The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi all, new to this forum, found it while searching useful info..

Last week I maanged to damage my B1... Gutted.. Had the watch for nerly 12 years now an love it... The best watch I had before this was a Seiko Kinetic.. I wear the watch for EVERYTHING... It has never had a problem either.. did the first few battery changes at Breitling, but last few myself..

I was walking into my garage and was on a brisk walk, when my B1 cracked into the corner of the door handle.. Sapphire Crystal immediately broke, cracked all the way to the outside..

I have taken some pics of it for the insurnce company, and they then asked me to take it to the local Authorised Dealer in Chester (UK) to get them to price a repair, and they are sending it away and I will have to wait 4 weeks for a price..!!! Dont mind if they repair it, but if the price is too excessive, they will get some type of replacement. I think the Airwolf is the nearest, but I dont necessarily like the raven spec one..!!!

Because I have worn it constantly, its got plenty of marks and scratches (The glass was scratch free, LOL).. I am told that if a repair is done, it will come back looking like new... Even with either a new bezel or the black infill for the numbers black again.. Cool.. Well happy..

Anyway, just thought I would introduce myself and explain.

Welcome to the forum, sadly I can't help you with your questions as I've never sent one of my watches in for repair.
Best of luck though.


Jim

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Breitling navitimer super constellation LE
Omega Ploprof 1200m
Bremont supermarine
Rolex milgauss GV
Olivant and Botsford 40mm Gold edition

Wow, you did do a number on that one . Great pic of the damage, haven't seen one that bad (save it for a 'before' and 'after' comparison).

Anyway, welcome to the site and hope it gets repaired soon!

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Chrono Jetstream
Montbrilliant 1903
Aerospace E79362

Wow! that is a serious hit!

(welcome to the forum) I have never seen a pic like that before. BUK will be able to sort it I am sure.

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

Have to say, over the years, have whacked it into various things walking about, never caused any damage, little scratches thats all, but this time, the door handle was at walking wrist height and it had a sort of sharpish L shaped and the face hit, as you can see, almost dead centre, and liteally put a hole, and the bits of crystal that was in the hole, fell inside as crumbs. I shook most of the crumbs out so I could see inside.

I think 5 years ago I would have been severlely gutted because that watch, I said it will be my watch for life..!! But these days, over 40 now, I get less attached to things like cars and watches, but still, I would be happy to have it for life. I guess if I broke it or not, with the 10-11 years of wear that I have put on it, it was definately due an overhaul. I remember about 5 years ago, put it in for a battery and service, and got it back for it to be gaining like 10 mins per day. It went straight back and when I got it returned, dont think its lost hardly any time each year.

I also remember taking it to the local Breitling authorised place in Chester, and asked them to give me a price for a new bracelet, as the bracelet was quite badly scracthed all over. They told me, oh dont worry about that, we can have someone here give it a polish for you, we do that for free. Ok then, let them do it, few days later, bracelet looked like new..!! result..!!

I read quite a few posts on here before posting, and saw some threads about people changing the display colour. If I remember back to when I bought mine, I thought, if you did not like the face colour in your first year, Breitling would change it for free... Is that still not the case?

Cheers
C

Come on, admit it! You shot it with a BB gun. No one here will tell the adjuster.

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SHARKMAN

Firstly, welcome!
Secondly, sorry to hear about the mishap with your B1.

As has been said, i'm sure BUK will sort it out for you, but as to the free dial change, things have changed.

Now, (in most cases) you pay, (a lot) for the new dial, plus a full service cost. It doesn't work out cheap.

Hope you get yours back to full working order soon.

And may i just say, the B1 is VERY highly regarded by most that appreciate Breitlings. You must hold the record
for length of ownership of one of these great watches, Congratulations!!!!

Nick.

Wow, can't believe I would be one of the longest having one LOL, but, I guess if I one on the first year they were released, there is always that possibility. Surely there are other people who had them from 1999 and still have them..!!

I remember when I got it, I was in Brussels airport with a colleague, 3 hrs between flights, and, we were both looking in the watch shop, and we bought a watch each. He got the Omega Seamaster James Bond watch, and I just liked the look of this B1, so impulse buy..!! It was like 25% cheaper buying in the airport than from a high street store if I remember. I also remember travelling to Hong Kong in 2005, walked into a high street shop Breitling dealer jewellers, and asked for a price for a B1. I think it was like £1000 or so and was astonished. And I am 100% sure it was a top quality genuine shop selling authentic and not fakes. I later regretted not buying a few and making a couple of quid.

I see on this site that my version only lasted until 2001 and then they added "SuperQuartz" to the description. I have to be honest and say I have no idea what that is, and, if they have to replace my internals, would they replace it with that.. I wonder.. I know this much, when the glass broke, the watch stopped working, and there was also a slight flattening of the arched clasp, so as well as just taking a hit on the glass, the force did some other damage.

The SQ movement is thermocompensated (hell that's a long word) and is more accurate.
When Sapphire shatters it goes into a LOT of tiny shards, these will have gone into your movement and ......watch kaput.

Likely the replacement movement will be SQ.

Come on guys pic of B1s!

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

Good idea Al.

Pics of two previous B1's.....and lastly, an incoming. (sometime this century i hope)







Nick.

Hi Nick,
of all the colours, blue face is the one for me. I just noticed, that picture of the blue one, seems to have a less bold font on the bezel. Was that normal for newer watches?

Carl

Hi Carl.

I've never really noticed that before but i'm not aware of any "thickening" of the font used for the bezel, but it certainly does look a little different,- especially compared to Al's pics.

The blue dial is indeed a stunner, as is the grey, but for me the black dial is how i want mine now. (it's taken a long time to realise it though)

Nick.

I think light/exposure may be playing a part. If you look at the pics of my B1 there appears to be a difference in font weight between the two.

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

Maybe a WB issue Al?.

Silly me.

Nick

Sad for you mate!

I too wear mine for everything.....I thought it was indestructible.

And I've just had a quote for a new dial and crystal for a B1 and it was very close to £500.

Davey