The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello all,
I have a Navitimer (old navitimer)... anyhow it has a 7750 movement.

I believe this is the same movement used by cheaper brands like Hamilton.

My question is this?
What is the finish of a Breitling 7750 based movement complared to a Hamiliton 7750 based movement?

I would expect the Breitling movement to be much more finished.....

Opinions please.

No, I don't think the Breitling movement is much more finished given that you can't see it. Hamiltons are great band for the buck. No doubt about that. Don't lose too much sleep over it. At least you didn't buy a Hublot Big Bang, also 7750 powered and some of them costing over $15,000.

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ffeelliixx,
Bentley Supersports Light Body | Bentley GT | Navitimer World | Navitimer 50th Anniversary | Montbrillant Datora

Breitling movements are actually very nicely finished.... which makes it all the more odd that they don't produce more DB's to show them off.

Altair on here once questioned the finish on Breitling movements, but he changed his tune pretty quickly when he had the opportunity to actually see inside one at his AD. Just becasue they aren't on display doesn't mean they scrimp on the finish.

There is also a difference in that the 7750 used by Hamilton is bought by them complete and then just dropped into the case. In contrast Breitling buy the parts and then assemble them themselve and modify as necessary to acheive the COSC compliance. There is a difference.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Additionally to Driver's points.......

It's not the same movement.

The Valjoux 7750 is not one movement, it's three - as are all Valjoux / ETA movements. The movement is available in different grades with only the highest grade being built to tolerances designed to allow COSC certification - that's the movement that Breitling buys in ebauche form, and the further works it and decorates it.

Well, certainly Breitling claims to modify the movement, but the details of the modification are a little unclear. Certainly my watchmaker has seen more than a few Breitling movements, and to him a 7750 is a 7750. He says the modification is slight at best. For the record, I've had Hamiltons with stock 7750 movements running better out of the box than my Breitlings.

I would like to see where it is written that Breitilng officially claims to assemble the ETA movements. Maybe I need to be educated. That's the first time I've heard that.

In any case, renaming stock ETA movements as "Breitling Caliber" after making unspecified moficiations seems a great marketing ploy.

Fact is that Breitling's movements are much closer to Hamilton or Tag in quality than they are Rolex's, JLC's, etc. I don't buy a Breitling for the movement, I buy it for the design, execution, etc.

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ffeelliixx,
Bentley Supersports Light Body | Bentley GT | Navitimer World | Navitimer 50th Anniversary | Montbrillant Datora

http://www.breitling.com/en/made_by/

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Driver8

Site Moderator

That's an extremely uneducated comment by your watchmaker. How on earth can you tell the quality of a movement just by looking at it - you can't look at a gear wheel and determine the tolerances that the teeth are built to, and you certainly can't tell if Breitling has worked that gear wheel to tighter tolerances than from the factory. Additionally, you can't tell which parts were part of the ebauche and which parts were replaced by Breitling.

Driver8 has already provided the link for 'made by', so no need to touch that.