The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I may have missed it, but what is the material on the outside of the new box? Is it cardboard? Leatherette?

If that were the case they wouldn't own so many airplanes.

It looks like cardboard to me. High quality product to go with that high price tag.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I find it so strange that Breitling, who is trying really hard to profile themselves as a high class brand, stops making the entire experience of buying a Breitling an exclusive feeling.

If I wanted cardboard, which I'm sure that the new packaging is, I'd buy some sort of ecological watch made of dirt.

What they should've done is to make boxes that correlates to their values of the different watches.

For example,

Navitimer ships in Neoprene, aluminized Mylar, Gortex, Kevlar, Nomex, fiberglass, titanium, aluminium, ceramic made boxes.

Wouldn't that be cool?

SuperOcean could ship in a scubadiving inspired box and their corresponding materials.

But I guess it's only my wishes and they probably won't ever come true. Would've been cool though.

I can't tell what the outer box is made from. It's quite dense. If it's cardboard, it's unlike any cardboard I've ever seen. As for the inner travel case, it turns out that it's not leatherette but genuine leather. It is subtly embossed on the bottom and I hadn't noticed it before. Seems solid and well-made.

Judged solely on appearance, I think that the packaging isn't bad. Aesthetics are very personal but I like the somewhat industrial look and feel of the box. Whether or not it's appropriate for a $9000 watch is an entirely different question.

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David
Je suis désole pour mon mauvais français.

Zenith Pilot Big Date; IWC Vintage Collection Aquatimer; IWC Portuguese 7-day

How can you tell? Is there a mark on it denoting it is leather?

I'm actually a bit surprised by the harshness of the reactions. For once, I'm on the more forgiving end of the spectrum, it seems. I understand the incongruity of a luxury brand, the price of which continues to increase*, suddenly cheapening its packaging. I wonder, though, if Breitling were doing everything else right with its designs, would the reactions be this damning?

*Ricardo's report that Breitling has dropped prices by 10% across the board comes as a surprise, and I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere. Has that happened in any other market besides the UK?

You needed to quote just a bit more of my post. See the bold above.

As for the 10% price drop, I think that may have been a UK-only move to compensate for currency fluctuations, but I could be wrong about that.

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David
Je suis désole pour mon mauvais français.

Zenith Pilot Big Date; IWC Vintage Collection Aquatimer; IWC Portuguese 7-day

Price drop or not, Breitling watches are WAY more expensive in the UK than the US in absolute terms . . . as is pretty much everything. I'm shocked at how much more everything costs over here. In fact, I just priced out a Land Rover LR4 today on the UK and US websites. The numerical value ended up being nearly the same (about 60,000), but the currency denomination was clearly different (pounds vs. dollars). I can't imagine handing over nearly 100,000 US dollars for an LR4!

Going back to watches, I'll definitely be heading back home to the US for any subsequent watch purchases.

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Chronomat 01- Sierra Silver/Steel
Navitimer 01- Limited Edition #1337/2000

Ah...for some reason, I didn't realize that you meant it was embossed with a leather mark - more like a brand mark or something. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

This makes me wonder, now - were the older travel cases genuine leather, too?

It's the same here. When we first moved here we would compare prices to those in the US. After a few months we realized that it was senseless and we'd drive ourselves nuts doing that. Now we only do it if we need a good laugh.

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David
Je suis désole pour mon mauvais français.

Zenith Pilot Big Date; IWC Vintage Collection Aquatimer; IWC Portuguese 7-day

No worries, I was just kidding around. And sorry for not being more clear -- I knew what I meant.

I had the same thought that you did: if people weren't already po'd at Breitling I wonder if this would be a big deal. I showed the box to a friend who has a couple of Omegas and he was jealous of it.

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David
Je suis désole pour mon mauvais français.

Zenith Pilot Big Date; IWC Vintage Collection Aquatimer; IWC Portuguese 7-day

Seriously there is nothing wrong with the new box. It's more contemporary in it's appearance and it does not feelcheap in quality. Yes the bakelite box is gone but I have to say that it doesn't bother me to see things move on.

It isn't the loss of the bakelite box that matters to me - fine Swiss watches are supposed to come in presentation cases. Breitling has abandoned that tradition and just uses what normally would be considered the outer box.

Once again, Breitling leading the pack in new materials.

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SHARKMAN

IMHO the absolute best boxes they've done were the solid wood ones for the gold watches, the interiors and cases were leather, they were special, at the prices now, how cool would it be for all Bs to have one of those. If you've not seen one of these sets you should.

These new box things, well, utter rubbish.

I looked at the new range today, half in this particular shop were blinged in diamonds. Do i want a cool, rugged, tough looking , aviation inspired , historically linked , beautifully engineered man watch, YES. Do i need bright colours and diamonds. NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yet another reason why I don't get as excited as I used to by a manufacturer that I dreamt about as a kid. yet I still love the brand, but just a bit more jaded.