Good Morning to all,
After lurking around here for several years, the time seems right for my inaugural post. First off, I'd like to say thanks the many contributors on this site that have deepened my knowledge, understanding and appreciation for all watches, Breitling in particular, and more to the point, made it basically impossible for me to go plodding along without a fine timepiece for much longer! Breitling Source is a very comprehensive website and has answered many a question I've had regarding all aspects of these beautiful pieces. Don't worry, I will be getting to what my title eludes to soon enough.
A bit about myself; I'm a 25 year-old career firefighter that 2 years ago took the plunge and realized one of my life goals of becoming a pilot. This time period has seen me through my private pilot's license, several add-on endorsements to that, and commercial-instrument training. I am a few weeks away from immortalizing my position in the world of "professional" pilots, or more simply a pilot that can legally earn money
My life story aside, I will be most likely looking into a career change within the next year and hopefully someone else will not only start buying the 100LL or JetA, but also giving me some compensation to fly.
Other than this obvious connection with aviation, and simply being a huge airplane geek since I was 3, I very much appreciate Breitling for their history and their part in the amazing history of man leaving the earth. The precision, craftsmanship, tolerances and attention-to-detail involved in their product, the beauty and on and on. Flying aside, given my personal tastes, love for nostalgia, etc, I have set my sites on owning a Breitling. Not to make me a better pilot, flaunt that I fly in anyones face, but to outfit myself with an instrument I can look at that represents how I feel on the inside about who I am and what I have accomplished. And again, given these conditions, no watch appeals to me more or suits these tastes better than the Navitimer.
This was originally going to be my gift to myself after completion of my private pilot, but I figured my instrument training was much more reflective of the same precision and mathematical function that a Breitling possessed, so I figured I would wait and pursue this path until now.
The decision to own a Navitimer hasn't been anywhere close to as difficult as to which variation on the theme I want to go with. I was set on the World for quite some time, tried them on, almost bought one, etc. I'll save the specifics, but I have jumped between the Montbrillant to the Montbrilant Legende, and to and from every size and configuration in between. A recent trip to Italy and Switzerland didn't help matters much, but did allow me to see the greatest variety and selection of Breitlings and other quality timepieces in a short timeframe, and I feel I ruled out some more competition. For a daily wearer, both in and out of the cockpit, albeit not on the firetruck, I don't want a watch that is too big or too flashy, but do want it to stand out, and simply be big enough to read. My 6.8" wrist fits the World, but makes the 41.8mm of the classic Nav with a black dial look too small for my likes. White face/silver dial wins out for me, so I sadly couldn't go all the way last month with the Navi Heritage and the panda bear look, even though 43mm is perfect.
Other specifics include mechanical movement (hope that's obvious at this point; in-house is a plus), Navitimer bracelet (option for a strap isn't huge, but nice), all silver dial, symmetrical (sorry, but can't abide with 6,9,12 totalizers), wings logo, baton markers, you get the picture. The Navtimer 01 is 95% there for me, but I am stuck on the silver dial. Well a friendly email to BUSA last week was answered by Susan, who offered the best news of all. Yes Breitling has plan for a silver dial Navi 01, it is supposed to be released in a Limited Edition run within the month!! Awesome news, my dream watch is being created!
The the questions that I have: first, is my "dream" watch already out there I just haven't come across it yet, or is this it? And is this news anything anyone else has heard about before, I have searched here and other forums to no avail for other info?! I have found some info on the costs and procedures for BUSA to change the dial colors in watches coming in for service; is this a feasible way to "customize" a already owned piece or just an expensive way to ruin a perfectly good Breitling?
Thanks in advance for slogging through my diatribe and taking the time to help out, I hope to be a member of this group soon enough and any information helps.
Danny
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