The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I've been seeing so much about Breilting getting in house movements, but my question is....what are they???

Thanks,
cRaSiAn1030

Movements designed and built by Breitling as opposed to designed and built by a 3rd party (ETA or Valjoux) and modified by Breitling.

Making your own movements is generally seen as one of the keys to establishing a company as a high end brand.

my guess would be instead of buying movements from movement manufacturers and modifying them to suit their needs, that now they will be making their own movements from scratch.

Ross

I was right just too slow to get the response in. and lacking some of the extra information.

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Colt GMT with Blue dial

oh ok, thanks guys. But why's it so important? Everyone makes it seem like such a big deal? Does it really live up to the hype?

It's not really about "hype". It has a lot to with exclusivity, differentiation, and craftsmanship.

The vast majority of movements in most automatic watches these days (especially at the lower end of the market) are made by ETA. If we consider the 7750 movement, which ETA/Valjoux produces, you'll find it in a huge number of watches - from Hamilton to Tag, from Ernst Benz to Breitling. The lower down the watch scale you go, the more "standard" the movement will be. In other words a company like Hamilton will just drop a standard ETA 7750 into their own case. Tag do the same. So what is there to differentiate the Tag from the Hamilton, other than a slightly different case and a different logo? Answer - not a lot. And therein lies the problem.

Additionally ETA movements are generally made in mostly automated factories ; bear in mind that the skill of watch making is perceived to be in skills of a person, not some machine. Also ETA movements, while doing the job admirably, aren't exactly interesting or innovative these days.

An in-house movement is a watch-maker's way of saying, "we are so skilled we can make our own movements from scratch, not just drop in a bog-standard ETA into a case". It also allows the watch maker to throw away the rule book and create something different - innovative chronographs, very long power reserves, super complications, all sorts of funky stuff.

In effect, an in-house movement will raise Breitling above being (and I quote one of the other forum guys here), "just a fancy case and bracelet".

Think of it this way - would a Ferrari car still be a Ferrari if they bought their engines from BMW? No, while the BMW engines are fine enough, a Ferrari is only a Ferrari if they make the engine as well. It's only the "little players" in the car industry who buy in engines : all the big boys build their own. So it is with watches.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Very well put.

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BREITLING

- B-1 SQ
- Emergency SQ

wow driver 8, the way you put it in that last example really makes sense! Ok, one last question. If Breitling does get the in house movements, does that mean the prices will probably go up?

Yep....way up.

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-RJ

great..... Does Rolex already have in-house movements? And also, Driver 8 said lower end watch brands buy movements from other companies. I thought Breilting was a high end brand....

the in-house movement will make Breitling # 1, ahead of Rolex (about 2-3 years time)

Ill try to make it simple. A movement such as an ETA 7750 comes in different flavors, ranging from the lowest "standard" grade, to the top dog "chronometer" grade. Lower end companies that use this movement will usually just get a standard grade movement and drop it into the case as-is. Breitling modifies the movement to their own specifications in-house before putting them into their watches.


And yes, Rolex uses only in-house movements, although they are about as basic as they come.

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-RJ

Wait, RJRJRJ, what do you mean by Rolex has movements that are "as basic as they come"?

They are in-house, but they have a very simple design with no interesting complications. Their most complicated movement is a chronograph.

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-RJ

Then what makes them so popular, if truly there isn't that much to it??

good marketing