The Breitling Watch Source Forums

There is a pretty good (if somewhat dated) set of databases on the watch models, calibres, etc, sitting on the Breitling Source website, just outside the forum, but it has no detail on boxes, or papers other than manuals. With the sun going down on Breitling's Schneider-era, I thought it might be time we added to the Breitling Source databases while the information is still reasonably fresh. The other issue is that because of advertising, some other forums do not allow linking to that information.

The vintage forum did a similar thing some time ago, but due to the elapsed time and lack of records, it looks like it was tough going, and certainly feels a little unfinished and disorganised. I have a draft of a thread on boxes, but before I post I wanted to ask the mods whether this is OK, where they would like it and whether they could make it a sticky?

Any forum member will be able to contribute, and everything will be checked and any "borrowed" information will be credited.

Good idea ! I too think that it's time to preserve and categorize information as much as possible

The problem with trying to do a database of boxes and paperwork is that there's so much bleed through between styles and years. Different styles being available in the same year, AD's putting watches in the wrong boxes when being sold. So if you say you bought it new from the AD and that's the box it came in, there's no guarantee that the AD just didn't grab a box and put the sold watch in it. Seen the same with warranty paperwork with old styles matched with newer watches, not to mention areas like the Caribbean that seem to have Carte Blanche when it comes to warranty paperwork. So, imho, any attempt to categorize boxes and paperwork by year, model, style, or whatever, will still be only an educated guess at best.

True, that is precisely what I found, but it is possible to (1) show what are real boxes so that collectors can weed out fakes, and (2) get them into broad bands of period. I'll post what I have done and members can critic and/or add to my work.