograph hand keeps track of elapsed minutes.
It’s a weird, wonderful chronograph modification, and one only seen in Breitling, and only in the collector-favorite vintage best quality replica Breitling SuperOcean watches. A colorful outer track on the dial up to 45 minutes makes it easier to see when 45 minutes have elapsed on the chronograph. You’ll see this 45-minute tracker complement a handful of great dial combos – most commonly red and blue, red and black, green and blue. The designs aren’t quite as crazy as Omega’s, but the “slow chronograph” makes Breitling’s effort another interesting variation on the soccer timer. More than that, I love that two brands identified a problem (or a potential market) and arrived at totally different solutions to address it.
