I'll keep the details vague to preserve anonymity here.....I recently sold a Breitling I have owned for apprx. 3 years. It's circa 1998/99. The watch still has all papers and box as when it was new. I had it serviced at a non-AD but reputable swiss trained watchmaker just before the sale. I sold the watch for apprx. $500 below competition. I had just added a brand new croc strap and a deployant buckle bought from an AD. My buyer (great guy by the way!!) receives the watch and loves it...! but he decides to take it to a Breitling AD. They looked at it and told him the watch is losing 5sec/hr (wow..!!!), it has water damage inside and most importantly, that it is a Frankenstein Breitling (dial, hands came from a different Breitling that don't match this model).
I was surprised by all three allegations. I immediately offered a full refund, which he declined stating he loves the watches but would like the situation rectified. He had his AD quote the work and obviously aside from the $680+tax for the overhaul the 12-16 weeks leadtime, the parts were going to be close to $1,200-1,500.
I asked for the watch back and took it to another local watchmaker who works on Breitling (non-AD) but trained / certified by Breitling. His assesment, this watch operates at +/- 0-3sec/day....he calls that bang on. No sign of water damage and dial and hands are original to the watch. He did notice though, after a good 30min of inspection and research that the back plate had been swapped on the watch. Whoever did the swap used the back plate from the same ETA movement (so ordered from ETA seller not Breitling). This led him to believe that maybe at some point, this watch suffered water damage and the backplate was swapped for that reason.
Final assessment, this was functions perfectly, all original except the backplate (which he argued that technically speaking, it's the exact same part that would come with the watch, except it came from the original manufacturer and not Breitling...).
So many questions in my mind.....
Why would the AD make all those allegations?
Although a full overhaul at Breitling will cost 50-60% of the price of the watch, is it the right thing to do?
Would you be bothered by the backplate situation?
It's my buyer's first nice watch and so this whole ordeal has shaken him up.....What would you recommend?
Thanks!!
as is the dial. Not sure what that "AD" was on about. 