The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I recently tried on some Chronomat Evolutions (ss/bracelet) that I liked. I wasn't up to speed on the Windrider series so I read up on the Evos here.

So, I send an email to my local AD asking if they had any current production Chronomats since it appears that the Evos ended their run in 2007. (I realize its essentially the same watch). I told them I liked the watches but I had reservations about buying a piece that may have sat dormant for 2 or 3 yrs.

They responded that the Evos they had were all current production and that Breitling was still producing the watch under the Evolution name.

So, can someone tell me who is correct? I don't want to necessarily make an issue of it; however if the information they gave me (in email) is incorrect, how would you tactfully approach the AD about this?

BTW, I will be checking out some B01s at the AD on Monday, so I would appreciate any advice on this.
Thanks

Regular Chronomat and Chronomat Evolution are identical watches, but are not called Evolution anymore.

You can find out when the watch was produced by having the AD remove the bracelet / strap at the 6 o'clock lugs. The first four digits stamped on the case between the lugs are WWYY of production.

thanks for the info, I remember reading about the date stamp in another thread.

sorry for the dumb question, but what is ww? I assume yy is year.

Does anyone think this is an issue or am I alone? One would think the AD would simply look at the mfgs website to confirm.

I guess my problem is they are telling me something that I know is not true. I could request that they pull the bracelet but it would be preferable if they were just up front about whether or not a Chrono Evolution is NOS.

ww stands for the week of the year. 52 weeks in a year so for example 2508 would be the watch was made in the 25th week of 2008. Without looking at a calendar, that would be around July of 2008. There will be some letters next to the numbers but I'm not quite sure what those represent.

I would ask to see the manf. date. No one's perfect, and since the dealer has many watches you can't expect him to remember when everyone of them was manf.

25 would actually be the 3rd week of June.

The letter / number code after the date code refers to the dial colour.

thanks

Yes, the only thing that has happened is that Breitling switched from the name "Chronomat Evolution" to "Chronomat." The watches and models numbers are identical. What the dealer told you was essentially correct: the evo line is still alive and well, just with a slightly modified name. I wouldn't expect a person working at an AD to necessarily know this little bit of trivia. Certainly, as Falcon says, I would not expect them to remember how long they have had every watch.

Other than looking at the date code, there is really no way to tell whether it's a "Chronomat" or a "Chronomat Evolution," unless it happens to be one of the newest dial colors.

///M

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

OP: A lot of dealers (and many of us here) still refer to the Chronomat as the Evo since it usually indicates that we're talking about the most recent model of Chronomat.

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-RJ

thanks for the comments, I'll be back at the AD looking at B01s next.