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Guys , I always thought that Breitling changed their ref's , from A13050 to A13350 etc, due to COSC certification of all their watches in 2000. ?

Is my assumption correct or did they already changed in 1999 ?

I am asking as i am selling a Chronomat Vitesse and want to give the buyer an as close as possible build date .

Papers btw are signed june 2001 but sell date has little bearing on the build date

Thanks
Rene

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"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

Not all models changed at the same time, and both were sold for a period, there were some COSC pieces in 99 I believe. The case should be dated by that period to give you a more accurate date - http://www.breitlingsource.com/articles_dating.shtml

Sadly the 'older' Chronomats do not have the date between the lugs , i believe this started somewhere in '03 or '04 ?

But thanks Roff, I think best guess, based on the ref , is 1999-2000 for the one I have here

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"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

P.s , watch in question is this ,model

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"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

Hi, Rene'. To help confirm your assertion, even though your specific blue dial Chronomat Vitesse is featured in both "Chronolog 3" (published Oct 98 for the 1999 model year) and "Chronolog 2000" (published Oct 99 for the 2000 model year) the first mention of chronometre certification is in the latter. I suspect that the very earliest possible manufacture date for your watch was sometime late 1999 but obviously no later a manufacture date than toward the end of 2000 because the Vitesse was discontinued for the 2001 model year. The Chronologs pretty much narrow down the possible dates in this case. Interestingly, the word "Chronometre" doesn't appear on the dial of the 2000 vintage Chronomats but appears on dials of the 2001 models (by then all "GT's" actually) in contrast to the Crosswind and Blackbird Chronomats which have "Chronometre" on the dial in the 2000 Chronolog. Possibly in conjuction with that statement, my 2000 Chronomat Crosswind B13355 did indeed have the date engraved between the interhorns. Maybe the Chronomat's didn't have the interhorn date engraving until 2001 as the dials were not marked "Chronometre" until that model year?... That said, based on my Crosswind and my late wife's friend's Windrider "B-Class". the interhorn dating was indeed started in 2000.

Wishing you a safe, happy and prosperous new year my friend.
Kind Regards,
Ron

PS. IMO you should definitely use 2000 as the manufacture date for your sale because that assertion is supported by the published Chronolog information.

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